Piglet (NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM UK 2025: Dir Andrea M. Catinella)

On first glance you'd be mistaken for thinking that Piglet was yet another entry in those 'Poohniverse' - or 'Twisted Childhood' movies (you know the ones that take fictional kiddie characters in the public domain and stick them into run of the mill horror films), particularly as the director, Mr Catinella, has some form here.

Well I suppose it is in that, like other movies in that most ridiculous of sub genres, this is little more than someone in a mask chasing frightened 'teens' around a field or youth hostel (delete as necessary).

But Piglet has a little more going for it than many movies of its ilk, with a genuinely grindhouse feel, even if location wise it occupies a bit of a liminal space between the UK countryside and the backwoods of the US of A.

Five girls have motored out to a remote cabin to celebrate the 21st birthday of their friend Katie (Alina Desmond), who's had a bit of a rum time courtesy of her abusive ex. Still traumatised by the whole thing, Katie's tolerance for booze and her general demeanour place her firmly in the party pooper category. But no matter - the rest of the gals are determined to make the weekend swing, despite the presence of creepy cabin owner Mr Hogarth (a rather ripe turn from Jeremy Vinogradov) who spends a little too much time looking the ladies up and down and, later, ogling lesbian partners Diane (Alina Varakuta) and Alex (Lauren Staerck) when they try out the rather unappetising looking outdoor jacuzzi.

But there's trouble afoot; a security detail transporting a hooded prisoner - by van - end up dead when their charge escapes his bonds and mashes up his guards. Apparently this reprobate had been experimented on while in prison and turned into a kind of human/pig hybrid with superhuman strength. Once away from the van the demented convict swaps the bag on his head (we don't see his face) for a handy pig mask - which is sort of overegging the 'Piglet' idea - and lo, a killer is born. The porcine psychopath immediately gets to work, despatching a car full of people en route to joining the birthday get together; first to go are Bruce (Jack Monahan) and his girlfriend Riley (Eva Ray, who seems to have come to the set directly from a Babestation shift). The other passenger, artistic and autistic Courtney (Tais Sholvie) is dragged away and imprisoned for Piglet's later amusement. Happy with his work, Piglet closes in on the camp and the bickering party girls; and it turns out that he's about to get some assistance as well.

Ok so mood and photography are major plus points here; it really does look good and conjures up a backwoods feel. Everything else is, unfortunately, on the other side of the scorecard. Even for low budget fright flicks, the amount of non acting going on here is egregious. Lines are fluffed, stresses are constantly in the wrong place and at times it's impossible to hear what's being said (not that it really matters, even when Catinella jazzes things up by having one of the girls tell a folk horror story that may be about Piglet but also referencing Katie's violent ex Spencer). Some of the cast seem to think they're American (references to 'cellphone coverage' and 'a town five miles north') which just makes things more confusing. It may have been better to have kept dialogue to an absolute minimum as, when the action gets going, it's all quite effective and nasty.

And yet I didn't dislike Piglet - the Texas Chain Saw Massacre messed up family elements work quite well and the gore is rather grungy - but elsewhere there's just too much that gets in the way of enjoyment. Shame.

Piglet is available on Digital Download from 2nd June.

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

The Woman in the Yard (USA 2025: Dir Jaume Collet-Serra)

Spanish director Collet-Serra has dipped his toes into the 'Fantastic' genre several times before, including his debut feature, 2005's House of Wax and 2009's Orphan (I'm still not sure that shark movies - in this case his The Shallows from 2016 - count as 'Fantastic' movies). For his latest outing he's sticking a whole foot in.

Danielle Deadwyler is Ramona, a woman injured in a car crash which killed her husband David (Russell Hornsby). Now a single parent with two kids, adolescent Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and young Annie (Estella Kahiha), Ramona is struggling. As well as the bills piling up, the family live on a remote farm which David bought as a 'fixer upper' opportunity as is pretty much falling apart. The wrecked car in which David died stands outside the house covered in tarpaulin, for reasons that aren't immediately clear.

Tensions run high from the beginning, particularly between Taylor and his mum; a power outage means that not only is her son unable to play video games, but the single mobile phone in the house is out of charge, so there's no prospect of finding out when the electricity is coming back on.

Into this rather tense setup comes a strange and unwanted addition; as the title of the movie sets out abundantly clearly, there's a woman in the yard, dressed in black and sitting on a wrought iron chair facing away from the house. When questioned, Ramona is unable to get much sense out of her, but recoils at the sight of blood on the odd visitor's hands. Taylor, always keen to assume 'man of the house' status in his father's absence, suggests a more direct approach, particularly when it seems that the woman, still seated, is getting nearer the house.

With this rather M. Night Shyamalan setup in place, the spookiness starts; family tensions spill over, secrets are revealed and Ramona must face a difficult decision. It's at this point that most critics seem to have written the movie off as 'silly' and 'confusing'. I would agree with the last word, but grief and guilt make the world confusing for anyone who finds themselves in those states. It's definitely not 'silly' though; the closest comparison, in feel rather than detail, was Adrian Lyne's 1990 movie Jacob's Ladder.

The Woman in the Yard is by no means a perfect film - it veers from one mood to another alarmingly quickly - if the expected effect was to unseat the audience, then the director succeeded. I'm not sure if the whole thing wasn't just a little too oblique to be really satisfying (and the central 'woman in the yard' premise didn't really work for me), but I applauded the wonkiness of it and the refusal to play by accepted narrative rules. 

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.

Screamboat (USA 2025: Dir Steven LaMorte)

The Staten Island ferry is a New York institution dating back to the 1920s, connecting the island to Manhattan. As a free service it's used by a wide cross section of the population, something Steven LaMorte exploits in his latest fright flick.

Rushing to catch a late night crossing, a disparate group of people board the boat, from sleepy drunks to mothers and kids keen to get home; occupants also include lonesome down on her luck designer Selena (Allison Pittel) and a rowdy group of social media obsessed party girls, out to celebrate the birthday of one of their own.

But there's another less visible occupant of the vessel; a discarded stowaway who wakes from a decades long slumber, his rest disrupted by a ferry maintenance team who become the first victims of an orgy of death; it's Steamboat Willie (David Howard Thornton), a pint size mutated mouse with a very familiar laugh! For Screamboat, if you've not guessed yet, is a sort of reboot of the famous 1928 animated short of the same name, which launched the 'career' of Mickey Mouse.

In order for Willie to carry out his campaign of violence it's essential that the boat be isolated, which LaMorte achieves via a tried and tested disaster movie plot device; the ferry, detained in port because of tricky weather conditions which have cancelled all other services, is ill advisedly given permission to set off due to a combination of an impatient and overtime fatigued captain and a benevolent service operator.

Not done with the disaster movie cliches, grumpy Selena gets a sort of meet cute with ferry employee Pete (Jesse Posey), and practical EMT staffer Amber (Amy Schumacher) is onhand as the slightly older character with medical expertise who keeps a clear head when all around is mayhem; and she's in for a busy night, as is Selena, to whom Willie shows an immediate attachment, his first glimpse of the girl haloed in an imagined ring of human hearts. 

LaMorte takes a little time to offer some wider societal observations as well. As the danger rises, and despite the boat's passengers being a real New York mix of ethnicities and genders, the most espoused view about the reasons behind the mayhem seems to be 'terrorists'. The Statue of Liberty comes in for a bit of a bashing too, One of the ferry passengers, presumably returning from a costume party dressed as Lady Liberty, leaves the head of the ensemble lying discarded on the floor. And in another scene, as the ferry passes the Statue, the view is obscured by a passing boat piled high with trash.

But the star of the show is Willie himself. His backstory, involving uncle Walt and peddling the myth about the supposed disaffection between creator and created, is beautifully delivered via some fine animation work from Christian Cordella and Tahnee Gehm.

Screamboat's shtick is that Willie (who cannot be named as M*ckey for similar copyright reasons as LaMorte encountered in being unable to title the creature of his previous fright flick, The Mean One, as the Gr*nch) may only be waist high, but has all the manic, creatively deadly energy of the Terrifier franchise's Art the Clown, Thornton's previous and arguably most famous role. Personally I found the violence in those movies just a little too over the top (and yes, I'm aware that was the intention), but here Willie's acts of mayhem feel like the more elegant set pieces of 1980s slice 'n' dice movies, complete with superb practical effects (they're also in the spirit of the original shenanigans in Steamboat Willie). Announcing his arrival by whistling 'Steamboat Bill' (from the original short film, but here taking on a more creepy aspect), there's even a scene, recreated from the animated short, where little Willie takes the vessel's helm, but here he's only able to reach it by standing on the body of one of his victims.

The hurried appropriation of newly-in-the-public-domain fictional characters for horror movie subject matter has, admittedly, been a bit of a bumpy road (the 'Steamboat Willie' character entered the public domain on January 1, 2024, just one day before work started on Screamboat) but whereas previous adaptations (Winnie the Pooh, I'm looking at you) have failed through a combination of a lack of budget and, frankly, directorial talent, Screamboat succeeds because it's fast, furious and situationally very funny. As one of the characters in the movie comments, "everything gets recycled", but when it's done this well, all is forgiven.

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.

Time Travel is Dangerous! (UK 2024: Dir Chris Reading)

Reading's first feature was the ambitious 2017 movie sci-fi adventure Somnus; eight years later he's returned to the genre with something very different.

Ruth and Megan jointly own 'Cha Cha Cha', a vintage shop in the north London suburb of Muswell Hill. They have significantly improved the quality of stock for sale by coming across a discarded time machine (a sort of fairground bumper car with extra wires attached) which they use to visit - and plunder from - various periods of history, from Neolithic Britain to the Napoleonic battles and the American Civil War.

Their activities draw the attention of Martin Onions (Guy Henry), chairman of the local science society (a sort of gathering of failed inventors), who forbids them from using the machine because of its potential space/time side effects. It was originally developed by two other members of the society, Ralph Sheldrake (Brian Bovell) and Valerie Lancaster (Sophie Thompson) who, with their cantankerous computer assistant 'Botty' (Johnny Vegas), co-hosted a popular TV science show back in the 1980s, 'The Future Today'. But the machine malfunctioned, and Ralph inexpertly disposed of it; which is where Ruth and Megan came in. 

Short of money, pressurised for rent by their horrible landlord (Simon Killick) and contrary to Martin's direction, the shop owners resume their time travelling activities. But things go wrong during one of the trips and Megan is thrown into another dimension; it's left for the science society and Ruth to work together to retrieve the shop owner.

The reason for recounting some of the plot of the movie so blandly is to explain the context. For Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson both lead the movie. But they're actually the owners of 'Cha Cha Cha', which is a real shop in Muswell Hill. That the pair, as non actors, make such engaging and funny leads is amazing in itself. That the film in which they act is a hilarious, inventive sci fi comedy makes TTiD! a real find.

In the same way that Ruth and Megan plunder history, Chris Reading borrows influences to give his feature a familiar feel. An explanatory voice over by Stephen Fry is reminiscent of Peter Jones's narration in the TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Event Horizon gets a look in too. Ruth and Megan are complemented by a host of British comedy stalwarts; as well as the aforementioned Henry, Bovell, Thompson and Vegas, other familiar faces include Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Jane Horrocks, Mark Heap and Brian Blessed as the voice of a plant creature called Gavin the Octopus.

The special effects, although sparsely used, are incredibly effective for a film of, I'm assuming, slender budget, which remarkably also contains a number of lavish 'scenes from history'. There's a sumptuous score by Simon Porter which sneaks in several cinematic nods, including Alien, within its themes. While the pace can occasionally lag a little, and there's arguably too much quirk for it to be completely satisfying, TTiD! is a fabulous romp and I guarantee the first time you'll see owners of a second hand shop fronting a mainstream  - or indeed any - movie.

Time Travel is Dangerous! opens in UK cinemas on 28 March 2025.

New Films Round Up #15: Reviews of From the Shadows (USA 2022), The North Witch (USA 2024), The Baby in the Basket (UK 2025), Heretics (USA 2024), Its Name Was Mormo (Cyprus 2024) and The Hangman (USA 2024)

It's been five years since I last did one of these new film round up things, and I'm grateful to the kind folks at High Fliers films for providing the screeners for the movies below.

From the Shadows (USA 2022: Dir Mike Sargent) A lot's happened in the world since Sargent's first feature, Personals, was released back in 1999. The key influencer for the setup of his sophomore movie was clearly the pandemic, which forced film directors to be increasingly resourceful when putting projects together.

Sargent had clearly been taking notes from Rob Savage's 2020 Zoom horror flick Host when considering From the Shadows, and four years on from the filming strictures of COVID, his multi screen approach looks rather quaint now that the movie has finally got a UK release. But hold off lest ye dismiss this one; there's some good stuff to come. 

In the aftermath of a massive explosion at the mansion base of the mysterious Hidden Wisdom cult - a group of people purportedly involved with ancient worship, witchcraft and Satanism - only five of the cult members manage to escape, with their leader Dr Joseph Cawl (Bruce Davison, Suitable Flesh) apparently perishing in the flames. Cawl's sidekick, Dr Leonard Bertram (Keith David, The Thing, They Live) had previously disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Along comes celebrity sceptic and debunker Dr Amara Rowan (Selena Anduze, Doctor Sleep) whose many books have established her as an expert on demystifying the supernatural. Rowan has decided to group the cult survivors together online to try to get to the bottom of Hidden Wisdom and find out how and why they managed to make it out alive, while the Dr's appointed sidekick, Peter (Jim Thalman) provides tech support and visual documentation services.

The five all had a history of some form of anxiety which Cawl successfully treated: there's Tina (Claire Mack), 'comedian' Keith (Max MacKenzie); gothy Denise (Ester Jiron); Henry (Ian Whitt); and star pupil Zoe (Briana Femia) who was Cawl's research coordinator. As the interviews progress they provide more information about the work of the cult and how Cawl, who formerly ran an 'Alternative Archeology' course, discovered ancient symbols on old artefacts, their application being the key to unlocking powerful alpha waves that, in isolation, could alter reality.

Doubtful as ever, Dr Rowan gets a powerful little online demonstration from the five, still in tune with their developed powers, which effectively re-arranges her bookshelves; it also more worryingly, projects something into her world, a force that Peter recognises, courtesy of his Choctaw grandmother, as the 'soul eater' of legend.

On the face of it, From the Shadows is a by the numbers tech supernatural feature which shouldn't have much going for it, the majority of the movie comprising Rowan and the Hidden Wisdom five all appearing on separate screens...talking. But, there's a kind of Nigel Kneale thing going on here, with the gradual amassing of knowledge making things stranger and stranger, as the incredulous Dr's scepticism is increasingly tested. 

Sargent's movie doesn't stint on the bloodshed  - and practical FX - but is wise enough to build up some tension before those scenes are unleashed, and (again like Savage's movie) each of the five has enough time to build their story so you get to care about them more than most films of this ilk. Add to this a brooding electronic score by Alan Howarth and you have a movie which, on the surface, looks like a Syfy channel programmer, but is in reality a well scripted and tense movie with some ingenious twists and turns.

The North Witch (USA 2024: Dir Bruce Wemple) The first of two Wemple directed films in this round up, here we have Madison (Anna Shields, who also wrote this), who's just been kicked out of her houseshare. She calls her friend Gemma (Jessy Holtermann) who can't help as she's about to go on a four day hiking trip with some girlfriends in the Canadian woods. 

Madison tags along, not knowing that the group have a purpose for their jaunt; to track down a missing house in the Barren Lands (an actual Canadian location). Said house vanished in 1963 and has only re-appeared, Brigadoon like, on a handful of occasions. People entering the house have emerged unrecognisable; and crazy.

The girls arrive at the site matching the co-ordinates provided by witnesses, but no house. They decide to camp overnight; a bad idea as a massive storm rips up their tents and causes untold human damage. Seemingly the only survivor, and with her leg badly injured, Madison makes it to a nearby abandoned house. The following day she finds the head of the party Alice (Ameerah Briggs) lying almost dead, her limbs at unnatural angles. Frightened and starving, there's relief when another of the girls, Talia (Kaitlyn Lunardi) also turns up, unscathed. But if Madison thought her troubles were over, they're just beginning.

Most of the rest of the movie becomes a series or self-harm/torture sequences where the viewer becomes increasingly unsure as to what's real and what's in Madison's head. They're disturbing to watch (Wemple goes in for that trick of building noise in a scene and cutting to silence - a lot) but there's a law of diminishing returns when you realise that the whole thing goes nowhere fast and starts to become, well, a bit silly, despite some very committed performances from Shields and Lunardi.

There's an end coda where the filmmakers issue come kind of written apology that anything which has appeared out of focus or glitchy was due to forces unknown, which seems like a rather feeble cover up if you ask me. Ultimately a rather pointless and unnecessarily nasty exercise.

The Baby in the Basket (UK 2024: Dir Andy Crane, Nathan Shepka) British offerings to the altar of the 'Nunsploitation' movie are few and far between. 2023's ok Consecration and Scott Jeffreys' Bad Nun movies are recent examples, not to mention Aislinn Clarke's excellent 2018 movie The Devil's Doorway, but now along comes Crane and Shepka to give us a good old four-to-the-floor convent based horror flick.

Set in a Scottish nunnery, St Augustine's, in 1944, a small group of novices, presided over by the eccentric Mother Superior (Maryam d’Abo), quietly go about their business (apart from the threat of a local wolf). They comprise sisters Valerie (Elle O’Hara), prone to the bottle, Eleanor (Michaela Longden), Lucy (Lisa Riesner) and Agnes (Amber Doig-Thorne). Their practical needs are supported by two caretakers, war scarred Amos (Paul Barber) and lusty Daniel (co-director and writer Shepka), a young man for whom employment among a group of young women yields constant temptation. 

Their devotions are disturbed by the arrival of, as the title explains, a baby left at the door of the nunnery in a basket. But this is no innocent foundling; rather it's the devil himself in childlike form. The Mother Superior forms a protective bond around the infant, while Agnes divines its demonic nature and is incarcerated for her beliefs. As the evil one casts its net within the nunnery, no-one is safe.

TBitB takes a little time to get going, but when at full steam it's a great low budget exploitation movie, with a cast giving it their all. There's naked nuns dancing in the moonlight (ok just one, but still...), a rather fetching demonic baby rendered, pleasingly, without CGI, and a superb location in which to film the devilish shenanigans (St. Conan's Kirk in Loch Awe, Scotland). I could have done without the relentless soundtrack - honestly sometimes silence is equally effective - but this is very entertaining stuff. Also interesting to know that both 'Flickering Myth' and 'Nerdly' film sites were involved in the production. 

Heretics (USA 2024: Dir Jose Prendes) Amazingly although The Asylum - the bargain basement company behind this found footage feature - have been banging them out for nearly thirty years now, this is only their second FF movie.

A group of rather generic people who claim to be students but are far older head out to the woods for an end of term beer and frolics bash. They all get to announce themselves on camera but despite this they quickly become forgettable, perhaps with the exception of religious Eva (Neeley Dayan), whose pastor father John (Eric Roberts) is seen in an opening shot giving a present to his daughter; so we already have a challenge to the FF format in that we don't know who is filming this sequence.

Anyway, manipulative Mary (Anna DeRusso), who has already engineered some gossip suggesting that group member Gregg (Scott Mazzapica) is cheating on his girlfriend Sarah (Sara Kamine) with Jessica (Shelby Wright), suggests lightening the mood she created by the whole bunch spending the night in the reputedly haunted Simmons House. Various stories of murder and mayhem are attached to the now empty residence, and previous attempts at overnight occupation have resulted in, well, death.

After accessing the house there's the usual amount of walking around (of course now everybody has smart phones which means that there is multiple filming happening) before the 'teens' gradually get offed by shadowy figures who reveal themselves as cultists in thrall to an ancient demon called Lilith.

Unlike many of the found footage offerings in recent years, Heretics is slightly different in that a) the threat is seen and explained and b) there is no context to the footage we see, apart from a snowy screen at the start and end and written messages about praising Lilith. It might be a load of old hokum, but Heretics does at least deliver on its mayhem, even if you can guess the 'why' almost from the outset.

Its Name Was Mormo (Cyprus 2024: Dir Mark Andrew Bowers) Bowers sort of plays himself in this 'family affair' found footage movie. Along with his real life Colombian partner Marcela Cardenas (as Marcela) and their daughter Mia, also playing herself (not forgetting their puppy Romeo), the family are shown in their Cyprus villa going about their business (things kick off with Marcela discovering she's pregnant). 

A visit to a local abandoned building seems to be the start of the bad things, when they discover what looks like a mass of human bones and a box containing skulls, which they rather unwisely bring back home. This is tied in with the Greek legend of Mormo, who exacts revenge on the family for stealing the artifacts (something not explained in the film).

Both parents start to feel watched around the home, to the extent that they fit a series of cameras around the villa to record anything that happens. Marcela's paranoia increases in line with the changing feel of their gaff, particularly in that little Mia seems to be a focus for all the weirdness.

Of course we know that the whole thing doesn't end well as the footage we're seeing has been obtained following the family's disappearance. And on the face of it, ITWM is found footage by the numbers, a sub genre that many thought had bitten the dust years ago. But Bowers' movie, featuring his own family, as opposed to a party of annoying twenty somethings, adds a frisson of terror that most examples of this sort of thing just don't have. All the usual FF WTF moments are present and correct, but the terrorised family kind of make you forget that.

Bowers has dressed this one up with a whole backstory, perhaps in homage to the movie that started it all in 1999, and which you can read about here. There's even a book. Well a guy's got to eat.

The Hangman (USA 2024: Dir Bruce Wemple) Wemple's second feature in this round up proves no better than the first. It's a wordy, confusing movie about an ancient, regenerating demon which spends a lot of time going absolutely nowhere (the film, not the demon, although...).

"There are at least seven known gateways to hell across the world. One of them is in the mountains of West Virginia," states the movie's opening blurb. (sidebar: reader, I've been to the mountains of West Virginia and I can attest to this.) Into this gateway arrives Leon (LeJon Woods) and his son Jesse (Mar Cellus, no really) on a camping trip, a bonding exercise to resolve tensions between the two regarding the murder of Jesse's mum and Leon's inability to have prevented it. But the morning after setting up their tents, Jesse has disappeared and dad's car has been tampered with.

Setting out to find the missing boy, Leon encounters backwoods racists, drug addicts and human traffickers; but that's not the meat of the story. Jesse's disappearance is linked to a cult, worshipping the ancient deity of Baal, a group dependent on human sacrifice to prolong their life via a murderous  - and barely glimpsed - entity named 'The Hangman' (I'll leave you to work out the method of killing here). As soon as Leon discovers this fact - which takes a long time - he realises that he and Jesse are in a whole heap of trouble.

The Hangman could have been a good, if generic film, but pacing and plotting are poor and Mr Woods, on whom the whole movie pivots dramatically, doesn't really have the chops to pull it off. This felt like a film that was a goer in the planning but lucked out in the execution.