This science-fiction potboiler will no doubt capture the interest of the more discerning genre fan by the film’s geographical location alone. Those expecting something wholly original and with something more to chew on thematically than most recent sci-fi films and shows may find themselves a little short changed with what is on offer here.

Adrien Beau's debut feature THE VOURDALAK is a visually atmospheric, smartly adapted take on Tolstoy's vampiric novella, blending folk horror, period drama, and puppetry to deliver a fresh, eerie, and original twist on the vampire mythos despite its low budget.

For those of you who may have missed the first instalment of the Baby Assassin's franchise, you may or may not be disappointed to discover that these films do not in fact feature infants who are highly skilled in the art of death but two young women, Chisato and Mahiro, fresh out of high school who despite their highly lethal line of work are more preoccupied with elaborate desserts and holding down a series of low paying day jobs to pay the rent for the day-glo coloured apartment they are forced to share by the Assassin’s Guild.

The restful act of sleeping at night has become an often-memorable battleground against evil spirits who seem intent on destroying their victim’s body and/or soul. Whether it was the mysterious demon from PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or Freddy Krueger with his nifty line in glove wear the threat has been out there for quite some time now, waiting for its moment to strike when all we want is a good night’s kip.

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 making a real impact with her debut feature SAINT MAUDE, Rose Glass returns with her second feature. Fans of that particular film, myself included, rewarding it my film of the year for this site back in 2020 after its Glasgow FrightFest screening, will no doubt be keen to see how Glass would follow up that nightmarish study of a woman spinning out of control with her belief in God. Glass doubles down here with this tale of two women spinning out of control this with the catalysts this time being love, body building, steroids and guns.

Sometimes it only takes a couple of minutes to realise what exactly you are in for with some low budget horror films, particularly of the found footage variety. While some writers and directors look for new ways to bend the genre and its strict format to the story there are other producers who feel they can point the camera at whatever flimsy excuse of a story they have conjured. Director Lars Janssen tries to base a 100-minute feature around a seemingly atmospheric location. Unfortunately, within the first couple of minutes the suspicion that you are witnessing the latter variety becomes all too apparent.

In this remake of the 1956 sci-fi classic, Donald Sutherland plays Matthew Bennell, a health inspector who puts his colleague Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) in touch with his psychiatrist friend Dr. Kibner (Leonard Nimoy) after her boyfriend Geoffrey (Art Hindle) starts to act distant around her. At the same time, Matthew’s friend Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) discover a body that bears a resemblance to Jack but still appears to be growing, even displaying the same nosebleed that Jack has. Something strange is in the air…

If for whatever reason this is your first-time watching Lewis Teague’s superior creature feature, you may think that whoever was in charge of the 4K remaster here has done too good a job. From the minute the world-weary Robert Forster shuffles onto screen investigating a spate of pet kidnappings, the signs of what appear to be hair plugs or a hair transplant are all too apparent no matter what size of screen you are watching on. However, the film, and Forster, tip their hand making this act of male vanity an essential part of his character. This smart handling of monster shenanigans and smart character work have ensured that ALLIGATOR has cemented its place in cult cinema and well worth revisiting in this excellently remastered package with a generous helping of revealing behind the scenes interviews and features.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Located in New Scotland Yard, the Black Museum is an all-encompassing archive of criminal memorabilia that has been collected over the years by the police; a ghoulish collection of various pieces of evidence including murder weapons that have in many ways left their mark on British society. Culturally it has a small number of fictional counterparts, a 2017 episode of Black Mirror and a far future equivalent located in Mega City One that features regularly in the Judge Dredd Megazine. One of the earliest examples however, and perhaps the one that cemented its place in pop culture is this 1959 British horror, nicely remastered and presented here on Blu-ray from Studio Canal.

Steve A. Wiggins, author of “Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies”, brings a fresh perspective to Robin Hardy’s film via Auteur’s prolific “Devil’s Advocates” series of genre monographs – now in handsome hardback format!