Film

Horror, as a genre, is steeped in metaphor. Horror can be about politics, sex, disease, but it’s usually - when you get down to the bottom of it - about fears more real and more universal than vampires or zombies. The Dark Half isn’t exactly like that, in fact it may be one of the most straightforward, face value horror films I’ve seen. Based on the novel by Stephen King, the film follows author Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton). Thad’s books...

The kinky creations are named after the stars of the upcoming Avengers Infinity War film and feature sex props based on some of the most iconic characters.

The annual ritual that represents the transition from childhood to adulthood within the Xhosa community in South Africa was a carefully kept secret until Nelson Mandela mentioned it in his autobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom'. Since them it has been a fiercely debated topic of controversy and is the focus of John Trengove’s film The Wound. The film follows Xolani (Nakhane Toure), a lonely warehouse worker, who took part in the ritual as a teenager and now in his 30s...

Described as a 'fairy tale for adults', Michael Pearce's debut feature film is able to capture his home island of Jersey with a brilliant yet terrifying blend of natural beauty and chilling sub-urbanity. The story at the core of Beast is deliberately simple: in a suffocating family atmosphere, a young woman named Moll (Jessie Buckley) is drawn to rough outsider Pascal (Johnny Flynn). All the while a serial killer is on the loose on the island. The construct of Beast...

A solitary figure dressed in fatigues hunches over a dusty patch of ground. He scratches away at the earth and pulls from it a pot flecked with gritty, dried soil. As he adjusts to stand straight, there is a marked stiffness in his right leg and a curious crease in the thigh of his trousers. A blue wire attached to a small pack dangles from the pot. A quick snip from a pair of pliers and the man turns to...

Warning: Though this review is spoiler free, the film’s set-up is referenced throughout. “It’s not overselling it to say that the future of the universe is at stake,” declares Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange with a solemn tone. He’s referring, of course, to the coming of Thanos (Josh Brolin), a galactic warlord with an unhealthy violet complexion, towering height and intimidatingly chunky chin, who supposedly wishes to bring balance to the universe by destroying half of it. The Sorcerer Supreme, however,...

The term ‘British comedy’ is not one to often conjure much hope and a genre known really for more misses than hits (for me), the latest British comedy to attempt to achieve success is the rather damp squib that is You, Me and Him. Starring actors that have been known to be excellent in other roles, admittedly on the small screen, including Lucy Punch, David Tennant and Game of Thrones alum, Faye Marsay, expectations for this tale of unexpected pregnancy...

Mental illness has, over the past few years, become more understood and easier to admit to. I’ve suffered with it myself (anxiety and depression) and know many other people who have or had their own struggles with various forms of mental illness. How movies deal with mental illness still often leaves much to be desired, and that was at least as true, if not more so, back in 1993. Benny (Aidan Quinn) and Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) are brother and...

The nuanced ambition of Kathleen Hepburn’s 2017 TIFF entry and debut feature, Never Steady, Never Still, based on her short film of the same name, is soaked in the melancholy of quiet suffering. The film takes inspiration from Hepburn’s close personal experience with Parkinson’s disease, the director’s mother having suffered from it for the last 24 years. Centring on an Alberta based family of three, Judy (Shirley Henderson), mother to son Jamie (Théodore Pellerin), and wife to devoted husband Ed...