Grimmfest
Grimmfest 2020 Preview
Now approaching its teens, Grimmfest has firmly cemented its place on the UK horror film festival circuit. However, as you might well expect, the (normally) Manchester-based festival looks very different in 2020. This year it’s packed-up its mask and moved online. Fear not, because you’re still going to be treated to twenty new features, a …
Grimmfest Review: Rabid
David Cronenberg will forever have a unique place is genre cinema. The Canadian made his name making intelligent, visceral and challenging horror and science fiction films. More often than not, that took the form of body horror with a political and/or fantasy edge. These included The Fly, Videodrome and Shivers. One of his best films …
Grimmfest Review: 1BR
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable and decent accommodation in most major cities in the Western world. The more popular the city, the more difficult it gets. If you’re looking for a nice, central and affordable apartment in say London, San Francisco or Tokyo, you may as well forget it. It’s no better …
Grimmfest Review: Dead Dicks
One-in-five adults in the US experience mental ill health. It’s an incredibly debilitating illness to deal with but even harder to watch a loved one battle through it whilst you stand by feeling helpless. Anything can trigger these feelings of worthlessness, loneliness and useless, but depression and anxiety often stem back to one particular event. …
Grimmfest Review: Extra Ordinary
There are very few genre combinations as difficult to master as those of horror and comedy. It’s so easy to get wrong. The trick is balancing the scares with the humour. Normally one will dominate, and more often than not a director fails on both counts trying to satisfy both masters. However, when it’s done …
Grimmfest Review: The Wretched
Throughout the ages, and often due to good old misogyny, witches have played a prominent role in folklore, legend, and latterly, popular culture. Whilst traditionally they’ve been seen as incarnations of evil or infernal creatures, nowadays they’re as likely to appear in children’s books as in bedtime stories. The Pierce Brothers’ new film, The Wretched, …
Grimmfest Review: Artik
There has been a huge spurt of interest in horror films over the last few years. Not only are they suddenly ‘elevated’ in the eyes of some critics, they’ve also because Box Office hits for film studios. As you might expect, producers are falling over themselves to make the next It Follows, Get Out, Heredity …
Grimmfest Review: Tone-Deaf
With certain directors, you either love or hate their output. Whilst this holds true across all genres of cinema, in horror there tends to be slightly less polarisation of opinion. Step forward Richard Bates Jr., who is arguably one of the most ‘marmite’ film-makers working in genre cinema today. His last film, Trash Fire, tended …
Grimmfest Review: Darlin’
Over the last decade there has been a huge sea-change within cinema. Female voices are beginning to be heard on a regular basis and making films is no longer just the boys club it used to be. This change has been most pronounced in horror cinema. A genre where female protagonists have often come off …
Grimmfest Review: A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life
Self-help books are by no means a recent phenomenon. They date back all the way to the ancient Greeks. However, it wasn’t until the latter part of the twentieth century that a multi-million-dollar industry shot up around the world. Whilst the Classics may have concentrated on wellbeing or ethics, this new explosion covered just about …