REVIEWS
Cinema, Blu-ray/4K, Streaming and VOD Releases - Reviewed By Fans For Fans
DIRECTOR’S CUT
A struggling rock band takes up an offer for a music video that seems to be good to be true. Is there a catch? Of course there is.
TERRIFIER 3
TERRIFIER 3 - Art the Clown returns in the eagerly awaited sequel. Is it one of the goriest films ever made or is this more of the usual hype?
INSIDE
Second Sight carry on their sterling work in bringing key works of the small movement of what came to be known as “New Extremity.” This debut film from directors Maury and Bustillo has lost absolutely none of its disturbing or relentless edge in the time since its original release in 2007. The premise of a pregnant woman grieving for her husband only to come under severe threat from a mysterious woman takes absolutely no prisoners, sadistically playing on the audience's sensitivity with several cinematic sacred cows.
PEEPING TOM
It began with a Freudian script by Poe fan, playwright and cryptographer Leo Marks, who considered his role as a (famous) WWII codebreaker a highly voyeuristic one. It was such a personal project for director Michael Powell that he cast himself and his son as (abusive) father and (disturbed) child. It was famously condemned by critics of the time: Sight & Sound’s Derek Hill likened it to concentration camp atrocities, while, in 1994, Dilys Powell boldly admitted it was a masterpiece, reversing the hatred she expressed decades earlier.
HIGH TENSION
Released as HAUTE TENSION in its native France in summer 2003, Alexandra Aja’s calling card modern slasher enjoyed huge festival buzz en route to its U.K. release as SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE and (censored) U.S. bow as HIGH TENSION. This intense, stripped-down cat-and-mouse game between brutish, relentless killer Philippe Nahon and repressed, resilient Cecile de France heralded a cycle of “extreme”, ultra-violent French horror films that would peak with the despairing MARTYRS in 2008. These, of course, ran parallel to America’s own post-9/11 hard-R splatter movie trend, itself including Aja’s Hollywood debut – a savage reworking of THE HILLS HAVE EYES.