Luz... Director: Tilman SingerWriter: Tilman SingerStarring: Luana Velis, Johannes Benecke, Jan Bluthardt Review Luz is a cryptic, supernatural chiller and the directorial debut from writer-director Tilman Singer. It hearkens back to the horror style of the 1980s, offering grainy 16mm film, a creepy mood and an unsettling, synth-heavy score. It is the kind of film... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Daniel Isn’t Real
Daniel Isn't Real...Director: Adam Egypt MortimerWriters: Adam Egypt Mortimer, Brian DeLeeuw from his novel ‘In This Way I Was Saved’Stars: Miles Robbins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sasha Lane, Chukwudi Iwuj, Hanna Marks, Griffin Robert Faulkner, Nathan ReidReviewDaniel Isn’t Real is a vivid psychological horror from director Adam Egypt Mortimer, which centres around troubled college... Continue Reading →
Review: The Lighthouse (London Film festival 2019) [-FILM-]
The Lighthouse...Director: Robert EggersWriters: Max Eggers, Robert EggersStarring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, Valeriia Karaman ReviewThere can be few things as psychologically damaging as being trapped in solitary confinement with someone you hate. For his follow-up to The Witch, Robert Eggers delivers a grim, hallucinatory story about two men shut up in a lighthouse tower, going... Continue Reading →
Review: Color Out Of Space (London Film Festival 2019) [-FILM-]
According to aficionados of H.P Lovecraft, his macabre cosmic tales are notoriously difficult to adapt into film. The challenge of adapting Lovecraft’s personal favourite, The Color Out of Space, has brought director Richard Stanley back into the cinematic fray, this film being his first narrative feature since 1992.
Review: Alien 4K Ultra HD
Alien 4K Ultra HD...This year sees the 40th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s Alien, and to mark the occasion 20th Century Fox is releasing a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray package that will be available in the UK from April 1st, 2019.Alien is one of the most discussed, dissected and academically analysed movies in modern cinema.... Continue Reading →
Review: Ringu 4K
Ringu 4K...Director: Hideo NakataWriters: Hiroshi Takahashi (screenplay), from the novel by Kôji SuzukiStarring: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Yûko Takeuchi, Hiroyuki Sanada, Masako, Chihiro ShiraiReviewIn March 2019 Arrow Video is rereleasing Hideo Nakata’s Ringu restored from the original negative in vivid high definition and supplemented by archival and newly created bonus materials.In 1998, director Hideo Nakata... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Halloween (2018)
@RenZelen reviews...Director: David Gordon GreenWriters: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jeff FradleyStarring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Haluk Bilginer, Will Patton, Toby Huss, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Rhian Rees, Miles Robbins, Virginia Gardner, Dylan ArnoldReviewIt’s hard to build tension when everyone knows what’s going to happen. We’re all now so familiar with... Continue Reading →
Film Review: The Nightshifter
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Dennison RamalhoWriters: Cláudia Jouvin, Dennison Ramalho, based on the novel by Marco de CastroStarring: Daniel de Oliveira, Fabiula Nascimento, Bianca Comparato, Annalara Prates, Marco RiccaReviewWhile most of the horror flicks we get to see in the cineplexes are familiar franchises or films which too often tend to drag out the same old tropes,... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Assassination Nation
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Sam LevinsonWriter: Sam LevinsonStarring: Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Abra, Bill Skarsgård, Joel McHale, Bella Thorne, Anika Noni Rose, Colman Domingo, Maude ApatowReviewAssassination Nation is writer/director Sam Levinson’s provocative modern-day spin on the 17th century Salem witch trials. As mob hysteria and mass panic spread through social media, contemporary Salem erupts into... Continue Reading →
Film Review: May The Devil Take You
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Timo TjahjantoWriter: Timo TjahjantoStarring: Chelsea Islan, Pevita Pearce, Samo Rafael, Ray Sahetapy, Karina Suwandhi, Hadijah Shahab, Ruth MariniReviewIndonesia's Timo Tjahjanto first appeared on the horror scene as one half of duo The Mo Brothers before co-directing the Safe Haven segment of anthology V/H/S 2 with The Raid's Gareth Evans. His new feature May... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Hereditary
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Ari AsterWriter: Ari AsterStarring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Mallory Bechte, Zachary ArthurReviewThere isn’t much I haven’t already seen when it comes to horror films. I’ve been watching them ever since I was old enough to get away with it, or even before (on one occasion I got... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Midnighters
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Julius RamsayWriter: Alston RamsayStarring: Alex Essoe, Perla Haney-Jardine, Dylan McTee, Ward Horton, Andrew Rothenberg, Joseph Anderson, K.C. FaldaszReviewThey’re counting down to midnight on New Year's Eve and a pretty young woman searches in vain for her husband on a crowded dance floor. She finds him outside, alone with thoughts, and with a kiss... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Ritual
@RenZelen reviews...Director: David BrucknerWriters: Joe Barton, Adam Nevill (novel)Starring: Rafe Spall, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton, Arsher Ali, Paul Reid, Maria Erwolter, Kerri McLeanReviewThe Ritual, adapted by Joe Barton from Adam Nevill’s 2011 bestseller, is now a feature film directed by David Bruckner (who aficionados may remember contributed ‘Amateur Night’ to the anthology horror film V/H/S).The... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Yorgos LanthimosWriters: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis FilippouStarring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, Bill CampReviewLike the Greek myth that inspired the title, Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest feature, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, concerns itself with the consequences of transgression and the meting out of justice. The film is... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Ghost Stories
@RenZelen reviews...Directors: Jeremy Dyson, Andy NymanWriters: Jeremy Dyson, Andy NymanStarring: Andy Nyman, Martin Freeman, Alex Lawther, Daniel Hill, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Nicholas Burns, Jill Halfpenny, Emily Carding, Derren Brown ReviewIt’s a while since we’ve seen a cinematic anthology of horror tales, but Ghost Stories revives that tradition with a trio of supernatural stories in the style... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Sicilian Ghost Story
@RenZelen reviews...Directors: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio PiazzaWriters: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio PiazzaStarring: Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari, Andrea Falzone, Sabine Timoteo, Vincenzo AmatoReviewIn Sicilian Ghost Story - their follow-up to 2013’s prize-winner Salvo - co-directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza evocatively interweave the richness of a dark fairy tale with the brutal reality of a true... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Midnighters
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Julius RamsayWriter: Alston RamsayStarring: Alex Essoe, Perla Haney-Jardine, Dylan McTee, Ward Horton, Andrew Rothenberg, Joseph Anderson, K.C. Faldasz ReviewThey’re counting down to midnight on New Year's Eve and a pretty young woman searches in vain for her husband on a crowded dance floor. She finds him outside, alone with thoughts, and with a... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Villainess (Ak-Nyeo)
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Byung-gil JungWriters: Byeong-sik Jung, Byung-gil Jung Starring: Ok-bin Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Jun Sung, Seo-hyeong Kim, Eun-ji Jo, Ye-Ji MinReviewLike so many recent Korean action flicks, Byung-gil Jung’s The Villainess starts off with a humdinger of an action sequence. One is barely settled in one’s seat before being immediately thrust into the midst of... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Vault
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Dan BushWriters: Dan Bush, Conal ByrneStarring: James Franco, Taryn Manning, Francesca Eastwood, Scott Haze, Q'Orianka Waira Qoiana Kilcher, Clifton Collins Jr. Jeff Gum, Keith LonekerReviewWriter/director Dan Bush (The Signal, 2007) says of his new film, The Vault, that his vision was to make a movie where ‘Heist meets horror’. He couches this ambition... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Limehouse Golem
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Juan Carlos MedinaWriters: Peter Ackroyd (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)Starring: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth, Eddie Marsan, María Valverde, Sam ReidReviewThe Limehouse Golem is an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 novel “Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem” (in the U.S. “The Trial of Elizabeth Cree”) and is the first English-language feature of director... Continue Reading →