FIlm Review
Celluloid Screams Review: Tragedy Girls
For someone of my age, the online habits of Millennials can be more than slightly perplexing. It wasn’t until recently that I realised Facetime was actually a thing and not just a way of talking about social media without namechecking a particular site. I’m not alone. Hollywood has struggled with concepts of new media, language …
Celluloid Screams Review: Better Watch Out
Take a look on the high street and you could be mistaken in thinking that the festive season has already begun. Christmas for most people is a time of celebration, but for some of us in can feel more like a horror movie. Thankfully, we have the sub-genre of Christmas horror to fall back on. …
Celluloid Screams Review: M.F.A.
The recent horrific revelations spilling out of Hollywood about Harvey Weinstein seem to have come as a shock to many. However, the abuses within the film industry have been an open secret for decades. Most people have chosen to ignore it, accept it or bury their heads in the sand. The same can be said …
Blu-Ray Review: Hammer Horror Collection One
For two decades, beginning in the mid-1950s, ‘Hammer Horror’ was the epitome of genre cinema in the UK. With a cast of familiar faces (including Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee) Hammer Film Productions churned out an almost constant stream of terror, blood and monsters. There most popular titles revolved around Dracula, Frankenstein and …
Celluloid Screams Review: Mayhem
If you’ve ever had the dubious privilege of working in an office, you’ll be aware of all the niggles, pent-up frustrations and internal anger synonymous with that kind of environment. The pettiness. The back-stabbing. The nepotism. The higher the stakes, the higher the tensions. When salaries start hitting 6 or 7 figures, the rivalry, underhand …
Celluloid Screams Review: The Endless
As a genre film fan, one of the biggest frustrations is the limited access we have to the full array of films being (often) lovingly created. Cinemas are often full of forgettable and confusing franchise sequels which tend to merge into one big lump of nothing. Occasionally, the likes of The Babadook, The Witch, Get …
Blu-Ray Review: The Villainess
The lone female assassin motif has produced some memorable cinematic performances. Whether it’s Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 1&2, Anne Parillaud as Nikita or Meiko Kaji in Lady Snowblood, there’s a powerful celluloid attraction to the pull of deadly sensuality. Indeed, this has been particularly the case in Asia, where Shu Qi in The Assassin, …
Celluloid Screams Review: Tag
There are few, if any, Asian film directors with a vision as distinctive and unique as Sion Sono. Unfortunately, this leads to a varying quality of output. For every Love Exposure, Cold Fish, Suicide Club or Noriko’s Dinner Table there’s a Tokyo Tribe, Shinjuku Swan or Bad Film. His latest film to hit the UK …
LFF Review: Cargo
To say the European fishing industry had been decimated over the past few decades, is a huge understatement. Fisherman, whose families have been eking-out a living from the sea for decades, have been almost completely wiped out by large industrial operations. However, the sea isn’t simply a way of making money for many, it’s more …
LFF Review: Wajib
There are few places in the world where ancient traditions are still so prevalent as Israel. On both sides of the conflict, young people struggle to escape severe religious prescripts of their parents and grandparents and enjoy the same freedoms they see in the Western world. In the shadow of oppression and infringements on personal …