It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.

The otherwise familiar sight of American cityscapes is marred by plumes of black smoke pouring upwards into the sky. On the streets below, tanks sit stationary at the traffic lights, the highways are choked with abandoned cars, the shells of burnt-out helicopters lie in the middle of the JC Penney’s parking lot and the Wi-Fi keeps dropping out. Welcome to Alex Garland’s vision of a war-torn America where what once was a fantastical conceit seems disturbingly plausible through the writer/directors’ English lens, with his tale of a band of journalists and photographers travelling across a war torn dis-united states.

One of the more surprising pieces of film news in recent months was that actor Dev Patel had made his directorial debut with an Indian martial arts movie for Netflix, only for the streaming service to drop it, supposedly for fear that the films portrayal of right-wing government figures could offend an Indian audience. Enter Jordan Peele, who, impressed after a viewing, uses his own production company Monkeypaw Productions with the help of Universal to bring the film to a cinema audience.

Eighteen years after a totally unnecessary and unmemorable remake, which seemed purely a marketing decision instead of a creative one to take advantage of its 6/6/06 release date, hopes could hardly be described as high when plans for a prequel to THE OMEN were announced. With a completely underwhelming EXORCIST sequel still fresh in our memories, it is hard not to feel that this could be yet another cynical ploy by a major studio capitalising on a profitable IP. What a pleasure then to find that THE FIRST OMEN is much better than expected, showing what can be done with a vintage franchise with the right talent paying their respects while simultaneously taking risks that, for the most part, pay off in a fulfilling and sinister fashion.

The use of a live broadcast documenting otherworldly events and fooling the audience into thinking these events were taking place goes back to 1938 with Orson Welles radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds which with its use of actors posing as real-life journalists and witnesses to an invasion from Mars fooled many an unsuspecting listener. Then in 1992 some of us were lucky to bear witness to the live transmission on BBC1 of GHOSTWATCH. Readers of a certain age will know someone who knows someone whose mum phoned up the BBC to check up on Michael Parkinson’s supposed possession after a ghost laid havoc to a Halloween broadcast investigating a haunted house in England.

Usually when it comes to an actress whose star is in the ascendant, as is very much the case with Sydney Sweeney, the horror roles come first and then swept aside in favour of the safer choice of more mainstream fare. How refreshing to see after the box office success of her rom-com ANYONE BUT YOU that Sweeney jumps to the other end of the spectrum with IMMACULATE, a passion project of the actress after auditioning for it when she was only sixteen years old.

Once again, the vast desert sands of Arrakis shimmers and shakes as if in preparation for the galaxy shaking events that are about to unfold courtesy of young Paul Atreides journey to messianic figurehead. Taking place immediately after the first film we follow Paul and his mother Jessica further into the desert after their alliance with the Fremen, both parties aligning to take the fight back to House Harkonnen. Meanwhile Emperor Shaddam IV and his daughter worry about their part to play in the massacre of House Atreides being uncovered while the scheming Bene Gesserit sisterhood prepare for the coming of the Kwisatz Haderach, a plot to install a galactic figurehead that has been centuries in the making.

After establishing his name in film with the superb features HUNGER and SHAME and then garnering awards with the sublime 12 YEARS A SLAVE, artist Steve McQueen looked briefly like he might be heading down a slightly more mainstream route with the heist thriller WIDOWS. Yet his next big project was the fascinating SMALL AXE anthology series for the BBC, a collection of no less than five films exploring the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960’s to the 1980’s.

With his latest project OCCUPIED CITY, McQueen continues to be as unpredictable as he is ground breaking even if the sheer volume of the project may well mean it struggles to find anything close to a mainstream audience.