horror
Velvet Buzzsaw review - an acerbic takedown of the LA art sceneFriday, 01 February 2019
Sitting somewhere between Ruben Östlund’s The Square and Final Destination, Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical supernatural thriller that goes for the jugular of the LA art scene.We open at the Art Basel Miami Beach, where art snobs with fat... Read more... |
Suspiria review - kindly, slow-motion grand guignolThursday, 15 November 2018
The first Suspiria was a sensation, and spectacularly, monomaniacally new. Its young heroine Susie Bannon’s ride from an innately hostile airport through eldritch woods in which a panicked girl ran from her destination, the Markos Academy of Dance,... Read more... |
Overlord review - nightmares in NormandySaturday, 10 November 2018
The trailer for Overlord promises havoc, horror, evil, madness, terror and rage, and to be fair it delivers on most of those. From the fantasy factory of producer JJ Abrams, it’s the ghastly story of an alternative D-Day, in which American... Read more... |
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix review - girl power goes supernaturalSaturday, 03 November 2018
Not to be confused with Nineties supernatural sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Netflix’s new incarnation of the high-schooler with infernal powers is a ghoulish thrill-ride which boldly surfs the dark side, with a pronounced feminist and gay slant... Read more... |
Possum review - mind-infecting homage to 1970s horrorThursday, 25 October 2018
Matthew Holness clearly knows a thing or two about low-budget British horror from the early 1970s. In TV comedy Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace he was as merciless as he was affectionate in ripping the genre apart. His debut feature as writer-director is... Read more... |
Matthew Holness: 'I wanted to make a modern silent horror film'Friday, 19 October 2018
Watching Matthew Holness’ debut feature Possum, you’d be forgiven in thinking he was a tortured soul. Lead character Phillip (played by Sean Harris, pictured below) is a lean marionette of a man, prone to horrific flights of fantasy involving a... Read more... |
Little Shop of Horrors, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - monstrously entertainingSaturday, 11 August 2018
The resplendent partnership of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman – which produced Disney hits Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid – first took root with this 1982 Off-Broadway musical, based on a low-budget Sixties film, about a... Read more... |
The Turn of the Screw, ENO, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - one dimension, not fourTuesday, 26 June 2018
Opera and music theatre have set the birds shrilling in Regent's Park before in the shape of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess – a very forgettable production – and Sondheim's Into the Woods – much better, and a score which can give any 20th century opera a... Read more... |
Revenge - a blood-soaked joyThursday, 10 May 2018
Deep in an unnamed desert, a violent and psychedelic retribution is sought. The aptly named Revenge is a brutally rewarding experience, bringing classic horror and exploitation tropes kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It is the debut... Read more... |
The Woman in White, BBC One review - camp VictorianaMonday, 23 April 2018
The BBC excels at a very particular kind of drama, namely one where production values overawe dramatic content. Its version of The Woman in White (BBC One) proves no exception. Our hero is Walter, a bemused sappy painter played by ex-Eastender Ben... Read more... |
True Horror, Channel 4 review - a Ronseal approach to ghost storiesFriday, 20 April 2018
As if the real world wasn’t scary enough... Ghost stories are en vogue at the moment, and after the BBC’s hit-and-miss Requiem, Channel 4 brings True Horror to the small screen – a collection of "real" ghost stories, told by witness interviews and... Read more... |
Unsane review - Claire Foy in bonkers horror satireThursday, 22 March 2018
Steven Soderbergh has always been capable of a big Hollywood moment – Magic Mike, Oceans etc. But much of his filmography consists of curious sideways glances. He’s particularly drawn to the shifting distribution of power between the genders. From... Read more... |
