I'm familiar enough with the work of director Shion Sono at this stage to automatically expect great things; I maintain that the opening scene of Suicide Circle is one of the most batshit insane, yet oddly poetic sequences ever committed to celluloid, and his "Hate Trilogy" of Love Exposure, Cold Fish and Guilty of Romance number amongst my favouri... Click to read more "Himizu"
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)"
I've had mostly positive experiences with After Dark Films of late - although with at least one notable exception (*cough* The Task *cough*) so I had some hope for Husk (2011). After Dark may not be exactly re-inventing the wheel, but they generally have enough about them to turn out a decent horror yarn and a firm sense of what it is they're doing... Click to read more "Husk"
At the time of watching Livide, I had reached the point of extreme fatigue with French horror cinema. Beautifully made and well funded they may be, but films such as In Their Sleep and Inside just don't rest that well with me – too slick, too manipulative. In the case of Inside – made by the same directors who went on to make Livide – I found the p... Click to read more "Livid (Livide)"
The second feature length film from Craig McIntyre is endearingly known as The Los Angeles Ripper. This movie presents a noticeable progression from his previous work, A Few Screws Loose, in a number of ways. It has still obviously been produced on a micro-budget but there are noticeable improvements which have addressed a number of flaws apparent ... Click to read more "The Los Angeles Ripper"
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"
With the zombie movie market being quite saturated it must be difficult to come up with an original concept for a zombie movie without somebody having already been there and done that, also, with the popularity of high quality cult zombie movies from the masters in the genre, attempting to infiltrate this market with something a bit different is a ... Click to read more "Pop Punk Zombies"
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"
