Tag: film review
Director/writer Gerald Johnston and writer Akela Cooper’s M3GAN sequel isn’t just reheated leftovers. Instead, it serves up a familiar dish with bold new seasoning and fresher ingredients. M3GAN 2.0 ups the ante, embracing its Summer Blockbuster status with more explosions, action, and striking visuals in the next chapter of the saga of the dancing doll
In a genre that is plagued by tired tropes and formulaic storylines, Tilman Singer’s 2024 horror masterpiece Cuckoo stands out as a visually stunning, fantastically portrayed piece of art. With its meticulous cinematography, vibrant colour palette, and evocative musical score, Cuckoo takes what could be a somewhat confusing and hard-to-get-into story and tells it masterfully
Mors Omnia Solvit (aka “Frammenti – I Veneratori di Morte”) is an Italian extreme satanic horror film directed and produced by Congrega Esoterica Padovana. The name is based on a Latin phrase meaning “death solves everything” or “death loosens all bonds.” Set in contemporary society, a young woman, a modern incarnation of Persephone, lives an
Our Happy Place is a gritty psychological thriller slash modern murder mystery written and directed by Paul Bickel. The film weaves in worries that could only be understood by major audiences in the post-COVID era. Raya (Raya Miles) plays a woman experiencing extreme isolation and loss of meaning within her own world. Now full-time carer
Aimee Kuge’s directorial debut feature, Cannibal Mukbang, dares to ask, “How far would you go for love?” This unsettling yet darkly compelling film explores some of society’s most intimate, and often destructive, relationships: with food, with sexuality, and with one another. Through the visceral lens of performative social media and the primal taboo of cannibalism,
It is no mystery to seasoned J-horror fans that many of the most prolific directors of the genre started their careers making low-budget short films for television or straight-to-video productions, otherwise known as V-cinema. Takashi Shimizu of Ju-On fame, for example, dipped his toes in the waters of V-cinema with 4444444444, In a Corner, and
There’s something thrilling about watching a seasoned director’s first film. It’s like discovering the blueprint of what’s to come—a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the voice they’ll refine over the years. Sure, it may be rough around the edges, but you start spotting those telltale signs: the themes, the tone, the obsessions that will come to
Hotspring Sharkattack (also known as Onsen shâku) is a 2024 Japanese action comedy film written and directed by Morihito Inoue in his feature debut. There have been cases of mysterious disappearances of onsen visitors in Atsumi city in S prefecture. The victims were eventually found dead with signs of severe injuries to their bodies resembling
Did you know Hideaki Anno, best known for Evangelion, has also tackled themes of inner turmoil and depression in live action? If you don’t, no one can blame you. It’s easy to associate Anno with mechas, apocalyptic imagery, and psychological breakdowns. But in his 1998 live-action debut Love & Pop, he trades in the esoteric
Missing Child Videotape is a 2024 Japanese supernatural horror film written and directed by Ryota Kondo with additional writing from Suzuyuki Kaneko. Known for directing the short films Akai tegata (2010) and Kyouran (2010), Ryota Kondo has also collaborated on the horror anthology Hyakki Yobanashi (2023), featuring the segment “Oni no Yobigoe”. Whereas Suzuyuki Kaneko