Trance, Danny Boyle’s latest, uses hypnotherapy to venture deep into James McAvoy’s head, aiming to find out the location of a missing painting after an art heist goes wrong. Appropriately, it’s more a film for the head than the heart, presenting an interesting, intricate puzzle that keeps you thinking long after the film is over…
The recent death of Jess Franco inspired me to revisit his filmography (well, some of it). Like many of his films, A Virgin among the Living Dead is laced with an erotic energy, but it’s built on a seductive, languorous atmosphere rather than just flashes of naughty bits (though there’s plenty of them, natch). Discovering…
Prom Night III may have been an average film, not as clever or funny as it thought it was, but at least it was clear that the producers had a good time making it. There’s no such vibe here, with this third sequel coming across a cheap cash-in (or possibly a rough adaptation of an…
“What relationship? You kill them; I bury them in the football field! This is not your basic boy-meets-girl!” The gradual shift of the Prom Night series into Nightmare on Elm Street is complete here; Mary Lou even comes complete with retractable blade-nails. Except this time she murders not to avenge her unjust death (Prom Night…
Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou follows the titular Mary Lou: she’s burnt alive at her 1957 prom and returns thirty years later to seek vengeance or become prom queen or …something. The ghost story lets the film embrace creepy, surreal imagery as the spirit of murderous Mary Lou possesses virginal Vicky (Wendy Lyon). It’s…
I have a soft spot for ‘80s slasher films. It’s because they remind me of the enticing, illicit possibilities that young adulthood holds when you’re a young teenager. The promise of freedom, fun, forbidden pleasures and, naturally, sex. Paired with temptation is an all-consuming sense of danger, and slasher films generally personify that as some…
Mama has gotten more press than your average horror film, thanks more to its cast than anything else. The film, directed by Argentinean Andrés Muschietti and “presented by” Guillermo del Toro, concerns two young girls found in the woods five years after their disappearance and their foster parents, Kingslayer (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bin-Laden-slayer (Jessica Chastain).…
Lincoln Flynn’s recent essay argues that No Country for Old Men’s primary aim is to analyse the thematically significant perspective of Sheriff Bell, but that the film’s tonal disparity limits its artistic success: I don’t agree that the shift in tone is a shortcoming. NCFOM is a faithful adaptation of McCarthy’s novel, leaving the Coens’…
Samantha Hughes watches out the window as the elderly couple who’ve hired her to “babysit” their bedridden relative leave, and while she doesn’t say a word, you can see her trepidation in her expression and body language. “It’s only four hours,” you can imagine her thinking. “How bad could it be?” Of course, Samantha doesn’t…
“I’m not listening to anything you have to say!” “Then I won’t speak. Just let me show you.” There’s been a renaissance in animation over the last decade, thanks to technology developments but also – significantly – some versatile and creative directors. Films like Wall-E, Up, Wreck-It Ralph or How to Train Your Dragon aren’t…
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