

Jaco Bouwer’s first feature starts with great visuals and effective suspense but gets lost in a a hallucinogenic mess that promises more than it delivers.
Continue readingJaco Bouwer’s first feature starts with great visuals and effective suspense but gets lost in a a hallucinogenic mess that promises more than it delivers.
Continue readingJames Ashcroft’s ‘family terrorised in the wilderness’ horror is much more than it seems, revealing layers that explore human frailty and New Zealand’s dark past.
Continue readingA South Korean zombie epic might not be everyone’s first choice but I have yet to get through this without crying in two particular scenes.
Continue readingThis one was a hard one to decide. There are a few that I’ve already listed for other prompts and I was going to choose Yiorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster (2015) until I realised it’s in English (duh!). It came down to exquisite Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In or astounding Estonian B&W In the Crosswind (Risttuules) (2014).
Continue readingUsually scary films don’t scare me for long as I think I maintain an emotional disconnect just to protect myself from being genuinely freaked out. Some are just horrible – Wolf Creek (2005) put ideas and images into my head that I wish I could unsee – and some get let down by the ending where the horror unmasked is less frightening than my imagination promised – Hereditary (2018) is an example of this .
I watched Paranormal Activity one night at home with my partner and he, as often happens, got tired and went to bed before the end. The story is about a young couple who move into a new house where there is a demonic presence. It’s shown only through footage from a camera set up in their bedroom and so there is a lot of suspense created by what happens outside of the room that we can’t see but also what happens while they are asleep that we can see.
It’s one of the few movies that, when it ended, I was scared to walk around my quiet, dark house. I experienced something similar when I watched The Blair Witch Project (1999) for the first time recently. It had the same video camera footage technique and an evil that was potentially demonic and those final scenes really stuck with me. I can see how Paranormal Activity might have been influenced by it (and the long term impact it has had on the horror genre).
What’s the scariest film you’ve seen, particularly as an adult?
Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.
Coming Next: Day 10: Your favourite Australian film
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There are so many B&W films that I love but this Iranian feminist vampire Western is pitch perfect for me. The debut of British-born Ana Lily Amirpour, it has a killer soundtrack, haunting visuals and an understated narrative of love and redemption in an Iranian ghost town. The soundtrack is perfect for late night long distance driving.
Read about it here on IMDb and, if you have a Kanopy account, it’s currently available to stream.
What’s your favourite black and white film? Is it a classic like The Philadelphia Story (1940) or something more contemporary?
Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.
Coming Next: Day 8: Your favourite animation feature film
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No surprises with this one, although it was a toss up with Terminator 2 and Mad Max 2. All three were successful first films, improved by a higher budget for their sequel and let down by each next film as a revolving door of directors tried in vain to capture what made them great.
I love the original Alien (1979) with all its low-budget suspense and scares. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is a strong heroine in a world of men although it was the 70s so director Ridley Scott had to have her menaced whilst wearing skimpy underwear. With Aliens, James Cameron allowed her to unapologetically take charge and, although it was as the ferocious mother trope, it was (and still is) exhilarating for this twenty-something year old to watch.
Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.
Coming Next: Day 7: Your favourite black and white film
Image via film.avclub.com
Like Hereditary (2018), his first feature, Ari Aster’s follow up hipster horror is sumptuous and engaging but ultimately disappointing. Continue reading
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Nicolas Cage, you seem to have made your way out the other side of the Hollywood leading man stereotype and into something rather delightful. Continue reading
Image via http://www.polygon.com
Who knew that I liked zombie/rampaging monster/apocalyptic movies so much? Cloverfield takes a Blair Witch approach to a story of an unnamed monster that attacks Manhattan. Continue reading