Excess flesh
Food horror that plays like a cross between starry eyes and Repulsion. This ones about a girl with body dis-morphia slowly going mad and ultimately turning her growing rage on her skinny as a rake flat mate. The creative use of sound and image creates a real sense of disgust and unease as things slowly come to a head. Is suspect not everyone will like this but I thought it was pretty good. Its refusal to explain anything is also a plus. Its pretty clear at the end what's happened but it refuses to spell it out. Also worth a mention is Bethany Orr as the central character who really delivers a great performance.
Dark net
Short. Johnny vegas hires a hit man online to kill the man who 'stole' his ex. Really dark and funny with a neat twist.
Julia
Short. Fairly surreal, giallo-esque tale of a nasty break up. Pretentious but looks great.
Shut-in
Short. A journalist interviews a man who has lived the last 7 years in a virtual world. Solidly delivered cyberpunk revenge tale with a nice twist.
Whisper
Short. Part whistle and i'll come to you with Lovecraft inspirations. decently told and well shot tale of a young woman hiding out at the beach and trying to kick a heroin habit.
Willa
Short. Adapted from a Stephen King story this is a nicely shot ghost story set in the afterlife. Well realised even if the Twist is totally guessable.
A stranger kind
Short. A stage magician preforms a hand amputation trick on stage that has bloody consequences for a young woman and her step-father. Funny and bloody in equal measure. Great stuff.
Cowboy ben
Short. A coke snorting businessman meets an old toy come to life that reminds him of when he was a child. This one was really funny and had a nice dark twist to the tale.
The nightmare
Another documentary from the maker of Room 237. This one deals with people across America and Britain who suffer from sleep paralysis and documents the eerily similar visions that all have experience. It follows through the life changing consequences including the adoption of religious beliefs and the effects on the people around them. Very interesting, though I remain a sceptic, the films really looks great as well and the reconstructions of the experiences the sufferers went through are well done. Worth a look.
Howl.
A train breaks down in the middle of the woods and the passengers find themselves under attack by werewolves. The film has a terrific use of space within the train, the set design is excellent and the werewolves are very well realised and look different to any I've seen before. The performances are mainly great and it has some great gore FX to boot. This is a really fun little movie that's out on blu-ray soon and worth picking up.
Synchronicity
From the director of The Signal Synchronicity is a dark sci-fi that deals with time travel in interesting ways. For the first 35 minutes you'll think you know exactly where its going and it appears you may be right before veering off and really going some place better. The Sci-Fi seems to be there as a way of talking about human relationships however its got a great blade runner vibe to it.
Deathgasm
From the makers of houseboundthis is another New Zealand horror-comedy that really delivers the goods. A young metal-head arrives at a small New Zealand town and promptly begins hanging out with the local meatl fan and his role-playing friends at school. After breaking into a house that belongs to a black metal legend the group get hold of the 'black hymn' a song that summons hell on earth. After unleashing a plague of demonic possession on the town they must fight to undo what they have done. The demonic possession scenes play like a cross between Braindead and Evil Dead. The effects are genuinely terrific and the film is really very funny indeed. Massively recommended.
We are still here
Reviewed this here previously but was nice to see it on the big screen with an audience. Essentially a slow burning ghost story that mutates into an OTT gore fest in the final act. Wickedly weird little film with a nice turn from Larry Fessenden and some of the best material Babara Crampton has had to work with in a long while, she really delivers with her performance here.
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