The Piano Teacher (2001) Movie Review

Love and violence may seem axiomatically opposed, but in the movies they share a common bond – they’re both difficult to depict on screen without attaching any sense of thrill to their meanings. And yet The Piano Teacher, a French film from director Michael Haneke, based on a novel by Nobel Prize...

October 8th, 2009 | Read More

Fermat’s Room (2007) Movie Review

The Spanish “Fermat’s Room” is the latest in the enduringly popular puzzle thriller genre, which sees characters trapped and being forced to solve enigmas in order to avoid inventively gruesome fates. Here, writers and directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña (previously better known for their...

September 2nd, 2009 | Read More

Sexy Killer: You’ll Die for Her (2008) Movie Review

Spanish horror has been prominent on the international scream scene of late, with the likes of “REC” and “The Orphanage” offering another alternative to the increasingly bland tide of remakes flowing sluggishly from Hollywood. “Sexy Killer”, from director Miguel Martí (previously responsible...

August 16th, 2009 | Read More

Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (2009) Movie Review

It’s been three years since the events of “Banlieue 13”, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. Or gotten worst, actually. The wall that separates the slums of District 13 and the more civilized (i.e. less tattooed) populace of Paris has not been torn down as promised, and the...

August 8th, 2009 | Read More

Macabre (1980) Movie Review

“Macabre” was originally released back in 1980 and marked the debut of Italian horror director Lamberto Bava. The son of the legendary Mario Bava, who was responsible for countless influential genre classics including “Black Sunday” and “Black Sabbath”, his works were always somewhat overshadowed...

May 30th, 2009 | Read More

Martyrs (2008) Movie Review

As Hollywood horror slowly drowns in a mire of teen friendly remakes, over the last few years, it is arguably the French who have given genre addicts their much needed fixes, including such gruesome gems as “Switchblade Romance”, “Frontiers” and “Inside”. Following these comes “Martyrs”,...

May 30th, 2009 | Read More

Sleepless (2001) Movie Review

“Sleepless” was originally released in 2001 and saw legendary horror director Dario Argento returning to the Giallo form in an attempt to reverse what had seemed for many years to be the irreversible decline of his once glorious career. Perhaps inevitably receiving mixed reactions from critics and...

May 30th, 2009 | Read More

The House by the Cemetery (Uncut, 1981) Movie Review

UK gore and horror fans have real reason to rejoice as Lucio Fulci’s 1981 gut muncher “The House by the Cemetery” has at last been passed uncut by the dreaded BBFC. The film now returns to DVD in all its gruesome glory via Arrow Video as part of their Masters of Giallo series, and comes complete...

May 24th, 2009 | Read More

Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) Movie Review

It’s obvious to anyone who doesn’t have his head stuck up his ass that you don’t go into a movie called “Lesbian Vampire Killers” expecting the second coming of “Citizen Kane”. While the threshold for “success” is undoubtedly set very low as a result, there are nevertheless expectations...

May 24th, 2009 | Read More

Dead Snow (2009) Movie Review

When you think horror, you think Norwegians. Okay, maybe not so much, but the Norwegians sure are making a nice little name for themselves producing some interesting ditties to the horror genre. They’ve already offered up two of the more notable slasher titles of recent years in the “Cold Prey”...

March 28th, 2009 | Read More

Cold Prey 2 (2008) Movie Review

When the Norwegian slasher “Cold Prey” was released back in 2006, it was hailed by some as being the best example of the form for some years, being a back to basics slice of gory fun and genuine tension. Given its success, “Cold Prey 2” was always inevitable, and the film now arrives on region...

March 27th, 2009 | Read More

Fear(s) of the Dark (2007) Movie Review

French black and white animation has been growing increasingly accomplished and popular of late through the likes of the science fiction themed “Renaissance” and the Oscar nominated “Persepolis”. Offering something a little different and far more disturbing is “Fear(s) of the Dark” (“Peur(s)...

January 19th, 2009 | Read More

Mongol (2007) Movie Review

“Mongol” was nominated for a 2007 Academy Award, but it only just started making the festival rounds earlier this year, beginning at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and most recently screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival. Its limited cinematic release began on June 6, and since I...

July 25th, 2008 | Read More

Let the Right One In (2008) Movie Review

There are special effects that no Hollywood blockbuster can create, and magic that no money can buy. It is the magic of humanity that no CGI can recreate or substitute – the magic of perfectly cast actors whose alchemy transcends (and renders laughable) the puerile “special effects” of...

July 18th, 2008 | Read More

Fighter (2007) Movie Review

Aicha loves kung fu, and has been learning at an all-girls club after school for the last three years, until the instructor “introduces” her to a higher level of kung fu after an altercation with a fellow student. (Aicha also has a bit of a temper.) Alas, this higher level involves co-ed kung fu...

July 13th, 2008 | Read More

The Final Inquiry (2006) Movie Review

Okay, an admission right up front, this review contains spoilers for the film The Final Inquiry. Here it comes… Ready? Jesus dies. If that doesn’t shock or surprise you then absolutely nothing else about this movie will. It is, very nearly, the most mediocre film, ever. It’s not...

July 13th, 2008 | Read More

The Cottage (2008) Movie Review

The British already know that writer-director Paul Andrew Williams is one to watch. His feature film debut, “London to Brighton” (2006), saw him being nominated for a BAFTA, as the Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer. He may have lost out on that one to Andrea Arnold for “Red...

May 6th, 2008 | Read More

The Backwoods (2006) Movie Review

John Boorman’s “Deliverance” gave birth to a new subgenre of films featuring middle class white men who desire the stoicism of life in the wild and of a more direct conflict for survival outside of the office cubicles and golf courses. It also established the genre’s archetypal...

April 20th, 2008 | Read More

Morgan Pålsson – World Reporter (2008) Movie Review

Every country has their lovable, bumbling idiot. America has Jerry Lewis (though France would rather claim him), Mexico has Cantinflas, England has Peter Sellers as the unforgettable Inspector Clouseau and so on. The latest to join this august chorus of ineptitude appears to be Swede Anders Jansson...

April 13th, 2008 | Read More

The Baker (2007) Movie Review

Quirky hitman movies are nothing new, and unfortunately the plots themselves are, well, never anything overly original. After all, there are only so many twists you can come up with when the premise must always revolve around a killer who, for one reason or another, begins to question his profession....

April 12th, 2008 | Read More