Bogieville (UK 2024: Dir Sean Cronin) Sean Cronin is no stranger to the vampire. As an actor he played the titular Count in last year’s
Wrath of Dracula directed by Steve Lawson, and as well as helming this undead drama also finds time to cast himself as head vampire Madison. If nothing else
Bogieville is a fascinating recreation of a 1980s US vamp movie, despite being filmed in the UK (on Cronin's own farm), and featuring a British cast.
Ham (Arifin Putra) and his girlfriend Jody (Eloise Lovell Anderson) skip town after Ham loses his job at the local garage and they can’t afford to pay their rent. Driving across country they come across a rather empty trailer park, named ‘Bogieville’, to recognise the owner’s obsession with the famous US actor.
Caretaker Crawford (Jonathan Hansler) looks after things, but after a bit of argy bargy offers Ham a job as a handyman, with the specific instructions that the pair should not leave the camp at night, or let anyone into the accommodation provided for them. But Bogieville is less deserted than originally made out; the site owner, Madison, is one of the undead, and with his acquired ‘family’ rises at night to feast on the living.
The vaguely sleazy setup recalls classic Rob Zombie movies, and the ‘all teeth and angst’ nature of the vampires is reminiscent of the undead characters in 2007’s 30 Days of Night; there’s also something of 1987’s Near Dark in the clandestine nature of the vampires’ existence. And it’s in these examples that is found the biggest problem with Bogieville; outside of the ‘homage to the US’ look of the film, credible for the most part (although some of the UK cast American accents are more successful than others), this film has very little to offer that is original. At 105 minutes it’s also overlong, particularly as the whole middle section drags before we get to the final reel vamp action.
Cronin is to be congratulated for his attention to detail but he could have paid a little more attention to the story and rather lacklustre script.
(A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site).
The Drowned (UK 2025: Dir Samuel Clemens) Best known as the director of a number of
Doctor Who podcast spinoffs, Clemens's debut feature was actually made in 2023, and toured festivals under its original title 'The Waterhouse'.
It's one of those movies which slowly morphs from a fairly prosaic piece into mythological abstraction. Three crims, Eric (Alan Calton), his boyfriend Matt (Dominic Vulliamy) and Paul (Michelangelo Fortuzzi) have pulled off a valuable art theft, and have agreed to meet at an isolated coastal location prior to jetting off for a new life, complete with new identities. A fourth member of their team, Matt’s mother Denice (Corinne Wicks), fails to materialise; disturbingly Eric finds what looks like blood and matter at the water's edge, together with a single earring; maybe Denice's?
Understandably revved up and distraught at Denice's continued absence, their evening gets more problematic when, thinking they are alone, three women enter their world. Pixie (Lily Catalifo), Opal (Lara Lemon) and Noé (Sandrine Salyères) maintain that they have been shipwrecked, and before you can say 'Dionysius' (ok it's the women who mention the mythological figure) they have inserted themselves into the lives of the criminals. But as the shipwreckees begin playing mind games with the three men, there's a more sinister, and deadly, fate in store for the art thieves.
Clemens's movie remains tense throughout, from its opening scenes of a stern, focused Eric driving through country lanes with a gun at his feet, to the arrival of the three strange women and the dynamic of six people - three of whom are possibly supernatural - trapped in a small cottage. It's considerably helped by Edward White's often Philip Glass like score, which builds choral voices and an impending sense of doom, and a spare but effective script, which twists the narrative as the men realise that they're out of their depth. And while The Drowned does finally fall into abstraction (the original title makes sense in the movie's final reveal) it's a taut 90 minutes and well worth a look.
The Drowned will be available on Digital Download from 6th October in the UK, 7th October in the US & 8th October in ANZ
Bambi The Reckoning (UK 2025: Dir Dan Allen) The fourth entry in Jagged Edge’s ‘Twisted Child Universe’ (TCU) sees another dark reimagining of a beloved children’s classic text. In this instance JE house director Allen has plundered the 1923 novel ‘Bambi, A Life in the Woods’, written by Felix Salten and famously adapted, albeit in a modified form, for the big screen by Walt Disney in 1942.
TCU creator Rhys Frake-Waterfield, in response to criticisms that earlier Universe entries had been weak, promised to up his game; Bambi The Reckoning is the result. And compared with early JE productions, and indeed Allen’s previous output, BTR is definitely a step in the right direction.
Opening with an animated sequence which tells of the woods as being both a magical and dangerous place, we see a stag drinking from chemically contaminated water, the driver for Bambi’s murderous impulses. We meet mum Xana (Roxanne McKee), about to ferry her and young son Benji (Tom Mulheron) off to the relatives of absent dad Simon (Alex Cooke). The family are the usual feuding types, whose domestic squabbles move the movie along until mutated Bambi turns up, which to be fair doesn’t take long.
Most of the rest of the film pits the chemically altered deer against the local populace, with some baffling psychic bond existing between beast and Xana’s dementia ridden mother-in-law Mary (Nicola Wright). The setup may be familiar JE territory, and the Bambi references tangential at best, but if you don’t think about the silliness of the whole setup there’s a lot of fun (and gore) to be had, some better than average CGI and impressive nighttime photography by JE regular Vince Knight. The man behind this of course is the company’s head honcho Scott Chambers aka Jeffrey, who once again gets to lever in some Jurassic Park homages. The credits are littered with postproduction VFX crews and there’s a slickness at work here which all suggest a slightly higher budget than the usual fare.
(A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site).
The Haunting at Jack the Ripper's House (UK 2025: Dir Stephen Staley, Natasha Tosini) Separately Staley and Tosini have enjoyed diverse roles in many of Scott Jeffrey’s previous productions (including several entries in the Twisted Child Universe ‘franchise’), but this is their first joint directing gig.
Perhaps taking a leaf out of the Steven M. Smith playbook – ie an obsession with ‘live’ paranormal shows (a no longer au courant idea) - The Haunting at Jack the Ripper’s House focuses on a group of YouTubing ghost hunters. Their show, ‘The Haunt Hunters’, devised by friends Richard (Jack Hyde) and Jake (Jack Hoy), involves a group of influencers travelling to supposedly haunted locations and staging materialisations; the more hits they get, the wilder the hoaxes.
A creative bust up between the creators sends Richard packing, just about the same time as Jake secures the show’s biggest set up yet; Jack the Ripper’s house. OK this needs a bit of explaining; Aaron Kosminski was one of the key suspects in the initial Ripper murder investigations. Ripperolgists have tracked down Kosminski’s UK hideout, the delightfully named ‘Ripper Manor’ (in reality I think it’s a youth hostel, judging by the fire doors), currently owned by a creepy guy called Victor (Robert Hedley). Despite the proprietor’s objections, Jake’s people have managed to secure the property for a night of spook hunting. But they’re about to find out that this is one house that doesn’t need its ghostly activity to be faked.
Apart from the modern social media trappings, this is basically a rerun of the 1969 movie The Haunted House of Horror, where swinging teenagers are picked off one by one by a mysterious presence in a supposedly haunted house.
For most of the film, the ‘Ripper’ element looks tacked on as an audience pull (the title is total crowd bait) but happily things do get rather strange in the movie’s last third. But before we get there we have to go through buckets of indifferent acting, shots filmed in near darkness and, well, lots of wandering around. I was initially thinking that Staley and Tosini may have rushed to finish the film to get it Festival ready (there are some line fluffs and clumsy edits), but no, it was actually made last year. Frankly people it’s just not that good; all power to the director/producers for trying something a little different, but even so…
(A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site).
Get Away (UK 2024: Dir Steffen Haars) Richard (Nick Frost), ‘daddy’ to ‘mummy’ Susan (Aisling Bea) has decided to rent a cottage on the remote Swedish island of Svälta; also along for the holidays, somewhat begrudgingly, are their kids Jessie (Maisie Ayers) and Sam (Sebastian Croft).
They’re a funny bunch; Richard and Susan spend the time bickering – couples counselling is mentioned – and Svälta appears a rather inhospitable place, with locals to match, who when they’re not ignoring the family are imploring them to leave.
The Airbnb is looked after by the creepy Mats (Eero Milonof, last seen in the very weird 2018 movie
Border) whose unctuousness and unwillingness to allow the family personal space adds a gritty edge to an already deeply odd setup.
Of course the real reason (well not the real real reason but I can’t explain that because of, well, spoilers) that the family have travelled is to witness the islanders’ annual celebrations, Karantan, all masks, flaming torches and drumbeats; a very The Wicker Man set up.
Nick Frost, who wrote Get Away, reportedly came up with the idea for the film after experiencing a cold reception from locals when visiting the home of his Swedish ex wife Cristina. All I can deduce from the incredibly bloody final reel of the movie was that his rejection must have run very deep. The whole thing is a bit of an uneven mix; there’s some fun working out why the family seem so weird together, and the islanders are an archly abrasive bunch. But Get Away is a one gag movie which relies on its big plot twist to deliver, and spends quite a lot of time getting to it. Frost and Bea have both been funnier; ultimately although I didn't totally dislike it, this was a bit of a misfire.
(A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site).
Leprechaun: The Beginning (UK 2024: Dir Rahul Gandhi) This is the third 'Leprechaun' outing for Champdog Films, Louisa Warren's production company and, sadly, by far the worst. It looks like freelancer Gandhi was hired for this film and heavily guided by producer Warren; whatever happened, even for Champdog, who have offered a fair few cinematic turkeys in recent years, this is a real low.
Dave and Mary (Mark Collier and Mary Eva Sharp) are journeying to the home of Mary's late father where they will be met by Mary's sister Judy (Amanda Jane York) and her bluff husband Colin (Ben Keenan). As a child Mary's dad would regale the family with tales of a gold hoarding Leprechaun who lived near the house; this piques the interest of one of Mary's children, Sky (Julia Quayle) who undertakes a search of the house when they arrive. Her other daughters, Faith (Grace Cundy) and Lisa (French actor Julie Ghallab, whose Gallicness is never explained; chalk it up to blind casting) are less excited.
Once there it's clear that Judy is hell bent on selling the house, which clashes with Mary's sentimentality. But whatever differences must be put aside once the Leprechaun makes itself known and starts despatching those members of the family nosy enough to delve into the house's secrets and go after the creature's gold.
The Leprechaun here is, as in Warren's other films, not height restricted; in fact in this one he seems to be modelling himself on Art the Clown (the actor's name is not disclosed in the credits and therefore is unlikely to be Leprechaun passim Bao Tieu). Alas the excesses of the Terrifier films are conspicuous by their absence here (Warren's films always remain resolutely PG, possibly aiming themselves at a YA audience) and any gore is more of the 'mild peril' type.
Performances range from the adequate to the, well, inadequate, and Alessandro Di Giuseppe's script is the usual Champdog mix of myth and soap opera (Warren's liking for found scrapbooks sees a number of hastily assembled documents paraded here as ancient tomes c/o Rymans). Warren has been better than this; Leprechaun The Beginning is, sadly, a crock.
.png)
