Dark Eyes Retrovision #25: Hellraiser: Judgment (USA/UK 2018: Dir Gary J. Tunnicliffe)

Thirty years after the first movie, here's the sequel that everyone hoped would happen; just not in the way it did. 2011's Hellraiser: Revelations, which was pretty ropey, was of course made so that Dimension Films could contractually retain the rights to the movie's characters; they had plans for a bigger budgeted follow up, but somewhere along the line all the life got sucked out of that project. Gary Tunnicliffe, makeup supervisor on all the Hellraiser movies since the third, Hell on Earth, was scriptwriter on the last movie in the franchise (Revelations, which was the first of the series not to star Doug Bradley as 'Pinhead'), and appointed as director on this one. Back in 2017, when I covered all the previous Hellraiser films for an extended piece in DEoL, Judgment had already been completed for a year or so, but it's taken an extra four years to be released in the UK. Was it worth the wait?

Judgment begins with a conversation between Pinhead (Paul T. Taylor) and The Auditor (Tunicliffe himself, playing a new, rather unctuous Cenobite) bemoaning the fact that technology has made it possible for "lust to be sated electronically" (I think he's talking about internet porn), rendering the Lament Configuration obsolete. But all is not lost; sin is still sin and in the 21st century there's a lot of it about.

Case in point: child killer Mr Watkins (Jeff Fenter) gets a written summons to come to 55 Ludovico Place (which has moved from Dollis Hill in London to Oklahoma and completely changed its shape - Cenobite fixer uppers at work). Inside he's tied to a chair and The Auditor makes him confess his crimes. He's then passed along a weird production line; first to The Assessor (John Gulager) who soaks the killer's typed confession in tears of children, eats the results and sicks it up into a funnel; the sick flows into a trough which three naked women, with flesh stripped from their faces called The Jury, grub around in and then deliver a verdict: guilty! Watkins is strapped to a table, touched up by some older naked ladies called The Cleaners and finally a figure in rubber wear and a gas mask flays all the skin from his body. Whoa!

Meanwhile two detectives, who are brothers, are on the track of a murderer and not doing that well; they're joined by a third, Detective Egerton (Alexandra Harris) who has been bussed in by someone higher up to move the case along. They're on the track of a serial killer called the Preceptor whose murders are inspired by The Ten Commandments. Detective Sean Carter (Damon Carney) is a combat vet with PTSD and a pissed off wife; his brother is the far more smartly suited David (Randy Wayne). The detectives' work leads them to Watkins, the house in Ludovico Street and the Cenobites; because a serial killer ticks all their "we have such sights to show you" boxes.

This isn't the first time that Dimension have dusted down an old crime script from their vaults and jazzed it up with some Cenobite action; previous Hellraiser sequels have done the same, with the same result as this one; they feel like two films shoehorned into one. Judgment is full of stylistic touches that recall movies like 1995's Se7en - murky rooms, lots of offal, quasi-literary script - and while this is much better than Revelations, sadly that's not saying much: there's some playing around with Cenobite law and a final scene, with one of the hell-based characters ending up on skid row, hints strongly that Dimension feel there's life in the old box yet.

Hellraiser: Judgment is available from Lionsgate UK on Digital Download from 22 February and Blu-ray/DVD  from 1 March. DVD/Blu-ray extras:  Deleted and Extended Scenes; Gag Reel

Butchers (Canada 2020: Dir Adrian Langley)

It's getting on for fifty years since Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre introduced audiences to the then innovative depiction of a rural cannibalistic household; as well as a very loose adaptation of the life and work of real life killer Ed Gein, the movie's murderous family were themselves a warped stereotypical re-definition of the archetypal American crime family.

And now in yet another version of the 'family that slays together, degenerates together' cinematic motif, Butchers' brutal prologue introduces brothers Owen (Simon Phillips) and Oswald (Michael Swatton), who've recently lost their mother (as we meet them they've just buried her in what looks like a makeshift cemetery). Opportunity presents itself when a young couple's car breaks down on a snowy road near their broken down home. The male of the couple is killed but the female is held captive and, eventually, impregnated. By who, it is unclear: the voluble Owen, his considerably regressed brother Oswald, or maybe even the strange misshapen third sibling Oxford (Jonathan Largy), heard rather than seen, lumbering around their shack? 

Flash forward slightly to 1998, and four young friends are out on the road when their car breaks down, possibly in much the same spot. Chris (Frederik Storm) and Jenna (Julie Mainville) wait by the car, while Jenna's boyfriend Mike (James Hicks) and Taylor (Anne-Carolyne Binette) head off to find help. Jenna uses 'the facilities' and trips a wire attached to a bell which alerts Owen and Oswald to company. She sees a bloody handprint on a tree, which is odd, because, she concludes, "it's not hunting season." Yet.

Meanwhile Mike and Taylor get a little romantically sidetracked; yes they've been having a thing, even though Taylor is supposedly Jenna's best friend. They eventually find a garage, managed by Owen, who arranges for a tow truck to come and collect their car (this will be driven by family member Willard (Nick Allan), who, one won't be surprised, is more adjusted than the rest of his kin). Chris and Jenna, still waiting by the automobile, spy a character in the woods, watching them and taking Polaroids (a TCM reference). Things are about to get very unpleasant for all four of the unsuspecting youngsters.

While Langley's Canadian filmed and located feature (and oh it so desperately wants to give off a small town US feel, despite in part being filmed in an Ottowa Heritage Village) tries to do something a little different with a very familiar setup, Butchers feels like a movie out of time (mind you I thought the 'Wrong Turn' franchise had pretty much worn out the theme, and even that movie series has been re-booted this year). The director wants us to draw parallels between Mike's lustful leanings - Jenna, who's clearly aware what's going on, feels that men just can't help themselves - and the urges of Oswald and his clan (although the cannibalistic side seems to be reserved for Oxford). He also shows the brothers as an exercise in degeneration: Oswald is cultured and urbane (ok, that's a relative term here), whereas drooling debased Owen represents the next rung down (there's a scene in which he's learning to read, using 'Hamlet' as his chosen text, which Oswald clearly knows word for word), and Oxford is the geek locked up except for special occasions.

But underneath this Butchers is still just another entry of the pain and misery porn variety, even if the gore is lighter than expected and the cast get to keep their clothes on. It's well made but rather lacking in tension, which is maybe down to the fact that I've seen this story so many times before. Not great then.

Butchers is released on Digital download from 22 February and DVD from 8 March 2021.

Get the Hell Out (Taiwan 2020: Dir I - Fan Wang)

Wang’s debut feature is that rare thing, a Taiwanese horror movie, and while the jumping off point for its blend of shocks and yocks might be some of the livelier genre examples from Japan and North Korea, its (sort of) neighbours, Get the Hell Out is in a league of its own.

Tough no-nonsense Hsiung Ying-ying is a Member of Parliament, easy to rile and quick with her fists of fury. She’s been drawn to the noble profession because of the need to oppose the plans of a dodgy company, St. Arian, who want to build a chemical plant near her coastal home (and whose plant is rumoured to be contaminated with rabies). Ying-ying’s vocal opposition to the scheme makes her unpopular, and her downfall -  attacking a press corp whipped up by rival politician, the garishly suited playboy Li Ku-chung – leaves the way for witless Wang You-wei, a security guard with a nose bleeding disorder - to be inserted as her puppet replacement. Mr Li thinks he can win the new MP over to his side, and give the plant the go ahead, but You-wei is sweet on Ying-ying, which she exploits to try and manipulate him to vote against the scheme.

As the minutes tick down to the heavily signalled zombie invasion, and You-wei looks like he’s siding with Ying-ying leading up to the crucial vote, unbeknownst to all St. Arian’s president has become rabidly infected and started biting people. The military lock down the whole chamber, forcing the opposing political sides to battle each other and the growing numbers of zombies. But does luckless You-wei hold the key to their salvation?

Get the Hell Out is a gruesome dayglo delight; a hyperactive – and extremely, if broadly, funny – zombie caper that takes side swipes at politics, corruption, national pride and yes Coronavirus, a film where the underdogs are championed and the bad guys get theirs in arterial spraying glory. Often it's like a live action beat 'em up video game (occasionally literally so), relentlessly inventive and fast moving. 

The small but well developed cast of characters is fleshed out by some great supports, such as HR Dragon Wang Feng-hua, a formidable woman with a limited life expectancy, Ying-ying’s dad, a gardener by trade, who shows where his daughter gets her aggression from, and desperate to please receptionist (and substitute military serviceman) Ku Te-you, with his ludicrous bowl haircut.

Subtle this ain’t but it’s an enormous amount of fun, and it's so crammed with little bits of detail, great sight gags and eccentric sound design (including a brilliantly quirky soundtrack) that you’ll doubtless want to see it again immediately afterwards, if only to pick up the bits you missed first time round. Fantastic.

Get the Hell Out will screen at the Bloody Flicks Awards on 20 February 2021.

Broil (USA 2020: Dir Edward Drake)

Drake's latest movie fuses two 2018 sources - the 'supernatural goings on under the cloak of respectability' shenanigans of Ali Larter's flick Hereditary (a film which, despite its lukewarm reception, is often used as a critical touchpoint these days); and the rich family in crisis machinations of Jesse Armstrong's TV series Succession - to tell its story of the Sinclair family.

Broken down into separate chapters, like a fairytale gone wrong, we meet schoolgirl Chance Sinclair (Avery Konrad) who is prone to getting suspensions from school for retaliating against getting picked on. Chance has an acute medical condition requiring her to have regular blood transfusions and stay out of direct sunlight, but it doesn't stop her being strong enough to knock the teeth out of a classmate when teased. She has been told that she is special, but knows little about her family and the dynastic destiny that awaits her.

Chance's mum and dad, June (Annette Reilly) and December (Nels Lennarson), are engaged in putting together a business plan with the head of the Sinclair family, August (a ripe, almost pantomimic performance from Timothy V. Murphy - remember Al Pacino in 1997's The Devil's Advocate?), in anticipation of their daughter's soon come 18th birthday, which is to be celebrated in style. June and December want to break from the family and the price they have to pay is twofold; the procurement of one more soul to be sacrificed - the harvesting of souls being a regular thing in the Sinclair household - and the handing over of Chance to August.

But behind the scenes Chance's parents are planning something more dramatic, namely the death of the patriarch, and to enact this have roped in local chef, occasional assassin and poison specialist Sydney (Jonathan Lipnicki turning in on the spectrum performance where he almost manages to avoid making eye contact with every other cast member) to cater for a spectacular dinner party which will mark the overthrow of the family. But August has other plans.

The various other members of the famille Sinclair, including sword wielding Uncle November (Corey Large) who also goes by the name of 'Molloch' and 'Titan' and befanged May (Alyson Bath) crop up and deepen, or confuse, the family mystery further. At times Chance seems to disappear into an alternative world where she learns a little more about her family from a woman, Luck (Abby Ross). Are the Sinclairs vampires or some quasi rich breed descended from a Bret Easton Ellis short story? Happily some mordant humour - that Hereditary reference again - lets you question how seriously the viewer should be taking all this. 

Drake builds a convincing atmosphere of patriarchal dominance but frustrates with a fractured storyline and a whole load of characters who just aren't very nice. Broil is a movie more to admire than enjoy but its wry humour often saves it from its introspective nature and there's a sumptuous score from Hugh Wiellenga to add an extra layer of class.

Broil is released on DVD and Digital from Signature Entertainment on February 15, 2021

Bloody Flicks Awards 2021

For those of you who don't know, Bloody Flicks is a very fne horror/fantastic films site to which I'm immensely proud to contribute from time to time. In addition to running the thing site owner Paul Downey is now in the second year of mounting an annual awards ceremony, celebrating the best in genre short films and new features. This year Paul has given me a sneaky peek of all the entries; decisions will be made on the winners at the event, which will of course be online for the obvious reasons. If you're interested in attending, tickets are here on the day of the event; 20 - 21 February 2021.

So here's the rundown of the longlist of 20 shorts (there's also a surprise short which I'll unveil on the day of the awards):

Overkill (USA 2019: 14 mins) A very funny, sharply observed deconstruction of slasher movie cliches, with the knowingness of the Scream franchise combined with annoying millennial trigger speak, and a killer who just won't die, causing the resourceful final girl to dig deep for her supply of one liners.

Swipe (Netherlands 2019: 5 mins) A young girl picks a guy on a dating app who immediately stalks her via her phone, on the subway and finally in her own home. Creepy.

Cruel Tale, Friday Kills (France : 27 mins) Two hotel owners have closed shop for the season and are looking forward to a quiet vacation, once they dispose of the bodies of the couple they're just killed, of course. But their plans are thwarted by the arrival of a business couple who pay them handsomely for the use of their conference room. They invite three marketing strategists to meet with them, but they have an unusual request of the team; downsizing the company avoiding redundancies; they're asked to provide a list of the ten most expendable employees. A typically French short, packed with arch characters, nudity and graphic gore.

No One is Coming (USA 2020: 7 mins) Ellen drives to a cabin in the woods to meet her boyfriend on Halloween. But instead of finding him there she's menaced by a figure. Great 80s seasonal vibes and another resourceful heroine makes this short a real standout. 

Script (Italy 2018: 8mins) A very meta short in which two writers of horror scripts discuss the plots of their creations and expand on each others' tales to avoid them being cliched; but the stories start to predict real life, and before they know if they're being they're faced with the killers from their own stories. Cleverly edited, if not an entirely original idea.

Shared Document (UK 2020: 12 mins) I guess it wouldn't be long before the Host inspired movies came our way. Jim and Andi, brother and sister, separated one assumes during lockdown, are working on a shared document, a eulogy to their recently deceased father with whom they had a complicated relationship. They're joined in the document by a 'Professor Platypus' but it's not a public document. They log out and in again, but PP is back, wipes the text off screen and replaces it with a series of words which predict what's about to happen. And it's not good.

First Date of the Dead (UK 2020: 6 mins) If the walking dead had a dating app, of course it would be called 'Necromancer.' In this very sweet short, which manages to be funnier in its 6 minutes than the entirety of 2013's zomromcom Warm Bodies, a male zombie gets a match with a female zombie big on undead rights and they arrange a date at a restaurant, their grunting dialogue subtitled, in which they are as awkward as any new couple. They trade stories about how they were turned and whether they'd been shot. And guess what the restaurant is serving as a special? Great them tune too.

Atrophy (Sweden 2019: 17 mins) Freja, a personal carer, has been appointed to look after Alma, a young woman who can't move anything but her eyes, following a sudden collapse. But the longer Freja stays in the house, the more creeped out she gets. Her sleep is troubled, marks appear on her legs, and, worse still, strange figures haunt her dreams. Could she be going the same way as Alma? A haunting short with a great score by Lukas Markström.

Unusual Attachment (USA 2020: 14 mins) Hunter met a guy online on the website 'Man-Bingo' but a power surge separated them before they could exchange details; he searches the site endlessly, encountering various random uptight blokes until he finally hooks up with mystery man. But when the guy sends him an attachment, things are about to get very deadly. A very clever and funny lockdown filmed short

Sins of the Father (UK 2020: 9 mins) Well in every chocolate box there are likely to be one or two you don't like. This is nine minutes or so of watching a dishevelled priest running around a graveyard desperately overemoting. One assumes he's dead and has sinned during his life; well now he's wanted for crimes against acting too. It cost £6 to make, apparently.

Guest (UK 2020: 12 mins) A welcome rewatch of this unsettling short. A woman finds an older girl, Mary, in the bathroom of her house, and brings her to hospital. Mary has been trying to escape from a being called 'the Guest' who is a tall, bald headed entity with bulgy eyes, a little like the 'Momo' sculpture with less hair. Mary uses bleach to pour in her eyes to avoid seeing the creature, but she can still hear it breathing so she stabs at her own ears to block out the sound (don't worry, this is all offscreen). But will this be enough to drive the vision away? Seriously disquieting stuff.

She of the Land (UK 2020: 15 mins) Atmospheric modern day take on occult beliefs. There is a curse on Thomas's wife Mary so Thomas sets about to capture the woman that placed it and burn her. But which witch is which?

The Ferals (UK 2020: 9 mins) Filmed in the Seychelles. A guy wakes up on a deserted beach with an injury to his leg. Can he make it off the island to a waiting plane before its denizens get him?

Fright Corner (UK 2017: 7 mins) An independent film company are making a movie - a Scooby Doo/Hammer horror mashup - in the haunted village of Pluckley, a place where a previous crew have gone missing without a trace. Guest appearance from Billy Chainsaw. Pretty scrappy.

La Llorona (India 2019  ; 23 mins) La Llorona (translated as 'the crying woman' or 'the crying bride') must be the most overused title in the horror genre at the moment. But in this comedy things are a little different. Sati, a woman who continues to try and hang herself (she's already dead) after being spurned by a lover, returns to her home town to wreak revenge. However she meets with unlucky in love Pranay and they form a bizarre relationship. Very, very funny.

The Witch Hunters Are Coming (UK 2019: 10 mins) Brilliant mockumentary following the work of two witchfinders, Siddarth and his intern Dorothy from Kansas (!) who work for the Occult management department of Wandsworth Council. The pair are employed to seek out evil doings on the mean streets of south London. They visit Agatha Blair who is alleged to be a witch and to have turned a neighbour into a dog (she is and she has). This 10 minute short, as well as being hilarious, also mercilessly pins down both reality TV's stupidity and small town suburban life. Excellent work!

Static (UK 2020: 3 mins) Alison is desperate to bring her late boyfriend back from the grave, resorting to spells she's found on the internet do do so. But this one works, with horrendous results.

Deadly Scare (UK 2020: 7 mins) Talking its initial influence from What We Do in the Shadows, Mike Wiener is a professional scarer (and worse) and this film acts as a promotional tool for his work, which involves him donning his facial disguise (bandages basically), prepping his horror house for willing victims and, well, other things. Nasty.

Make A Wish (USA 8 mins) It's Freddy's 30th birthday and his girlfriend has baked him a cake with candles. Make a wish Freddy! But his rather unhinged partner Lexie has a rather different idea about the perfect present than he does, namely bringing home and tying up Freddy's former school bully Brock for her boyfriend to torture.

Malakout (Iran 2020: 10 mins) Ah some animation! And stunning animation at that. A pianist's wife dies. Obsessively he wishes her to return from the dead and strikes a deal with the devil to enable this to happen; he will lose both of his hands as a forfeit. He becomes the recepient of a transplant but, The Beast With Five Fingers style, the new hands belonged to a hanged murderer! This is a glittering, atmospheric short, stunning in its execution.

Temple of Devilbuster (Taiwan 2020: 24 mins) Hot on the heels of I-Fan Wang's Get the Hell Out, which also screened at the Bloody Flicks awards, here's the director's other release from last year, a typically crazy short from this enigmatic director. In the middle of down-town Taipei, a guy called Tai-Bao and a bald-headed woman, A-Queen are both the reincarnations of the Devil Star. As the two try to escape the criminal underworld, the police and an abusive 'father' who wants to take Tai-Bao back to the temple where the deity, the Holy Mother, is using them to take the blame for other people's sin, give chase. A dazzling short film with an electric soundtrack; of course it makes no sense but it's dazzling.

Willy's Wonderland (USA 2021: Dir Kevin Lewis)

These days if you're going to watch a movie with Nicolas Cage in the cast, a lot of your enjoyment of that film is going to be based on the extent to which you like Mr C, so front and centred is he in the roles he lands these days. In Willy's Wonderland the actor originally born Nicolas Kim Coppola is 'The Janitor', an almost dialogue free part which allows him to regularly kick arse and chug beer, unhampered by the kind of dialogue which can be his undoing.

Cage is a a drifter, who swings into the little town of Hayesville in his flash car; or more accurately comes a cropper when his tyres are blown out by a stinger laid across the road. The local garage can fix the vehicle but it'll cost him $1000, bills only; no cards, no internet in Hayesville. Cash strapped Cage is offered a deal; if he'll stay overnight and help clean up 'Willy's Wonderland' all debts will be considered settled and he can drive away on four brand new radials. Hey, he even gets a company T shirt.

'Willy's Wonderland' is a shut down restaurant with animatronic animals to delight the kids. Only it doesn't have such a great reputation in town, evidenced by the graffiti on the walls which reads 'Gateway to Hell' and 'Kid Killers'; it's also maybe why perky teen Liv (Emily Tosta) is trying to set fire to it; that is until she's escorted off the premises and taken home to her foster mother, who just happens to be the town sheriff (Beth Grant). 

So Cage, now living up to his 'Janitor' title, settles into the 'Wonderland' building and begins the cleanup. It seems that the operation was shut down following a couple of lawsuits being served on the owner, Tex Macadoo (Ric Reitz) because of injuries to kids by the automatons. Cage quickly finds out that the machines do indeed have a life of their own; one of them, Ozzie the Ostrich, attacks our hero but ends up with its head bashed in and its mechanical guts pulled out, courtesy of the 'Janitor.'

Liv's friends release her from incarceration and accompany her back to the restaurant so she can finish the incendiary deed. Unsurprisingly they fall through the roof and end up, via the soft play area, in the heat of the action. It's just them and the Janitor versus a horde of marauding life sized mechanical animals in a fight to the death.

There is of course a reason behind the rampaging auto-beasts, involving serial killers and black magic, but we don't really care about that; we're here to see Nicolas Cage, with nary a sneer in sight, silently take out the automatons, fuelled only by his bare hands and craft beer. The fact that he's an effective kick arse machine, while the ineffective young people - with the exception of Liv - become victims of Willy the Weasel, Tito Turtle and the rest is interesting. Early on in the movie, where the origin of the mechanical menagerie is discussed, Liv describes the original owner of 'Willy's Wonderland' as "one of the last century's most sick and sadistic serial killers." Wait a minute, last century? Ouch; way to make a viewer feel old. And yet it's the old fart (Cage) who's the hero of the day! Go figure.

Anyhow, as mentioned this is Cage's movie. A silent hero who also finds time to buff his nails and both resurrect and get in some serious leisure time on a pinball machine, he's way less annoying than some of his other recent cinematic incarnations (Red Miller, I'm looking at you). This bizarre little movie plunders, in no particular order, Meet the Feebles (1989) and a couple of recent reboots from 2019, Lars Klevberg's Child's Play and The Banana Splits Movie by Daniella Esterhazy. As those influences suggest it's a film best seen with a crowd and while it's a lot of fun, it misses opportunities to send up commercialism and/or or small town politics which would give it a bit of an extra dimension. Great soundtrack by Émoi though with a really earwormy theme.

Sator (USA 2019: Dir Jordan Graham)

The second feature from Jordan Graham is an extraordinary mix of reality and fiction, a succession of startling images with a rising sense of the sinister. It’s also nigh on impossible to explain exactly what happens in the film: it’s an oblique and personal experience better seen than read about, although the director assured me when I spoke to him after the movie's debut screening at the 2019 Soho Horror Film Festival, that, although the film feels difficult, every shot is vital to its understanding.

Adam (Gabe Nicholson) lives in a cabin in the woods. By day he checks cameras for sightings of deer, and tries to summon them using a carved reed whistle: he also receives occasional visits from his brother Pete (Michael Daniel) and Pete's decidedly ethereal girlfriend Evie (Rachel Johnson). All are mourning, in different ways, the passing of their grandmother – or ‘Nani’ as she’s referred to (June Peterson), a woman who in her later years indulged in spirit writing, the results of which made constant reference to a being named ‘Sator’ who may or may not be a guardian spirit. Adam and Pete's mother has gone missing, their father isn't around and their sister Deborah (Aurora Lowe) may also be a missing presence; technically the three 'children' are orphans. 'Nani' describes Sator as a being "who was in charge of everything..." and who commands fear and respect, cloaking his disciples in the skin of animals; an omnipresence. 

One night while out in the woods Adam thinks he sees something, and when he later reviews the deercam footage, three shadowy robed figures can be vaguely glimpsed. At night he listens to tapes of the spirit writing being read back by his grandmother. “Sator talks to me. He watches what I’m doing and I get messages,” she explains. As the mentions of Sator increase, so do the visions. Adam's grief, and the desire to hold on to his grandmother's voice, means that Sator becomes more and more real in his eyes; are the visions he sees real or something internal within Adam?

The nightmarish opening scenes of Sator, stunningly shot in black and white, with the forest backdrop offering up flickering images of levitating bodies and a burning man, set up the mood of this strange film. The movie switches from 4:3 to widescreen, colour to black and white, past to present and combines reality and fiction, to the point where the viewer cannot separate the two. 

But there's an intensely personal aspect to this movie that is quite unusual: the Hi-8 shot footage of 'Nani' is in reality Graham’s grandmother, who was diagnosed with dementia towards the end of her life and took up spirit writing at the suggestion of a medium; the authenticity extends to the concept of Sator, who appeared within her writings, and the film of her explanations is integrated into the film.

In the Q&A after the screening I attended Graham admitted that this aspect of his grandmother’s life had been hushed up by the rest of the family, so it was a bold movie not only to include the footage but to combine reality and fiction in the way he does in the film. Is it exploitative? Not in the least: Sator is both a memorial to his dead relative and an extended meditation on visions, dreams and the power of the mind.

Sator won’t be a film for everyone; its pace is languid, even funereal at times. But it's an enthralling watch which rewards your attention, pulled together by an amazing sound design (also by Graham), and a succession of images that stay with you long after the film has ended.

Sator is released on UK Digital Download platforms from 15 February, with a DVD release from 22 February courtesy of Lightbulb Film Distribution.