NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2022 #7: Reviews of Writers' Retreat (UK 2022), Ghost Crew (UK 2022), The Mothman Tapes (UK 2022), When the Earth Gives Up the Dead (UK 2022), Tales of the Creeping Death (UK 2022) and York Witches Society (UK 2022)

Writers' Retreat (UK 2022: Dir Mishaal Memon) This 30 minute short film, produced via the University of Westminster Film School, truly earns its 'esoteric' category.

Under the tutelage of Mrs Winters (Bernadette Moran) two maids, Nancy (Rosie Gray) and Flora (Lizzie Back) are, as the title suggests, employees in a writers' retreat; but one with a difference. Those on it are required to go back in time, almost literally, dressing in period costume and immersing themselves in the classics ('Take a step back in time and learn to write like the Greats' suggests one of the guides). The writer providing the intellectual stimulus in one J.T. Redford.

As we join the party in a suitably aged setting (Bore Place House in Kent, actually used as a retreat) a third maid, Jemima, is dead. Although Mrs Winters encourages the others to rise above the incident, Nancy feels that something odd is going on, and that the spirit of the dead writer may be exerting his influence over them. After Nancy discovers notebooks containing (incorrect) psychological observations about the employees, she is determined to leave, taking Flora with her. But leaving isn't so easy.

Within its short running time, Memon's three hander film immerses the viewer in its period setting, such that the sight of a packet of cigarettes or a contemporary vehicle are the piece's biggest shocks. As suggested by including this in the 'esoteric' category nothing is explained; indeed the film seems to submerge itself in layers of artifice. Which is all the better; here's one short film I wouldn't want extended into a feature.

You can watch Writers' Retreat here.

Ghost Crew (UK 2022: Dir Lawrie Brewster) A departure from Brewster's previous feature, 2022's fantasy pic Dragon Knight, Ghost Crew is a stripped back exercise reminiscent of a home counties homage to The X Files.

Tom Staunton steps from behind the camera for his first acting role as, er, Tom, shambling host of a paranormal show which shares its title with this movie (Staunton also wrote the piece and was originally scheduled to direct according to early online mentions of the project); Brewster plays camera person Michael. Content wise he's rather down on his luck; an early scene shows him tracking down a ghost monk, which turns out to be a gobby teen wearing a hoodie. To make matters worse Tom's US backer is threatening to pull the plug unless he comes up with something.

And that 'something' turns up in the shape of 16 year old Sandy (Brewster's muse Megan Tremethick), suffering from amnesia following her incarceration in nearby Stonehaven psychiatric hospital. Sensing that here, at last, might be the road to an authentic haunting, Tom and Michael use the girl to delve into the history of the hospital, constructing the story by piecing together witness reports; and the truth is stranger than either of them were expecting.

Despite its rather slight set up - a lot of wandering around in an abandoned and wrecked location standing in for the hospital - Ghost Crew is all about the script, peeling away the layers of narrative to uncover a story of murder and abuse, and watching Tom become increasingly unmoored as he amasses information. It's pretty slow stuff but it's well acted, and a decision to lose the comedy elements early on in the film is a wise one.

The Mothman Tapes (UK 2022: Dir Philip Mearns) This 'found footage' three - and occasionally four - hander finds us in the wilds of Kent; the real life Dering Woods in fact. The location is being visited by a trio of YouTubers, headed by the excitable, fame hungry Dan (Ryan Hill) and his more taciturn colleagues Kev (Chris Roughley) and Rob (Mearns). Based on a blurry picture that they've seen online they're on the hunt for the infamous 'Mothman' of legend, who seems to have forsaken its American homeland and taken up residence in 'the garden of England'. 

As they scout the area they encounter Paranormal Pete (Ben Shockley), an altogether more professional paranormal hunter who was responsible for the photograph that drew the trio to the area; Pete knows his moths.

Soon enough the three - now four - arrive at an electricity pylon, the site of the photograph, and it's not long before the Mothman - in broad daylight - makes its deadly presence felt.

While The Mothman Tapes very much does things by the FF book - lighthearted first section, darker second part, lots of running about towards the end - there is something quite endearing about the various members of the Mearns clan helping out behind the camera and the not too shabby FX work, courtesy of the 'Lunar Fantasy Arts' company (which, I would suggest, is yet another Mearns family member giving themselves airs and graces). The makers also take a leaf out of the 'Blair Witch Project' playbook and provide a rather arresting audio design. Cheap as chips this may be, but at 52 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome and is far better than about 90% of its FF genre mates.

You can watch The Mothman Tapes here.

When the Earth Gives Up the Dead (UK 2022: Dir Matthew Cooper) Following from Markham (2020) and At the Mountains of Madness (2021) Cooper brings us the third in the HP Lovecraft themed Sekurig trilogy, and while both of those movies were reasonably straightforward, WtEGutD is another beast entirely.

As far as I can ascertain, a spy (Gary Geeson) is appointed to tail a Professor, Nathan Pickman (Ashe Russell), whose perambulations over a 3 plus day period, charted on a map, spell out 'Sekurig'.

When the Spook questions Pickman about recent events (basically the key moments from the previous two films) and the mysterious 'Bob' (which could be a person or a drug), he is also drugged and taken to the village of Dunwich, site of the last exorcism in England in 1947.

From here the film descends - and becomes significantly lighter in tone, almost comedic - into a fever dream which includes a zombie summoning priest (Tony Coughlan), Lovecraftian references galore, like a monstrous baby from the Whateley family, a Necronomibomb, and of course The Old Ones; Cooper also includes a kind of 'Apocalypse Now/Cthulhu' mashup.

None of this makes much sense but it doesn't matter - images are overlaid, the soundtrack comes thick and fast (good of Magazine, The Doors and Elmore James to have granted use of their material in the film), and honestly it's best if you go with it. It even has an uplifting ending (I think) featuring Leeds United football ground and a winning Lottery ticket.

You can watch this and all of Matthew Cooper's films on his YouTube channel here.

Tales of the Creeping Death (UK 2022: Dir John Williams) Since his 2015 feature debut The Slayers Stoke based Williams has built a small but loyal fanbase who eat up his micro budget fright flicks, which are full of inventiveness and humour; and TotCD is no exception.

In thrall to the anthology, or portmanteau films of yore (and actually the present, as the format has experienced a resurgence in recent years) TotCD's wraparound story has a hitman, codename 'Goose' (Michael Socha) employed to provide protection to an eccentric older guy 'Harold'; in exchange for staying with him until 3am - and keeping him alive - Goose will net £20K.

To keep the pair entertained Harold digs deep into his scrapbook of press clippings culled from the more salacious organs, his theory being that it's necessary to look behind the headlines to seek out the real stories. Keen to while away the hours until he collects the readies, Goose listens to four tales spun by Harold. In the first a trio of Halloween partygoers crash a posh gathering, looking conspicuous in their fright gear amongst the black tie guests, despite being welcomed by them. 'Zombie' Billy (Billy Cook) gets drunk, loses his friends and becomes the real - and deadly - focus of the toffs. The second and most obviously funny story has Kevin (Dean Ackerman) a body harvester who carries home the bodies of those who've taken their own life and, well, modifies them; the third tale revolves around three workers en route to an employer away weekend, who detour into some local caves thereby missing out on an alien invasion (with some nice nods to Close Encounters of the Third Kind); and the fourth story has bingo calling Shane (a great comic turn from Darren McAree) left to fend for himself after his mum and stepdad were both attacked and killed by a werewolf while on a camping trip, only to find that the lycanthrope that offed them may have infected him!

Like all great anthology films, don't worry if one of the stories isn't to your taste as there'll be another along in about twenty minutes. Luckily all four of William's segments have something to offer, and there's a wealth of local (and unashamedly working class) talent to bring his script to life. Added to this are some very clever-on-a-budget practical FX and the whole thing is directed with pace, humour and affection for the genre.

York Witches Society (UK 2022: Dir Liza Bolton) Bolton's second feature is a YA movie with a female-centred witchcraft theme, familiar from movies like 1996's The Craft (and its 2020 follow up) and the 2004 TV show Hex.

Amber (Georgia Lock) is the distant descendant of a 17th century witch, Heather Gray (Rachel Warren), burned at the stake by the witchfinder general Matthias Alastair (Finbar Lynch) and managing to curse everyone before she snuffs it. Socially awkward and keen to study, Amber is enrolled in a girl's college on the site of her relative's demise, where she rooms with her emotional opposite, keen as mustard Kirsten (Sydney Craven). Kirsten's enthusiasm to join every group available provides Amber's introduction to the 'York Witches Society', a group of influential cosplaying Wiccans.

Undergoing one of the Society's initiation ceremonies, Heather is dared to sound a bell in the grounds of the school and shout her name. This action disturbs the grave of the witchfinder; in demon form Alastair returns to stalk the last descendant of the Grays, sparing no one in his quest.

Or something. To be honest it's probably not a good idea to concentrate too much on the scant detail that makes up the barest thread of story here. YWS starts well; Lock and Craven are an appealing odd couple, and the Society itself has some intrigue. But as soon as the movie gets going it kind of grinds to a halt, unrescued by some very polite gore (a beheading and a disembowelment if you're interested) and the last reel appearance of the risen witchfinder. A shame really as the Norfolk locations are very atmospheric (until industrial amounts of smog masks pretty much everything) and the cast would probably be good, if only they were given something to do. Nice to see a stalwart of 1970s TV drama, Deborah Grant, still getting work as Amber's (briefly seen) mum, though.

DEoL Top Films of 2025

Well it's been quite a busy year. In 2025 I managed to see a total of 350 films, 90 of which were at various big screens. I coordinated the first ever free film festival in the town where I now live, showing nine films over one week to big and small appreciative audiences; I hope it's the first of many. 

I've also done a couple of film introductions, something I used to do a lot. With thanks to Dom and London's micro grindhouse cinema, The Nickel, I've been able to talk about the films of Arch Hall Jr and my beloved Ray Dennis Steckler.

In terms of written publications, as well as my (ir)regular DEoL blog posts, I was pleased to have a major piece on Japanese filmmaker Nobuo Nakagawa included in the 'We Belong Dead' publication Japanese special, which won a prestigious Rondo Award earlier this year. So I'm an award winner! Ok sort of. I also contributed some pieces for their recent book on UK 1960s 'fantastic' cinema, 'Mods and Shockers'.

My thanks as ever go to Paul Downey for opportunities given to me to cover London launches of new films and several film festivals, including this year's FrightFest and Grimmfest, for his wonderful Bloody Flicks website. This year I've covered 29 films for BF (plus a couple of book reviews), and 2026 will be my tenth year of working with him.

In terms of 'on the air' activities my friend Larry Brookes and I have continued, when personal and business commitments allow, to bring you episodes of 'Larry and David's Film Salon', this year covering The Servant, Le Mépris, Sunset Boulevard, Ran, Cutter's Way and The Wages of Fear. You can hear all the episodes here.

I also launched my own podcast under the 'Dark Eyes of London' brand. The brief here is pretty wide, and my first 'season' has been a four parter covering the work of US maverick director Jerry Warren. The second one, on director Larry Buchanan, will be out early in 2026. All episodes here.

Oh and on a musical note (arf) this December saw the release of the second album from my band Detronics. 'World Goes Bang' is the usual, as someone recently commented, "Bowie fronting Pink Floyd" stuff. It may be your bag - it may not, but you won't know unless you've had a listen.

Anyway, to my usual end of year round up. Unlike some critics I don't differentiate between 'fantastic' and non fantastic titles in my selections: if a film's great, it's great. Notes on the films where I haven't covered them, links for those I have. They're in no particular order:

Nickel Boys (USA 2004: Dir RaMell Ross) This one made a lot of critic 'best of' lists last year; it's a bold film which utilises an unusual 'first person' filming technique to tell the story of events at Arthur G Dozier’s Florida School for Boys between 1900 and 2011, told through the experiences of two friends, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson). The racism experienced is as much via set text as in the actual classroom; it's an occasionally overstaged piece but exudes a mystery way beyond the average.

A Real Pain (USA 2024: Dir Jesse Eisenberg) The director's second feature is a bittersweet two hander between Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin; they are David and Benji, two cousins from New York, who go to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother. Benji is querulous (matching his Roman Roy role in Succession) and hyper, David apologetic and seemingly long suffering. The road they take, ending up on a Holocaust tour, produces the emotional heart, the 'real pain' of the film. A Real Pain is superbly acted, knowing and sad, with some lovely support performances.

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

The Ugly Stepsister (Norway/Denmark/Romania/Poland/Sweden 2024: Dir Emilie Blichfeldt)

Sinners (USA/Australia/Canada: Dir Ryan Coogler) A film of two halves in the spirit of Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, Coogler's film dwells at the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul, gives us a potted history of a black community living through the Depression, gang running and star crossed lovers; oh and vampires. It's a rich, witty ride and its halfway point narrative pivot disappointed as many as it won supporters. I'm definitely in the latter camp, and it's a movie that sustains multiple viewings.

Weapons (USA 2025: Dir Zach Cregger) Cregger gave us Barbarian back in 2022, a film about which I had mixed feelings. Weapons is no less high concept and, at times, awkward, revolving around 17 missing schoolchildren who have mysteriously vanished from their class, the impact of the incident on the local community and, latterly, an explanation for the event. Like Barbarian I enjoyed the first part of Weapons more than the second (the more we know the less it intrigues) but it's an enthralling ensemble piece with a superb performance by Julia Garner as Ms Grady, the teacher at the heart of the story.

The Presidents Cake (Iraq/Qatar/USA 2025: Dir Hasan Hadi)

One Battle After Another (USA 2025: Dir Paul Thomas Anderson) I blow hot and cold with Anderson's films. I didn't get on with 2021's Licorice Pizza, but I can never rewatch 2017's Phantom Thread enough. OBAA may be as much of a shaggy dog story as his last feature, littered with set pieces and a playfulness that shows a mastery of the form, but Anderson's take on counterculture, conspiracy theory, messy relationships and freewheeling road movies is nothing short of astounding. I mentioned when I originally wrote about the film, that halfway through I had to go to the cinema and buy some popcorn, because to watch it without seemed criminal.

Honey Bunch (Canada/UK 2025: Dir Dusty Mancinelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer)

The Ice Tower (France/Germany/Italy 2025: Dir Lucile Hadzihalilovic)

Honorable mentions: The Girl with the Needle, Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, 28 Years Later, Hallow Road, Bring Her Back, Dead of Winter, A Desert and The Housemaid.

Scary Christmas Round up of New (ish) Holiday themed Horror (ish) Movies 2025: Reviews of 'Twas the Night (USA 2023), Slay Ride - The Movie (USA 2024), The Naughty List of Mr Scrooge (USA 2024), Elf in the Hood (USA 2024) and I Know What You Did Last Christmas (UK 2025)

With the exception of 2022 - which was a very bad year - I've produced a Christmas fright flick special every year since 2018. You have to dig pretty hard these days for seasonal horror movies, and one of these dates back to 2023, but here's 5 films (I know, it's normally 6 but pickings are not rich) I haven't covered before (I was going to include Damien Leone's Terrifier 3 but it's clearly way too big budget to be included here, and isn't really my thing either).

'Twas the Night (USA 2023: Dir Joe Lujan) Low budget moviemaking can either toe the line and keep it simple, or attempt to be ambitious in a kind of 'what-the-hell-very-few-people-will-see-it' way. Lujan's eighth feature (since 2022!) does the second.

Three undesirables, Tess (Taylor Kilgore), Will (Chris Ivan) and Brent (Bryant Smith) abduct and kill people, organ farming the corpses across the world, none of which of course is shown. As they're deciding their next move, a young girl, Mya (Destiny Salas) ties them up, incapacitates them and tells them three seasonal stories (visualised in the telling) in which various people fail to be good and end up at the mercy of a 12 inch tall elf, a Gingerbread Man called Gingie (Johnny Perotti) and Jack Frost (Anthony Avery). 

Each of these three have their own role to play in the art of body harvesting, as all of the people in the stories, plus the three original miscreants, end up in limbo, awaiting the judgement of Krampus (William Suave) who decides which of the damned will end up on the naughty list. 

Cheap, not very cheerful and more than a bit bonkers, the moralistic nature of this thing suggested it might be a faith based movie. But no, Lujan is just a micro budget filmmaker who divides his time between features and music promos. He's the kind of guy whose IMDb profile lists no less than 6 upcoming projects and you pretty much know they'll all happen. I actually quite liked 'Twas the Night (particularly the crudely brought to life Elfie, voiced by Ivan), but I suspect I'm in the minority.

Slay Ride - The Movie (USA 2024: Dir Olivia Dunkley) Dunkley is no stranger to the magic of Christmas; check out her 2019 directorial debut A Holiday Boyfriend or indeed her own (cough) composition 'It Isn't Christmas', a pretty much note perfect steal from Wham!'s 'Last Christmas' (the latter available here)

Slay Ride - The Movie, whose title makes about as much sense as the rest of the film even including its overused pun (there being slayage but little actual 'riding'), front and centres the multi talented (or tasking anyway) Ms Dunkley as Holly Woods (geddit?). Successful businesswoman and mum, Holly cuts a rather K*ren-ish figure, snapping at shop staff and not beyond taking the names of police when they question her.

We're in snowy Utah (actual snow here, a bonus) where seven years previously a Father Christmas clad killer carved up his wife following the discovery of her affair. Their son Kris was committed to an asylum following the crime, but managed to escape and, as an adult (Mitchel Gene Shira) has embarked on a series of his own murders, also dressed as Santa Claus, and dubbed the Kris Kringle killer.

And it's Kris who Holly encounters in her car after visiting the local store; she manages to eject him from the passenger side, only later learning that a) he's still alive and b) she lives in the house where the original murder occurred (a fact clearly omitted when she moved in). Holly returns home only to engage in a lengthy - and I mean lengthy - battle with Kris, before her family are literally saved by Santa.

Well done everybody for keeping a straight face through this drivel, and props to Shira for playing the killer as a cross between 'Naughty' obsessed Billy from the 1984 movie Silent Night, Deadly Night, Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck and a nightclub singer. Writer/producer/star Dunkley gets to do some stunts and sing some songs on the soundtrack. And, trust me, her version of 'the Twelve Days of Christmas' over the end credits is worth the price of admission alone. Figure of speech; please don't pay to see this. 

The Naughty List of Mr Scrooge (USA 2024: Dir Jake Helgren) Nestled deep in the streaming schedules, one occasionally finds a gem of a feature. Director Helgren has a bit of a thing about the Christmas movie, but most of his output is of the more soppy end of the market, although he also gave us the slasher Bad Connection in 2024.

Not so with the mean Naughty List. Skye Coyne plays Tabby, a photographer, who's invited to a class reunion/Christmas get together by one of her former schoolmates, Chandler (Liz Fenning), also dragging along cynical boyfriend Jonny (Colin Koth). Any reticence on Tabby's part is understandable; back in college her boyfriend at the time, Glen, a troubled soul, fell off a roof and died, just about the time that a theatre production of 'A Christmas Carol' was about to open.

Once arrived at Chandler's large mansion, they're greeted by monosyllabic servant and clear red herring Marty (Benedikt Sebastian), together with other members of the sorority, namely Tucker (Adam Bucci), Julian (Ali Zahiri) and Kelsey (Kim Whalen). Missing is Franny (Coel Mahal), who everyone assumes is being flaky; but we've already seen her attacked (and beheaded) by a killer wearing a Scrooge outfit.

At the obligatory Secret Santa present exchange the original gifts have been mysteriously swapped out for mean ones with gifts and messages which tie them back, uncomfortably, to their college years, and the ever present memory of dead Glen. And it's not long before the Scrooge dressed killer has returned to despatch the party guests, all of whom are linked in some way to their dead classmate.

What makes TNLoMS, despite its silly title, such a delight is a really good cast and its unashamed borrowing of all the elements of slashers and whodunnits. It's got a sassy, sometimes very funny script and the story is solid; there's a great sense of Christmas about the whole thing too. Definitely worth checking out.

Elf in the Hood (USA 2024: Dir Jamaal Burden) I've stayed away from the films of Mr Burden ever since my mind was scarred reviewing his first movie Elves and its follow up, Abominable which was...well you get the picture.

Four years later and Burden's second Christmas themed horror movie is upon us (although the whole Christmas thing is levered into the movie as a bit of an afterthought). Malik (Taylor Latham) and his girlfriend Jada (Sabine Gavilov) are in trouble deep; in trying to help Jada's junkie sister, the pair have inherited a whole heap of debt owed to a gangland character called Silk (Chad Davis-Lenette). As the toughs close in there's just one chance; a weird elf-like doll, liberated from the gang, with a potentially hefty price tag. All Malik and Jada need to do is sell it to the right person.

The lucky recipient may be Evelyn (Kerry Walker); the doll's credentials are verified by Evelyn's friend, dark arts expert Dr Damian (Tiffanie Williams) who confirms that the doll is haunted by Juju, the ghost of a vengeful spirit who comes alive on Christmas Eve. And guess what night it is? 

Exposure to any of Mr B's works will tell you that you're in for a real watch checking ride. This one does at least have some rather good practical gore effects, to compensate for the poorly CGI animated (barely) Juju. The doll's passage of terror is mildly diverting, but the same can't be written about the movie's 'leads'; for most of the cast EitH is their only listed credit. Pretty poor.

I Know What You Did Last Christmas (UK 2025: Dir Gregory William Randolph Jr.) Another ITN Distribution outing from Louisa Warren's Champdog Films stable, this is one of two films directed this year for the company by Randolph Jr, a bonafide American (the other is the somewhat lighter in tone A Tailor-Made Romance). Both films also feature that rare thing, a low budget UK movie featuring an authentic American actor rather than UK thesps adopting US accents (don't worry, we have some of them too).

The American in this case is Californian Shayli Reagan. She plays Amber, one of a group of young people summoned to a country house (ok Airbnb rental) by a mysterious M. All of the young 'uns have received invitations suggesting a reunion of sorts offering "one last chance to make things right". You guessed it (if you hadn't already from the cheeky title borrowing), the group have a shared history, which involves the sticky end of one of their friends, Millie (Leona Clarke) in a prank gone wrong.

The other rather nondescript house occupants include Trey and sister Lila (Dan Robins and Julia Quayle, both adopting - or rather failing to adopt - American accents), You Tuber Erin (Katrina Todd) and goth lite Dax (Ashley Bedford), sporting a jumper that reads 'Winter is Coming'; 'coming' being the operative word in that, despite the Christmas decorations (and the presence of a murderous Santa) the whole thing looks like it was shot in midsummer. 

Most of the movie comprises a lot of bickering until the body count starts rising, although most of the deaths are off screen save for a candy cane in the eyeball moment. This is pretty pointless stuff, cheap and uninspiring; oh and the end credit song runs out way before the actual credits. Producers Ms Warren and ever present Scott Jeffrey, take a bow.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2025 #2: Reviews of Borley Rectory: The Awakening (UK 2025), Rumpelstiltskin (UK 2025), Manor of Darkness (UK 2025), Snake Creek (UK 2025), Boarhog (UK 2025) and Mundane (UK 2020)

Borley Rectory: The Awakening (UK 2025: Dir Steven M. Smith) This is Smith's third film based around events at Borley Rectory, reputedly 'the most haunted house in England'. His first, 2019's The Haunting of Borley Rectory, was set in 1944 and his second, The Ghosts of Borley Rectory filmed two years later, located the action in 1937.

For his third Borley opus Smith goes back further; initially to 1888 and then, for the majority of the movie, 12 years later. For this is a prequel to the oft told Rectory story of the nun's ghost, which so interested ghost hunter Harry Price when he investigated the haunting many years later.

The Rev Harry Bull (Julian Glover, yes that Julian Glover) lies dying in Borley Rectory. While he reassures his family that there are no ghosts at the Rectory he gifts his son Henry (Corneille Dion Williams) a box which will, he confides mysteriously, keep the family safe.

Twelve years later Henry is now rector, residing at Borley with his mother Constance (Patsy Kensit, yes that...ok I'll stop doing that now) and his four sisters. Constance is stricken with visions of a nun being attacked by a priest and takes to her bed, where she's attended by a nurse (former alt comedian Helen Lederer) and is visited by the ghost of her mother (Vicki 'Allo'Allo, Virgin Witch Michelle). Uncle Somerset (Smith regular Mark Wingett) arrives to provide support; a concerned Henry, fearing supernatural shenanigans and rapidly questioning his faith, summons the Reverend Shaw (Simon Philips) for a second opinion and a solution to the haunting.

BR: TA is co-produced by genre stalwart Louisa Warren, and it's possible that her presence has tempered some of Smith's rough round the edges approach to filmmaking; some care has been expended on this one, including an impressive location (Ingatestone Hall in Essex), a very The Woman in Black feel (all period costumes and candlelight) and some good performances. There are even some impressive jump scares although the spooks are perhaps a little more regularly visible that I'd have liked. I've not been a fan of most of Smith's previous movies, but BR: TA is classy and occasionally scary.

A version of this review was first published on the Bloody Flicks site.

Rumpelstiltskin (UK 2025: Dir Andy Edwards) Edwards is yet another UK contributor to the Twisted Child Universe (TCU) which has, in recent years, seen a plethora of to be honest rather average movies providing a horror twist on popular children's stories.

As one of those stories 'Rumpelstiltskin' is a shoo in for a horror film director; the original story by The Brothers Grimm is already pretty grotesque, and I can do no better than borrow the (AI generated) IMDb plot description to sum it up: "Miller lies about daughter's gold-spinning ability. Imp helps her impress King. She promises imp her future child for continued aid. When payment comes due, imp strikes deal with devil."

Edwards's movie is for the most part a reasonably faithful adaptation of the story with a number of more contemporary adornments. The tale's miller (Mark Cook) peddles his wayward daughter Evalina (Hannah Baxter-Eve) to the nasty king (Colin Malone), a chap prone to mounting the heads of his ex wives on poles. The miller's boast that his daughter can spin gold from straw ("I don't even know how to fucking spin", she concludes once isolated in the tower) comes to pass courtesy of an imp (Joss Carter) who pays her a visit and grants her wish in return for a kiss and, later, a gawk at her naked body.

Evalina's success at straw to gold wins her the hand of the king and, as queen, she gives birth; sadly she's promised her first born to Rumpelstiltskin as her side of the bargain, although had hoped to avoid pregnancy by consuming nettle tea. The imp's request for the infant can be voided if Evalina successfully guesses his name.

Edwards cloaks (pun intended) this low budget but modestly sumptuous yarn in various Game of Thrones stylings, with some dynastic squabbling and Rumpelstiltskin (whose makeup suggests an homage to the 1995 film of the same name) reporting directly to a figure named the Demon King of the Shadow Forest. Evalina is pleasantly feisty, and the script maintains a rather cheeky tone ("So she's a witch", concludes the king at one point, "I've married worse"). Rumpelstiltskin is, much like the director's previous TCU entry Cinderella's Revenge, a lot more fun that the drearier Mickey Mouse/Popeye end of the Universe, with some impressive photography and a wheezing, clunking dungeon synth score from the appropriately named 'Disgusting Cathedral' adding to the movie's quality.

Manor of Darkness (UK 2025: Dir Blake Ridder) There are two handy approaches for the 'fantastic' filmmaker looking to do something intriguing on a low budget. The first is the 'multiverse' concept, the second is the timeloop plot device; in Shanghai born Ridder's first released feature - also, staggeringly, the prolific director's 72nd film - he's gone for the second option.

Four disparate souls come together with crime on their minds. Brother and sister Chris (Louis James) and Laura (Kim Spearman) are at odds over the care of their mother; meanwhile Chris's girlfriend Lisa (Sarah Alexandra Marks), what with her tough upbringing and visions of herself covered in blood, has her own problems. Oh and there's Andy (Rui Shang), handy with a camera and trying to make some money for a custody battle, who the others have seen in pickpocket action.

Chris hatches a plan for some easy money. Inside a country manor used by a gang of thieves to stash their loot, most of the booty has been recovered following a raid; but not all. And in a freak coincidence the owner of the house has invited Chris and his chums to film inside, providing the perfect opportunity to liberate the remaining swag. But a visit to the basement unveils a large box which, when opened, triggers a sequence of events which lock the group in a perpetual live/die/live cycle.

Quite why all this happens is rather baffling, and there's a point about two thirds through the movie where the repetition starts to grate. What Ridder fails to do is unpick the onion skin layers of the story so that the audience understands what's happening; it's just a confusing mess, not helped by some rather lacklustre performances and misplaced attempts at humour. I can't fault Ridder for trying something that's a little different to most haunted house movies, but overall this is a misfire.

Snake Creek (UK 2025: Dir Charlie Steeds) Charlie's back! Mr Steeds, Bristol's answer to Roger Corman, strikes again, this time choosing something more reptilian than his usual cluster of monsters and werewolves.

Unlike other British directors, who may base their movies in the US but never venture further than a youth hostel in deepest Hampshire, Steeds is the real deal, authentically locating some of his American themed features in the US of A; in this case Georgia.

Snake Creek has four ex schoolmates travelling to a location deep in the Chattahoochee woods for a little R&R time. Headed by the exuberant Patrick (Paul Ogletree), the quartet stock up at a local general store, run by rum old Woody (Scot Scurlock) who issues the usual warnings about taking care in the forest. These would seem to be worth heeding based on the pinned posters highlighting a missing local girl, Willow (Faith McCoy), who we’ve already seen alive, covered in leaves and surrounded by rotting corpses, deep in the forest.

And the source of all this concern? Gwendoline, a 29ft snake, who slithers around the forest looking for human meat, and who just so happens to have discovered the four campers, protected by Woody and his inbred cohort.

Filmed back to back with Southern Nightmare, a slice of gothic that features pretty much the same cast, Steeds is on a one man mission to being the spirit of grindhouse to a new generation of moviegoers. The problem here is that while Snake Creek looks the part (Steeds as cinematographer has a keen eye for the outdoors) and sounds great via Simone Cilio’s strident score, this is basically four grown men being menaced by a snake puppet, albeit one designed by LA based SFX talent Eric Yoder. One does rather wonder why Charlie went all that way to make something so, well, silly?

But then when you consider that director Tom Gormican has just completed a big budget snake movie (Anaconda) there’s clearly some mileage in the slinky reptile as an object of fright, so why shouldn’t Steeds give us his own lower budget version? Snake Creek is big on characterisation and rural detail, but somewhat lighter on scares; it’s still worth a look though.

A version of this review was first published on the Bloody Flicks site.

Boarhog (UK 2025: Dir Craig Quinn) There's something weird going down on the streets of Manchester. Well a version of Manchester named Sounder City, and a fictional district: Villemomble (which is also a real suburb of Paris, but we're definitely not there).

A series of disappearances in the area have got the local population a bit twitchy. At the local hospital, the vaguely despotic Dr Adam Brecknell (Reece Ryan) hides his real self behind a cloak of supportive respectability, seducing the staff and being emotionally (and physically) abusive to his girlfriend Laura (Beverley Rendelle).

The country appears to be in some form of hostility with Russia (although conspiracy theorist tags of 'World War III' are dismissed by the Government). Neverthless a decision has been made to return serving troops back to the UK. One of these is Benji (Quinn) whose PTSD is, bluntly, through the roof; as well as being incredibly antisocial he's also plagued with visions of snout nosed witches.

When Brecknell is caught on site by hospital manager Claire (Nicola Mayers), meting out violence to hospital worker Laura, he's dismissed on the spot. Jobless and angry, he's kidnapped by an odd trio who make him an offer he can't refuse; and before we know it, 'Boarhog' is born.

After a while it gets increasingly difficult to follow events (there's a curse in there somewhere and those witches are back), partly because the sound quality of the film is pretty patchy, and there's a regional mumblecore effect going on dialogue wise too. But it doesn't matter; Boarhog is endlessly inventive, cheap as chips with some very impressive practical FX and a revenge tragedy kill count. Quinn is a witty chap in interview, and there's obviously some intelligence at work here (the script is surprisingly good for this sort of thing). If you can get past the DIY approach there's a lot to like, and honestly I'd rather watch something like this than an empty $10m snoozefest any day.

 

Mundane (UK 2025: Dir Ignacio Maiso) More suburban tension, this time set outside London. Mundane (Astrid Olofsson) is a young woman whose blog on everyday life starts attracting attention. Oh she's also a cyborg, but she tries to keep that fact to herself. Her adoptive mother (Nicola Wright) wishes that Mundane wouldn't call her Kathy, and the cyborg's boyfriend James (David Stock) has left her because he wants children and she can't have any (although she has faked two pregnancies, which ostensibly looks cruel on her part). Mundane's father/inventor Thomas (Paul Dewdney), previously estranged from the cyborg, comes back into her life.

Mundane's single friend appears to be Victoria (Daisy Porter) although this relationship appears to be tested when she admits that she has started going out with James; Mundane remains unphased.

A literary agent, Clare (Christina Ashford) is interested in marketing Mundane's blog, supported by Clare's wealthy manager Mark (Neil Ovenell), but is concerned when the cyborg outs herself online, having previously been happy to hide in plain sight. This disclosure triggers a succession of events that has consequences for all. 

'Consequences' is a pretty strong word to describe the impact of anything in Mundane, directed by Maiso at a snail's pace (I had previously reviewed his 2021 movie Them and didn't get on with that either). Mundane has that drained colour look and 'small head in big picture' framing adored by directors like Roy Andersson; it's beautifully photographed by Pierluigi Rossi, and Fernando Gimeno's score is straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. But despite its elegance and an appealing glacial performance by Olofsson in the title role, this is a rather empty film, initially intriguing but soon feeling like a short stretched to feature length.

A Desert (USA 2024: Dir Joshua Erkman)

I've spent quite a bit of time in the USA over the years, not only in the cities but also the country's less populated regions. One thing that anyone visiting the quieter bits of the place can't help but feel is the sense of isolation, and how easy it could be for a person to just get lost.

Joshua Erkman's debut feature A Desert may not be the first movie to exploit this anxiety, but as a mood piece about broken Americana and the people who live in it, it's kind of hard to beat.

Photographer Alex Clark (Kai Lennox), hoping to reclaim some of his glory days, sets out on a one person road trip to record the abandoned parts of his country; when we first meet him he's scoping out an empty, long closed cinema, whose blank screens will be important later in the film. Back home Alex's long suffering wife Sam (Sarah Lind) supports the couple financially and hopes that her husband has one more book of photographs in him.

But Alex perhaps forgets that, in and around those photogenic broken landscapes, people still live. Which he finds out after booking a motel and complaining to the grungy owner about a violent domestic happening in the next room. The noisy neighbour in question, the initially obsequious but quietly threatening Renny (Zachary Ray Sherman) takes one look at Alex's analogue equipment, whips out some moonshine and suggests that the photographer use he and his 'sister' Susie (Ashley B. Smith) as subject matter. This encounter doesn't end well.

Some days later a quietly distraught Sam, fed up with the local police's efforts to find her now missing husband, engages a dodgy private investigator, Harold (David Yow), to do what the cops can't. Harold ends up retracing Alex's steps, which includes a run in with Renny.

Erkman assembles all the elements you'll have seen before in any one of a number of American indie genre movies; psychopathic loner, grizzled private dick, local characters (Rob Zabrecky's motel owner is quietly effective in his few brief scenes) and a desert landscape breathtakingly beautiful in its emptiness. But the director has something more to say than just playing out the drama suggested by this setup. He's concerned with spectacle; how people view others and their surroundings and, importantly, the image, both moving and still. Yes, that does mean that Erkman strays into that territory staked as 'Lynchian' - the endless highway, the inscrutability of evil - but it's not shameless copying, despite the surreal, borderline supernatural goings on.

A Desert starts and ends with a camera; in between it's a drama about ruined buildings, already ruined people, and those headed in that direction. An enigmatic and impressive debut.

A Desert is on UK and Ireland digital platforms from 24 November

A Mother's Embrace aka Abraço de Mãe (Brazil 2024: Dir Cristian Ponce)

It's 1996. Ana (Marjorie Estiano) is a firefighter in Rio de Janeiro, returning to duty after a period in which she was given a leave of absence following the death of her mother, which affected her performance at work. To put it mildly.

Still clearly traumatised and experiencing fleeting visions of a mother from which she was estranged (following an abusive incident in her childhood, alluded to in the film's 1973 prologue), Ana is welcomed back into the ranks, but the fire service is too overwhelmed for a slow reintegration. 

The crisis facing the team isn't fire, but its elemental opposite; water. Successive rainy seasons in Rio de Janeiro have killed and displaced thousands. Ana and her fellow firefighters are summoned to a call at a nursing home on the outskirts of town, São Cristóvão, where Ana grew up. When they attend, they find an old, crumbling house full of residents in a poor state of health and hygiene, most almost catatonic. 

Outside a new storm begins to assert itself, necessitating the evacuation of the residents from the already leaking building. But none of the staff, headed up by the wheelchair bound Drika (Ângela Rabello) and younger manager Ulisses (Javier Drolas) seem in any hurry to leave. The team's attempts to rescue the old folk (and a small child, played Maria Volpe) results in their being trapped in the house, while Ana discovers the truth of what's happening, which links back to her mother.

Ponce's stylish and creepy feature, his first since 2020's History of the Occult, is an exercise in confusion and claustrophobia. Estiano's performance is the standout here; convincing in her trauma, her commitment to her job in the face of natural (and supernatural) danger consistent and believable.

There is a refreshing lack of clarity in what's happening, even when events are taking a distinctly Lovecraftian turn towards the end of the movie. It's best to revel in the nightmarish atmosphere of the thing (which reminded me of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's 2007 movie REC), particularly the crumbling, waterlogged nursing home set; locating the movie within the very real natural disasters of the Rio de Janiero floods adds a frisson of authenticity. A Mother's Embrace is very much its own film and its own world, and that can only be a good thing. Excellent stuff.

A Mother's Embrace is on UK and Ireland digital platforms from 10 November.

The Session Man (UK 2023/4: Dir Michael Treen)

The 'session man' of this documentary's title is - or rather was - Nicky Hopkins. Born in Sheffield in 1944, Hopkins was a keyboard child prodigy who went on to be a pivotal figure on the 1960s/70s UK music scene, albeit one that you're more likely to have heard than heard of.

Treen's debut feature length movie, planned back in 2021 and originally released to the festival circuit in 2023, traces Hopkins's career from his own band, 'The Savages', to his emergence on the 1960s music scene as the go to session pianist (the piano just starting to be used on the recordings of beat groups). It documents his almost Zelig like appearances with a large number of key 1970s bands, including 'The Who', 'The Kinks', and 'The Beatles', even sharing the stage with 'Jefferson Airplane' at Woodstock (it would have been with Jeff Beck, but apparently Mr Beck got the hump and flew home).

Hopkins, who died at the young age of 50 in 1994 (as a result of complications following a lifelong existence with Crohn's Disease) is therefore not present to offer his side of the story, beyond some archive interviews in which he appears modest and unassuming in conversation. Even rarer here are live performances; it's a distinct limitation to the enjoyment of Session Man, clearly a documentary of limited budget, that very little of the man's work is shown played by Hopkins himself. Indeed even his recorded work is sparse in the movie; we are left to experience Hopkins's mercurial talent via session musicians.

The musician's world is brought to life by a variety of interviews, some archive, some specifically for the documentary, including some insightful contributions from his second wife, Moira (other surviving family members aren't interviewed) ; as you'd expect from a group of talking heads who are mostly in their late 70s and 80s, recollection is not always great (ironically it's 'The Rolling Stones' 81 year old Keith Richards who offers the most impassioned support of Hopkins). Hopkins is made out to be a rather private man (possibly because of the paucity of biographical footage) who didn't know his true talent, which doesn't reconcile with his 1970s excesses, which saw him keeping up with the hard drinking and drugging Hollywood Vampires (to the point where he had to fill in for a 'refreshed' Harry Nilsson during the recording of one of his solo albums) and requiring a spell in rehab.

But it's the revelations of Hopkins's contributions to key bands and albums that is the film's biggest delight. If you've ever marvelled at the piano work on The Stones's 'She's a Rainbow' or 'Sympathy for the Devil', that's Nicky; what isn't disclosed is whether his work, which often transformed such songs from 'ok' to 'classic' status, was truly acknowledged at the time, or whether his status remained as 'session player'. Certainly there's no shortage of musicians queuing up to eulogise the late Hopkins in Treen's patchy but heartfelt documentary, but one can't help feel that if he was recognised as an essential talent back then he may still have been with us today.

The Session Man will be released to cinemas from 21 November.