Thriller

The Stranger

8 May 2008

THRILLER (PG) 95min (Eureka) Having failed to turn a profit on either Citizen Kane or its follow-up The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles directed this relatively conventional film noir for RKO in 1946. In the process, he proved to the studio that…

Death Story

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May The thriller format that we’ve come to associate with Alma Cullen’s film and television work in such programmes as A Touch of Frost and Inspector Morse is abandoned in her latest play for a more reflective…

The Air I Breathe

8 May 2008

THRILLER/ROMANCE (15) 95min Taking its cue from an old Chinese proverb that says life is composed of four emotions – happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love – this ensemble drama featuring an A-list cast and four intertwined plotlines is reminiscent of…

The Oxford Murders

24 Apr 2008

CRIME/THRILLER (15) 104min Having graduated from the kitsch sci-fi satire of Acción mutante and the heavy metal horror of The Day of the Beast to the Hitchcockian black comedies Common Wealth and Ferpect Crime, Bilbao-born filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia…

Brent Ghelfi - Volk’s Game

24 Apr 2008

CRIME THRILLER (Faber) This debut novel from former US Court of Appeals clerk Brent Ghelfi introduces us to Alexei Volkovoy. ‘Volk’ (‘wolf’), a one-time sniper for the Russian Army in Chechnya, is now an unscrupulous gangster commissioned to steal a…

The Nines

24 Apr 2008

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER (15) 99mins (Optimum DVD retail/rental) For his varied pedigree alone, screenwriter John August’s debut feature is a worthy curiosity. Having written Doug Liman’s Go, both Charlie’s Angels instalments and three films by Tim…

The 39 Steps

10 Apr 2008

THRILLER/NEW PRINT (U) 85min Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 thriller finds its way back on to the big screen courtesy of a new digital cinema and 35mm print. Scottish author and unionist politician John Buchan’s novel has been filmed three times, but…

Street Kings

10 Apr 2008

THRILLER (15) 107min Writer-director David Ayer is no stranger to LA’s mean streets and actors often flourish in his company. Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Training Day, while Christian Bale (Harsh Times) and Kurt Russell (Dark Blue) ate up his…

Jane Doe

10 Apr 2008

ACTION/THRILLER (15) 90min (Metrodome DVD retail) Resuscitated almost-ran Teri Hatcher gets the gun and an action vehicle in this re-released 2001 TV movie. After the desperate housewife is fired from her job at Cy-Kor, a major arms dealer, her…

Awake

27 Mar 2008

THRILLER (15) 84min Written and directed by first-timer Joby Harold, Awake examines ‘anaesthetic awareness’, which unaccountably leaves patients fully conscious and physically paralysed during surgery. The grisly real-life phenomenon is explored…

Coup De Torchon

27 Mar 2008

THRILLER (15) 123min (Optimum DVD retail) Adapted from a Jim Thompson novel by Bertrand Tavernier, this loose adaptation shows local police officer Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) in an African colony in 1938 inefficiently doing his job while being…

Funny Games US

27 Mar 2008

HORROR/THRILLER (18) 111min The conventional thinking about shot-for-shot remakes is why bother? We only need cast our minds back to the furore surrounding what many thought to be the sacrilegious and pointless remake of Psycho by Gus Van Sant.

The Serpent

27 Mar 2008

THRILLER (15) 117min (Metrodome DVD retail) Photographer Vincent’s (Yvan Attal) marriage is in its death throes; his wife wants to relocate with his two young children from France to Munich without him. In the midst of all this, a ghost from his…

Untraceable

28 Feb 2008

CRIME/THRILLER (18) 100min What new wine can be poured into the cracked old bottles of the serial killer movie? Although the sub-genre is less than 20 years old (kicking off with Silence of the Lambs and peaking with David Fincher’s Se7en), it has…

Rambo

14 Feb 2008

ACTION/THRILLER (18) 90min Last year Sylvester Stallone successfully revitalised the Rocky franchise with Rocky Balboa. After a number of dud sequels, Stallone breathed life back into the pugilist by revisiting him in his decrepitude to winning…

Black Water

14 Feb 2008

THRILLER/HORROR (15) 90min This low budget Australian creature feature is probably inspired by the true story of a saltwater crocodile attack in the Northern Territory. Written and directed by newcomers David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki, Black Water…

Defence of The Realm

14 Feb 2008

POLITICAL THRILLER (PG) 96min (Network DVD rental/retail) Not much has changed in the 24 years since this grim-faced, pessimistic and remorseless British thriller was released, save the end of the Cold War. In it, a reporter on a sleazy right wing…

Played

14 Feb 2008

GANGSTER/THRILLER (15) 84min (High Fliers DVD rental) We love, love, love filmmakers who sod the restrictions imposed by low budgets by using every opportunity they can lay their hands on, including mates’ mates who happen to be famous actors. That’s…

Waz

14 Feb 2008

THRILLER/HORROR (18) 104min Marketed as a member of the Se7en school of psychological thriller, the gory realities of WAZ’s serial killer chase premise put it closer to the iniquitous barbarism presented by James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw…

The Lady Vanishes

(U) 95min

31 Jan 2008

Originally released in September 1938, a few days before Neville Chamberlain stepped off a plane at Heston airport waving the stationary which was to end his political career, Alfred Hitchcock’s splendidly entertaining pan-European railway caper looks…

I Know Who Killed Me - DVD review

Thrilller/horror

31 Jan 2008

Direct to DVD and topping this year’s Razzie’s with nine nominations, the latest Lindsay Lohan vehicle doesn’t have a great pedigree. While it’s far from a cinematic masterpiece it doesn’t quite deserve all the flack it’s been attracting. Lohan plays…

No Country For Old Men

17 Jan 2008

THRILLER (15) 122min After the public ambivalence and critical lambasting of their last two films – Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers – the Coen Brothers return to form with this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, which features many…

Chase A Crooked Shadow

4 Jan 2008

THRILLER (U) 84min (Optimum DVD retail) Directed by Michael Anderson, a man whose eclectic CV incorporates The Dam Busters and Logan’s Run, this low-key, high-concept thriller works through its original central premise with some solid character…

Fear Is The Key

4 Jan 2008

THRILLER 15 100min (Optimum DVD retail) A rarely-seen cult classic from 1972, this Alistair MacLean adaptation comes loaded with points of interest. Directed by Michael Tuchner (Villain, the big-screen version of The Likely Lads), soundtracked with…

Lust, Caution

4 Jan 2008

THRILLER/WAR/ROMANCE (18) 158min Just as he did with his Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee has plundered a novella to make his first film in Mandarin since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Eileen Chan’s largely autobiographical…