Fried Barry

My fiancé and I recently subscribed to the horror streaming service, Shudder. It has an extensive catalogue of hard-to-find films from yesteryear as well as recent hits. But the real goldmine is the portfolio of ‘original’ oddities that cannot be found anywhere else. Consider the demented hallucinatory gem, Fried Barry, by South African newcomer, Ryan…

The Devil’s Candy (2016)

A good horror flick is metal-as-fuck. Tasmanian director, Sean Byrne, embraces this sentiment with a twisted, electric-guitar-infused follow-up to his debut feature, The Loved Ones. With Devil’s Candy, Byrne once again demonstrates uncommon cinematic focus, but the end product is not without its off-key moments. The film immerses itself in alternative artistry from the hard…

Conjuring 2 (2016)

James Wan’s haunted house oeuvre is a well-oiled machine. Creaky floorboards and fearsome presences roll off the production line like clockwork; creepy, broken, grandfather clockwork. And, although The Conjuring 2 is bound by formula, when the scares are this good, I’m happy to buckle my seatbelt and enjoy the ride. Wan’s recent good form (Insidious et al) is…

Warcraft (2016)

I believe video games can be adapted into great movies. There’s a wealth of interesting stories to be extracted from the industry. Warcraft is one such franchise ripe for cinematic exploitation, but alas, in the name of ‘world building,’ director Duncan Jones has simply tried to cram in too many stories at once. Would it be…

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

I enjoyed this flick—but then again, I’m an X-Men disciple who worships at the altar of film series progenitor, Bryan Singer. Ordinary film-goers who don’t know their Wolverines from their Cyclopses may be inclined to mutter ‘X-Meh’ when leaving the theatre. And understandably so as, on this occasion, Singer fails to find cohesion with a…

Eye in the Sky (2015)

Are you in the mood for cutting edge military surveillance, white-knuckle tension and political intrigue? Then welcome to the best war film since 2009’s Hurt Locker. The plot interconnects disparate players, including politicians, generals and drone pilots in a mission to eliminate a terrorist cell in Kenya.  With an insightful look into modern military tactics,…

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

You’d expect Marvel to be running out of steam by now, but this latest offering confounds expectations. Captain America: Civil War brandishes the series’ signature eye-popping visual spectacle in a package that skimps on neither heart nor wit. This is the best MCU film since the original Iron-Man. The screenwriters have managed to succeed in two key areas…