The Black Phone rightfully terrified audiences when it was released across theatres in 2022. And now, just in time for the Halloween season, director Scott Derrickson is bringing the nightmarish void of his supernatural world back to the masses with Black Phone 2, where true evil transcends death…and the phone is ringing once more. As…
It’s not too far into the 95 minutes of David Moreau‘s Other that it becomes eerily evident that everyone aside from lead Olga Kurylenko has their appearance intentionally hidden or distorted from view. Moreau himself stated that it was a visual additive that played into the loneliness and confinement of Kurylenko’s Alice, who spends the…
Nostalgia has proven a strong enough tool within the horror genre to revisit seemingly dormant franchises over the last few years (Halloween, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, to name a few), but what about a particular subsect itself? For those craving the wince-inducing torture porn wave that swept the 2000s (thanks predominantly…
The Black Phone, released to theatres in 2022, was not the type of film that needed a sequel in any form. It was a perfectly contained, suitably unnerving horror effort that made the most of its short story origins (Joe Hill wrote the original prose in 2004). As we all know in the business of…
A true story that proves reality is so often wilder than fiction, Roofman, from director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), details the life of Jeffrey Manchester, dubbed the “Roofman” due to his modus operandi of breaking into his target locations (mostly McDonald’s restaurants) through their roofs. After escaping prison and hiding out in a Toys “R”…
A classic case of truth being stranger than fiction, Roofman is the wild, almost unbelievable true story of Jeffrey Manchester, who earned himself the titular moniker due to the fact that he robbed a series of McDonald’s in the late 90s-early 2000s (45 locations, to be exact), entering the premises through their roofs. Despite his…
\ Tied to a tree with no recollection of how he got there – or why – when Bark opens with its interesting set-up of seeming Average Joe, Nolan Bentley (Michael Weston), in this predicament, Marc Schölermann‘s horror effort wants us to question if he’s a victim or a perpetrator. Over the course of its…
Whilst there is a certain initial familiarity in Jessica Rothe portraying someone who’s in something of a cyclical environment in her latest horror effort, Affection, it becomes all too evident in the early minutes of BT Meza‘s genre outing that this is no retread of the more humorously minded Happy Death Day – the film…
The Tron series has always existed in an interesting space within cinematic history. The 1982 original (Tron) and its 2010 sequel (Tron: Legacy) were more a cult phenomenon than box office successes, with the first film something of a visual revolution as it introduced audiences to the notion of entering a digital world, before Joseph…
An uncomfortable drama inspired by true events, Sovereign is a quiet, muscular outing from first-time feature filmmaker Christian Swegal, featuring a terrifying, layered turn from Nick Offerman at its core that speaks to the actor’s undeniable presence. Jerry and Joseph Kane were a father-son duo of anti-government extremists; Jerry was a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” who…
Inspired by true events, Sovereign stars Nick Offerman as Jerry Kane, a radicalised “sovereign citizen” who, with his 16-year-old son Joseph (Jacob Tremblay), gunned down two West Memphis police officers in 2010, sparking a deadly manhunt. Directed by Christian Swegal, and also starring Dennis Quaid, Nancy Travis and Martha Plimpton, Sovereign draws chilling parallels to…
Michael Stahl-David first burst onto the scene with his breakout turn in the seminal sci-fi horror hit Cloverfield. Since then, he’s built an impressively varied screen career, appearing in HBO’s Golden Globe winning Show Me a Hero, Netflix’s acclaimed juggernaut Narcos, the medical drama Good Sam, and Almost Family, an adaptation of the Australian series…
A sound reflection of the tranquil art of fishing, Looking Through Water is a calm, simple drama about the complicated relationships between fathers, sons and brothers. Now even more notable for being Michael Douglas‘s final screen role – the actor announcing his retirement earlier this year – Looking Through Water adopts a Princess Bride-like narrative…
If you could restore youthful beauty and guarantee longevity by committing to a few days of mysterious treatments, would you? Would you trust your life and health to science and technology that might be more hype than healthy? Enter Shell. Samantha (Elisabeth Moss) is thinking it over. She’s a slightly unkempt, earnest, talented actress who…
Arriving not long after The Substance doesn’t bode well for something like Shell, Max Minghella‘s campy, body horror ode to trashy escapist 90s cinema that similarly explores the world of ageing in Hollywood and how far someone will go to maintain perfection. With both films screening within a week of each other at last year’s…
One of the most talked about titles out of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was the biographical sports drama Christy from acclaimed Australian filmmaker David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) and starring Sydney Sweeney in the titular role, one that generated Oscar buzz out of the festival last month; you can read our review here, where we…
Mr. Scorsese is a cinematic portrait one Martin Scorsese, detailing the man through the lens of his work, exploring the many facets of a visionary who redefined filmmaking, including his extraordinary career and unique personal history. With exclusive, unrestricted access to Scorsese’s private archives, the documentary series is anchored by extensive conversations with the filmmaker…
No stranger to helming both action and comedy, director Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door, Let’s Be Cops) hilariously collides suburban dad life with high-stakes thrills, transforming an ordinary afternoon into an absurd action-packed adventure where minivan mayhem meets professional hitmen in Play Date, which Prime Video have revealed today through exclusive first-look images ahead…
The Japanese Film Festival (JFF), presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney, marks its 29th year with a line-up of major new releases, literary adaptations, thrillers and anime features. Touring Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth from 27th October to the 19th December, the festival continues to highlight the best of contemporary and classic Japanese cinema….
Whether we’ve taken notice or not, but, much like your James Bonds, Jack Ryans and Jack Reachers, the character at the centre of Shane Black‘s Play Dirty – Parker – is a cinematic mainstay who has appeared in films dating back to the 1960s, portrayed either directly or taken inspiration from by a multitude of…
There’s an odd satisfaction that comes from watching genre films that use the narrative of stolen children. It’s a horrific, harsh reality, but Hollywood knows how to take the weighted drama of such and merge it with a revenge-cum-saviour mentality, creating the type of story where justice prevails in a way to make the escapism…
Whilst it’s understandable that Glen Powell‘s rise to fame over the last few years has very much leant into his obvious sex appeal, you have to hand it to the actor for not always relying on it within his projects. Namely his latest effort, Chad Powers, a sports-themed comedy series that he and producer/writer Michael…
Directed by Louis Mandylor and written by and starring Scott Adkins, Prisoner of War tells the story of a soldier captured by the Japanese and held in a Philippine POW camp. Before the entire colony embarks upon the Bataan Death March, Wright and his fellow prisoners are forced to compete in brutal death matches for…
From Oscar winner Jordan Peele and Monkeypaw Productions, producers of the landmark horror films Get Out, Us, Candyman and Nope, comes a chilling journey into the inner sanctum of fame, idolatry and the pursuit of excellence at any cost, Him, featuring an electrifying dramatic performance from Marlon Wayans and a star-making turn from Tyriq Withers….
Much has been said about Jordan Peele‘s attachment to Him. Though, like Peele’s own directorial efforts (the thematically complex Get Out, Us, and Nope), Justin Tipping‘s film bathes in its horror elements and topical commentary, it’s more in tune with other producorial efforts (Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and Dev Patel’s Monkey Man), proving a feature that…
A two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, and a PRIDE FC competitor, Mark Kerr, a former wrestler, is one of the greatest mixed martial artists to ever emerge from the sport. Following his coverage as a subject in the documentary The Smashing Machine, which detailed his fighting career, director Benny Safdie adapted…
Despite his absolute monstrous size at the time of his career and just how brutal he proved in the ring of mixed martial arts, Mark Kerr was – and still is – a figure that defied the expectations many would presumably put upon him from a personal standpoint. Softly spoken, with an emotional sense that…
With the release of last year’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, a retreading of Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion chiller The Strangers, director Renny Harlin and screenwriters Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland delivered a largely uninspired, familiar horror effort that hoped it would justify its existence by promising to be the essential springboard for a…
And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend… Last year’s global cinematic cultural sensation, which became the most successful Broadway film adaptation of all time, now reaches its epic, electrifying, emotional conclusion in Wicked: For Good. Directed once again by award-winning director Jon M. Chu and starring…
Adulthood, directed by Alex Winter, stars Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario as a duo of siblings who uncover a dead body in the basement of their parents’ house. Understandably, the situation spirals comically out of control, leading the two to resort to desperate, drastic measures to keep things under wraps. Now available on VOD in…
