The charmingly named Orphan: First Kill is the prequel to the reasonably tense and creepy 2009 psycho-child slasher flick, Orphan. Like that film, this one effectively plays on the unnerving juxtaposition of the central fiend’s sweet-looking, child-like appearance and brutal, murderous tendencies. The film reacquaints us with the diabolical orphan Esther (Isabelle Fuhrmann) who, as the first film revealed and
Read moreThe ‘man versus nature’ horror/action film is one of the dodgier movie sub-genres. Casting an animal as a villain simply because it doesn’t welcome, or sees as food, a human who has intruded on its habitat is a little too human centric. Still, some films of this type have worked, the best example being Jaws because it reached beyond the
Read moreIranian comedy/ drama Hit the Road is a wonderfully poignant, funny, at times melancholic and unsettling film that at first seems like a familiar road trip film with echoes of Little Miss Sunshine but proves to be something more profound. The film introduces us to a distinct and very welcome new voice in writer/ director Panah Panahi, the son of
Read moreA quarter of a century after her death, Princess Diana remains a subject of public fascination. Following the impressive Diana biopic, Spencer, comes the documentary, The Princess. While directed by Ed Perkins, the film also bares the stamp of its producers Jonathon Chinn and in particular Simon Chinn who gave us Man on Wire and Searching For Sugar Man, two
Read moreWhile there is no onscreen violence or bloodshed, German docudrama, The Conference is possibly the most disturbing film so far this year. This film depicts the abhorrent attempt to sanitise the most appallingly brutal aspects of human nature through bureaucratic process. The film dramatises the events of the meeting held in a chateau next to Wannsee Lake in Berlin on
Read moreWriter/director Jordan Peele’s intriguingly off-kilter, socially conscious, genre-splicing horror films, Get Out and Us have been some of Hollywood’s more interesting offerings of recent years. They weren’t for everyone, though, as the plots of those films, especially Us, were a little murky and at times made us feel we were watching a jumble of ideas rather than a coherent story.
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