Film and Horror

GFF 2012 - Day planner

Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival

6 Feb 2012

It can be difficult, when any festival rolls around, to decide which events to skip in favour of others. Searching rigorously through the programme, referring back to the calendar, trying to fit in as much as possible - it's a painstaking piece of work…

The Woman In Black

Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Potter film lacks the requisite scares for a classic ghost story

23 Jan 2012

(12A) 95mins Susan Hill’s Victorian ghost story has been terrifying theatre audiences for the best part of twenty-five years, second only to The Mousetrap as the longest running show in the history of London’s West End. It has already been…

Big Tit Zombies 3D

22 Oct 2010

(15) 73min (Terracotta) Where a film like The Horde takes its zombies seriously, this isn't is something you could ever accuse Takao Nakano’s Big Tit Zombies of doing. BTZ goes for simple pleasures as a troupe of strippers fight off a plague of the…

The Uninvited

16 Apr 2009

(15) 87min Kim Ji-woon’s Korean horror A Tale of Two Sisters undergoes the Hollywood treatment in this plush-but-empty DreamWorks remake, with Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel cast as disturbed siblings Anna and Alex Ivers. The two sisters are…

Lesbian Vampire Killers

19 Mar 2009

HORROR/COMEDY Overexposure can shoot down even the most promising career. And while Mathew Horne and James Corden aren’t quite there yet, they need to be careful. A double act since their award-winning Gavin & Stacey, for their first big screen…

Shutter

19 Jun 2007

HORROR In lieu of a forthcoming US remake, this half arsed 2004 Thai ghost story is getting an overdue and limited release. Driving home after getting drunk with a few of his old friends, photographer Tun (Ananda Everingham) and his girlfriend…

GFF 2012 - Italo-horror artist Umberto

The soundtrack specialist fits comfortably into the Glasgow Music and Film Festival strand

1 Feb 2012

Horror-score revivalist Matt Hill channels the creepyass compositions of Goblin, John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi in his eerie synthjams, conjuring up a sonic witches brew. A member of drone-merchants Expo 70, Hill has, in his Umberto guise, explored the…

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Ex-Banshees bassist delivers brooding live score to 1930s horror classic

1 Feb 2012

The man with the flowing white hair walks towards a small table and chair to one side of the Cameo’s big screen. Sporting a long black winter coat and carrying a glass of red wine, the man looks as if he’s stepped in from another, altogether darker age…

GFF 2012 - Frightfest highlights

A round up of the best films showing as part of the Glasgow Film Festival's horror strand

2 Feb 2012

FrightFest is back once again to terrorise the Glasgow Film Festival. Now taking over the GFT for two full days, this year (as with every year) it’s a vibrant snap shot of the state of horror cinema. It’s been so successful the organisers have launched…

A Lonely Place To Die

Tense and riveting Brit-thriller set in Scottish Highlands

24 Aug 2011

How far would you go to save a stranger? Would you risk your life? And your friends’ lives? It’s a question Alison (Melissa George) and her fellow climbers must answer after they stumble across a young girl (Holly Boyd) buried in a wooden box while…

Mother's Day

Rebecca De Mornay stars in rare example of a horror remake done well

23 May 2011

(18) 112min Following on the heels of bloodless remakes of cherished 1980s slasher flicks like The Stepfather and Prom Night, Mother’s Day is a nastier but more accomplished beast. This home invasion drama is a reboot of the 1980 Troma original, and…

Profile: Simon Hynd, director of horror thriller Senseless

Jason Behr plays US businessman who is kidnapped

24 Mar 2011

Born 20 January, 1974, Edinburgh Background Hynd studied Film & Television at Napier, making a few shorts that got him noticed by the Scottish film industry, going on to win a Scottish BAFTA for his short Tumshie Mcfadgen’s Bid for Ultimate…

The Stepfather

4 Dec 2009

Reprising the unfortunate wine-into-water routine of his Prom Night remake, director Nelson McCormick performs a similarly unwelcome trick by blandly rehashing Joseph Ruben’s solid 1987 sleeper hit. TV staple Dylan Walsh steps into the role previously…

Saw VI

23 Oct 2009

(18) 90 min. The Saw series is as fixed in the calendar as Halloween itself (they have had a movie out every October since the series started back in 2004), and surprisingly Saw VI is the best instalment for a good while (certainly trumping the last…

Hitlist: Films

17 Sep 2009

Army of Crime, The Beaches of Agnes, White Lightnin', The Godfather, Nagisa Oshima, Fish Tank, Adventureland, Three Miles North of Molkom, Inglourious Basterds, The Big Knife, The Stranger

Antichrist

23 Jul 2009

Danish Dogme pack leader Lars Von Trier conjures up a slice of unbridled and unpleasant pantheistic horror that’s underlined by themes of grief and guilt. When middle class couple Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe’s son dies in a freak accident…

The Awakening

Superior British period ghost story sets a tone of creepy unease

15 Nov 2011

There’s been a glut of cinematic ghost stories this year. The likes of Paranormal Activity 3 and Insidious often relied on jump scares and cheap parlour tricks, whereas The Awakening goes in the opposite direction letting the story unfold to reveal the…

The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)

Almodovar's adaptation is measured, playful and spellbinding

19 Aug 2011

(15) 120min The Skin I Live In has all the elements of a campy Vincent Price B-movie. There is a meddlesome scientist driven mad by grief, a grisly revenge plot and a hapless victim, not to mention multiple murder, kidnap and rape. In the hands of…

DVD reviews: The Kingdom, Giallo, The Pack, Bloodrayne 3, Evil Rising and Lake Mungo

Summer horror DVD round-up

18 Jul 2011

Forget Hollywood – this month we embark on a European horror odyssey. First up, Lars von Trier's superlative haunted hospital drama The Kingdom (Second Sight ●●●●). Collecting both of his four-part Danish TV series into one boxed set for the first time…

The Last Circus

Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness

20 Jun 2011

The latest film from writer/director Alex de la Iglesia is almost unclassifiable, a love story, a black comedy and horror all apply and as fans of his Accion Mutante (1992) will know it’s this glorious mess of ideas and themes that makes for such a…

Wake Wood

Supernatural horror from Hammer Studios captures relentless claustrophobia

30 Mar 2011

The resurrected Hammer Studios really are upping the pace, swiftly following The Resident with British supernatural shocker Wake Wood. Very much a riff on Stephen King’s Pet Sematary (which also got an excellent big screen adaptation from overlooked…

Horror Channel announces TV premieres of UK horror films for April 2011

Includes Mum & Dad, Tony: London Serial Killer and Salvage

30 Mar 2011

‘Essentially through the month of April every Friday night we’re going to have the UK TV premiere of brilliant British cutting edge horror films,’ explains Programmes & Acquisitions Coordinator Paul McEvoy (also founder and co-director of horror film…

Buried, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil and Shock Labyrinth released on DVD

Horror DVD round-up

2 Mar 2011

Over the years some of the greatest horror films have found love and longevity amongst the classics of the genre despite their direct-to-video origins. Unfortunately that’s not always the case as The Open Door (Second Sight) ● proves. Taking the vague…

Tower of London

17 Feb 2010

(15) 92min (Optimum) This long unavailable (on DVD), deliciously nasty historical horror made in 1939 is all dungeons, manacles, torture and beheadings. But it’s also fairly classy stuff, boasting a fine cast headed by Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff…

Orphan

26 Aug 2009

This unfortunately overlooked recent horror offers plenty of dark thrills and genuinely creepy moments making a nice addition to the ‘evil child’ subgenre. Perfectly paired with the ultimate diabolical kiddie movie The Omen (the classic 1976 Richard…

The Children

27 Nov 2008

HORROR The current fad for evil kiddie chillers – see Ils (Them) from France, Eden Lake from the UK and While She Was Out from the US – continues with another British horror flick in which children do diabolical things to disbelieving adults. As the…

Intruders

Derivative, moderately engaging paranormal horror starring Clive Owen

5 Jan 2012

(15) 110min Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has never quite delivered on the promise of his clever debut feature Intacto. Retro chiller Intruders is cleverly constructed and suspenseful but fades when pitted against superior genre fare like…

Paranormal Activity 3

Surprisingly effective third instalment of found footage suburban ghost story

21 Oct 2011

(15) 84min Now Saw has relinquished it’s stranglehold on the multiplex each and every Halloween, Paranormal Activity has stepped up to fill the void. And it’s impressive that they’ve managed to mine this much back-story from the simplicity of the…

Shark Night 3D

Dumb fun as big fish chow down on stereotypical college kids

6 Oct 2011

(15) 91 min The avalanche of 3D releases may be slowing down but there’s still a few chuckles to be had with the format. Shark Night 3D has the flimsiest of plots as seven college kids head out for a weekend at a luxurious lake house in Louisiana…

Red State survey reveals loss of morals in UK

A questionnaire promoting Kevin Smith's Republican-skewering horror flick has interesting results

29 Sep 2011

Kevin Smith is well-known for baiting controversy - his apocalyptic comedy Dogma drew massive complaints for its depiction of a shallow Catholic church, while latest release Red State focuses on a group of serial-killing Christian fundamentalists.

The Woman

Challenging horror from the minds of Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum

28 Sep 2011

(18) 98 min There has been a spate of interesting indie horror recently, films like Dead Girl, The Loved Ones and Red, White & Blue have brought a real intelligence to the genre. A challenging leftfield take on the idea of what is horror. The Woman…

Red State

Uneven political horror-thriller from Kevin Smith

14 Sep 2011

(18) 88min Outspoken filmmaker Kevin Smith hit a creative and commercial low with his last studio-backed production, the Bruce Willis-starring flop Cop Out, but before that film was even released Smith had shifted focus to this long-gestating…

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Unimaginitive reboot of 70s cult horror film

13 Sep 2011

(15) 99min Looming large in the childhood memories of many US pop culture aficionados, the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was a minor but effective 1973 TV movie in which Jim Hutton and Kim Darby played a couple menaced by demonic creatures in…

Profile: Melissa George

Aussie actress Melissa George tells us all about her new film A Lonely Place to Die

1 Sep 2011

Born 6 August, 1976, Perth, Australia. Background Yet another Aussie soap alumni done good, after starring as Angel in over 300 episodes of Home & Away. ‘I’m a very good quitter, I always quit a job at the right time,’ explains George. ‘I was…

Final Destination 5

Horror franchise gets back on track with some suitably gory bloodshed

24 Aug 2011

(15) 92 min In many ways the Final Destination series is the ultimate streamlined horror franchise, they have dispensed with a villain and it is death itself that stalks our victims. And FD 5 returns the glorious gory yucks to the screen after the…

Kill List

Genre-schizophrenic crime spree lacks clarity

19 Aug 2011

(18) 95min Down Terrace director Ben Wheatley second feature is another tale of crime, skullduggery and mystery. Kill List is one of those movies that starts off in one genre (kitchen sink drama) and turns into another (horror). Robert Rodriguez…

Julia's Eyes

A very well made chiller in the stalk ‘n’ slash tradition

1 Jul 2011

(15) 112min In addition to directing visionary adult horror-fantasies (The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth) and outstanding Hollywood blockbusters (Hellboy and its sequel), Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is also carving a second career for…

DVD reviews: Amer, My Soul to Take, Season of the Witch, The Resident and more on DVD

Horror DVD round-up

24 Jun 2011

Time for another dastardly delve into the horror DVD pile. We’ll start on a highnote. Amer (Anchor Bay) is actually French but is a studied homage to Italian 70s gialo filmmaking, more concerned with sound, colour, style and mood than coherent…

Rabies (Kalevat)

An interesting twist on slasher movie conventions from Israel

17 Jun 2011

The problem with slasher films is that they perhaps have the most rigid rules in cinema. It’s so easy to fall into the standard clichés as set out by Halloween and Friday the 13th. Not that it means you can’t make a fun, entertaining film within these…

Profile: Jim Mickle, director of vampire horror Stake Land

Director turnes hometown into a post-apocalyptic wasteland

23 May 2011

Name Jim Mickle Born Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1977 Background After graduating from New York University’s filmmaking programme, Mickle worked in the camera department for features Transamerica, Shortbus and Pride and Glory. The experience gave him…

Kaboom

Cult director Gregg Araki returns to his B-movie roots with comedy-sci-fi-horror

23 May 2011

(15) 86min Cult director Gregg Araki (The Living End, Mysterious Skin), one of the leading figures in the New Queer Cinema of the 90s, returns to the style of his earlier work for Kaboom, a gloriously trashy, insane ride of a film that wears its…

DVD: I Spit on Your Grave

2010 remake of notorious 'Video Nasty'

17 Feb 2011

Sarah Butler stars in Steven R Monroe's reboot of the 1978 rape-revenge Video Nasty.

DVD: In Their Sleep (Dans Ton Sommeil)

Quietly unsettling psychological thriller

17 Feb 2011

French psychological thriller directed by Caroline and Eric du Potet, and starring Anne Parillaud (Nikita).

Flower of Flesh and Blood, Guinea Pig and August Underground on DVD

The List’s guide to banned horror films, we watched them so you don’t have to

22 Oct 2010

For this Hallowe’en special we step into the outer reaches of horror and examine some of the films that have been refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. Of course it’s impossible to have a discussion on banned movies in the…

Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights

5 May 2010

With The Edinburgh Film Festival 2010, which runs between 16-27 June, only a matter of weeks away, the red carpets are getting waterproofed and the popcorn machines are getting serviced. Now in its 64th year, the twelve day festival, packed with…

Film Violence: History, Ideology, Genre - James Kendrick

16 Apr 2010

(Wallflower) James Kendrick’s short volume isn’t at all an ambitious book; and that is perhaps as much down to the nature of the commission as it is to the limitations of the writer. This is one of Wallflower publishing’s Short Cuts. The books are…

Halloween Guide: M - S

Yet more spooky goings-on

16 Oct 2009

M is for Movies Perhaps only rivalled by the upsurge in the plastic horn industry around 31 Oct, the annual economic boost for the horror film industry ensures that, every Halloween, there is a fresh crop of dismembered corpse-filled flicks to satisfy…

The Last House on the Left

11 Jun 2009

Given the repellent nature of Wes Craven’s scuzzy little 1972 rape and revenge shocker, it’s a relief to find this glossy remake straying somewhat from the original’s sleazy path. Craven and original producer Sean S Cunningham steer the hand of Dennis…

Mum & Dad

11 Dec 2008

(18) 85min If you appreciate black humour and have a strong stomach there’s much to be admired in Steven Sheil’s low budget British horror. Exploiting the ongoing trend for torture porn, it transports the sadomasochistic splatter-fest of the Hostel…

Halloween Special - Horror Movies

16 Oct 2008

It’s Halloween, so it must be time for the latest instalment in the most extreme survival horror series out there: Saw V. More than a simple gorefest, there’s a cruel intelligence at play with its villain, Jigsaw, the latest in a long line of horror…