Do we really need remakes of b-grade 80s slasher films? Halloween had enough cultural cache and Gen X nostalgia value to justify the reboot but ultra-violent Santa Claus movie Silent Night Deadly Night from 1984 did not have ‘essential remake’ written all over it. The new version, a goofy slasher comedy is, however, a little more watchable and a little
Read moreWhile it had some gnawing inconsistencies and questionable logic, Zach Cregger’s 2022 home share horror film Barbarian, was so artfully creepy it signalled the writer/director as an exciting new force in the horror genre. His latest film, Weapons is even better. There are a few stumbles but this bizarre, disturbing mystery thriller is so cleverly constructed and so well performed
Read moreBased on a Stephen King short story and directed by Osgood Perkins, who gave us last year’s overrated Longlegs, The Monkey is an awkward mash-up of grossout horror and quirky comedy that isn’t especially scary or funny. The eponymous monkey is a slightly creepy looking toy critter that two young twins, obnoxious bully Bill and his main victim, nervous younger
Read moreLast year’s standout Aussie film, Talk To Me seems to have broken ground for Aussie horror films internationally. Appearing to benefit from this is supernatural horror/comedy Late Night With the Devil which has apparently been a sensation in the US after generating a serious buzz at the South-By-South West Film Festival. The film takes what had become a slightly tired
Read moreAs a movie title, Five Nights at Freddy’s sounds more like a comedy-drama based in a nightclub rather than a horror film. Gamers, however, will know better as this is an adaptation of a massively popular supernatural/ slasher themed videogame. The film’s trailer suggested a Saw-style human rat trap torture porn film. There is a touch of that but possibly
Read moreWilliam Friedkin’s 1973 cinema adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist was one of the film events of the decade. Disturbingly powerful and superbly crafted, it chilled cinemagoers like no film before while surprisingly sparking huge interest in Mike Oldfields ‘Tubular bells’ which was used on the soundtrack. Even half a century later that film has lost little of
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