The Severed Sun (UK New Wave of the British Fantastic Film 2025: Dir Dean Puckett)

Puckett's debut feature has been compared to Blood on Satan's Claw, The Handmaid's Tale, The VVitch and even Fanny Lye Deliver'd, which places it in some honorable company.

In a time period which suggests the past but, from some subtle design and narrative hints may in fact be the future, an isolated community eke out the most meagre of livings under the supervision of The Pastor (Toby Stephens). His daughter, the mercurial Magpie (Emma Appleton) is young and married to a human monster, in the shape of Howard (Eoin Slattery); but not for long. Magpie poisons Howard and chops off his hand (presumably the one that beat her).

The act unleashes a Beast (James Swanton) who, like the creature in Blood on Satan's Claw, remains in the background, potentially responsible for the heightening of tension and paranoia that grips the village. The Pastor's community is a prime example of the patriarchy in action; the men lay down the law while exercising the power in spite of it, while the women remain submissive and without agency.

But Magpie's actions rupture any stability within the village; she is shunned but unrepentant (her story is that Howard met his death through the misuse of an axe), hated both by the men and women because of her unwillingness to conform to the role of "dutiful wife", and thus suspected of being in league with the supernatural and widely accused of "heresy".

The paucity of budget available to Puckett has worked in the film's favour; the community in The Severed Sun is small in number, their resources even smaller; the religious panic therefore grips more intensely.  The Pastor tells his flock that they are living in a "fallen world", suggesting a medieval creed; but he also references nature which has "had her revenge", suggesting a past environmental collapse.

Explanations ultimately aren't necessary; the suggestion here is that the controlling dominance of The Pastor, and his negative and violent impact on his congregation, has a more universal application. The film is short (80 minutes), controlled and occasionally very nasty. It's not perfect (the lack of narrative explanation will doubtless annoy some) but the film is blessed with some superb natural cinematography by Ian Forbes and a creepy, immersive (and, apparently, improvised) soundtrack by a trio of musicians calling themselves 'Unknown Horrors'. Library of the Occult records, let me introduce you.

The Severed Sun is on UK and Ireland digital platforms from 6 October. The soundtrack by 'Unknown Horrors' is available to stream/download here.

All You Need is Death (Ireland 2023: Dir Paul Duane)

Set in contemporary Ireland, singer Anna (Simone Collins) and her friend Aleks (Charlie Maher) are on the search for arcane songs performed in the numerous island watering holes; Anna secretly records them, a fact which is disclosed in a funny opening scene. The pair are hoping that their discoveries will be lucrative, but so far nobody's biting, and their cultural digging is only beneficial for Anna's live sets. But they're not alone; self help guru Agnes (Catherine Siggins) presides over a whole roomful of tune searchers, all on the lookout for the one song that can be 'externally validated'.

Following a tipoff, about a song so old it's more legend than fact, the pair make the journey to Crossmaglen where they hope to find Maggie Concannon, oral keeper of one of the oldest songs in Ireland. When they arrive they discover that while Maggie has died her alcoholic granddaughter Rita (the always reliable Olwen Fouéré) has inherited the song, which is sung in a dialect that predates even the earliest Irish civilisations and passed down to women only. They also find Agnes, who seems to have beaten them to it. It is forbidden to record the song (traditionally of course that would mean writing it down, but in the intervening years more modern methods have been developed for doing this) for fear of unleashing something awful. Anna and Aleks respect the request, but Agnes is more unscrupulous; and her faux pas sets in chain a horrifying sequence of events.

There are, arguably, far too many ideas in All You Need is Death to make it a truly satisfying watch, but despite this the film succeeds on the strength of its central idea, a sort of musical version of the Monty Python sketch 'The Funniest Joke in the World'. Early scenes evoke the uneasy blend of humour and horror that benefitted the 1973 film The Wicker Man (a movie which - shoot me now - I don't like that much), and the climax takes us into similar territory explored in the 2016 Liam Gavin movie A Dark Song.

Olwen Fouéré as Rita in All You Need is Death

Folklorists may twitch a little at the sensationalising of the oral song tradition, but there's no doubting that a fair few traditional Irish standards have rather strange origins. I could have done with some of the quirkier cul de sac narrative elements being excised - the central premise is a strong one and didn't need to be diluted - and some of the performances are more accomplished than others, but this is a creepy piece of filmmaking aided by an unsettling score from Ian Lynch, whose own band Lankum are worth checking out.

Duane is an experienced documentary filmmaker, and it's a mark of the quality of his transition to scripted features that I initially scoffed at the seemingly clumsily punned title of the thing, while gradually realising its thematic aptness; it's that kind of film. 

All You Need Is Death is in UK cinemas from 19 April.

The Village in the Woods (UK 2019: Dir Raine McCormack)

Jason and Rebecca drive out into the woods to claim their rightful inheritance: a rundown pub called 'the Harbour Inn' (although nowhere near water) left to Rebecca by her deceased aunt. Except that's not quite true: 'Rebecca' is actually Nikki: she and Jason have managed to acquire the documentation for the property by means of a shady woman from Jason's past, and Nikki has switched identities, hoping the others in the village won't notice. Nice try.

Once there, and with their car out of petrol, forcing them to stay the night, they encounter a rum group of locals, among them oversexed Maddy, fruity old Charles, and a strange ancient guy, Arthur, who seems to be occupying part of the pub they thought was all theirs, who is keen for them to leave immediately.

But the villagers want them to stay, as they have plans for the couple, particularly virginal Nikki.

There seems to be a bit of a trend for young-people-facing-older-people-who-look-nice-but-have-a-dark-side movies recently, and it's brave for first time feature director McCormack to add to the canon with only a few quid and some game actors at his disposal. The Village in the Woods starts off rather shakily but becomes more interesting the loonier it gets. The standout performances here are the older members of the cast, principally Therese Bradley as Maddy, who when she's not getting it on with Charles (established character actor Richard Hope) is trying it on with Jason (Robert Vernon).

You don't need to have watched many such movies to know exactly how this is going to turn out and both Jason and Nikki/Rebecca (a rather wooden Beth Park) are clearly just lambs to the satanic slaughter. We get some shots of a large beast like figure - and a nifty transformation scene that sort of explains who he is - and the predictable final reel coven stuff. But it's neither as saucy or as gory as it signposted, and ends incredibly abruptly.

Where it does score points is in overall atmosphere, helped by a moody score which avoids string synthesising the thing to death and is confident in its use of quiet moments (very rare in low budget movies these days): there are also some nicely done woozy sequences where you're not really sure what's real or not (the 'seduction' scene in Rosemary's Baby (1968) came to mind) which bring a rather good folk-horrorish feel to things.

The director has mentioned that his intention with The Village in the Woods was to make a return to slowburn horror films: he's only really half succeeded. But, without wishing to damn by faint praise, I've seen a lot worse, and there are enough little details and flourishes here to make me want to look out for McCormack's next movie. And someone should really give Maddy a spin off film of her own, she's such good value.

The Village in the Woods is available on demand and download across all major digital platforms from 14th October including iTunes, Sky Store, Amazon and Google Play

Dead Night (US 2017: Dir Brad Baruh)

Parents Casey and James, their teenage kids Jason and Jessica and Jessica's friend Becky head out to Oregon for a snowy spring cabin retreat in, you guessed it, the woods. The cabin is renowned for its revitalising powers, being built on iron oxide deposits, and the aim of their stay is to help heal James, who has been diagnosed with cancer. But the woods hold other mysteries too. In a 1961 prologue, a young courting couple are attacked by some weird figures who capture the female half of the pair and impregnate her. The resultant quick-as-you-like birth - also a girl - will be important to the story. Cut to the present day, and James and Jason find an unconscious woman while out searching for firewood. Bringing her back to the cabin, the stranger turns out to be Leslie Bison, who just happens to be running for governor, and who is probably old enough to have been born in 1961. Ms Bison turns out to be a whole heap of trouble and before we know it the entire family are in jeopardy.

First time director Brad Baruh was producer of one previous feature, Phantasm Ravager, and Dead Night is on occasion similarly inventive. The cleverest element of the movie occurs a little way in, when the story is interrupted by a faux reconstruction of the events in the film we're about to see via a TV show, 'Inside Crime', which in its more prosaic (and incorrect) retelling of the future horrific events paints Casey as the slayer of the family, dubbing her 'Axe Mom.' it's a smart way of heightening the tension.

Unfortunately from here on in there's too much poorly explained oddness as the movie progresses, and what could be a clever meta Cabin in the Woods style outing breaks down into a combination of folk horror, old school effects and occasionally silly exposition which goes off in too many directions. If this feels like a film that has been pulled apart in the editing suite, that's because it is -  originally released as Applecart, it was severely re-jigged following a poor critical reception.

Scream queen for our times Barbara Crampton gets a meaty role as Bison, and pretty much carries the film; the rest of the characters are little more than sketched in. The snow covered woods look beautiful though (although some snowless scenes confuse), and there's some good effects sequences on display by Chris Gallagher and Erik Porn (I kid you not) - I haven't seen bladder work like this since Paul Clemens turned into a giant cicada in 1982's The Beast Within. The forest creatures (named 'The Ladies') are also pleasantly weird and rather nasty. I just wish the story could have been less jumbled. Moderately entertaining then, mainly because of the performances and the look of the thing, but a bit of a wasted opportunity with the talent available.