A desolate castle rising out of a jagged hilltop, surrounded on all sides by dense forest. A full moon in the inky, starless sky above. Here there be monsters, make no mistake. In this sunken place, there lives a stalking, ghoulish creature, with sallow skin and narrow eyes; the eyes of a killer. One who feeds […]
Horror
‘Hell is behind that door!’: Revisiting Dario Argento’s Suspiria
There’s a moment in Juno where our heroine exclaims, ‘Dario Argento is so the master of horror’ which was a pretty niche reference for 2007, never mind the context around it. But now, eleven years on, there does seem to be more talk of Argento in the mainstream because, as is so often the case […]
A silent win? – A look at disability in A Quiet Place
The film the deaf community has been waiting for: A Quiet Place – but it’s not without its flaws. Disability on screen has been a thing of rarity, particularly if this includes actors with disabilities actually playing the roles. According to the UK film industry body Creative Skillset, only 0.3 percent of the total film […]
Get Out: A monster with human teeth
What Jordan Peele has created with his debut film is a product of genius; it’s a film that feels like a career-defining piece, yet has all the blindingly fresh quality of a first time effort. It is not just a genuinely creepy horror laced with social commentary; it is an impeccably balanced horror-comedy that moulds […]
2017: the year neo-horror got out
In the past decade, there has been a steadily increasingly supply of well-crafted, enjoyable horror films, yet these films still mostly rely on conventional horror-genre tropes, without offering anything substantially new or fresh. Of course, they’re nothing as abominable as the Bye-Bye Man or It Follows but horror-lovers still crave a little more creativity in […]
Remember This: Lake Mungo
The Australians are rather good at horror films, aren’t they? Whilst most would cite Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook as the prime example of a chiller from Down Under, there’s more than enough room to recommend the criminally underrated Lake Mungo from Joel Anderson. Released in the festival current during 2008-2010, the film received an extremely limited release and has […]
Lights Camera Action
Since the dawn of cinema the horror genre has continued to delight audiences across the world. Requiring humans to face the unknown, the frightening images on the screen speak to the primeval parts of our brain and activate the ‘fight or flight’ reaction within us, increasing blood flow, heart rate and adrenaline levels. This is […]
Album Review: Rob Zombie – The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser
Let’s cut straight to the chase: this is the best Rob Zombie record since his career-defining debut Hellbilly Deluxe. This album slams just as hard as that 1998 shock-rock classic. In recent years, as his interests have swayed from making music to horror movies (House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects and his reboot of […]
Review: Paranormal Activity – The Ghost Dimension
We all know horror has been truly grabbed by the horns, when a young child plays a single, tuneless note on a recorder for a solid minute. Any demons present are truly welcome to practice their fuckery with this one. I’m done with traditional conventions. It’s the horror franchise that just keeps giving to an […]
Noct Review
My breathing is heavy, the lights are off and I am all alone. Walking through what appears to be an abandoned city, I tread carefully, knowing that whatever is in the unknown will kill me. “Friendly?” I read, pixelated text hovering over a doorway. “Yes” I reply, knowing that the wrong word could kill me. […]