Month: October 2021
There is a good reason why Don’t Look Now so rarely feels like it is a horror film. It is much too concerned with going about its daily business as if nothing terrible actually happened. Opening with a traumatic turn of events that will lead to the image of Donald Sutherland rising from some primordial
It’s Halloween and I therefore decided to do a recap of horror-related tropes or subgenres in Japanese entertainment! An obvious choice, taking up a fair amount of the genre landscape, are slashers – something much less associated to Japanese cinema. Now, clearly, Japan has no shortage of iconic slasher movies: …However, as my core interest
I remember the first time I watched Hiroya Oku’s Gantz anime. Let’s set the scene: it was the early 00s and I would hang out with my friends after school to watch whichever anime one of us could get their hands on. Unfortunately, there was this girl I hated that sometimes went to these
Running a ride share for some extra money at Christmas, time goes awry for Russell when he picks up the mysterious and frenetic Charlotte. The misadventures which follow turn increasingly criminal, and there’s a bizarre reason for Charlotte’s lack of care that could change Russell’s life even more than the crimes he has started to
It is hard to know where to begin when discussing the epic that is Labyrinth of Cinema, the final directorial feature of Nobuhiko Obayashi. Perhaps it is best to start with the director himself. With a career spanning sixty years, Obayashi has garnered critical acclaim and an incredible cult following. From his first feature House
Johanna is just twenty years old but struggling with her boring and aimless existence. Disturbing visions start the day she gets fired from her job. Soon Johanna is carried off into a different world beneath the city where people live in a parallel universe full of darkness and magic rituals. The denizens of this world
Traumatised from witnessing the horrific death of her parents, Sara attempts to take her own life. Waking up in the aftermath of this, she cannot remember anything and does her best to manage in a reality she cannot trust – truth distorted by strange dreams, and maybe even deliberate lies. The Free Fall is trying
There is a strong style of horror that uses whatever we take for granted as safe in life and turns it into a nightmare. However, once I started to read Blood in the Tracks (2017) by Shuzo Oshimi, I got maybe a little more than what I asked for. After catching up with this manga,
Chuck Tingle’s a bit of a wild card, mostly known for his erotically humorous tales with subject matter and characters the likes of which other authors dare not do. Aside from that, he’s a loveable, fuzzy, and warm presence on social media that sends out positivity, especially for us LGBTQ+ folks. Imagine my surprise when I discover
I had the great fortune of viewing the documentary Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist (2021) at this years’ Nightstream horror film festival. As a longtime fan of his work it turned out to be an emotional journey that affirmed of my love of animation and felt like a visit with some of my favorite creators. The surprising