Tag: Horror
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Midsommar.
After leaving an eerie impression with family horror hit Hereditary, Director Ari Aster returns a year later with Midsommar. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, it is broken relationships that sits at the heart of this folk-festival nightmare. Dani, our grief-stricken protagonist accompanies her boyfriend and his friends on an academic expedition to Sweden…
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In Fabric.
Infamous for the intensity his film’s exude, Peter Strickland returns with In Fabric – following his critically acclaimed Dukes of Burgundy and Berberian Sound Studio. Though different in subject, all of his films overflow with an evident love of cinema, with Strickland having proved himself a master of bringing together the technical elements that make his films so…
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Us.
It’s not very often that a film is so striking, so complex and so delicious that attempting to write a review of it proves overwhelming. Where am I supposed to start with reviewing Jordan Peele’s Us? The director’s follow up to his 2017 debut confirms the true, consistent talents of Peele, undoubtedly a horror film…
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My Favourite Films of 2018.
2018 has been a rather disappointing year for my personal cinema expeditions. With the exception of The Shape of Water, award season was a collection of deflated disappointments with the likes of Lady Bird, Three Billboards and I, Tonya all leaving me a little let down in their mere adequacy. The most unexpected treats of…
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Hereditary.
Following the death of her estranged mother, Toni Collette’s Annie secretly attends grievance support groups, where she describes her mother as manipulative, secretive and barely her mother by the end. Despite the distance and bad blood between them, Annie and her family quickly find the death of their matriarch starts to unravel the family dynamics…
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Dark River.
When I reviewed her directorial debut, The Arbor, I declared that Clio Barnard was a British director to keep your eye on. Back in 2013 her follow up The Selfish Giant further demonstrated her ambition, capability and versatility. Barnard’s third feature is a rural British drama centred around unspoken memories of trauma which continues to prove all of the…
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mother!
Cinema is full of unwelcome guests and domestic intruders, from that unexpected knock on the door to the uncomfortable sense of anxiety caused by someone overstaying their welcome. Michael Haneke’s Funny Games is perhaps the most obvious example of this; two young men dressed in white enquiring about borrowing some eggs but who possess much…
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Alien: Covenant.
Alien is undoubtedly a near-perfect film which continues to dazzle and impress me each time I return to it. Ridley Scott’s bold aesthetic choices and simplistic approach to both the film’s story and visuals results in something altogether cinematically extraordinary. Although many believe an argument can be made for James Cameron’s Aliens, I see little greatness…
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Mulholland Drive.
The first time I saw Mulholland Drive was on a dim laptop screen in the back of a caravan. Even in this least cinematic of locations I found myself intoxicated by David Lynch’s chaotic meditation on the putrid nature of Hollywood. This weekend I finally saw it for the second time on a much larger screen as…
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Raw.
It’s always special to uncover a new horror film which turns the genre on its head. In recent years I’ve been delighted by the nostalgic tones of It Follows and the crafty creeps of The Babadook and have come to expect just one or two of these treats a year. What a delight it is then…
Hannah McHaffie 