Documentaries don’t make their way onto Diabolique very often, but Finders Keepers (2015) is an exception. Its premise is so outlandish, so ghoulishly compelling, that there was no way I could let it pass unnoticed. Reading the film’s synopsis gave me that ...
Read More »When Animals Dream (Film Review)
Jonas Alexander Arnby’s first feature, When Animals Dream (2014), is a self-proclaimed fable about a young woman discovering both her burgeoning sexuality and the inconvenient fact that she’s a werewolf. Having debuted in Critic’s Week at Cannes, it’s one of ...
Read More »With POSTPARTUM, Izzy Lee Displays Solid Formal Instincts
Izzy Lee’s new short film Postpartum plays on all sorts of fears: fears women have of becoming mothers, and what can happen to them afterwards; fears our society has of what women can turn into once they give birth; and ...
Read More »Delivery: The Beast Within is ‘Found-Footage,’ Pregnancy Horror that Avoids the Subgenres’ Problems
If there’s one type of film that horror fans have probably seen enough of over the past decade or so, it’s the found-footage film. Bookended by The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007), the gimmick that has occasionally ...
Read More »Hidden Horror: A celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks (Book Review)
Following up on his 2007 book “Horror 101,” editor Aaron Christensen (aka Dr. AC) has published his second anthology of horror-film-appreciation essays, “Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks” via fellow horrorphile Jon Kitley’s “Kitley’s ...
Read More »Plein Soleil (Purple Noon, 1960 – UK Blu-ray Review)
Details Year: 1960 Length: 118 min Rating: NR Disks: 1 Region: B Label: Studio Canal Video Resolution: 1080p Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Type: Color Audio Audio: French/English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Subtitles: English, Spanish Film: [rating=6] Video: [rating=3] ...
Read More »Possession (UK Blu-Ray Review)
Details Year: 1981 Length: 124 min Rating: BBFC 18 Disks: 1 Region: B Label: Second Sight Films Video Resolution: 1080p Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Type: Color Audio Audio: English LPCM Mono Subtitles: English SDH Film: [rating=6] Video: [rating=6] ...
Read More »Legitimate (Film Review)
Boston filmmaker Izzy Lee’s first short, Legitimate, may only have a running time of five and a half minutes, but it certainly packs a punch in that time. Opening on the infamous quote from Senator Todd Akin (“If it’s a ...
Read More »Sightseers (Film Review)
Ben Wheatley’s new film Sightseers is a welcome return to form for him, after the promising but rather disjointed Kill List (2011). Sightseers is that rare bird: a comedy so dark that it teeters on the edge of not being ...
Read More »The Machine (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]
Welsh writer/director Caradog James’s second feature, The Machine, asks its audience a difficult question: in an age of artificial intelligence, what does being “human” really mean? While The Machine, like its namesake in the film, functions well enough—like a diluted ...
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