NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #22: Reviews of Daytime Nightmare (UK 2020), Expiry (UK 2021), Manhunt: Kill or Be Killed (UK 2021), The Censor (UK 2021), Deadly Nightshade (UK 2021) and Shunner (UK 2021)

Daytime Nightmare (UK 2020: Dir Katrina Grey) Grey plays Lucy, a teacher (although we never see her in that profession) who has aspirations to act. She signs on for an acting class where she's immediately attracted to fellow thesp in waiting Chris (Alexander Winters).

Home is a large house she shares with the rather taciturn Sara (Christiana Chaiwanna), a woman who seems somewhat unsupportive of her housemate's ambitions. As Lucy progresses in class, enjoying the camaraderie of her colleagues and inspired by her teacher, Mr Shaw (Jonathan Sampson), Sara is increasingly frozen out of her friend's life.

Increasingly mistrustful of her housemate, Lucy, who we learn has a history of schizophrenia in her family, experiences a downturn in her mental health, first through headaches and later nightmarish visions of friends and family trying to kill her. Lucy's life spins out of control, but is it all in her head, or are external forces out to harm her?

Apparently based on an actual experience with a stalker, Daytime Nightmare, written, produced and directed by Grey with musical assistance from her husband Randy Kalsi (who also has a bit part as a cab driver), is, as you would expect, intensely personal; at times it feels like we're intruding in a particularly gruelling therapy session. The problem is that, apart from Lucy's outbursts and her visions, everything else in the film is so understated that things progress quite flatly. It's ironic that, as a group of actors, Grey's company vary in their skills; there's no real compelling performance here, possibly to help the director stand out in her own.

To be honest, apart from the sometimes rather nightmarish visions, this is only marginally a 'Fantastic' film; shot in 2020 but released in the UK a year later. It looks lovely though, although the Thai locations are perhaps not expected, and it's certainly an at times uncomfortable watch.

Expiry (UK 2021: Dir Tom Gatley) Gatley's only feature to date is a disquieting, arid sci fi drama which nods to The Handmaid's Tale in its story of one possible near future.

Jamie (Richard Miltiadis) and Sophie (Sarah-Louise Tyler), a married couple are, when we meet them, having trouble conceiving a child. The stress associated with this situation is compounded by a time limit placed on the union by unseen bureaucracy. The future in which Jamie and Sophie live places strict temporal boundaries on marriages which are incompatible; couples are bonded by bracelets which turn red once a marriage has reached its sell by date (five years). In the normal course of events (well, normal in relation to events in the film) both partners would be free to pursue other, more fruitful relationships.

But Jamie and Sophie are different. Their lives operate outside of the convention of this sort of marriage; they love each other and are keen to bypass the state's writing off of their union. But there's a complication; Sophie is a 'foreigner' from the western states, and an end to the marriage means that she will be returned there.

Expiry has some rather damning things to say about state intervention, the increasing isolation of society and the condition of marriage seen as something purely transactional. Jamie and Sophie both regularly attend (separate) therapy sessions, but in each case the therapist is a computer; just one more untrustworthy institution. Sofia's job in a restaurant is blighted by her fellow waitress, the wife of the owner, who pours scorn on her status; Sofia is to all intents and purposes a refugee, a successful marriage her only chance at establishing an acceptable identity.

There is, thankfully, a redemptive solution, but it's a cold. glacial journey to get there. Expiry boldly fails to rush its story which can make it a slightly soporific watch, and there's a sense of ennui over the whole thing, not helped by the bleak urban landscape which is the couple's home. But it's great low budget filmmaking, full of ideas; a shame that Gatley hasn't followed this up with another feature.

Manhunt: Kill or Be Killed (UK 2021: Dir Darren J. Power) This short just inches in to the NWotBFF requirements (which states that, for inclusion, films have to be at least 20 minutes) and is, according to the title screen, a proof of concept for a bigger project, as yet unfilmed, called 'Manhunt; Follow the White Rabbit'.

Don't let the hockey mask in the poster fool you; this isn't some Friday the 13th fan film. But the premise is simple: Conard (sp?), played by Mark Sears, and his girlfriend Roxanne (genre favourite Tiffany-Ellen Robinson) are getting it on. Later Conard wakes up, having been knocked out, and Roxanne is missing. He's instructed by a remote voice to load a video cassette (appropriately marked 'play me') into a VCR, where he sees footage of two masked men with Roxanne.

The control voice issues a simple instruction; if Conard wants to see Roxanne again, he must murder some people. If he fails he'll die; the 'kill or be killed' of the title. Which for the second half of the 20 minute short he does, using various implements including, but not limited to a plastic bag and a hammer, despatching various guys in masks. The murders over, Conard moves to get Roxanne back, but the big cheese, Bishop Howser (Howy Bratherton) has other ideas. 

You can watch Manhunt: Kill or Be Killed here.

The Censor (UK 2021: Dir Guerrilla Metropolitana) Welcome to the 'esoteric' part of the round up. Subheaded 'A British Horror Tale of Real Politics and Social Moral Code', Guerilla Metropolitana's work is "influenced by expressionism, neo-realism, surrealism, pop-art, erotica, underground and other styles".

Against a background of riots and civil unrest, Sir Philip Reginald Tangen III (Metropolitana) is President of the National Film Censorship Association, responsible for safeguarding the nation's morals. The author of a new Obscenity Act, following the activities of one Graham Bright MP back in the 1980s (the politician who led the fight back against the so called Video Nasties), he has identified at least 32 movie titles which he wants to ban.

But Tangen has another life; we see him proposition a young man on a skateboard (also the director), drug and, off camera but captured through sound and visuals of naked men, serially abuse him. And this guy is not the first; he is the 34th young man to have gone missing, the assumption being that Tangen is responsible for, as the caption suggests, these acts of 'Exoletus'. But it looks like The Censor's latest victim might also be his last.

Although only 44 minutes long, The Censor is true cinema as art. Choral music and strange sounds (created by 'Monoxide', Metropolitana's previous band) provide the aural backdrop to a succession of harsh, filtered visuals, exposing the scummy outskirts of a city. Hard to follow these images might be, but they have a rancid power. The horror here is concerned with power and manipulation.

You can watch The Censor here

Deadly Nightshade (UK 2021: Dir Benjamin Rider) And the esoteric offerings in this round up continue. So did you ever have a moment where your world went all pear shaped and you found you were actually the subject of a TV show? No, me neither, but that's the predicament in which Victoria (Suzie Houlihan) finds herself when she gets back to her flat in Brixton, hoping to be whisked away on a romantic weekend with boyfriend Marcus (Matthew Laird). Instead she finds a stranger at home in the shape of Adam (Christopher Blackburn), supposedly a friend of Marcus's, who has been given permission to stay at the apartment while the couple are away. Adam wants her to listen to some tapes; firstly of an obscure band and later a recording of an exorcism.

The return of Marcus, complete with bloodied hand, takes things a step further; apparently he witnessed a car accident and rescued one of the vehicle's occupants. Shaken up, he retires to bed; Victoria then experiences a series of visions which are only the beginning of her nightmare weekend.

Described as a 'mostly improvised feature film', Deadly Nightshade has some good, at times vaguely Lynchian ideas, with a big thank you to 1998's The Truman Show, but squanders them with a confusing setup and flat characters. The TV/game framing is well mounted for what must have been a COVID limited production, but the presence of the ubiquitous Eric Roberts, as a dog collared expert on the supernatural, adds nothing to an already messy project. Well done for getting the thing together at all in the midst of a pandemic, but there's little to take away from this film besides a mild sense of confusion.

Shunner (UK 2021: Dir Michael Fenton Crenshaw) You want more esoterica? Walk this way. The third instalment of the director's 'Left Hand' trilogy, commencing with 2017's The Left Hand Path and then 2020's The House of the Laughing Cuckoo Clocks, Shunner is a no more or less difficult watch than the previous two films.

Set in the liminal spaces of the Essex coast and countryside, several extended scenes tell a loose story of ritual and magick: a dirty old man tries to seduce a passing woman who may in reality be a decomposed body, which he attacks and beheads; the same dirty old man puts on a pair of black gloves and has sex with a blow up doll in a grimy concrete shelter, but is shamed by a distant voice (he will eventually be stabbed in the forest by a pair of witches for stealing an amulet); a very odd convenience shop sells tarot cards, a blood tipped stake, masks and religious artefacts.

All of this is clearly heavily symbolic and rather baffling. Sound and vision are stretched and mutated, and characters from other trilogy instalments here re-appear. Some probably not rights cleared music - in particular by David Last House on the Left Hess - plays awkwardly against the odd goings on. Crenshaw is a filmmaker of some considerable experience; his features are willfully obscure but never boring. But they sure are headscratchy.

You can watch Shunner here.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #21 SCI FI SPECIAL! Reviews of Star Warrior: The Legend of Aciris (UK 2021), Creatures (UK 2021), Phase (UK 2021), Settlers (UK/South Africa 2021), White Sky (UK 2021) and How to Survive the End of the World (UK 2021)

Star Warrior: The Legend of Aciris (UK 2021: Dir Mark Dowie) In a 2020 podcast Gateshead based director Dowie listed the two actors he'd most like to work with; Daniel Day Lewis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It will surprise hardly anybody that neither actor features in Mark's debut feature.

In fact most of the cast of Dowie's green screen sci fi saga seem to have been recruited for their ability to a) make the shooting dates and b) work for biscuits; clearly most of the film's £10K shooting budget was spent on special effects and costumes.

A slightly confusing story has the Aciris of the title (Philip Moon) abducted as a boy and delivered to a far away planet as a mining slave. He is eventually recruited into a gang of renegades keen to rescue their home planet from a group of power hungry aliens.

Dowie is clearly in thrall to the 'Star Wars' franchise; SW: THoA started off as a story which turned into a book, and it shows; the film's meagre running time is chock full of characters, all standing around talking and pointing at things they can't see. Despite the inventiveness on show in terms of the micro budget visuals, spending 70 or so minutes in the company of a group of actors who - sorry - generally can't act gets a bit wearing. This looks like it was a real labour of love to put together and, while it's not a one man show, Dowie features heavily in the end credits. The director has since branched out into the world of documentaries, covering subjects as diverse as witches, cats, Bigfoot and Jesus. Sadly not all in the same film.

Creatures (UK 2021: Dir Tony Jopia) Throughout the second decade of the 21st Century, Jopia carved himself a career as a director of low budget fright flicks like Deadtime (2012), Crying Wolf 3D (2015), Cute Little Buggers and Dawning of the Dead (both 2017). Creatures marked an end to that string of movies; a film described by the director as a “Gremlins meets Kill Bill meets Shaun of the Dead” mashup. A film described by me as... well read on.

A group of rather long in the tooth, boisterous (and casually racist) university students, headed by their Astronomy teacher Mr Serling (Romain Barbey) have taken a coach trip out into the countryside to track a comet. They get more than they bargained for when a flying sheep's head hits the vehicle's window, and the group discover what looks like a crashed spacecraft. They also come across a small, furry creature who they name 'Mumpy'. But Mumpy isn't alone. A group of aliens, looking like they've strayed out of a Charles Band movie, are keen to retrieve the beast. They also have the power to kill and enslave humans, turning them into mindless zombies. What's left of the student party, following the alien attack, make it to a country house where, together with its occupants, they defend themselves against the attacking creatures from another world, and Japanese student Akane Ito (Rina Saito) saves the day.

Creatures improves significantly in its second half, although that's a relative term. Although competently filmed, this is an overlong movie which takes a thin premise and stretches it agonisingly. It's hard to know who Jopia was pitching this to; the cutesy Gremlins stuff is cut with various effing and jeffing, feeble class comedy and an uneasy mix of practical and CGI gore. Worse is the racism. Akane's bursts of action are accompanied by, I kid you not, an 'oriental' musical theme as she throws martial arts shapes at the invaders. Things aren't helped by a puerile script with killer lines like "Excuse me, this isn't Brexit" when two characters argue and "your family has come to collect you", remarked to a Mexican student as the aliens appear. Pretty atrocious all round really.

Phase (UK 2021: Dir Richard Sandling) Writer and TV actor Sandling's only feature (if indeed you could call it that) is only nominally a 'Fantastic' film. Actually made in 2020 at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, his Zoom comedy takes us back the heady days of lockdown when most people went slightly gaga and social connection took a nose dive.

Richie (Sandling) talks to his bemused parents (dad is comedian Steven Frost) who haven't quite got the hang of the whole isolation thing. He has regular chats with an actor girlfriend who, as a self confessed 'Furlough Merlot' fan currently on Universal Credit, seems quite content to do naff all while living at her parents' house. Richie also has a rather messy on off relationship with his real girlfriend; oh and in his online therapy sessions he fesses up that there is a parallel Richie in his bedroom. Things turn weird when a conspiracy theory mate starts to make a bit of sense; are the aliens taking over?

Phase is saved from tedium - it's nearly 90 minutes of Zoom windows with little happening - by some very funny performances, including a social media person who makes the Nathan Barley character tolerable, and some terrible on line poetry - plus you get a (rather good) song from Sandling in his dark wave Synthemesc guise. 

Settlers (UK/South Africa 2021: Dir Wyatt Rockefeller) Not to be confused with the famous antacid tablet (that's ‘Setlers’ anyway), this is the first feature from the impressively named Wyatt Rockefeller, whose other claims to fame is that he worked on President Obama’s first Presidential campaign; oh and he's descended from those Rockefellas.

Reza (Jonny Lee Miller), his wife Ilsa (Sofia Boutella) and their daughter Remy (Brooklynn Prince, later Nell Tiger Free), together with a squat robot named ‘Steve’ and a litter of pigs, live on a farmstead in a remote part of Mars – actually it’s all pretty remote. There’s a suggestion that Earth has declined at some point in the past, forcing its population to leave the planet. Things are pretty hard and Remy is fiercely protected from the outside by her parents; a position justified when the family wake up one morning to find a single word 'Leave' painted on their windows in what could be blood.

The arrival of an armed stranger called Jerry (Ismael Cruz Cordova) on the scene rapidly disrupts the family setup; Reza is killed, and the interloper claims that the site in which mother and daughter are living once belonged to him, demanding ownership. An uneasy alliance develops between the three of them, which eventually turns into tragedy.

Settlers is, on the surface, a homesteading Western in space (well specifically on Mars). It’s at times a tough watch; the claustrophobic atmosphere and small cast keep things frighteningly self-contained. There are no Planet of the Apes type reveals or M. Night Shyamalan twists, and the only explanation offered in the movie is around people’s ability to breathe freely on the planet.

The film is perhaps too tonally one dimensional to fully engage, and slightly overlong too (the middle section drags a bit). However it’s sumptuously filmed, with the South African desert standing in for the Red Planet, and both actors playing Remy are terrific in their roles. 

White Sky (UK 2021: Dir Adam Wilson) Wilson's second feature, after 2020's Crawl to Me Darling, is a sci-fi movie which follows the tried and tested formula of a lot of genre TV; frontload all your effects  - the good stuff - and then fill the rest with human drama.

Sisters Sienna (Makenna Guyler) and Hailey (Natalie Martins) leave on a camping weekend with Hailey's boyfriend Josh (Jordan Mcfarlane); Sienna is a drug addict in recovery, and her sister hopes that the break will be good for her rehab.

Pretty much as soon as they arrive they witness a large spacecraft hovering over the city they have just left, which deposits large amounts of some form of white powder on the population. The trio are set upon by zombie like humans - called The Altered -  their state due to to the white powder which surrounds them as they attack. Sienna and friends are also overcome by an unknown force and wake up, confused, some time later.

Keen to remain safe, they run into Liam (Ade Dimberline), a resourceful chap who has some knowledge of the aliens' activity, if not their overall goal. But Liam shows a different side when it transpires that he's involved in drugs, reigniting Sienna's addiction; and then Josh starts showing signs of infection.

Although overlong - at nearly one hour and three quarters - and jettisoning most of the sci fi elements pretty quickly, this four hander is certainly not without interest. Nothing is explained, leaving the quartet of survivors rather purposeless, and their gradual breakdown feels genuine. Strongly acted and filmed against a stunning forest backdrop, White Sky is a different beast to his former movie, but Wilson's depiction of humans at war with each other remains a constant in his films. 

How to Survive the End of the World (UK 2021: Dir James Wilsher) Every so often a film critic gets their dream; to discover and write about a movie which no one else seems to have latched onto, and is worthy of praise. HoStEofW is such a film.

Max (Jake William Francis) and Liz (Lily Streames) are a couple having one of those awkward 'is it over?' relationship conversations in a Lincoln cafe when Max is distracted by the sight of people running for their life on the street outside.

Yes, as the film's title suggests, it's the end of the world; an alien invasion has laid waste to cities across the world. Not that you see any of this of course; this is low budget filmmaking.

One week later and Max and Liz, now handily armed with machine guns, are thrown together as survivors, and have decided to venture to Max's uncle George (John Newell), a resourceful scientist turned farmer. The problem is that he lives in St. Ives in Cornwall; a trip of around 340 miles. Along the route they encounter a few survivors, in the form of the rather stoned Irish Rick (Elliot Bigden) who lives in Bristol, and later three members of a branch of the British army, led by the increasingly insecure Captain Thomas (Martin Caroll). But when they finally make it to Uncle George's they find that he has captured one of the invaders and is giving his scientific curiosity full rein.

Wilsher's film tells us a couple of things; firstly, just because the world as we know it has come to an end, it doesn't mean that your relationship problems are suddenly over. Max and Liz continue to bicker; it's clear that she's still in love, whereas Max is avoiding the issue. This rather bizarre setup continues until the director shows his hand with the arrival of the army guys; in a tense stand off Max decides that the only way to have them confirm their true military credentials is by them singing the seldom heard second verse of the National Anthem, a task only achieved by the soldiers pooling their collective recall. This is the second lesson of the film; that there can be comedy in tragedy. Wisher doesn't play his movie completely for laughs, although a chance meeting en route with Max's ditzy first girlfriend, Becca (Rebecca Ward) takes us pretty near. In fact it's this uneasy mix of tones which really makes HtStEofW stand out. 

At nearly an hour and three quarters, with a small cast and very little going on for the most part (although congratulations to Stewart Cope for some nifty final reel F/X), this movie shouldn't work; but I loved it. It's mournful, occasionally tragic and ultimately uplifting. Francis and Streames are a great (non) couple, and the intelligent script, great support cast and sympathetic soundtrack made this a real find.

You can watch How to Survive the End of the World here. Please do.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #20: Reviews of The Haunted Hotel (UK 2020), The House on the Cliff (UK 2021), Torture (UK 2021), Darkness in Mind (UK 2021), J1S (UK 2021) and Captain Callum Explores the Universe (UK 2021)

The Haunted Hotel (UK 2020: Dir Various) This portmanteau oddity, produced in 2020 but not released until a year later - presumably for Pandemic reasons - was put together by Film Suffolk, a not for profit organisation supporting local filmmakers. The hotel in question used as the film's only location was, and is, the Grade II listed Great White House in Ipswich; it's a place with a history. Dating back to 1518, the impressive hotel was mentioned in Charles Dickens's 'Pickwick Papers' (and none too favourably) and, at the time of filming, was shut down, which explains why much of the decor looks rather shabby.

However the short films which make up the feature compensate for the drab interiors by being, for the most part, a lot of fun; the budget was apparently £10,000, most of which, I would guess, was spent on costumes. The individual stories, which apart from using the hotel as their base - and having generally supernatural subject matter - don't have anything in common, is a plus as it's the variety of shorts on offer that makes The Haunted Hotel zip along nicely.

Travelling between the 1940s and the present day, the portmanteau highlights include: a hotel regular enjoying one last dance with the ghost of his late wife; a horror writer having a breakdown and encountering local beastly legend Black Shuck; a 'Horror Hotel' whose ghostly staff members are incompetent; and a helpful spirit who comes to the aid of a young girl about to be taken advantage of. 

As a postscript, since the film was made the hotel has re-opened, although sadly it seems that little has been spent on redecorating. If you look the place up on Trip Advisor the customer reviews are scarier than anything in The Haunted Hotel, and some of the visitors' photos show rooms in much the same state as when filming took place. 

The House on the Cliff aka Barun Rai and the House on the Cliff (UK 2021: Dir Sam Bhattacharjee) Director Bhattacharjee is also a VFX supervisor, and one look at the extraordinary THotC convinces you that he's happy to combine his skills with a 'kitchen sink' approach to his first Fantastic feature.

It's the 1970s and parapsychologist Barun Rai (Priyanshu Chatterjee) has been summoned to Corvid's Head, an American town that looks very like the UK (that's because it is). The reason for his presence is a rash of deaths, with various menfolk taking their lives by jumping off a cliff. 

Meanwhile two newlyweds have just bought a house on the same  cliff. Harmesh (Sid Makkar) and his wife Soumili (Nyra Banerjee) instantly fall in love with their impressive new home, but it's not long before Soumili finds an old book in the basement and there are signs that the house may be haunted. A visiting priest tends to agree when he's attacked by a swarm of bees (yeah I know). Rai and his investigating assistant Sukhbir (Aakash Shukal, wearing an oversized wig that has to be seen to be believed - and please forgive me Mr Shukal if that was your own hair) uncover the reason behind the haunting; a jilted fiancée (genre regular Ayvianna Snow) who swears vengeance on all men from beyond the grave. Can they exorcise the spirit before more men's lives are sacrificed?

Apparently the original running time of the movie was two and a half hours, apparently designed to be shown on Indian TV in 20 minute bursts. The resulting digest is a still overlong 120 minutes, but in its mix of loopy plot twists and batshit visuals (think a sort of Bollywood Garth Marenghi's Darkplace) you're unlikely to be bored; just confused. As Rai, Chatterjee is a laconic, cigar chewing chap with no discerning sense of humour, a quality much needed when dealing with the nonsense he encounters. The story might be hoary but you'll stay for the VFX which are over the top, often unnecessary, and quite wonderful. The end credits of the movie (and just look at the size of the technical cast, including an 'Insect developer') tell us that Barun Rai will return; quickly please, Mr Bhattacharjee!

Torture (UK 2021: Dir Jason Wright) Wright's 2019 debut feature, Dead Party, saw a bunch of ravers trapped in a warehouse and besieged by scientifically created zombies.

Two years later Wright returned with an (overly) ambitious movie, also with science out of control at its core. Deep in the country a number of disappearances are leaving the authorities, and local news channels, baffled; the discovery of bodies suggests an end to the mystery, but things are just hotting up.

A young bride to be is kidnapped on the day of her wedding. Elsewhere a single mother, alcoholic because of abuse from her father, has her baby taken from her by shadowy figures. Two male friends are having a blokey getaway, their destination a bondage festival called 'Sick Club'. Another parent becomes distraught when both her daughters go missing at a playground.

What links these characters isn't clear, but may have something to do with an old man called Doctor Jones, an operations room which is directing the action, and a historic series of experiments during the Cold War, involving children being subjected to protein modification tests.

The film is called Torture for good reason; a number of the indignities foisted on the captured people are pretty unpleasant. Sadly the word can also be used to describe some of the performances in the movie; it's a messy old film, with narrative strands all over the place and only a partial explanation offered. This may well be what Wright was aiming for (there's a definite nihilistic nod to Romero's 1973 movie The Crazies here) but it makes the whole thing very disjointed, and there wasn't enough style in the thing to create tension or, it has to be mentioned, sustain real interest.

Darkness in Mind (UK 2021: Dir Steve Jolley) there's an item in the 'Watford Observer' from November 2011 in which Jolley names this project as a feature film. At some point between then and 2021 it had shrunk down to a 46 minute featurette. I'm still trying to track down with the director the year of its release; Jolley seems to consider it unfinished (it's not on his IMDb page) but it's worth mentioning here as a genuine oddity.

Five unrelated people, each with their own traumata, sign up for a weekend retreat at the home of a Hypnotist (David France) with an excellent reputation. Triggered by a trance state induced by their host, we witness their phobias one by one. Andy (Justin Courtney) has entomophobia, a fear of insects (a particularly disturbing scene in which a large number of cockroaches - and spiders - crawl across his naked torso). Nicole (Julia Florimo) has prigophobia; a fear of choking. Wesley (Paul Law Beaumont) has agrizoophobia; a fear of teddy bears. Amy (Nansi Nsue) has masklophobia (as the word suggests, a fear of masks). And finally Mickey (Christopher Miles) has trauma stemming from being an abused child who narrowly escaped death; this is depicted via a very weird scene showing adult Mickey's head on a child's body, emoting in a crib.

Nothing else in the film really matches these scenes in terms of horror; the rest is taken up with the increasingly controlling behaviour of the Hypnotist, who gradually reveals his real motive as some kind of collector of souls, while at the same time forcing the five to confront the basis for their fears. DiM is an at times very creepy extended short, claustrophobically directed and with convincing performances from all concerned.

You can watch Darkness in Mind here.

J1S (UK 2021: Dir Jay Cunningham) Cunningham's debut feature is set in a present day Liverpool, although not quite; 'a different now' in fact, where J1S aka 'Jones' (Jack Bohdi), an AI being created by Dr Novak (Carl Wharton) is being slowly integrated into real life. 

An imminent and unscheduled visit from China's emperor, who has heard of and is interested in the project, forces Novak to rush the rest of Jones's development, installing an upgrade which has an unfortunate side effect; instead of simply updating the AI's operating system it sits alongside it, creating two minds, one benevolent, one malevolent.

Elsewhere in the city's Red District - a sort of Philip K. Dick futuristic sleazepark - Suza (Jade Bulmer), another robot, is trying to give her pimp boss Ivan (Keith Hyland) the slip. It's inevitable that Jones and Suza will come into contact with each other as they navigate the Merseyside mean streets.

'No Droids Allowed' reads a sign on a cafe; not only are our robots in conflict with each other but there's a world of AI mistrust out there (seems things haven't changed then). Cunningham's movie has more than a whiff of paranoia about it. Developed from a 4 minute short film into a feature, this one so nearly didn't make completion (you can read about Cunningham's many and varied struggles here) but I'm really pleased it did. Look, J1S isn't particularly original but the sheer passion involved in creating a world which is familiar but different has paid off. There are elements of Blade Runner, The Terminator and Manga in the film, but there's a very human side to things too. Bohdi and Bulmer are both great and there's real pace to the editing. I liked this a lot.

Captain Callum Explores the Universe (UK 2021: Dir Callum Davies) Young Callum Davies may not be aware of the work of US 1960s independent director Ray Dennis Steckler, but his goofy 50 minute film harks back to Steckler's knockabout 1968 movie The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters, although here the location is the Welsh coast rather than the suburbs of Los Angeles (in truth he was probably heading more for a The Inbetweeners feel).

Anyway Callum (star of many a YouTube skit video), a listless lad who wears two pairs of glasses, has his world changed when he finds a Captain's hat in a stream, puts it on and finds renewed purpose in life as, er, Captain Callum. His slacker mate, Rifle Rob (Jay Davies), so named because he has a plastic gun, sleeps a lot.

A freak meteor storm one night zaps CC from his own world and throws him into an alternate dimension. Separated from Rob, he encounters himself, in the guise of Video Universe Callum, who has a patch over one eye, and VUC's mate Lance (Kallum Gordon). CC is keen to travel back to his own dimension, which can only be achieved with the application of magical stones, which may have been instrumental in the meteor shower. But the stones are under threat courtesy of a masked chap called The Menacer, who can only be defeated by VUC's special powers.

"Do you really have to be so self centred, dude?" CC is asked at one point. "That's kind of the point of the whole character" replies CC, and indeed a lot of CCEtU is devoted to CC worrying about himself. I really liked this funny, goofy movie, which occupies a shared universe with the daft films of Ian Austin. The word 'zany' is pretty horrible (and overused) but it's kind of appropriate here to describe this micro budget, surreal, freewheeling comedy. Excellent.

You can watch Captain Callum Explores the Universe here. 

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #19: Reviews of Override (UK 2021), Alone Together (UK 2021), Damien (UK 2021), Visions of Filth (UK 2021), Them (UK 2021) and Easter Bunny Massacre (UK 2021)

Override aka R.I.A. (Reality Interface Android) (UK 2021: Dir Richard Colton) A low budget sci fi movie starring not one but two denizens of the 1980s UK music scene; what are the chances?

'A Day With RIA' is a reality show with a twist. Every day, beamed to devices across the US, 'RIA', a sophisticated domestic android, wakes up and serves her 'husband' Jack breakfast, showers and plans her day with him. The same day, over and over again, with tweaks suggested by the viewing audience who can vote to vary her routines. The twist here is that the 'Jack' she wakes up to (and goes to be bed with, although no sex until after 9pm) is a different person every day, one of a never ending parade of contestants who make their pitch to be in the latest episode of the reality show.

So far so Groundhog Day meets The Truman Show. But then the 25th Jack (Charlie Clapham), who just happens to be the son of the US vice president (Dean Cain, yes that one), encounters and, in a break from the norm, is taken hostage by RIA who has been hacked, for reasons that become increasingly menacing.

Back to those Brit music cast members; ex Bros member Luke Goss, making quite the name for himself in low budget thrillers, is the first Jack we meet. Later on it's the turn of Sinitta to don a pair of glasses and a labcoat as Dr Tonya Smithe (trivia lovers may wish to know that her screen debut at age 18 was in Jim Sharman's 1981 follow up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment). Elsewhere RIA, played by a very game Jessica Impiazzi, is actually quite effective as the android gone wrong, alternating between sexiness, domesticity and living product promoter (the show presumably being funded by advertising). Until the conspiracy elements of the plot kick in, and it all gets way too confusing, this is an amusing enough little comment on TV culture and the perceived role of women. Bizarre but not unlikeable, then.

Alone Together (UK 2021: Dir Luke J. Couch) Bella (Meg Olssen) is an artist and a practicing Christian; her boyfriend Damien (Kamran Mohammed) has little time for her faith or indeed anything which isn't grounded in reality. Which is why he's distinctly underwhelmed when Bella tells him that, for her next art project, she's been delving into Christian demonology.

Discovering an old book, containing the name Balam, Bella's investigations trigger a series of visions in which she's visited by demons and has her faith, and her strict chastity, called into question; understandably Damien is a little concerned, particularly when Bella becomes possessed by evil forces. 

Couch's film, shot in 2020 but not released until 2021, possibly meant a lot to the director. Unfortunately its meaning is largely lost on the viewing audience, beyond its basic themes of good vs evil, faith vs disbelief etc. There's not a lot to look at here; Bella and Damien have a series of conversations about the state of their relationship, Bella gets a bit possessed and it doesn't end happily. 

But Alone Together is a great example of the democratisation of modern filmmaking; if you have the equipment, some cast members and a lot of patience you too can make a movie. Whether it's good or not may be the point.

Damien (UK 2021: Dir Bobby Marno) In 2021 the found footage feature was, if not going strong, still 'a thing', as evidenced by this Northern Irish offering from first time director Marno.

Three curmudgeonly filmmakers have arrived to interview Damien (Damien Seed - all the actors use their real names), a "vegetarian beef farmer", in a sort of Akenfield like experiment to document what is presumably a dying way of life. The three guys, Bobby (the director), Andy (Andrew McClay) and Hammer (Robert Brown, ok not all the actors then) are interested in Damien's genealogy, which can be traced back to the Picts via William Wallace.

Damien offers to show them the cottage where he grew up; a ramshackle building covered with signs, which, after a bit of research, turn out to be repetitions of a Celtic fire symbol; red headed Damien just may have links to a flame haired god called the Dagda and his son Aed.

Anyhow before long Hammer has gone missing while the team stay overnight; only his bloody shirt remains. Then we're into the angry villager/night footage so you can't see what's going on/running and swearing part of the film. Then it ends.

Damien scores some points for its key cast members a) all looking the same (it's the beards which makes it a tad confusing) and b) not being 20 years old (although under those beards I may be mistaken). Line of the movie has to be "Have you ever seen so many ginger people in a circle?".

Visions of Filth (UK 2021: Dir Jason Impey) Lest you thought that the British Fantastic Film scene generally played it safe when it comes to content, along comes Mr Impey to do a bit of disabusing; actual in Impey's case make that 'abusing'. Along with directors like Sam Mason Bell, Impey is not afraid to luxuriate in the downward spiral of human behaviour. It's why you don't often see his films streamed in the UK, even though the guy has been making shorts and full features since 1994.

The 'visions of filth' in this movie belong to an unnamed killer, played by Martin W. Payne, an actor prepared to go there in the name of art (as anyone who has seen 2019's Lonely Hearts or the following year's Millennial Killer will attest). Payne's character is in the latter stages of what is assumed to be bowel cancer (we get a graphic display of the sickness at work; yes it's that kind of film), reflecting back on his past murders, his modus operandi a combination torture/masturbation double hander (pun intended), accompanied by a wicked laugh, a bit like a video nasty version of Tod Slaughter. He is mentally teased by one victim (Rina Julia) who reaches out from beyond the grave to exact her revenge (Impey presages his film with a Biblical quote, warning that it's God's work only to repay evil with evil).

If you do get to see Visions of Filth, beware that a cold shower will be in order after viewing. It's pretty reprehensible stuff, plot free and nihilistic in extreme (albeit with a twisted moral conclusion). It's not really my sort of thing (it's a brave person that would admit it's their sort of thing) but it's a good film to have in mind for the next pub discussion where some know-all opines that Britain doesn't do 'cinema of transgression'.

Them (UK 2021: Dir Ignacio Maiso) Maiso's last feature, 2019's Prowler, was a headscratcher of a debut; his follow up is no less of a challenge.

In an unspecified setting - it's London but it could be now or the near future - a group of beings that were once human cannot now be seen by the human race. Occasionally there is a breakthrough when an actual human 'wakes up' and can see the ancient race, like Daniel aka Keeper 1 (Sindri Swan), but mainly humans lead repetitive lives, unaware of what's happening. But there's pressure to reset things, to take the world back to where the race remain undetected but still in charge.

That's the best I can make out of this impenetrable movie. Hats off to Maiso for not conveniently explaining what's being shown; the best that can be offered is Last Year in Marienbad via The Matrix. 

In that the movie was made during the Pandemic, part of me wonders whether some of the 'great reset' conspiracy theories of the time have managed to seep into the techno neurosis of the film. It's well photographed, static, and impenetrable.

Easter Bunny Massacre (UK 2021: Dir Jack Peter Mundy) The Scott Jeffrey Jagged Edge crew are all present and correct for this one. Directed by a guy responsible for no less than 5 movies in 2021, as that number suggests his films are cheaply made, efficiently delivered, but sadly of varying quality.

EBM looks to the setup of I Know What You Did Last Summer in its story of a woodland party that goes wrong when one of their number, Heather (Anthonia Whillans, whose early exit might be explained by the sheer number of behind the scenes functions she undertakes, according to the credits) winds up dead after everyone else is so strung out that they can't remember what happened. All the college kids worry about the academic impact of being associated with a corpse, so they dump her body in the river and pretend nothing happened. What we know, and the rest of the group don't, is that Heather was killed by someone in an Easter Bunny costume.

One year on, the survivors of that evening (minus one of their number, who has taken their life in the interim because of all the stress involved in the cover up) and their plus ones are all invited to a reunion. That the person who has sent the invitations signs themselves 'Heather' doesn't put anyone off attending. As the group congregate they follow as series of clues, Easter egg hunt style, to find out what's going on; these clues include a number of tapes, seemingly recorded by Heather. As the movie progresses, the inner secrets of all are revealed in such a way as any of the attendees could have been responsible for the murder; until of course they begin to get murdered, by someone in a bunny suit, natch.

Although EBM remains resolutely cheap (the location is mainly restricted to a Somerset youth hostel, presumably keen to do an out of season deal) there's something rather good about the complexity of motives and opportunity revealed by the cast as events pan out, helped by some nifty camerawork from DOP Robin Keane. The plus ones in the group add to the red herring score, and although the upshot is rather silly it's quite fun getting there, particularly the whole Rashomon like unreliable witness stuff. Jeffrey and Mundy have both been involved with features far poorer than this one. I rather liked it.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #18: Reviews of Bad Blood (UK 2021), Nightlens (UK 2021), What You Can't Promise (UK 2021), Huey (UK 2021), Overtime (UK 2021) and The Leprechaun's Curse (UK 2021)

Bad Blood aka Boy #5 (UK 2021: Dir Eric Steele) Originally titled Boy #5 (for its screening at London's FrightFest in 2021), this 'Mancunian vampire film' (according to the director) is the story of Nathan (Lennon Leckey), a homeless young boy picked up off the streets after being discovered drinking the blood of a dead dog, and delivered into the care of social worker Marjorie Dawson (Laura Montgomery Bennett).

Marjorie is in crisis, following the death of one of her previous cases, Curt, who took his own life while under her charge. Refusing any offers of counselling, and of increasing concern to her superiors ("You can't save everybody," she's warned), Marjorie takes the distinctly odd Nathan under her wing, turning a blind eye - and eventually becoming complicit - when she learns that he drinks only human blood, regular supplies of which are needed to sustain him. "For blood is the life!" he quotes at her; a quick internet search tells her most of what she needs to know on the subject, with a visit to a Manchester goth club filling in the blanks.

While watching this I was reminded of the films of UK director Andrew Parkinson, whose movies often feature horrific beings located in authentically mundane settings. The world into which Nathan enters is blandly municipal, an environment of clipboards and case conferences (a desk calendar from 2019 shows that the film has had a long gestation). As Marjorie Bennett is similarly and successfully prosaic; in her first screen role (she's also in two other features by Steele which haven't yet seen the light of day) she's decidedly non actorly but very effective, and her increasing need to compensate for the guilt over Curt, including bloodying her hands to meet Nathan's needs, is very believable.

A classical score contrasts well with the drab mis en scene, and a small cast, all of whom are effective in their roles, makes this well worth a watch.

Nightlens (UK 2021: Dir David Woods) Woods's first feature since his 2011 melon twister Till Sunset, get ready for more oddness as we join Blake (Kim Hardy), a man who has split from his alcoholic partner Kate (Zoe Cunningham) after popping the question at the wrong moment, and has lived to regret it.

Keen to right the wrongs of the past, Blake enrols with Cerebrics, an unusual agency straight of out a Philip K. Dick story, who can help him. The company strapline is 'For the thoughts that count' and, under the tutelage of Torrance (Susan McCann), they can provide a link to the past so that Blake can put things right. Tapping into the company's power source, a brain in a box (I kid you not), after a painful process he is thrown back onto 'the maze' of his own cerebral cortex - The Grey Matter - to reunite with Kate and give things another go.

The only problem is that Kate had the same idea, also contacting Cerebrics to help with her alcoholism, so the pair must hook up to both achieve what they want. But there's a snag; a rogue neuron in the shape of a dark stranger (ok a bloke with black tights on his head) who threatens the safety of both.

At least, I think that's what's happening, but any viewing of Nightlens comes with a big dose of WTF. This is ambitious stuff, well put together considering the obviously tight budget and with an atmospheric score from Jamie Harper (who also scored Till Sunset) to pull it all together. This won't be for everyone - pacing is not its forte - but it's hugely intriguing. What a shame that, based on his previous output, we'll have to wait another ten years for the director's next head scratcher. 

What You Can't Promise (UK 2021: Dir Richard Fysh) More 'holiday home horror', this time a two hander written, directed and 'starring' Fysh as Gareth, a chap who, grieving the death of dad (who owned the holiday let in which he is currently staying), and keen to tie up his late father's affairs.

A knock at the door announces a young woman, Ursula (Maria Tauber), who claims to have rented the cottage, and paid Gareth's dad for the privilege. Gareth is unaware of the arrangement and uncomfortable about her suggestion that, although total strangers to each other, they should stay under the same roof.

Both resolve to do this; soon Ursula's assertive ways unlock Gareth's taciturn demeanour, and he's telling her things about his personal life, his failed relationship and the passing of his father, about which he feels uncomfortable disclosing. His nocturnal visitor also seems to have a dislike of bright light, eats nothing, and takes a fond interest in Gareth's neck.

I probably won't be giving much away if I tell you that Ursula is not what she seems; and much more. Quite how you get on with this depends on how much you like the two characters, as you spend the entire 70 minutes with them. To be honest, while the setup is quite bold, neither Fysh nor Tauber are particularly accomplished actors; in fact the initial scenes, of the 'oh-no-you'll-have-to-spend-the-night' variety, feel like porn before the clothes come off. I applaud the willingness to try something a little different, but WYCP didn't work for me.

Huey (UK 2021: Dir Brenden Singh) This one took me slightly by surprise; it's not a pleasant watch but it transcends its low budget limitations, that's for sure. 

Huey (a convincing performance by Bryan Moriarty) is a young (ish) man, an unpublished writer who struggles alone at his computer. He's on strong medication, and his fragile mental health means he feels isolated when with friends; sessions with his psychiatrist (Philip Ridout) are predictably fraught. 

Huey feels that to kick start his book he needs to inhabit the world of his central character; presumably that character is somewhat of a psychopath, as we see the guy following women and, when he does bring a girl home with him, becoming angry and violent when he's unable to perform.

Latching onto a woman he sees in a cafe, Lucy (Daisy Boyden), he starts an (unwanted) conversation with her, having already stalked her around town and located her home address. Any idea that Huey is trying to strike up a simple friendship is quickly dashed, and Lucy senses quite quickly that she's in danger.

It's often difficult to work out what's real and what's in Huey's head in Singh's slender but tense psycho drama. Moriarty has something of the Sean Harris about him; you never know when he's going to go off the deep end. This is primarily a character study as opposed to a fully realised drama, but it's confidently filmed and conveys a real sense of mental crisis. 

Overtime (UK 2021: Dir Mario Covone) Wow, this was an unexpected, dark treat which seems to have passed people by, totally undeservedly. 

When student Ben (Jack Clark), spying on the phone of his girlfriend Hannah (Pippa Haddow) and discovering that she's due to meet up with one of her teachers, Mr Shaw (Chris Spyrides) on the quiet, he shares the information with Hannah's feisty sister Eve (Bethany Rumbellow). The pair decide to steal into the school that night and intercept the assignation, an indignant Eve deciding to live stream the intervention on a paedophile spotters website so that the police can take action.

Roping in their friends Chelsea (Anna Beer) and girlfriend Danny (Heather-Mae Cutts) - who persuades her school security guard uncle Stu (Gary Baxter) to sneak them on to the premises - the group don masks to anonymously confront the miscreant teacher and pupil. However, they're about to find out that Hannah and Shaw have an entirely different purpose for their nighttime liaison, and there's a bigger threat to all their lives lurking in the corridors of the educational establishment.

Mainly filmed at the University of Suffolk and utilising a talented cast largely comprising first time (on screen) actors, although Overtime isn't perfect it's cleverly put together, and the mid point plot rugpull - ok, ignore the poster - was a real surprise. Covone mixes up events in the first half to give you a couple of runs at what you're seeing from two different perspectives (very Rashomon) but then ratchets up the tension once the real bad guys show up. Add in some great practical F/X, a fab metal score and some very smart camerawork and editing, this reminded me of the work of James Smith and Caroline Spence in films like Casting Kill: Low in budget, high in quality and very, very good.

You can watch Overtime here.

The Leprechaun's Curse aka Leprechaun's Rage (UK 2021: Dir Louisa Warren) It's been a while since Ms Warren's name cropped up in one of these round ups. The last time we saw the 'Leprechaun' character was in her 2020 movie The Leprechaun's Game.

When I interviewed Warren a few years back she told me that she makes two types of horror movies; 'serious' and 'wacky'. The Leprechaun's Curse is certainly in the latter camp. 

Bao Tieu returns as the titular little fella (actually he's full size, but we'll let that pass) and this time he's guarding an amount of gold held in a house owned by a 'property into gold' type (Warren includes him in a fake TV ad) who the creature has drowned in the mansion's swimming pool. Sidebar: when I mention 'mansion' this looks more like a local authority owned hostel - fire doors and Covid signs galore. Anyhow the house has been passed on to the gold mogul's daughter Tilly (Sofia Lacey) who invites her mum (Chrissie Wunna) and friends down to spend a few days of luxury while she works out what to do with the place.

The leprechaun kind of hangs around the house, leaping on the unsuspecting guests when they access the gold secreted around the place, and leaving cryptic notes which has everyone blaming each other for trying to spook them out. The plot is about as incomprehensible as this short synopsis reads, and there's little to recommend it apart from a general tongue in cheek approach, some rudimentary gore and a few amusing lines of dialogue. Worst moment? The evil leprechaun faces off against the house's caretaker (Warren) at the front of the property in full view of passing unconcerned pedestrians, a bus and a police van. 

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #17: Reviews of Toy Box Killers (UK 2021), Blood House (UK 2021), Manhunt (UK 2021), Plague of the Dead (UK 2021), Afterlyfe (UK 2021) and Carnal Monsters (UK 2021)

Toy Box Killers (UK 2021: Dir Mark Denham) In Denham's debut feature we're on the mean streets of what looks like east London. Two American killers, Samantha (Elin-Margareta Nordin) and Daniel (Joshua Neil) have come to town and are embarking on a random killing spree, despatching anyone they either don't like the look of or see as easy pickings.

On their trail is Detective Sergeant Teri Logan (Sharon Hendry) with her forensic sidekick. 

Sam, who occasionally dresses up in Mexican 'day of the dead' makeup as part of their murderous rituals, befriends a couple of American girls, Monica (Emma Johannesson) and Jess (Toni Valerie). They all go out to a club, which looks like someone's living room; Sam spikes their drinks and takes them back home, with Daniel's assistance. Sam kills Jess with a hammer and they dump her body in the woods, but Monica is kept alive.

Detective Logan organises a press conference at which Monica's parents, mum and crime lord dad (Gengiz Hasim) plead for her return, with pop threatening to bring in his heavies if the police don't find his daughter quickly. But Sam and Daniel continue to evade the law, even as their own relationship undergoes its own difficulties.

Despite, or perhaps because of the rather rudimentary way in which Toy Box Killers has been put together - crudely added London stock footage, bits of slowed down action, choppy editing and terrible sound - the film attains a kind of 'fly on the wall' docudrama feel; it's too polite to be really grungy and the inexplicable, possibly tongue in cheek adoption of American accents by various members of the cast is just annoying, but there is something rather grim about the movie.

On his Film Freeway page, Denham tells us that "I'm currently writing a screenplay which I hope to pique the interest of the creators of American Horror Story with a script about a supernatural killer called Mr Piggy. I dream of a life in Hollywood."

Blood House (UK 2021: Dir Tony Manders) En route home from a school reunion, the car in which a group of ex classmates are travelling breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Ben (John Fisher), his girlfriend Sarah (Maria Hiscock), Jade (Gemma Harlow Dean) her boyfriend Josh (Richard Wilde), Harry (Matthew Hemmings) and his sort of partner Alice (Meg Owlett) make their way to a seemingly abandoned house for shelter. 

After doing a quick recce of the vacant property they are surprised to find that a cupboard, thought empty, mysteriously contains fresh bedding. This is followed by the appearance of breakfast items and later clean clothing from the same place (well, a number of white hazmat suits). One of the party, investigating another part of the house, strangely finds himself teleported back into the bedroom where they've shacked up. 

Of course we the audience know better; this is the house of a witch, one Elizabeth Blood, burned at the stake in the 17th century and who swore a curse both on her ancestors and anyone living nearby. And it's not long before the witch is back, possessing the house's occupants, leading to their grisly deaths.

Blood House runs for a bum numbing 110 minutes; it's a mix of a small cast ad libbing to each other about their predicament, punctuated with some odd bits of horror and gore (and with a 17th century prologue). Like his previous genre film Death Follows Manders's movie is hard work but not without merit, with a decent payoff and some nice witchy touches along the way. The fact that almost the whole thing is suffused with a blue filter makes it rather difficult to work out what's going on, but also imbues the piece with a weird, slightly otherworldly quality. It's not great by any means but the director's films are always interesting, provided that you adjust your expectations.

Manhunt (UK 2021: Dir Charles Solly) Solly's first feature, although clocking in at just 45 minutes, is an incredibly effective story about the revenge of a bullied student on his classmates.

Rodger Flank (Ashley Clarredge, excellent) is an overweight young man with some personal freshness issues who has a habit of going commando under his tracksuit bottoms. He's the subject of constant bullying by his fellow students, but that's not the end of his problems; at home his mother (Lauren Garner), alcoholic and confined to a wheelchair, constantly puts him down.

When Rodger receives an invitation from his classmates to an end of term 'illegal' party in a local park (the movie was filmed in lockdown, so the gathering is presumably against COVID rules) he's excited; but it's a mistake. Rodger was added to their WhatsApp group in error, and despite attempts of two of the gang to stop him and avoid further taunting, Flank flips out, rocks up to the park and starts his reign of terror. But he has a plan to deflect responsibility for his crimes.

Although this may initially come across as filmed youth theatre, Solly tells his story well, gradually uncovering Flank's plight, providing justification for his anger, if not perhaps the end result. It's also rather disturbing stuff, which surprised me; Clarredge's portrayal of the damaged youth is satisfyingly convincing.

There is a slightly sour note to this work; the cast were recruited from the National Youth Film Academy, a subscription based service established, as the name suggests, to assist young people in accessing movie roles. NYFA closed down in 2023, with some sources suggesting problems with opportunities presented to students and delays in processing course refunds. This is a shame, as most of the cast here are extremely credible (and talented) and I wish them well in the future.

Plague of the Dead (UK 2021: Dir Tony Newton) The connection between the COVID-19 pandemic and zombie outbreak has, perhaps surprisingly, not been overused by indie filmmakers. Newton's film however has no shame in conflating both. Filmed in lockdown in 2020 but not released until a year later (it came out on DVD in the US in 2022) PotD acts as a kind of 'notes from the frontline' zombie flick, comprising stand alone vignettes filmed separately then patched together by Newton.

Most of the to camera pieces emanate from the US which gives the film a distinctly non UK feel (although it does count as a British Fantastic Film, and includes a turn from the director). Split into two halves, the first section is made up of individual survivor reports; towards the end we witness those same people after zombie interaction, some bitten, others choosing to take their own life rather than face an uncertain future existence.

So yes the parallels between lockdown and staying out of the way of infected zombies are exploited to the max. "The news said to stay indoors" informs one of the talking heads, and that's just what they do. The audience doesn't get to see much zombie action (the first infected rears its ugly head 45 minutes into the film's rather trying hour and three quarters) and the gore is restricted to random (and rather rubbery) body parts, infected wounds and a zombie who feasts on its own entrails. The omnipresent Shawn C Phillips gets to do one of his meltdowns (although - spoiler alert - he makes a pretty convincing zombie without the need for much makeup) and there's a scene where a couple, getting it on, experience coitus zombicus interruptus; possibly a first. This is all quite bleak stuff and a real chore to sit through; a bit like the pandemic then.

Afterlyfe (UK 2021: Dir David A. Roberts) This 21 minute short (it's over the 20 min threshold and thus qualifies for inclusion in the BFF project) was made by the director of the very good 2023 movie Older Gods.

Andrew (Rory Wilson) wakes up in a medical facility with no knowledge of why he's there. He comes across a man, alive and mumbling, zipped up in a body suit, and is attacked by a soldier. A voice informs Andrew that he was in a car crash together with his husband, which he didn't survive. But technology, and a few random body parts, have saved the day.

Afterlyfe is a bit of a tease; it just starts getting going at the end point, after which there's a 'To Be Continued' message. But based on this I want it to continue! 

Roberts suffuses his film with a palette of shades of red, and provides his own lush score to heighten the drama onscreen. Afterlyfe is powerful and well made stuff, with a payoff which explains and anticipates. Not sure why we haven't seen the director develop this one into a feature yet.

You can watch Afterlyfe here. 

Carnal Monsters (UK 2021: Dir Joe Cash) Cash's film was released by the infamous Troma films (studio boss Lloyd Kaufman appears at the beginning, treating us to an oboe rendition of the English national anthem) and you only have to sit through the first ten of its scant 65 minutes to understand why,

Featuring a nearly all female cast, chosen principally for their willingness to appear in not much at all - or nothing -  the 'story' revolves around a scientist, Dr Dilf (Ian Sen) who dies after creating a gas which prevents death, only for his killer acolytes to chase down a group of women who just seem to want a bit of R&R. Oh and it's set on the outskirts of Tromaville. And there are no monsters. There is some monstrous acting, if that counts?

I understand that this was, at one point, the most streamed Troma movie ever. I can't help feeling that, for most people paying to see this, they would feel rather sort changed; and talking of short change this was apparently made for about £500 (some of which must have comprised payments for cameo artistes like Stan Lee and the original 'Jason Vorhees', Ari Lehman).

Things get slightly more exciting towards the end with the goryish despatch of the two killers, but overall this is pretty awful, although I was too old for Troma films in their heyday so I'm probably way off the target audience age for this one. The film was re-released in Italy a year later under the title Le Vendicatrici Tossiche ('The Toxic Avenger' to you).

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2021 #16: Reviews of Surveilled (UK 2021), Blithe Spirit (UK 2021), The Kindred (UK 2021), Repeat (UK 2021), The Power (UK 2021) and Snuff Video (UK 2021)

Surveilled (UK 2021: Dir James Smith) The partnership of Smith and producer/writer Caroline Spence is one of the small scale success stories of indie British filmmaking. 

Creators of a series of thriller movies, unbelievably shot on iPhones on next to nothing budgets but with incredibly high production values, their output is nothing less than remarkable. Surveilled is at its heart a fairly basic if labyrinthine murder mystery, but it's full of interesting quirks that make it stand out from the crowd and earn itself a place in a 'Fantastic Films' round up.

Much to the police's annoyance, someone is killing the occupants of Clairmont (actually Loughborough, Leicestershire); all that is known about the killer is that they use a hook as a murder weapon and wear a plague mask. Also, the method of murder and pattern of victims matches exactly the plot of the successful 'Plague Doctor' novels by someone called L C Morana. 

Desk bound CCTV geek Joe (Gavin Gordon) uses his skills to provide material for the extortion and blackmail of others (although his mum thinks he should get out more); his monitoring of a local businessman, William Marshall (Robert Roworth), a guy with a secret, leads Joe to think he might be a likely culprit for the murders. Joe's curiosity piqued, he poses as a client for sessions with William's psychiatrist wife Dr Laura Carlyon (Melanie Aumann), who's also suspicious regarding her husband's out of town activities. But the truth, involving a dark sect surrounding Morana, is far stranger.

While Surveilled does that annoying thing of having half the cast speaking in variously successful US accents (including a TV news reporter whose on the spot posts suggest, despite visual evidence to the contrary, that Clairmont might not be in the UK), this glitch is easily ignored once the plot gets a grip (Spence is a successful international screenwriter and boy it shows, even if some of the cast don't exactly bring their lines to life). The movie's narrative twists and turns, together with the stylish look of the thing, convince that you're watching a production far exceeding its meagre budget. CCTV and 'live action' are seamlessly interlinked, and the film even finds time for a couple of odd (and cleverly animated) dream sequences. OK it doesn't all hang together but I'd fight the person who doesn't applaud the effort.

Blithe Spirit (UK 2021: Dir Edward Hall) The son of the famous Sir Peter Hall, theatre director Edward, chose this as the subject for his first feature. And after struggling through all 96 minutes of it, my first (and last) question remains 'why?'

I've seen Noel Coward's play, and the reasonably faithful 1945 screen version. While both are reasonably entertaining, neither is a classic, and it's difficult to know what could have possessed Hall to see the advantage of another adaptation for our times. For the two of you unfamiliar with the story, socialite and novelist Charles Condomine (Dan Stevens) is struggling to create a screenplay out of one of his own books, much to the annoyance of his bland second wife Ruth (Isla Fisher). Charles has unresolved issues following the untimely death of his first missus Elvira (a spirited - pun intended - performance from Leslie Mann). Seeking inspiration for his writing, he organises celebrity medium Madame Arcarti (Judi Dench) to carry out a seance at his house; Arcati may be an old faker but on this occasion manages to summon an actual spirit - the ghost of Elvira - who on her return to the corporeal world proceeds to make Charles's life hell.

While Blithe Spirit certainly looks the part - helped by exteriors being filmed on location at the beautiful art deco pile Joldwynds in Surrey - this is otherwise an absolute dud. Hall prises the action off the stage (the '45 version was very static) but in so doing jettisons most of the wit of the original play in favour of pratfall comedy. With the exception of Mann, whose physical performance raises her above the limits of the production, most of the performances are incredibly lacklustre; Fisher tries and fails to disguise her Aussie accent, and even Dench plays the Arcati role flatly and with little gusto. It's a 'Fantastic' film only by virtue of the inclusion of ghosts - in no other way does it justify the word. Awful.

The Kindred (UK 2021: Dir Jamie Patterson) It's a common thing for contemporary fright flicks to start with a prologue, often out of cinematic habit than for any specific narrative purpose. The Kindred's prologue is intrinsic to its twisty story and it's one that the filmmakers want you to keep in mind throughout the film; a distraught, pregnant Helen (April Pearson) is seen fleeing from her father's upper floor municipal flat, but when she reaches the street dad's body crashes from his balcony onto the pavement, causing Helen to step back into the road, where she's hit by a passing car.

While her father dies Helen survives the accident, awakening to find that a) she's been in a coma for the past year and remembers little of what happened and b) she has, miraculously, been able to birth a baby when in that state. Her supportive husband Greg (Blake Harrison) also breaks the news that he's had to sell the family house to make ends meet and has been forced to move into Helen's dad's flat (bequeathed in his will); she will return to the place where she grew up, and the scene of her last, albeit broken, memory.

Helen's piecing together of why her father jumped to his death, and her gradual reintegration into society - and the role of being a mother to a child with whom she's had no maternal connection - are the twin stories which drive The Kindred; a third element, featuring corner of the eyes glimpses of ghostly children, ushers in an almost unwanted - and forced - supernatural narrative (including Steve Oram on guest duties as a workaday psychic, employed by Helen to try and contact her father) which crowds events and serves only to pave the way for the end of movie reveal. It almost threatens to, but thankfully doesn't, scupper the whole thing; overall the film does well with a slow pace, good performances from Pearson and Harrison, and a resistance to depicting tower block living as something squalid and crime ridden. Homes are homes, after all: it's some of the people that live in them that one should fear most.

Repeat (UK 2021: Dir Grant Archer, Richard Miller) Archer and Miller's debut feature is a bewildering fusion of ideas, reminiscent in theme to Paolo Leite's 2018 movie Inner Ghosts. The movie focuses on brilliant, erratic scientist Ryan Moore (Tom England) who has, through extensive experimentation and more than a little luck, managed to construct a machine that can talk to the dead.

But Moore's obsessive drive to go deeper into his discovery (like all inventors he's restless to make it better) masks a personal tragedy, which has made life between him and wife Emily (Charlotte Ritchie from Ghosts, brilliant as always) extremely difficult; the abduction from school and subsequent disappearance of their daughter Sam (Ellila-Jean Wood). Ryan is desperate for contact but dreads success, as it will mean that their daughter has died. 

Repeat spends a lot of its running time pondering the moral issues surrounding Moore's invention, quickly narrowing its focus to the relationship between Ryan and Emily; any couple going through the anguish felt by parents over a missing child would find it difficult to hold their partnership together; the added difficulty of Ryan being able to bridge the psychic gap to know the otherwise unknown brings the couple to breaking point. 

I loved this movie; the science is pleasingly head scratchy but the drama is real and never overplayed, with standout performances from England and Ritchie. The title makes sense only in the final part of the film, but Archer and Miller never overexplain what we're seeing; if things gets confusing that's a good thing. And Repeat is a very good thing indeed.

The Power (UK 2021: Dir Corinna Faith) Blimey. Cast aside thoughts of her roles in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris and Sanditon when you see Rose Williams in this one. Williams plays Val, a new nurse assigned to a Victorian hospital in East London (the atmospheric Blythe House doing great atmospheric stand in work). It's 1974, the height of the Unions/Government face off which has resulted in regular power cuts. Val, who grew up in a children's home and faced abuse there, is nervous in her new role, her anxiety exacerbated by the stern authority figures at the hospital and having to work a late shift in blackout conditions.

But Val is about to discover that the hospital harbours horrors both of a human and non human kind; from Babs (Emma Rigby), a fellow nurse who knew and bullied Val when at the home, to something far darker in the hospital's basement, which triggers and builds on the young nurse's experience of abusive authority.

Faith's coruscating debut feature - an amazing feat, controlled and powerful without resorting to haunted house cliches - is filmed almost entirely in semi darkness, all hand held lamps flickering off tiled walls and just heard muttering. Val is all heart, taking under her wing a little Indian girl (Shakira Rahman) and facing down figures of authority, both men and women, who ostensibly hold the 'power' of the title. At the centre of this is Rose Williams's performance; Val is vulnerable but powerful, refusing to be a victim and through that refusal channeling a power that is both redemptive and horrific. Powerful stuff indeed.

Snuff Video (UK 2021: Dir Tony Newton) The world of British Fantastic Film is a broad church indeed, and there's none so broad as Tony Newton, that's for sure. 

Along with others like Joe Cash and the Trash Arts team, the director mines a particularly grungy seam of filmmaking, obsessed with the glitchy VHS format, whose antecedents include enfant terrible Jörg Buttgereit and, further back, Richard Kern and Nick Zedd. Newton's output is prodigious; little has been released in the UK and mostly comprises segments in US produced anthology movies. 

Snuff Video, released on DVD in the USA, represents a feature of sorts for Newton, and is therefore worth including here - ish. Let's be clear, there's no story; sandwiched between audition footage of two wannabe scream queens (Harmony Filth and Elizabeth D'Ambrosio), Newton, in his 'Gore Zombie' guise, interviews and secures a video disclaimer from a woman, Susan Smith. There's some of Newton's 'faux' trailers for his other movies, then a lengthy scene in which Smith, a rather unwilling participant, is filmed sitting in a bath of fake blood, preparing for Mr Newton to 'murder' her on camera.

After a lot of setup footage arranging the shots and filming the scene, Newton does actually kill - and dismember - the actress. An end title card tells us that the woman has since gone missing, and Gore Zombie is also dead. And that's it folks. It's difficult to know who would be interested in seeing this; perhaps the only interesting thing is Newton's opening direct to camera interview in which he talks about how his obsession with extreme horror started. I blame the parents.