Let's be honest – all schoolkids are a vicious breed, but if you watch any amount of Japanese genre cinema, you could be forgiven for thinking that Japanese schoolkids are the worst of them all, and that's even when they're not fighting to the death with deadly weapons or rapidly developing super-strength mutant body parts. Of course, Confessions (... Click to read more "Confessions (Kokuhaku)"
Dream Home (Wai dor lei ah yut ho) is a Hong Kong horror from director Ho-Cheung Pang and the first feature length movie from the production company of Josie Ho, who also assumes the leading role. The movie is a combination of cultural satire, fun-poking at stereotypes and absurd yet stylish gore. The production values are that of a mainstream movi... Click to read more "Dream Home (Wai dor lei ah yut ho)"
Just when the market for crazy Japanese splatter was about to become saturated beyond the help of even the most absorbent kitchen towels, Jun Tsugita added some unique originality to the sub-genre with the highly peculiar Horny House of Horror AKA Fashion Hell (Fasshon heru). Usually Tsugita stays away from the directorial role and is involved in t... Click to read more "Horny House of Horror (Fasshon heru)"
Needle is an Australian slasher movie written and directed by John V. Soto (whose name you may recognise from Ozsploitation movies such as Crush... or maybe not). Soto takes a fairly original concept and some intriguing characters and slots them perfectly into the generic American slasher template. Despite the customary execution of the plot, Needl... Click to read more "Needle"
It's straight in with a gut-punch of visceral nastiness with Pig, the latest film from British director Adam Mason (Broken, The Devil's Chair, Blood River). A woman, terrified and covered in blood, flees along a deserted highway - where's she's intercepted by a man we'll come to know only as "Daddy" (Andrew Howard). When she hears his car engine, s... Click to read more "Pig"
Now here's an indie which pleasantly surprised me - in a sea of derivative and sloppy modern horror, PROWL (2010) stands out as a film with enough horror staples to feel familiar, but the skill to utilise these in an engaging way throughout. This means you get a sense of a filmmaking team who enjoy and understand genre film, without being indiffere... Click to read more "Prowl"
It is difficult to form a solid opinion on a movie as bizarre as Rubber. A film in which the main focus is a sentient psychic tyre with an evil streak and a penchant for shattering human skulls. The basis for the film is that things in films happen for "no reason". The movie more than acknowledges the irony in this premise and continually rubs its ... Click to read more "Rubber"
Dick Maas (known for The Lift and Amsterdamned) puts his own spin on Dutch holiday traditions with Saint (known to the locals as Sint). St. Nicholas' Day is December 6th and Dutch children look forward to a visit from a kindly bishop with a massive sack known as Sinterklaas. Kids love this commercial invention and welcome the excrescence of our aff... Click to read more "Saint (Sint)"
