Birdeater (Australia 2023: Dir Jack Clark, Jim Weir)

The mission of some Australian filmmakers, to show the uglier side of the Antipodean male, continues unabated; the Wake in Fright style 'ocker' movie gets a bit of a makeover with a young cast of characters whose surface cultivation soon exposes the same dark heart as their forebears.

Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) and his British fiancee Irene (Shabana Azeez) are heading towards marriage, but the path is anything but smooth. While there's nothing easily identifiable as a rift, Louie spends a lot of time out at night, ostensibly at work but in reality at the golf range. A nightly ritual involves him providing Irene with a mysterious pill and a glass of water before he makes his excuses. He's clearly up to something.

Louie's stag night (called a 'buck's night' in Australia) is approaching; feeling guilty for his constant absences - at least that's what we think - he invites Irene too, in a real break with tradition. He also asks Grace (Clementine Anderson, the film's co-producer), the girlfriend of his close mate Charlie (Jack Bannister) to join the gang for female support.

The night itself takes place in the outback - where else? Among Louie's rather interchangeable friends, the borderline psychotic Dylan (Ben Hunter) stands out. We've all met a Dylan, the guy who always takes it one step further in the name of fun. Unfazed by the presence of women at the celebration, Dylan wants to keep it old school - if 'old school' also includes ketamine.

This rather awkward setup is the springboard for a night of drug fuelled paranoia, in which secrets are divulged, Louie's ill judged plan is unveiled and nearly everyone shows a side they'd previously kept hidden. Dylan's faux best man speech is a masterclass in cringe, and the wilderness backdrop accentuates the feral behaviour as the tension ratchets up.

The problem is that the film becomes the behaviour - maleness stripped bare - rather than having any narrative arc; the flashbacks have to do the storytelling job, and they're not really enough. Far better is the opening montage between Louie and Irene; the mystery between the two is explained as the film progresses, but the unsettling relationship between the pair is far more beguiling than anything which follows. A scene in which Louie catches a swallow inside the house and releases it into the wild, whether or not knowing that the bird's has nested and the babies will surely die without their mother, is perhaps the most chilling in the movie.

Birdeater is, however, brilliantly edited, and the cast are all believable, if slightly anonymous. The action revolves around Irene for much of the film, and it's her calm and resilience, amidst the male maelstrom, that you remember after the movie's over.

Birdeater is in select cinemas from 9 May and on digital platforms from 26 May.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2024 #4 Witches special! Reviews of Witches of God (UK 2024), Witch (UK 2024), Salem Witch Doll (UK 2024), Inherit the Witch (UK 2024), The House on Mansfield Street: Evil Next Door (UK 2024) and The Whisper Within the Woods (UK 2023)

Witches of God (UK 2024: Dir Daya Dodds) In an unspecified period of history the country has succumbed to a plague named the 'blue sickness', which has decimated the population. Two nuns, Sister Agnes (Amelie Leroy) and Magda (Pippa Caddick) have occupied an abandoned church after having to burn down their abbey, the other nuns having been infected by the plague.

A knock at the church door announces the arrival of Joan (Zoe Carroll), a woman accused of witchcraft and seeking shelter. Magda is reluctant but Agnes is more welcoming, immediately sensing a bond between the two women. The sisters disguise Joan in a nun's habit, despite learning that the escapee is sought in the town, the accuser being Joan's husband who, we learn, did so to distract from his affair with Joan's sister.

The trio's peaceful existence is eventually disrupted to the point that they are forced to leave the church for safety; but the solution to their sanctuary comes, not from external sources, but in the bond discovered between Agnes and Joan.

Exquisitely photographed in black and white (by the director), Witches of God, as the title suggests, is a plea for acceptance; that women can be both healers, forces of power, and yet next to God. It's a quiet film, located in nature and mysticism, with strong performances from Leroy, Caddick and Carroll. Nothing is really explained, which adds to the film's potency; it's a slow burn movie, the director's first feature, but an involving one which does a lot on a very small budget. Dodds' next film, Under the Cover of Darkness, will be worth seeking out.

Witch (UK 2024: Dir Craig Hinde/Mark Zammit) It's England, in 1585; Twyla (Sarah Alexandra Marks) is the wife of Dawnbrook village's blacksmith, William (Ryan Spong), and their quiet lives are about to be turned upside down. Dawnbrook has seen its fair share of witch trials in the past, but is now 'clean', courtesy of Judge Hopkins (Daniel Jordan). But the reign of peace is abruptly shattered when, one night, a girl enters Dawnbrook's market square, covered in blood and carrying the severed heads of her parents. She is Johanna Fletcher (Mims Burton) a girl with no previous crimes to her name.

Fletcher is incarcerated, pending trial. But a local man, Thomas (Russell Shaw), accosts William, accurately predicting the events to follow; at Johanna's trial, the convicted woman will also accuse Twyla of being a witch, events which indeed come to pass. William and Twyla, now also imprisoned, are offered a means of escape by Thomas, but as the three make their way into the woods, evading their captors, he has a story to tell them that will implicate all three in a quest through time.

Witch's big reveal is a mid point lurch into something far less prosaic than the film's first 45 minutes, and for a while, when the timey wimey stuff starts happening, the viewer feels that the first section was constructed rather plainly to contrast with the fantastical second part. The problem here is that, despite the cleverness of the concept, nothing really happens in the second half of the film either; there's a lot of talk and some running around, a few nicely mounted CGI bits and then a modern day end coda suggesting a sequel. I applaud Hinde and Zammit's attempt to do something different, and the 'authentic' (Hungarian) village set looks good; but honestly, it's a bit of a slog despite the narrative sleight of hand.

Salem Witch Doll (UK 2024: Dir Daniel Yates) I'll say something for Louisa Warren's Champdog Films productions (churned out at an alarming rate at the behest of the worldwide ITN Distribution company): they share the love in terms of allowing new directors to take the helm, even if the results are, well, recognisably Champdog films. The rumour that these new talents are merely pseudonyms for Champdog's small but perfectly formed roster of technical staff did not start with me.

For those who haven't seen one of these offerings yet, here's the setup: an opening shot in which someone gets murdered; a series of establishing scenes where the characters are introduced and domestic squabbles aired, normally in a house - or youth hostel - hired for the film; a section where not much happens but the soundtrack suggests impending doom; the final 'reel' where all the exposition occurs, the creature turns up, and the final girl (and it is usually a girl) gets away.

The success of this formula can vary from film to film; in this case it's a misfire. Sarah (Tash Chant) returns from the American university where she's been studying, to attend a family reunion; the student is on medication following mum's death and an incident in which she received unwanted attentions from a tutor. So the last thing she wants to hear is that her father Paul (Mark Collier) is remarrying; the lucky woman is Ariel (Amanda Jane York). Also at the dinner table is Paul's horrible brother Martin (Robin Kirwan), his wife Vicky (Lynne O'Sullivan) and their three kids.

Sarah is prone to nightmares featuring her late mum, a noose and a strange light emanating from the shed in the garden. In fact the action in the last third of the movie takes place almost entirely outside - at night to boot - and, confusingly, includes a sort of life sized wooden animated doll (Jodie Bagnell in a suit). You have to wait until about ten minutes before the end to understand how the elements all tie together (although they don't). As usual with movies made for ITN Productions the acting is a really mixed bag; here Tash Chant is rather bland and can't really pull it off when under duress. It's always good to see older actors in horror films, but they're all pretty wasted in this one, resorting in some cases to pantomimic gurning when things switch up a gear. And in terms of photography, you'll all have heard of 'day for night' as a term - this one does 'night for even more night', such is its impenetrability.

Inherit the Witch (UK 2024: Dir Cradeaux Alexander) Move over (the late) Norman J. Warren, there's a new kid in town! Mr Alexander's first feature drinks deep from the Satan-in-suburbia flick genre, popular in the 1970s, but adds an eccentric twist or two of his own.

Cory (Alexander) is having a bit of a tough time. He's been summoned home following the death of his father, but is uneasy at returning to the family dwelling, mainly because of Pamela (Imogen Smith), a woman who had been living with dad until his death and who now looks likely to inherit his estate.

A flashback to 1985, shot on faux camcorder, shows Cory as a youth in a rather tense family setup, with a younger Pamela (played by Elizabeth Arends) casting spells and generally being a bit witchy.

Cory's rather awkward sister Fiona (Heather Cairns) arrives on her bike for the same reason. She's been undergoing therapy and has been advised to keep a video diary as part of her healing. She's not that welcome, particularly as Cory is back together with old flame Lars following a messy breakup with another guy. 

But back at the house, things are getting weird. An ageing Pamela is dying; she's served by a Grand Witch (Graham Putney) and Cory's half brother Rex (Rohan Quine, who looks a lot like a young David Bailey, only with nail polish). Her only chance of returning to rude health is to ensure that she is reunited with Cory, the last of the line; and she'll use all her power to achieve this.

Many reviewers have been unnecessarily savage when writing about this one; to use the line from 1989's The Abyss, "you have to look with better eyes than that". I may be wrong, but I think this is a perfect homage to 1970s British horror, updated with overtly gay characters but without the gratuitous nudity favoured by those movies. The photography is generally sumptuous, although the split screen effects are a bit random (again an acknowledgement of 1960s/70s cinema?), and veteran composer François Pervirella Evans's score is so brilliantly eccentric it should be formally released now. 

I would have liked Inherit the Witch to be much more full on; it's a bit hesitant, almost afraid to offend, but I loved the central characters (Alexander, almost constantly mildly fucked off, is good value) and the down-in-the-basement end, much as it's telegraphed from way off, is pure Alan Ormsby. Awkward then, but not crap - don't believe the others.

The House on Mansfield Street: Evil Next Door (UK 2024: Dir Richard Mansfield) Mansfield's 'cycle' of found footage movies filmed in Sherwood, Nottingham (the town to which he relocated from London some years ago) continues and, with each instalment, improves. There's little connectivity between this one and Mansfield's previous films, but a growing feeling that Sherwood is the focus of random supernatural activity.

James (David John Field) has moved into the attic room of the house of landlord - and friend - Anthony (Jonathan Cleaver), who was a character in Mansfield's 2023 film 13 Sherwood Avenue. James's parents are abroad and, we assume, a little worried about him; hence the young chap records a video diary of his new accommodations to assure them that he's ok. The area seems friendly; a neighbour, Emma (Kathryn Redwood) introduces herself, as does Laura (Chloe McKiernan) who, Anthony notes, takes a shine to his new lodger.

However the peaceful setup is rather ruined by the sounds of arguments, and possibly violence, coming from the people living next door in the early hours of the morning. Anthony, a deep sleeper, hears nothing, but feels that his lodger must be mistaken, as the adjoining house is empty. James continues to record the disturbances but they remain inaudible to anyone else. After Anthony leaves on business for a few days, alone in the house James concludes that the increasingly malevolent sounds may be supernatural in nature. Laura discloses that she is a witch, and recommends a spell that might help ward off the evil. But is she all that she seems?

Micro budget considerations aside, THoMS: END is a solid addition to the expanding Mansfield universe (hell the local pub even has a cocktail - the Mansfield Martini - named after it). Confidently shot, and with credible reasons why events might be being filmed (including at one point a police bodycam) the film leads to a satisfying conclusion, while all the time remaining within the single house location. It remains to be seen whether there will be some hideous conclusion to the whole Sherwood franchise, but reader I'm here for it.

The Whisper Within the Woods (UK 2023: Dir Mark Adlington) "I know you're in Upminster. Don't do anything stupid." Although this line is lifted from Adlington's debut feature, it must have been uttered on more than one occasion in the Essex border town where his movie is set.

In the film's prologue we meet two foster children, Sarah (Lyla Tolan) and Daniel (George Conway, literally reciting his lines, possibly direct from a script). Daniel's been reading a history of the area, including the story of a 16th century witch, Ann Brown, who was hanged in the vicinity; every 12 years a series of murders occurs locally, the victims all connected by blood to those who killed Brown back in the day. Daniel and Sarah decide to go witch hunting, but instead come across two school bullies. The foster children emerge from the altercation covered in blood, with no memory as to what happened; the bullies are dead.

Twelve years later a grown up Sarah has done her spell in a juvenile centre, accused of the murders but all the time protesting her innocence. She's been released and given a new identity, separated from Daniel; as Sam (Katie Ford) she is now married to Darren (Tim Cummins), a successful artist and step mum to Darren's son Jesse (Alfie Walters). Darren has no idea of Sam/Sarah's dark history until a TV true crime documentary exposes the truth. The revelations lead to Sam's increasingly psychotic behaviour, the breakdown of her marriage and a reunion with her estranged foster brother (Will Conway), and the realisation of her connection with Ann Brown.

TWWtW is a mix of domestic drama, faux local history and perfunctory supernatural elements. It's let down by its overall pedestrian pacing and some truly woeful acting (even by the standards of low budget fantastic films). Story wise it's a laudable effort, and Katie Ford rescues things somewhat with a credible performance, but this is really hard going. A mention should be made of Paul Finney's rather eccentric soundtrack in which he provides not only the music for the film but (I think) the characters' mobile phone ring tones.

It Feeds (Canada 2025: Dir Chad Archibald)

I like Chad Archibald's movies. His last two features, 2017's The Heretics and the following year's I'll Take Your Dead mixed scares and drama increasingly successfully.

Like these films, his latest, It Feeds, is also a movie predicated on trauma. Cynthia Winstone (Ashley Greene) is every regular therapist's worst nightmare. Whereas most shrinks have to work with their clients for years to root out the reason/s for their poor mental health, Cynthia, faux shrink, actual clairvoyant, can simply enter her subject's mind and find out what the problem is. As the movie opens Cynthia is wandering around in the subconscious of a troubled patient, A Nightmare on Elm Street style, correctly identifying the source of his psychiatric woes to be an abusive sports coach from his past. Having cleared that little problem up, with the clues she has, Cynthia tips off the local police to investigate the likely suspect; she's right of course.

Cynthia's gifts are both a blessing and a curse; she lives opulently with 17 year old daughter Jordan (Ellie O'Brien), who acts as a kind of PA/triage for her mother's waiting list, so business is obviously blooming. But Cynthia's talents have come at a huge cost; not only is there the constant danger, again Elm Street style, of the psychic world leaking into the real one, but she also fears that Jordan may inherit the same abilities.

The unannounced arrival of a troubled teen, 14-year-old Riley Harris (Shayelin Martin) ruffles the organised life of mum and daughter. Riley, in significant distress and with scars covering both arms, begs for Cynthia's help, but when the psychic glimpses an entity with its sinewy arms around the girl, she feels unable to treat her; a tense situation that's temporarily resolved when Riley's father, Randall (Shawn Ashmore) arrives to take his daughter home. Jordan feels differently to her mother and is determined to track down the girl and offer support, but when she finds Riley she's drawn into a world of demonic possession in which she becomes enmeshed.

On the plus side this is a tensely mounted film with some excellent, if rather draining performances, particularly from Greene, O'Brien and Martin. Family friend Agatha (Juno Rinaldi) is there for some lighter relief but her ditziness feels somewhat out of place here. Top marks for the creature effects too; the entity is genuinely scary and threatening, and Archibald is wise to resist the overuse of jump scares.

However, 'trauma' as a driving force in contemporary horror films - and there are many recent examples - can be a bit of a polarising experience. While I realise that audiences may enjoy the cathartic effects of watching movies which may reflect their own traumas, and are thus keen to engage with stories like this, there's a danger of such films becoming increasingly homogenous. It Feeds spends most of its time in near darkness and there's very little happiness on display from any of the movie's characters. I'm not denying Archibald's ability to create a mood but I do feel that the tendency for the depiction of horror as psychiatry porn is rather reductive.

It Feeds is available on Digital Platforms from 12 May. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.

Cloud aka Kuraudo (Japan 2024: Dir Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

While Kurosawa's CV has often dwelt in stories of the strange and unusual, for his latest movie he's concerned with more prosaic matters like, er, the state of consumer society.

Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) - plain Yoshii to his friends, and there aren't many of them - is a young, intelligent man, who supplements his tedious factory day job by making money - quite a lot of money - in the shady, borderline legal world of re-selling, under the name 'Ratel' (literally an aggressive badger). As we meet him he's scalping some unfortunate supplier of medical equipment, unable to shift his stock; so Yoshii takes it off his hands for a ludicrously low price and sells the whole stock on line at a staggering markup (quite why the medical supplier couldn't have done the same thing beats me). 

At work Yoshii's boss recognises his talents and urges him to pursue a management career at the factory, but the part time seller, whose clandestine sideline makes him increasingly paranoid, chooses instead to pack in the day job and relocate to the country with his acquisitive girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa), while at the same time ghosting a re-selling friend Muraoka (Masataka Kubota) who's offered him the chance to get rich quick via a new online sales platform.

At their country house an increasingly bored Akiko hopes that their relocation might offer more glamour, instead of the usual sales cycle involving living among piles of boxed goods. Yoshii takes on an assistant, Sano (Daiken Okudaira), keen to learn and obedient. But Yoshii's paranoia remains intact; a broken window at night suggests a prowler, and an ill advised visit to the police to report the crime results only in drawing the authorities' attention to him, a mistake when he starts trading in counterfeit goods. But it's the further knockdown purchase of a set of collectable dolls, again sold online at considerable markup, that tips things over the edge. Those negatively impacted by Yoshii's activities want revenge, and there's safety in numbers.

Until the last few minutes of Cloud, this felt like a slightly fantastically told moral tale. Kurosawa shows us a world where everyone's on the make, inhabiting a grey market arena which is hard, ruthless but perhaps preferable to a day job and a need to be accountable; although there's nothing glamorous about Yoshii's life. Part of the distaste of what Yoshii is doing, irrespective of how glamorous and exciting he sees it, is the constant exploitation of people in a similar economic situation to him.

That the mentioned revenge takes the form of an (over) extended shootout which occupies roughly half the film is baffling, like two movies sandwiched into one. There's no one to root for here; those with whom one might have sympathy - the men exploited by Yoshii - prove equally capable of random violence. And yet the ending suggests that nothing, even right and wrong, is straightforward in our consumer world. It's an odd film where both exploiter and exploited flail around in a world overstuffed with things, knowing, to coin an old phrase, the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Cloud plays in cinemas from 25 April.

The Ugly Stepsister aka Den stygge stesøsteren (Norway/Denmark/Romania/Poland/Sweden 2025: Dir Emilie Blichfeldt)

As the directing world and their common law partner look to (public domain) folk tales for cinematic inspiration, with varying degrees of success (and that's putting it kindly), along comes Emilie Blichfeldt's extraordinary feature which both updates and extends the Grimm Brothers' 'Cinderella' story, while retaining all its cruel vigour.

Elvira (Lea Myren, extraordinary in her first feature film) dreams of a fairytale life, seduced by the poems of Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth). In reality her existence is anything but dreamlike. Elvira and her younger sister Alma (Flo Fagerli) are unceremoniously whisked off to a new life when their mother Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) marries the supposedly wealthy Otto (Ralph Carlsson). But when Otto keels over and dies on their wedding night, it's discovered that he was actually penniless, and relying on the meagre wealth of Rebekka to settle his accounts.

Elvira's mother refuses to pay for the costs of Otto's funeral and so, to the deep chagrin of his mourning daughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), his body lies rotting in a back room awaiting the undertaker. 

But salvation may be at hand; an invitation, extended to all the eligible virgins in the vicinity, arrives from the Prince; he's holding a ball and both Alma and Elvira have secured invitations (pre pubescent Alma, perhaps the real Cinderella of the piece, must remain at home). While Alma has a natural beauty (compromised by the fact that she isn't a virgin any more) Elvira, with braces on her teeth and a predilection for pastries, is a less inspiring prospect. But Rebekka sees the marriage of her daughter to the wealthy Prince as the solution to her financial woes so invests in a programme of improvements for Elvira. First to go are the girl's braces, then her nose is reshaped and false eyelashes sewed in place (all without the benefit of anaesthetic). More cruelly to resolve her weight issues, Rebekka prescribes a tapeworm egg which, when ingested, will allow her daughter to eat freely while losing the pounds. As the ball approaches, Elvira's hidden beauty emerges, but of course none of this is without cost.

Blichfeldt plays switcheroo with the identity of the 'ugly sister' (in this case the duckling into swan Elvira) and fleshes out the original 'Cinderella' story, adding in the grand guignol touches that were possibly in the writers' minds when composing it. The body horror elements maybe au courant (thanks to The Substance and a lot of other similar but largely unacknowledged films), but the director takes the story extension further, disclosing the Prince's casual misogyny and the cost to Elvira of her enforced beautification. The ending may have fairytale elements, but The Ugly Stepsister is a dark, satirical revisit of the Cinderella story with touches of Borowczyk and the erotic and gruesome elements of classic European horror movies.

The Ugly Sister plays in UK Cinemas from 25th April.

Death of a Unicorn (USA/Hungary 2025: Dir Alex Scharfman)

One aspect of the mythical unicorn, whose origins date back to ancient civilisations in China and India, was the healing properties of its single horn. More recently the term has been used to describe a rare and highly desirable person or thing that possesses unique qualities or characteristics.

Both of these equally apply in Alex Scarfman's debut feature, a satire on commodity and power which centres on bereaved dad Elliot (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega). When we meet them they've arrived in a country which is supposed to be Canada (but is actually Hungary); with Elliott's wife/ Ridley's mum dead from cancer, it's up to dad to make ends meet; hence an invitation to the mountain home of a wealthy pharma boss, terminally ill Odell Leopold (Richard E.Grant) for a possible company position.

Elliot and Ridley's relationship isn't great; you get the sense that his deathbed promise to his wife, to provide for the family, has been an excuse to throw himself into work. So the prospect of a long weekend with a group of people whose philanthropic exterior masks a cold, heartless family, where profit is all, does not excite Ridley. An argument on the road makes Elliot lose concentration and he hits an animal that has strayed into their path; a white haired quadruped with a horn that, when touched by Ridley, gives her an out of body experience which may be connected with her sudden miracle loss of acne.

Elliot puts the thing out of its misery with a tyre iron and bundles the body into the back of the rental. But when they arrive at the Leopold house, slightly shaken, the beast comes back to life to the amazement of everyone, namely Odell, his wife Belinda (Téa Leoni), their louche son Shepard (Will Poulter) and much abused family retainer Griff (Anthony Carrigan); until the housekeeper Shaw (Jessica Hynes) callously shoots it. But the discovery that the unicorn's blood can cure everything from Elliot's myopia to Odell's cancer turns the family's attention to the profitability of the beast's corpuscles, and Ridley's dad is roped in to their marketing strategy with the promise of lucrative employment. His daughter, meanwhile, who seems to have developed a mental bond with the animal, has been investigating old tapestries containing the story of the unicorn; her warning to the family, that the beasts will seek revenge, goes unheeded.

Death of a Unicorn sets itself up as a satire, but the subject matter is so crass and obvious - rich people bad, the environment must be protected - that it remains throughout a subtlety free exercise. But the movie tries to establish its comedy credentials too (the best satire doesn't need to rely on yucks); and falls completely flat. Every sotto voce comment lands badly, the feuding characters seem to have strayed in from a middling 1980s 'mirthfest' (part of me wondered whether the title was a riff on the Arthur Miller play 'Death of a Salesman') and the pratfall violence, mixed up with some second rate CGI creature action, is just messy. There is clearly some talent on screen but most try far too hard, seeking laughs in a succession of embarrassing facial movements.

So the film ends up uneven, painfully forced and, sorry, dreary; I looked at my watch, thinking that we must be half way through the 107 minute movie, and barely half an hour had passed. Only Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd salvage something from their performances, but that's mainly because they just act, when all around them some terrible farce seems to be taking place. Painful.

Rebirth: Home Sweet Home (Thailand 2024: Dir Alexander Kiesl, Steffen Hacker)

German duo Kiesl and Hacker (although they prefer the more informal Alex & Steffen) have a solid CV of effects and postproduction credits, but this is their first co-directed feature, a sort of 'everything but the kitchen sink' Thai take on The Matrix.

Jake (UK actor William Moseley) is an American cop on vacation in Bangkok with his wife Prang (Urassaya Sperbund) and their daughter Loo (Akeira Hadden); they're in town for some much needed R&R but also to visit Prang's grandmother. But things go a bit pear shaped when they visit the local shopping mall. First Loo goes missing, only to be found chatting to a friendly monk, Chan (Alexander Lee) who seems to know Jake and refers to him as 'The Keeper of the Gates'. Secondly, and in a scene of perhaps dubious taste in these troubled times, an unhinged looking guy with scars enters the mall on a random shooting spree.

Jake, always on duty, separates from his family and attempts to take out the shooter who, when edged into a corner, laughs and combusts; this causes a huge explosion which in turn seems to drive the local population crazy, the denizens attacking each other frenziedly. While Prang and Loo escape by bus, Jake, pursued by a giant creature (the origin of which isn't really explained) bumps into Chan again, who has some good news, some bad news and some really terrible news to impart to our hero. As a result of his actions, the gates of hell have been opened, summoning Chan's dad, the evil necromancer (are there any other kinds?) Wichien (Varintorn Yaroojjanont); and Jake's the only one who can close it. 

As you would expect from a pair with an extensive technical background, in interview Alex & Steffen are most proud of their movie's visuals; the feature contains over 600 stunning effects shots. More cynical heads might comment that the whole thing feels like one big CGI showreel and that halving the 600 might have given more room for characterisation. But honestly R:HSH is the kind of movie you just need to go with; it's fast, very glossy and has a rather nifty origin story which sets Jake up for future adventures. And being based on the 2017 Thai video game 'Home Sweet Home', what were you really expecting, anyway?

It may a bit 'boy's own' - all growling baddies and portentous dialogue - and Prang's character really has very little to do, but Moseley makes a good lead action hero. Despite all the visuals this is basically a film in which people slug it out, with little interaction between the array of monsters and the humans. Unfortunately the directors, faced with a climactic scene which should have involved two 'Jakes' battling each other, bottle it, which is a great shame as I was looking forward to the movie having a Face Off (or, more recently a Mickey 17) moment. Look, I wasn't bored, it's a well put together film and would have been great for kids if it wasn't for the mall shooting scene which felt uncomfortable and unjustifiable. 

Rebirth: Home Sweet Home is available on digital platforms from 14 April and on DVD & Blu-ray from 21 April. Distributed by Signature Entertainment