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Film Review
Experimental Horror Skinamarink Will Test Your Patience
In thinking about reviewing Kyle Edward Ball's debut feature Skinamarink, I realise this may be my Abe Simpson moment. In a famous moment, Abe described how what was now “it” seemed weird and scary to him. After being leaked, this film…
Tár Film Review | Full of Sound and Fury
Embedded throughout Tár is the idea of interpretation in time. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) often evokes these conceptual tools, both in her enunciations and in her practice. The conditions of these terms are laid out in the first two…
M3GAN delivers a New Iconic Horror Villain
This year we can expect an avalanche of horror remakes and sequels. It's going to make for entertaining highs and depressing lows, with an Exorcist sequel, The Evil Dead Rises, Scream 6, The Nun 2 and the Salem's Lot remake all on the way.…
Christmas Bloody Christmas is a Gory Cult Classic in the Making
Joe Begos’ fifth feature Christmas Bloody Christmas is a technicolour three-ring circus, stuffed like a seasonal stocking with drugs, gore, sex, neon and metal. I mean, frankly, based on that you should know if you are in or not, yeah?…
Psychedelic Slasher A Wounded Fawn Feels Refreshingly Modern
Having escaped an abusive relationship, Meridith (Sarah Lind) is eager to move on and start fresh. This leads to a blossoming relationship with the charming Bruce (Josh Ruben). Unfortunately for Meredith, we’ve just watched Bruce brutally…
Bones and All | Gory Romance Bites Off More Than it can Chew
The collective eighties nostalgia fest that the world is currently binging on is showing no signs of yielding. Each week brings news of a new project set in the 1980s, a sequel to a film popular in the 1980s, or opinions that belong in the…
IFI French Film Festival | Political Intrigue Turns Hypnotic In Pacification
Pacification has the markers of a taut political thriller. There is an exotic setting, a colonial possession, and a white linen suit. One can image a well-intentioned Yves Montand playing the martyr for Costas-Gavras. Albert Serra,…
Wide Awake After This Irish Horror | The Sleep Experiment Review
In lieu of their prison sentences, five men agree to be participants in top-secret experiment in which they will be prevented from sleeping for thirty days. Two detectives are tasked with interviewing the researchers involved in the…
Revisiting a Whole New World | Aladdin at 30
Aladdin showed us a world, that was shining, shimmering, splendid. It was a film with great, memorable characters: although it fell dangerously close to cultural appropriation in its depictions, created a film that will be remembered as a…
Terror Takes Root in Irish Folk Horror Mandrake
Mandrake, Director Lynne Davison’s 85-minute feature film debut, opens with a scene at night in a foreboding, moss-covered forest (“the moss”). The camera looks down from above as a man who is chained around the neck digs desperately in…