Fans of HOST (Rob Savage, 2020) will know that the limitations lockdown places on film making can be a boon to inventive not to mention low budget horror. Ben Wheatley has gone for the equal and opposite approach here, a film made almost entirely out of doors and with only four central characters and unlike … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #6: In the Earth (2021)
I’ve mentioned before that the way we consume TV/film/any other format of ‘content’ shapes expectation. Streaming services have only accelerated the osmosis between television and film, and the COVID pandemic may see the film industry and the theatrical release model irrevocably altered. This doesn’t have to be all bad news and innovative indie filmmakers can … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #5: HOST (2020)
Bram Stoker Award Finalist Howard Ingham and I discuss Gareth Evans' (The Raid) Netflix Original Apostle and look at messy plots, undisciplined editing and atrocious dialogue. Along the way we discuss the London Film Festival, Korean missionaries and that time I bumped into Donald Sumpter after a West Ham game. Enjoy. https://www.podbean.com/media/player/83k6e-aaac8b?from=site&vjs=1&skin=1&fonts=Helvetica&auto=0&download=1
The other week I read a tweet that humorously suggested Batman and Daredevil would do well to swap their names. A similar thought went through my mind after seeing Peter Strickland’s In Fabric and wondering if it shouldn't do the same with Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017). Strickland's films tend to be tactile affairs, … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #4: In Fabric (2018)
Tricia Tuttle’s first LFF as Artistic Director was notable for having 38% of its programme directed by women (up from less than a quarter last year). The theme of womens’ constant struggle against every aspect of life was common across the festival’s various strands, and reflects the wider campaigns for recognition that the film industry … Continue reading The 61st BFI London Film Festival
The ultimate found footage film? The ultimate folk horror film? The ultimate documentary? There is a loose narrative that frames Paul Wright's Arcadia, that of an inherent anxiety about what lives at the heart of rural Britain, something malevolent or at least inimical, not easily defined yet ever-present, lurking. We start with a sinister, silhouette, … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #3: Arcadia (2017)
You can listen to our latest podcast here and now on iTunes (gosh). But before Howard I delved in to Kim Newman's favourite horror film we took a little time to discuss my thoughts on seeing Unburied, Hermetic Arts' hour long folk horror performance piece, playing at Waterloo East Theatre as part of VAULT Festival. … Continue reading M4 Death Trip #5: Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971)
This month (February 2018) the BFI are celebrating the work of pioneering director Waris Hussein. His CV reads as a parade of some of the most groundbreaking TV series in the UK including Suffragette serial Shoulder to Shoulder (1974), Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978) and taboo-smashing Aids crisis drama Intimate Contact (1987). A success in … Continue reading Foreign Countries #16: The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)
So Howard Ingham and I don our Parking Inspector brassards and channel our inner hoons as we investigate The Cars That Ate Paris. You can listen to the Podcast above or here but by way of introduction a quick word about rural Australia on film. Director Peter Weir is probably the first among equals for … Continue reading M4 Death Trip #4: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
Visiting a cinema's rubbish these days isn't it? By 'cinema' I of course mean the 'civilian cinema' of a multiplex or similar. This rather snobbish observation reflects the barrage of adverts and mind draining trailers one sits through before the film starts and having to share the auditorium with any number of patrons who display … Continue reading Foreign Countries #13: The Orchard End Murder (1980)
Views From A Hill 