Movies Page

Eraserhead (1977)

I saw Eraserhead last night. For the past four years I've had a poster of it hanging above my bed, but didn't watch it until yesterday. When I saw the news that David Lynch had died I didn't think it was true. For some reason I never thought he could die, that he'd just live for years and years more. His films and art have had such an impact on me, and what I create. When I was a kid my dad would always hail Eraserhead as being "the scariest film he's ever seen", and so it created an image in my mind of it, and Lynch by extension, of being the scariest things ever and a benchmark for how scary a film was. Some bits of that image still remain, even after watching more of his films and getting through Twin Peaks. I don't think I'll ever understand Eraserhead, or most of David Lynch's films, but I like that. I like that there's still that image of him in my mind of being a man of mystery, cigarette in hand. I like that I'll forever be thinking about his films and what they mean. Eraserhead is weird and confusing, but I'm glad I've seen it. I'm glad that I can look at that poster above my bed and finally get what it means. "In heaven, everything is fine", thank you David Lynch.

The Apartment (1960)

I've been on a roll with great movies recently. By recently I mean the past three days. Anyway, The Apartment is so good, like really really good. I'm not sure if it's one of those films that doesn't need explaining, but I'm going to do it anyway. Jack Lemmon plays C.C Baxter, a guy who allows his bosses to use his apartment as a place to take their mistresses at night. All is going great until he meets Fran Kubelik (played by Shirley MacLaine) and falls in love with her. But, she is the mistress of Jack Lemmon's boss, and she is still very much in love with him and not Jack Lemmon. It's basically a love triangle but with way more complications. Also, it's a Billy Wilder film, so the dialogue and writing is great. I still need to get around to watching Double Indemnity sometime. Everything is played perfectly and written perfectly and it's just such a good movie! There's a reason that it won the Best Picture Oscar when it was released. It's also set around Christmas, so it fits the current season. I'm not just recommending this, I'm just saying go and watch this movie, it's so, so, so good.

I Like Movies (2022)

With a title like that, is it any surprise that I like this? I saw the trailer on Youtube and thought I'd give it a try. It follows Lawrence, a 17-year-old guy who is obsessed with movies. Everything he talks about relates to movies, he rents out dozens at a time and he is planning on going to NYU Film School. He is a bit of an arse, you don't completely root for him, but you kind of do at the same time because you can tell he has a lot of passion for movies, but just expresses it in the worst ways. It's really interesting to see how the film goes while Lawrence makes horrible decisions and is sometimes horrible to people in his life. You think one thing will happen to Lawrence, but then the complete opposite does. Most of the film focuses on his relationship with his manager at work, Alana, and friendship with his best friend Matt. I really liked Romina D'Ugo's (Alana's) performance in this, as well as Isaiah Lehtinen's (Lawrence's). His performance is definitely the highlight of the movie - He plays a bit of a prick which enough charm that you feel bad for him. It's a drama that will get you laughing, and might maybe make you cry as well. I really recommend this film, it's so good, and one of the best films I've seen this year.

Citizen Kane (1941)

I always get a bit daunted by watching "classics". The films that are forever in film history as "the ones you've got to watch". Also after watching Casablanca three times (and disliking it with each rewatch) I've been slightly scared that any "classic" I watch I'll dislike. Fortunately, watching Citizen Kane wasn't one of those times! Citizen Kane is pretty much a legend in itself, I really don't need to say "Citizen Kane good". I will say that it wasn't like any other "old" film I've seen before, it's way better. The cinematography is really cool, some shots had me asking my dad "How did they do that?", like the great big panning shot at the end of Kane's possessions and some of the animations. I really enjoyed the obituary at the start, it got me hooked and made me want to carry on watching. It's basically a small epic because it shows the entireity of Charles Kane's life and how it was all meaningless. (Spoilers, but it's an over 80 year old film) His final words weren't about all the money he made, or all the possessions he collected, it was about a sled from his childhood. I recommend watching it, but don't be put off by it's reputation. In my opinion, it''s not the best film of all time, but definitely the one of the best golden age films I've seen.

Theater Camp (2023)

I'm starting to think that the three people that read these reviews think all I do is sit in a dark room watching horror movies, so I'm reviewing a non-horror film. Theater Camp is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. Probably the funniest honestly, I've watched it six times at this point. It's a mockumentary about a theatre camp, and while making the "documentary" the founder of the camp goes into a coma, and the staff have to save the camp from foreclosure. It is so good. I watched it in the cinema with one of my friends, and we were the only people there, which was also pretty funny. There are so many quotes and lines that make me burst out laughing. You can find most of them in the letterboxd reviews. Molly Gordon is really good in this, she plays this borderline insane theatre teacher who does a lot with past lives and that type of stuff. Ayo Edebiri is also really good, she did this and Bottoms last year which were both really fun. If you have had any experiences with theatre kids or anyone like that, you will enjoy this. Basically: If you ever watched Glee, you will probably enjoy this.

Nightbitch (2024)

I'm currently stuck in a particularly dull lecture, so I'm going to review the film I watched yesterday: Nightbitch. All I'd heard about it before going to see it is that it was the "Amy Adams Dog Film". It was showing at a film festival I went to as well, but I didn't want to pay to see it. It did live up to the title of "The Amy Adams Dog Film", as spoilers she does turn into a dog. I thought it was going to be more body horror than it was, which was slightly disappointing. It was still interesting though: Amy Adams (her character doesn't have a name) is a mother to a baby boy, and is left at home with him while her husband goes off to work each week. The husband is honestly useless - There's a scene where he has to ask Amy Adams for something every five seconds while he's taking his son for a bath. Why can't he just get the things himself? I don't think I'm the target audience for a lot of the commentary in this (me being a nearly 20 year old man, and much of the film focusing on the experiences of a middle aged mother) but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it. It's not really a horror film, but it's definitely psychological. So if you're interested in that, give it a watch!

Fade to Black (1980)

I rewatched this earlier, so I'm going to talk about it. I found out about this film years ago from a section in one of my SCREAM magazines, and the plot of "a film nerd who turns into a slasher villian" got my interest. Dennis Christopher plays a guy called Eric Binford, who is obsessed with films (more than me!) who gets bullied so starts killing people. He also falls in love with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike, and that weaves itself into the plot pretty well. This is one of my favourite films, and it's definitely one of my favourite horror movies. The references to classic movies, as well as all the Universal Monsters stuff is great, and makes it way more unique than your average axe murderer killing dumb teenagers. He dresses up as Dracula then kills someone and drinks their blood, that's pretty cool. I love Eric's slow descent into madness, as his crimes get more and more public: from killing his aunt in his house to gunning down a film producer in broad daylight. The film definitely shows him as a tragic figure, but not too unlikeable. You don't want to root for him, but you do feel some sympathy for him due to him getting bullied by his coworkers and his general social awkwardness. Overall, a really good film that I highly recommend.

Heretic (2024)

Religious horror isn't something I'm really interested in. I saw one of the two nun horror films this year, and Killer Nun has been on my watchlist for years, but that kind of horror isn't something I'm that bothered with. That being said, Heretic is pretty good. It follows two mormon missionaries who knock on Hugh Grant's door, and have to listen to his views on religion before being put in a trap/dungeon and having to work their way out. Hugh Grant is really good in this, but I could never get past him being Hugh Grant and not being that scary to me. I haven't seen Love Actually or Notting Hill, but that image of him in my mind is pretty solid. And him being the villian in Paddington 2 doesn't count. I liked the twist, although I thought it was going to go a different way than it did. I thought he was going to turn out to be a satanist, and he wasn't! I think they should've gone more into Sophie Thatcher's character more with her disollution with religion, other than it being mentioned and hinted at because of her dad's death. It's a perfectly good thriller, but not a horror movie. There aren't that many scares, but it is interesting watching Hugh Grant make Radiohead references while torturing a couple of mormons.

Dead and Buried (1981)

My current laptop wallpaper is a collage of various 80s and 90s horror films, so I made a list of all the ones on there and decided to start watching them. Honestly, I felt like a poser for not having seen Frankenhooker. The first one I watched was Dead and Buried, which I mainly picked because the poster looked really cool. This is a pretty surreal film: It's set in a coastal town where dead people begin coming back to life after being murdered. Very spooky. The atmosphere in this film is great, it really gives you this creepy and unsettling vibe about the town you can't completely shake. It also has a pre-Elm Street Robert Englund, which was a nice surprise. Everyone in the town is a bit stilted, which makes even more sense when they start killing the tourists that come into the town. Plot twist: Everyone's a zombie! This film was released 40-odd years ago, so I really don't feel that bad about spoiling it here. I love the atmosphere of the film, I love how it's just creepy enough to be unsettling but not too much to be silly and most of all, the poster is really fucking cool! I hate using the phrase "hidden gem" but this film really is one, definitely go check it out if you can.

Smile 2 (2024)

I reviewed the first Smile on this page and generally thought it was pretty average. Like Barbarian, I felt like it should have had more based on its reputation. Smile 2 is way better than the first one, which is pretty nice. Out of the two "popstar" horror movies of this year (the other being Trap) this is definitely the better one. I liked the premise of a celebrity being haunted by the curse instead of a normal person, it made the plot a lot more interesting. I felt like the backstory of Skye (the popstar) was a bit silly, and tacked on throughout the film to make it more "scary". I don't find horror films that scary generally, but one jumpscare did get me, which doesn't happen much. I also loved the twist near the end (which I won't spoil as the films only been out a week). When I rewatch this it'll definitely be through a different view of the whole thing. Although Smile 2 is way better than the first one, it was still a bit boring. The whole subplot of her and the man who's trying to cure her is a bit silly and didn't make much sense to me. I will say though that the ending did genuinely surprise me, and makes me wonder what they'll do if they end up making a Smile 3. Overall, a great improvement on the first film and one that I recommend.

I, Madman (1989)

As much as I would love to review the films that I have been made to watch with my housemates (Pitch Perfect, Wild Child, and Pitch Perfect 2), I'm moving swiftly on to I, Madman. I, Madman is an underrated little slasher that has a really cool premise: A bookstore clerk is haunted when the killer from a 50s pulp book she's reading comes to life! Pretty unique amongst all the masked axe murderers, don't you think? 1989 was when the slasher genre was a bit stale, I'm not sure if Elm Street 5 had come out by then, but that definitely didn't help. It wasn't as mainstream as it was, and I, Madman reflects that a bit. Dr Alan Kessler, the "Madman" tries a bit to be a mix of Freddy and Jason, but it doesn't really work. I did really enjoy this film though, I love finding slashers that not many people talk about. I also liked the setting of a bookshop overflowing with books, as I am very familiar with those types of shops, and thought it was a pretty unique setting instead of the usual summer camp or suburban street. Overall, a very good "hidden gem" that is entertaining for its 90 minute runtime.

Anora (2024)

I'm one of those people that went to see Anora before it got released in cinemas (Yes, I do have a letterboxd account!). I knew that it was a really hyped up film, but went into it not knowing much of what it was about. It also had Mikey Madison, who I really liked in Scream 5 and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. She wasn't set on fire in this film either! I watched it at a little film festival and it was the busiest I'd ever seen a cinema, completely packed full of people. So, the actual film was really good. I had seen the trailer at the cinema before The Outrun, but it still surprised me in a couple of ways. The fact that the film is pretty much half finding Ivan (the oligarch's son who Mikey Madison (Anora) gets married to) was pretty surprising. A couple of moments got a laugh out of the audience, which was also pretty cool. Watching a film in a cinema always makes it better for me. The ending was also unexpected, and very abrupt honestly. I walked out thinking "Oh, that's it?" but in hindsight it was a really good ending, just unexpected. I won't spoil it though if you want to watch it. It's definitely in the Top 5 of 2024 films I've seen this year, but not quite in the Top 3. It's still really good though and I fully recommend it.

V/H/S/Beyond (2024)

I've been watching the Dead Meat Kill Counts of the V/H/S series, so I decided to check this one out when it came out a week or so ago. I've already seen V/H/S and V/H/S 94, but liked that this one was a bit more sci-fi. I like anthologies a lot, and thought this one was pretty solid, at least in terms of the V/H/S films I've seen. I really liked the segment with the stork which was just gross, it reminded me a bit of that genre of 90s action films like US Marshals where a group of people go into a building to shoot people. I think it was more Aliens than US Marshals though. I also liked the Bollywood segment and the skydiving one, although it did make me feel a bit nervous because skydiving is terrifying for me. I did think that it went on for a bit long, I think the whole film is about two hours, which is a bit too long for an anthology film with six segments. Anthologies always feel longer anyway, and the last segment was definitely a bit of a chore to get through, even though it was still pretty good. I'd recommend this film if you like sci-fi more than horror, but also if you've seen any V/H/S film.

Barbarian (2022)

Since reviewing Megalopolis, I have watched 25 films. I'm now going to bulk review the ones I found most interesting. The first of these being: Barbarian which I watched a few weeks ago. I'd been meaning to watch it for years, but only got around to it a couple years late. For as much hype as people give it it was pretty average. I liked the "twist" at the beginning but otherwise it was kind of a bit boring. Justin Long was good and the blood and guts was pretty alright, but I felt like it needed a lot more for it to live up to what I've been hearing about it. The creature design was also really good, kind of like the Smile creature but more stringy. Overall, pretty good but not great, but it could just be a case of me not liking a film for whatever reason.

Megalopolis (2024)

When I see people being completely split about a film, I know I want to go see it. I had kind of the same attitude with Joker 2, but saw that it was longer than this and fuck am I going to watch a two and a half hour jukebox musical. Anyway, Megalopolis was brilliant. It doesn't make sense, but it's actually brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen a film like it ever, and I've seen nearly 1000 films (at least in the past three years anyway). I can understand why people don't like it, but I really did. Just the way it looked was amazing, all of the sets and the way it was shot and eveything. I will say though, it's not serious at all. You see Shia LaBeouf in a roman dress and makeup dancing around while Adam Driver is having an LSD trip and it's completely a comedy. Some bits are serious but some bits are really really funny. Also it's pretty cool I got to see a Coppola film when it released. If you're not interested in the film, you probably won't like it, but if you are, definitely give it a shot. It's stupid, and hard to understand and a bit pretentious, but it's one of the best films I've seen this year.

The Substance (2024)

I've been wanting to watch this film for a bit. I saw the teaser before Alien: Romulus and it was a teaser that didn't give anything away as to what the film was about, which was really good. I won't give too much away, since this is genuinely a really good film, but it's about an old celebrity (she's famous for those exercise tv programs from the 80s) called Elizabeth Sparkle. She wants to be young again, so she takes "the substance". This turns her from Demi Moore to Margaret Qualley via her spine ripping open. This film is so weird but so good. It's ultra-Cronenberg mixed with Society (1989). It made me feel physically ill, which is so cool! This is definitely one of the coolest films I've seen this year, and definitely the best horror film I've seen this year. Fuck it, I'm going to spoil some of the film. Everything about the section's where Demi Moore is "Sue" (Margaret Qualley) are amazing (not for the reasons you think you perv). I don't know what time period this is set where exercise shows can make you a star, but I'm guessing it's some warped 1980s/2020s hybrid decade. The scene with Elizabeth making a turkey was grim, not even the scene with Dennis Quaid eating prawns made me feel as gross as the turkey one. And "Monstro Elisasue"..god. Just go watch this film, it's so good.

Watcher (2022)

I watched this with my dad a couple of days ago. I found it on Netflix and it caught my eye because it had Maika Monroe in it. I've seen Longlegs and It Follows so am pretty familiar with the "Maika Monroe being followed by someone" genre of film anyway. Really though, why are her most popular films her being followed by someone/something? Anyway, in this film she gets stalked by a serial killer and because it's American, it's so fucking obvious who the killer is! I was literally calling him "creepy guy" throughout the film because it was so obvious that he was the guy stalking Maika Monroe! The plot of the film is that Maika Monroe (Julia) moves to Bucharest and deals with a serial killer stalking her. Everything in this film is so obvious it's painful. "Oh that guy is the serial killer", "Oh her friend is going to get killed!", just put one thing that I don't expect in there! I wouldn't watch this film again, and given that I've spoiled the whole plot I doubt anyone else will watch it, but it's just fine. If you need to kill 90 minutes, watch it. Otherwise, watch a better Maika Monroe stalker film.

Casablanca (1942)

I hate this film. Saying that I hate Casablanca would probably get me exiled from some shitty film lecture, but I really don't like it. I've seen it three times: once in a film lesson, again doing film revision, and last week to try and find out why I don't like it. I thought "Oh maybe it was ruined by my film teacher" - nope. This is the only film that everyone loves that I don't. Some beloved films I don't get because I saw them when I was too young (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings), but this one I just don't like. It just feels like the exact same as all the other films from that time, there isn't anything special in it to me. I know about the context and all the mise-en-scene and cultural context (My A-Levels took their toll), but I still don't get it. I even have the 4k version, but nope, still don't like it. If I was a late 2000s shitty film reviewer, this film would be my nemesis that I'd have to fight. This "review" was just an excuse to rant about Casablanca, thanks for reading.

Alien: Romulus (2024)

Yesterday I went to the cinema to see Alien: Romulus. I'm not the biggest Alien fan in the world, I've only seen the first two films, but this was pretty decent. Not the best film in the world, but if you go into it expecting aliens and guns you won't be disappointed. There were a lot of moments where I thought "oh, this is just like the older films!" and they do do a lot of callbacks, but that isn't really a bad thing. Though, it could be a bit annoying for some people. I liked the xenomorphs, you can't really complain about those. I did think that the ending was too drawn out though. Basically, the remaining characters (who's names I didn't completely know by the end) escape the Remis/Romulus ship and get back onto their own ship. But, the pregnant character then gives birth to a weird alien baby that kills her, then is killed by being sucked out of the vacuum lock (just like Alien!). Honestly, they could've just ended it with them leaving the ship, but it was obvious that the pregnant character was going to give birth anyway, so I get why they did it. Overall decent film, not the best but enjoyable enough for a couple of hours.

Duplex (2003)

Last night I was browsing through the Netflix film selection, and saw this. It looked like decent fun, and it was! Duplex is about a couple (Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore) who move into a duplex (ya think?) in New York, only to find out there's a horrible old woman living above them. It's a decent comedy, which is pretty funny considering the main punchline is the main two characters trying to kill an old woman. There are also little side-plots, like Ben Stiller writing a book, but all of it pretty much revolves around them trying to kill this woman, in order to get the top floor of the duplex they bought. Thing is, this woman looks in her late 80s/early 90s, so it's not like she has long left anyway. I didn't like the ending of the film. It ends with the couple selling the duplex to another couple, thus putting the old woman onto them. So, they go upstairs to say goodbye to her and find that she's died. Except...she isn't and faked her death. It would have been way funnier if, just as the couple sold the house she died, and the film ended there. The main couple aren't really good people, so it would have been one big "fuck you" that if they'd have waited, she'd have died naturally. Overall, it's a great dark comedy which I highly recommend.

Hannibal (2001)

Watching this film was another case of "I want to watch the Kill Count of this, so I'll watch the film". Also watching Longlegs made me want to rewatch Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal was actually really good. It's basically Clarice Starling trying to hunt down Hannibal before a nonce Hannibal disfigured finds him first. I like the aesthetic of this film, it kind of follows the "2000s horror" aesthetic trend but makes it cooler. It was made by Ridley Scott after all, the guy made Alien and Blade Runner, he can make a film look cool. It focuses a lot more on trying to catch Hannibal, which is expected. There are also these side plots, like the Italian FBI agent trying to get Hannibal for the money, and the nonce trying to get Hannibal attacked so that he (the nonce) can feed him to wild boars. My dad told me that there was a "really horrible scene at the end", which is Ray Liotta having to eat his own brain after Hannibal cooked it. When you learn that it was a puppet, and not actually Ray Liotta, it makes the scene a lot less gross. Anyway, if you enjoy thrillers or anything Hannibal-related, you'll enjoy this. It isn't as good as Silence of the Lambs, but that film won 50 billion Oscars, and who could beat that? Overall a very good film I'd highly recommend.

Longlegs (2024)

Every time I see a new horror film, I'm glad I go into most films blind. I knew that this film was popular and that there was loads of marketing for it, but I just didn't really follow it at all. Longlegs is an incredibly creepy film. Not really scary, but unsettling and creepy. It's a thriller/horror/detective film that follows an FBI agent trying to find a serial killer. With that premise, you know vaguely how it's going to go a la Silence of the Lambs but Longlegs does way more with it. It's much more psychological and gets under your skin way more. Nic Cage is in this film, but you can't tell. It's a "Mia Goth playing the old woman in X" type of thing, the makeup on him is so good. I felt so creeped out when his character would show up, especially with his voice. I couldn't even tell if he was a man or woman at the start! I also didn't predict all of the twists, which was good. I won't spoil them, but the last twist with the doll made someone else in the cinema go "No!" which has never happened before to me. I did go see Endgame when that came out, so someone probably has said something like that in the cinema while I've been there. Anyway, Longlegs is very good, definitely the creepiest horror film that I've seen this year.

Yesterday (2019)

This film is one of those alternate history scenarios, but unlike any of the interesting ones it just goes "What if The Beatles didn't exist??". If The Beatles didn't exist, they'd probably have been replaced by some other band like The Kinks, The Hollies, or The Monkees. There would have been another Beatles-type band. But anyway, Yesterday is about this guy who wakes up after being hit by a bus to find out that The Beatles don't exist. I think I saw this film in the cinema, but honestly forgot it existed until it came up on ITV earlier. I want to say this film was good, but it was genuinely just fine. It has a cool concept, but it doesn't do anything with it other than "The Beatles don't exist! What about that!". Also, you couldn't get famous off those songs now, especially "I Saw Her Standing There". It sounds like one of the pervy 60s songs my work puts on all the time. I will say that I'm a fan of The Beatles, I've listened to all their albums and have that massive DVD documentary set about them, but this film was so "eh" that it just bored me, even with The Beatles music. Begbie was good as John Lennon though, I thought it was CGI instead of an actual guy, very impressive.

Layer Cake (2004)

There's a very specific niche of films that I like to call "True Brexit Geezer". Layer Cake is one of them, but I'd also count Rise of The Footsoldier, The Football Factory and Green Street in that genre. Also any British 2000s Guy Ritchie film, and anything Vinnie Jones has ever been in. Layer Cake is actually very good. I have a soft spot for this type of film, so I liked it. Daniel Craig is a cocaine dealer looking for retirement, but he has to do one more job. What's not fun about that! It's basically a gangster film, there's nothing really special about it, but I thought after seeing at least one copy of the DVD in most charity shops, I might as well see what the film is like. There's some violence, some action, and Sally Phillips playing someone called Slasher. 10 years later she was in Paddington so we all start somewhere. Overall, a decent enough gangster film, but not as good as Snatch or even The Football Factory, even though they're all Chelsea fans.

MaXXXine (2024)

This film was great. I've been a fan of the trilogy since X came out a couple of years ago, and MaXXXine didn't disappoint at all. If you've seen the trailers, then you'll probably get that it's very 80s, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it. Sure, you know the film is in the 80s, but it's not like every single shot is ripped straight from an 80s nostalgia pinterest board. People are complaining it's not as good as Pearl or X but it honestly holds up pretty well. It's a natural conclusion to the series. Also spoilers but all the marketing with Halsey was a Drew Barrymore type thing. She doesn't last long. I like that they went for a kind of 80s giallo type of thing. The killer with the leather gloves reminded me a lot of Blood and Black Lace. The gore is also so cool, the scene where the video clerk gets killed is so good. I didn't really get the ending, but it was cool to see all the stuff with Maxine's dad reach an ending. Why did he kill all her friends? Honestly who knows! It's a bit silly and kind of like Last Night in Soho where I loved the first and second acts but didn't get the third. It's still a great film, perhaps even 2nd in my trilogy ranking (X, MaXXXine, Pearl). Is that slightly blasphemous? Sure, but who cares! It's not like anyone reads these reviews!

Eat The Rich (1987)

Today I was scrolling through the Channel 4 film lineup, as they have all the weird artsy shit, and found this film. It's about a waiter who decides that rich people are annoying and forms a group to take them on, and it's probably one of the strangest films I've ever seen. First off, I got whiplash when I watched the whole film, assuming that the main character was a woman, because she looked and sounded like one, only to find that the character was apparently a man! (The actress was trans, I just found it weird that they didn't genderswap the character, I guess it was the 80s). The quotes from this film are gold. "Hi, we're starting a people's uprising, do you fancy to join us?", "When the revolution comes we'll be round your house!" and "Who are you? We're the dispossessed!". It's just a weird film, and not great, but also not too bad. Motorhead did the soundtrack, which is pretty cool. There's also cannibalism and communism, two things that definitely go together. It's on Dailymotion for free as well, if you want to watch it.

Night of the Demons (1988)

I've had this film on my watchlist for a while. I saw it was on a playlist of horror films on Youtube so decided to watch it. The opening credits are so cool, genuinely some of the best opening credits I've seen for a film. The animation is really good, and really unique as well. The plot of the film is a group of teens go to a party at a haunted house, a demon then comes and possesses one of them and tries to kill the others, whilst possessing them along the way. Very basic plot, but it's done really well. I hate the phrase "hidden gem" but this might be one of the only cases where that term applies. It's also set on halloween night, which makes it very cool with all the costumes and halloween decor. There are some really cool shots, like when a mirror shatters onto the ground and the individual pieces of the mirror are used to show each characters faces whilst they're talking. The special effects and makeup are also great though a bit spotty, as some characters are in full demon makeup and others are just in Dawn Of the Dead zombie makeup. It's definitely not a masterpiece, but it's nothing bad either. It's on Youtube in 720p so give it a watch.

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

I think I said this in a blog entry, but I saw Kinds of Kindess a couple of days ago. I went into it blind, as I usually do with films. If I'm going to see a film at the cinema I usually just look at the summary on IMDB or letterboxd and look at nothing else. Too many trailers spoil the whole plot of a film now anyway. I didn't know that Kinds of Kindness was going to be an anthology film, but it pulls that off really well. The stories are all different enough to be memorable and also really fucking weird. I knew after watching Poor Things that Yorgos Lanthamos was a weird guy, but that second story? Mad. The cast is good, I mean it has Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, all good actors. Especially Emma Stone, can't believe she went from Easy A and Zombieland to this in 15 years (Two very good films by the way). Don't go into this expecting it to be normal, or for it to be fun. It's kind of fun, but very uncomfortable. It's kind of like Love Lies Bleeding, where if you know the directors previous work you'll understand part of the vibe going into it. If you haven't seen Poor Things or The Lobster and just watch this because of the Lanthamos hype then you'll probably be really creeped out. Just know that it's weird as fuck going in and you'll be fine.

Twister (1996)

Like many films made in the 1990s, they're getting a remake/reboot/sequel in the 2020s. Twister is one of those films. I'm probably going to see the sequel when it comes out, so I wanted to watch the original beforehand. Twister is a film about tornadoes, and it's really good! The CGI isn't that shit (other than the CGI cow) and it's just a good time watching a load of people chase tornadoes. I can't really say "it has this person/this person in it" because I'm not that familiar with anyone from it. It has the guy who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller though, that's something. And also Cary Elwes from the first Saw. I've been on a kick of watching 90s blockbuster action films and if you want something like that, Twister is great. Now I'll wait and see if the sequel is any good.

Sightseers (2012)

I'm doing a cop out here, because I haven't watched this film recently, I last watched it a year ago. But, more people should know about this film because it's really good. Sightseers is about a boring pervy couple who go on an accidental murder spree while on holiday. If anyone reading this watched Horrible Histories as a kid, one of the main characters was a regular in that. It's very stupid and funny, and I saw someone describe it as "Natural Born Killers in a caravan". The tagline for this film is "Killers have never been so average", and that's very much true. You will never be able to listen to The Power of Love the same way after watching this film. Probably my favourite thing about the film is the quotes from Chris and Tina. The opening scene is one of the funniest, with Chris and Tina leaving Tina's mums house to go on holiday. It's quite an uncomfortable film, not because of the gore or anything like that, but just because Chris and Tina make you feel uncomfortable. It's a lot like Four Lions but less depressing at the end, and less of a dark comedy. There's no rubber dinghy rapids in this, bro. I could talk more about the mise-en-scene or the cinematography but I don't want to. Can you tell I studied this film in school?

Deep Rising (1998)

How come I've managed to watch two great films in three days? I'm on a roll! Deep Rising is a film that is basically Aliens on a cruise ship. It focuses on a group of people fighting a big tentacle monster on a ship. The group includes mercenaries, a separate ship crew, the captain and owner of the cruise ship, and a lone passenger who was caught stealing. There's loads of big explosions and shitty 90s CGI (I can't say too much about that though, it was the 90s and at least it looks cooler than the CGI today), but there are also good characters and a really cool fucking monster. That's all you need for a good film, at least for me. It's just dumb fun, but more dumb than Demon Knight. If you like big action films, creature features, or just think big monsters trying to kill people is cool, watch this!

Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)

I've watched quite a bit of Tales From The Crypt before watching this film. It's not my favourite horror anthology series, but it's definitely up there. I've also been putting off watching Bordello of Blood for years now, so why not watch Demon Knight? Imagine Evil Dead 2 with skeleton demons, some weird supernatural shit and set in a hotel. That is this film, and it's brilliant! Great practical effects, great performances, great demons, everything! It's stupid, shlock-y fun that is so fun. There are also some sections with the Crypt Keeper which are cool because hey, it's the Crypt Keeper! Billy Zane is mental in this as well, you can just watch this for his batshit performance and be happy. It's basically an early Peter Jackson splatter film, but with way more budget. It also has a great soundtrack, with Hey Man Nice Shot, Megadeth, Ministry, Melvins and Pantera. Genuinely one of the best movie soundtracks. Just go watch this film, you won't be disappointed at all.

Smile (2022)

2022 was a really good year for horror; We had a Scream reboot, Pearl and X, and some weird shit like We're All Going to the World's Fair. There was also Smile, which I watched today. I'm usually not a big supernatural/"elevated" horror guy, just give me an axe murderer and I'm happy, but this was done really well. The suspense really helped the film, even if it wasn't a blood and guts fest. It reminded me a lot of It Follows. Smile doesn't have nearly the same level of tension or atmosphere as It Follows, but it's general concept is the same, except in Smile it's about trauma rather than sex. I liked the main actor's performance, she really sold the character. I've already seen her play a therapist/psychiatrist in As We See It (which is a very good and very underrated series), so I think she's really got the whole psychiatrist character down. Smile was generally fun, not too scary but not too cheesy either. Although, my metric of scary is skewed because I don't get scared by horror films really. It is scary for people not into horror, but most of the really "disturbing" effects I just thought were cool. Overall, it's a perfectly fine film, a very good supernatural thriller but lacking a bit in plot, although a lot of the boring parts do actually contribute to the overall story.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

As I'm watching the horror episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (great show by the way), I'm writing about A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 or Nightmare 2 because I'm not typing the title all out however many times. I really liked this sequel, it shows Freddy Kreuger at his scariest. People sometimes forget how scary Kreuger was, because by Nightmare 4 or 5 he turns into comic relief. He's not a killer anymore, he's a comedian! "Welcome to prime time" and all that. This film is also known for being gay, and it definitely lives up to that reputation. It was really unbelievable that the main guy (Jesse) ends up with a girl at the end of the film, because 1. He goes to a gay bar (on its own doesn't mean he's gay) and 2. The film was written with homoeroticism in mind! So it was pretty much made to be gay. The kills are really good, and I only mention that because some people don't in reviews of horror films, and the kills are usually the most interesting part! I also partly watched this film so I could watch the Kill Count of it, so it's worth mentioning that the kills are good. Overall, a very good sequel that isn't as good as the first one, but certainly comes close.

Day of the Dead (1985)

I love George Romero's Zombie Trilogy. The original one, not the 2000s one that I haven't even seen. I've seen Dawn of the Dead 4+ times and have the special edition. Now I've seen Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead. At the time, people that loved Dawn didn't like Day because it's pretty slow. There isn't much going on for the first hour other than long conversations and people shouting at eachother. The only really interesting bit is Logan messing around with the zombies and them showing all the gore. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, because it gives the characters an actual personality rather than "I just kill zombies/get killed by zombies". Tom Savini's SFX were cool, as always. I didn't like Day of the Dead as much as Dawn of the Dead, but it wasn't bad. Maybe watch the first two before you watch this one, obviously because Day is the last of a trilogy. But, Day of the Dead is a good time, even if it starts off a bit slow.

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

I finally got around to watching Lisa Frankenstein after about 3 months of procrastinating. I saw the trailers months ago, but cinema times were weird so I couldn't go and see it then, but I've seen it now! It's written by the person who wrote Jennifers Body, which I haven't seen but know the gist of, and that film definitely had a certain "look" that Lisa Frankenstein also does. They're definitely not the same film though, don't go into this film thinking it's going to be a Jennifer's Body clone. It's a very fun, kind of gory horror comedy. Also the lead actress looks identical to Chappell Roan, I thought it was her for longer than I'd like to admit. Definitely go and watch it if you're into horror comedies, because this one really does the job. Weirdly it's rated a 15 even though it's rated PG in the US, sure there's a fair amount of blood, but it's not torture porn. I wouldn't say it's my favourite horror film of the year, I don't think I even have one yet, but it's definitely one of the best I've seen so far this year.

Tourist Trap (1979)

I watched Tourist Trap a couple of days ago. It's one of the weirdest horror films I've seen, just in its level of batshit insane. It's a pretty generic pre-Halloween slasher, which means no blood or anything like that, even though it's still rated a 15. The weirdest things about it is definitely the death scenes, especially the death scene with the mannequins standing over Becky, one of the main characters. For some reason I thought this would be a british film, although we aren't known for our slasher films. We have a few, but not many. I'll probably do a section on British horror here, as the history of horror in Britain is really interesting, with the video nasties and things like that. There's a film called Censor which is about this period, I recommend it. Back to Tourist Trap, I recommend it. It's very weird and again, has no blood, but the weirdness cancels out the lack of blood.

Lord of Chaos (2018)

I talked about watching this in my blog entry today, but I watched Lords of Chaos last night. It's about the start of Norweigan Black Metal, Mayhem, and the murder of Euronymous. If you know a lot about Mayhem, you probably won't get more information from this film, but if you don't know anything about them, you'll probably enjoy it enough. If I'm honest, I've never really listened to Mayhem. I have their albums saved on my spotify but black metal really isn't my thing, and I know enough about them/their story to know pretty much what the film was going to be about. It was good enough, although a bit long. Around an hour 20 minutes in it got a bit boring, the last half hour dragged a bit. The editing was pretty sick, and I liked how the general story was told. The first section with Pelle was probably the best bit, but all the shit with Burzum just felt really boring. I know it's what happened in real life, but hearing about contract negotiations is fucking boring. Overall, a decent biopic but nothing too special, although better than those shitty "THE CRAZIEST BAND EVER!!!!!" videos on youtube.

Furiosa (2024)

I saw Furiosa a couple of days ago. I've been really looking forward to this, especially because for the past month every time I've gone to the cinema I've seen the trailer for it. I'm not the biggest Mad Max fan, I've only seen Fury Road and only saw that because I wanted to watch Furiosa and not be confused the whole time. Honestly, there's not much to say about this film. It's very good, and doesn't feel like 2.5 hours long. For once, time went faster in the cinema, who'd have thunk it! Anya Taylor-Joy does a really good performance, even though I saw something saying she only had 30 lines of dialogue. It's a shame that this film hasn't done that well at the cinema, but plenty of films haven't done well and are still really good. Anyway, if you get the chance, watch this film. You don't even really need to watch Fury Road, but it helps quite a bit. Yeah, this is just a really cool film!

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

I didn't watch this film "recently", but I saw Love Lies Bleeding I think a week ago now? Anyway, it's a new film so I might as well review it. One funny thing is that although it is showing in the cinema here, because it showed in the US months ago I got to see it before it came out here. Torrentio really is my friend. Love Lies Bleeding. Good film. I knew it was by Rose Glass, so I knew it was going to be a bit off. I've already mentioned here that I've seen Saint Maud, and Rose Glass directed that as well....so it's a bit weird. It's a bit obvious to say it reminded me of Bound. I mean yeah, two lesbian crime thrillers are going to be similar, who'd have thought? I liked that it was a bit darker than Bound though, and had a cooler premise. Bound was just "be gay, do crime" but Love Lies Bleeding was more extreme, and had way more blood, at least that's what I can remember. If you're going to see it thinking it's just a normal crime thriller, then you're probably going to like some, but not all of it. Just expect whatever with Rose Glass, her films are fucking weird.

Challengers (2024)

I watched Challengers a couple days ago. It was actually really good. I'd known about it for ages but didn't really read into it much. It dragged a bit but I think that's just through losing any time perception in a cinema. Last week I watched Abigail which was really good. I've seen Ready or Not which is by the same guys, and they really do like their over-the-top explosions. I liked both films and rated them the same I think. I'm booked to see The Fall Guy next week, which should be nice. I'm expecting big explosions and dumb action.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

I watched Mad Max: Fury Road a couple of days ago. It was pretty good, but honestly not as good as I expected it to be. Fury Road is always held up as a great film, so I feel a bit shit I didn't think it was as good as everyone said it was. I still liked it a lot though. Maybe it's like Aliens, where I have to watch it again to actually like it. I also feel shit saying I didn't get Aliens first try, fucking Aliens!

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024)

I ended up seeing Godzilla X Kong instead of Civil War. I thought that Civil War was going to be a big action film, turns out it's apparently really depressing! I had a shit day Wednesday anyway, so I needed to watch something stupid. So, Godzilla X Kong. It was...fine. Not the best film I've ever seen but not the worst either. Very average. The action scenes where Godzilla and Kong fight all the Titans was pretty cool though. Everything else was a bit meh. I was also only in the cinema with one other guy, and he was the most annoying prick I've been in a cinema with, so that probably brought the film down by half a star, not by it's own fault.

Immaculate (2024)

Three days ago I went to the cinema to watch Immaculate. I only go to the cinema because I have a membership that gets me free tickets, I'm not paying £10-£12 a time. Immaculate was actually pretty good. The plot can be summarised as "Sydney Sweeney becomes a nun and goes to a convent. Hijinks ensue". I'd seen the trailer before when I went to see Drive-Away Dolls and Imaginary so I kind of got the vibe of the whole film. It was a bit like Saint Maud but less weird and more horror-y. Not that Saint Maud isn't horror-y, it's just got a bit more of the religious symbolism and less of the blood and guts. It also got me with one jumpscare which I knew was coming. Jumpscares are always worse in the cinema. Overall, I liked Immaculate. It's definitely a good example of how 2024 is becoming a pretty good year for horror films.