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Sight Extended
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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The film is a sad, often subtle exploration of a world of possibilities which is oh-so near now.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
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Invoking Yell
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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The film turns out to be more a kind of time capsule of this point in time than a straightforward horror film, but the end result – a look at how obsessions and mythologies overlap and establish themselves – is quite interesting on its own terms.
Posted May 31, 2023
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C-
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Roadkill
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Without question, there are issues in this film. But there is the germ of a great idea here, and the film wants to be great, even if it’s hamstrung by budgetary restraints which emerge as pulled punches.
Posted May 28, 2023
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Influencer
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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Influencer perfectly captures a moment in time. Ten years from this date, we’ll be vastly unsettled by something else; Kurtis David Harder’s film captures terrors which are only possible, like this, right now.
Posted May 26, 2023
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The Wrath of Becky
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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The Wrath of Becky is a crowd pleaser, full of OTT rough charm and gratuitous just desserts; it’s hard not to love its boundless energy.
Posted May 22, 2023
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C
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Mad Heidi
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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It kind of wins you over via its determination to please genre fans with its ‘throw enough mud at a wall’ ethos.
Posted May 21, 2023
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Motion Detected
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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It's too diffuse, too confused and has no pertinent social comments to make. Tech framework or not, this is thin gruel.
Posted May 17, 2023
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Peppergrass
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Peppergrass has a kind of strange, often calm power, which is a strange thing to think or say, given its often brutal moments. But it feels incredibly confident, lining up its little clues, cues and plot points before gliding through them.
Posted May 13, 2023
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Brotherhood of the Wolf
(2001)
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Keri O'Shea
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Brotherhood of the Wolf manages to marry its luxurious fantasies to its realities, and it does so without sacrificing its vision of a peculiarly anxious moment in history.
Posted May 06, 2023
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Evil Dead Rise
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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Absent the few minor issues, this is a brilliantly mean-spirited modern horror which walks a solid line between new ground and old.
Posted May 01, 2023
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C-
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Dark Glasses
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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It may only have a dash of the gloss and flair of Argento at his best, but it’s by no means the crushing disappointment claimed by some critics and fans.
Posted Apr 19, 2023
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A
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The Ring
(1998)
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Keri O'Shea
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On occasion, a film comes along which makes an almost immediate, indelible mark. As soon as it appears, it disrupts what came before it; it can be difficult to even remember a time before it, so quickly do its characters and archetypes take hold.
Posted Apr 14, 2023
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The Artifice Girl
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The Artifice Girl asks, ‘What are we doing?’, stops off at the rhetorical, ‘Oh god, what have we done?’ and then heads over to, ‘Well, what should we do?’
Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Spaghetti Junction
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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This is a coming of age drama which weaves together elements of tried-and-tested genres, but comes up with something which feels very innovative, deeply compassionate and intriguing.
Posted Apr 05, 2023
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C-
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Mister Organ
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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As much as the credits roll before all of the answers are forthcoming, Farrier is able to engender interest in this character, and in how his personal story began to overlap with his subject’s.
Posted Mar 26, 2023
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D
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Adalynn
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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It certainly has excellent intentions, focusing its scrutiny on a new mother for whom the walls start to close in. But it quickly becomes turgid, and lacks the budget to really give clout to its metaphorical monsters.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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C-
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Rubikon
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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It would definitely benefit from losing a good twenty minutes – it’s too loose in places – but there’s (just) enough spectacle and material here to hold interest, particularly for those who like an element of philosophy in their sci-fi.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Spoonful of Sugar
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Things steadily ramp up, and Spoonful of Sugar is more than able to shock; it’s a film peppered with fetid rabbits, after all. That’s got to be some kind of sign.
Posted Mar 11, 2023
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The Unheard
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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What a tantalising, frustrating experience from the Rasmussens, who do some painstaking work here, only to set it bafflingly aside.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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C-
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Sound of Silence
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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Sound of Silence perhaps struggles because it tries to do so much. In its efforts, it at times spins wildly between being hectic and being flat, between being an homage and striking out alone. But there are good elements in here, and these deserve credit.
Posted Mar 04, 2023
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C-
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They Wait in the Dark
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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There’s ambition here which is largely successful, and the film does make an attempt to tackle uncomfortable topics head-on, approaching them in potentially unpleasant, but ultimately interesting ways, with a few thought-provoking about-face moments.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Jane
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Jane is psychological rather than visceral, but this is no discredit to the film. In fact, in its overarching message – one which only hoves into view at the end – it has plenty to say about success, and those who succeed.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Solid Rock Trust
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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It’s a film which makes an artform of its bold approaches and decisions and it comes together productively, getting the key elements just right. In essence, there’s a great deal to appreciate in this clever, pithy and well-handled drama.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
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Skinamarink
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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To do Skinamarink credit, all of its tedious blunders are strongly represented in the first few minutes; you don’t need to wait the full one hundred to finally feel cheated.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Enys Men
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Sumptuous but partial, gorgeous but empty, symbolic without the requisite ideas, Enys Men may represent a different way to use the art of film, but it doesn't work as a film.
Posted Jan 16, 2023
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C-
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Snow Falls
(2023)
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Keri O'Shea
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Perhaps, then, it was inevitable that horror would take the fear of a new relationship with the environment and run with it, as it has with Snow Falls (2023). It’s a film which takes some elements of the Dyatlov Pass incident and makes it all-American.
Posted Jan 11, 2023
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The Leech
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The Leech is a surprisingly complex, deeply mean-spirited and often surreal character study, albeit with a few moments of black comedy to lighten the overall mood.
Posted Dec 11, 2022
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Christmas Bloody Christmas
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The film may have started off as a different kind of Christmas horror entirely, but its progression into a bloody, entertaining, unrestrained genre mash-up makes for a really fun film.
Posted Dec 07, 2022
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Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes
(2021)
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Keri O'Shea
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It begins looking like something from a 60s Gothic pulp cover, segues into avant-garde Eurohorror and winds up dabbling with 60s counterculture. It’s a period piece, but not as we may know or recognise it.
Posted Dec 01, 2022
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Brightwood
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Despite a few minor issues, Brightwood does successfully hold up a carnival mirror to the horrors of relationship breakdown, with all of its deja-vu and inescapable dread reflecting back at us.
Posted Nov 30, 2022
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On the Edge
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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A bizarre regression in quality, if not quantity; it’s all crass self-indulgence, flimsy moral message and nylon knickers. It’s absolutely astonishing.
Posted Nov 27, 2022
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C-
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Slash/Back
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Clearly director Nyla Innuksuk is writing two simultaneous love-letters here - one to The Thing (1982) (with an open reference to it in the script) and one to, well, pick any kiddie hero horror from the mid-eighties to Attack The Block (2011).
Posted Nov 19, 2022
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All Jacked Up and Full of Worms
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Perhaps the film’s main issue for this viewer is that it never quite opts for the big, bold ick factor or a weightier/funnier character study, but rather meanders between these points.
Posted Nov 16, 2022
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C-
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The Retaliators
(2021)
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Keri O'Shea
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Had it been the film it is at the end, from the start, then it would be a minor masterpiece of OTT exploitation horror; as things stand, it just about redeems itself in ways which are engaging, gory and imaginative enough.
Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Low Life
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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All in all, and by the end, Low Life feels like a modern-day parable. It brings its own lessons to bear on a scenario which feels, at least at first, plausible, recognisable.
Posted Nov 02, 2022
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Triangle of Sadness
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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You can – just about – pity Carl, even whilst being eminently frustrated by him, and held apart from him. This is a film which leaves some big questions hanging without compromising on its verve and wit.
Posted Nov 02, 2022
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Pamfir
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The sense of growing peril weighs very heavily, and all whilst the film's symbolism is allowed to dawn on you, rather than to land on you [...] An impressive, painstaking film.
Posted Oct 28, 2022
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C-
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Old Flame
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The film oh-so nearly has the audacity to really push some of the genuinely challenging and unsettling realities around sex, memory and consent from different perspectives.
Posted Oct 20, 2022
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V/H/S/99
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The 1999 thing is only used as a last-chance opportunity to use the VHS framework before DVD comes in properly and wrecks the game. Beyond that, we get some gleeful word choices ‘from back then’ and some black lipstick.
Posted Oct 20, 2022
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C+
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Hellraiser
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Funnily enough, whilst they have cleaned up the overall look of this film - clean, delicate, often light - they've balanced it out with a few markedly opaque, even murky sequences. Perhaps the Hellraiser series still has a quota of murk to fulfil.
Posted Oct 09, 2022
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Two Witches
(2021)
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Keri O'Shea
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If you're good with a big melting pot of scenes and influences from Sam Raimi, Dario Argento, Rob Zombie and even a dollop of Anna Biller (yeah, you heard), then you'll be more than happy.
Posted Oct 05, 2022
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Deadstream
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Deadstream is an engaging, richly-textured and often self-deprecating film which provides a sense of progression in horror, as well as paying tribute to films which have brought us to this point.
Posted Oct 03, 2022
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C-
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Everyone Will Burn
(2021)
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Keri O'Shea
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Ultimately, the initial shifts in tone - compounded by the film's length - stop it from being a straight-up success, but seeing Gómez doing her best Isabelle Adjani has its merits, whilst García is a great player throughout.
Posted Sep 19, 2022
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C+
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Raven's Hollow
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The Raven (2012) blended Poe’s life and works in a fairly effective piece of horror, and a decade on, Raven’s Hollow (2022) has done much the same thing, with many of the same positives and negatives held in a similar balance.
Posted Sep 19, 2022
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Rageaholic
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Almost dystopian in places, Rageaholic is by and large a social commentary which relies on fantasy elements to express some very real concerns. Sometimes darkly funny, sometimes hyper-violent [...] it's a very angry film altogether.
Posted Aug 31, 2022
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Fall
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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A film clearly intended for the big screen, and the bigger the screen the better, Fall is as exasperating as it is exhilarating; no, scrub that, it’s far more exasperating, but that does become part of the fun...after a while.
Posted Aug 29, 2022
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Follow Her
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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The rise and rise of social media has definitively blurred the line between consent and content [...] This brings us to Follow Her (2022), a brutal, succinct and fast-paced story about some very modern anxieties.
Posted Aug 29, 2022
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3/5
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A Wounded Fawn
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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A Wounded Faun always seems to be threatening more discomfort, and its own particular supernatural content affords the layering of surreal and nightmarish content, allowing the film to experiment throughout.
Posted Aug 26, 2022
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The Feast
(2021)
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Keri O'Shea
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Anxieties over the land, family, tradition, mythology and values seep slowly through the film; these are familiar in many respects but also, somehow, inextricably Welsh. It's a visually rich, beguiling watch.
Posted Aug 16, 2022
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C
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Prey
(2022)
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Keri O'Shea
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Never before has 'final girl' been foreshadowed quite so hard - but, all in all, despite a gathering pile of minor misgivings, the film works pretty well as a fairly straightforward, but reasonably paced film with lots of well-handled action sequences.
Posted Aug 15, 2022
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