Escapism

Whether you enjoy it or not will largely hinge on if its idiosyncratic tone works for you. It bets big on the humour but I didn’t find it funny most of the time. Fresh off last year’s critical and commercial hit Longlegs , director Osgood Perkins is back with another horror film. This time he’s bringing a feature length adaptation of Stephen King’s short story The Monkey to the screen. This film follows twin brothers Bill and Hal who find their father’s old toy monkey in the attic. Soon after a series of gruesome deaths occur which are linked to the mysterious toy.  The Monkey is a peculiar film for a number of reasons. I can understand most of its intent but it wildly misses the mark. It’s a horror comedy but whether you enjoy it or not will largely hinge on if its idiosyncratic tone works for you. It bets big on the humour but I didn’t find it funny most of the time and it even started to grate on me a little by the end. The key appeal of this film is the death scenes. When the...

The Heart Eyes killer could become a memorable horror villain for the Valentine’s occasion, in a similar way to how Michael Myers is synonymous with horror films set at Halloween. Heart Eyes follows two work colleagues who get caught up in the murders of a killer, who has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples.  This film is a slasher romantic comedy which manages to fulfill all of its primary genres to a surprisingly satisfying degree. It’s a fresh spin on a romantic Valentine’s story. It succeeds in this area because the two leads are so likeable which isn’t always the case for a slasher film. Those two characters are Ally and Jay who are portrayed by Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. Both of them are endearing and the actors share an organic chemistry that makes you want to root for them and see them survive. Olivia Holt delivers a performance that felt grounded and at times earnest, with how she displays the emotions and roadblocks s...

The supernatural aspects in this film could’ve been explored more than it was to make the events of the film resonate deeper. Presence is the latest film from prolific director Steven Soderbergh, it tells the story of a family who are convinced they are not alone after moving into their new suburban home. First things first, expectation management is required for Presence because this film is marketed as a horror film and it’s not. I believe labelling it a horror is a disingenuous mistake which will do no favours for the film. It will simply set audiences up for disappointment by leading them to watch it with the wrong expectations, because the type of film the trailer sold to them isn’t the film they’ll see. Presence is more of a family drama with subtle elements of a supernatural thriller. The entire film is told from the refreshingly unique POV of an entity within the house, as we observe the family’s business. The camera conveys this perspective brilliantly by manoeuvring throug...

The story really struggles to transform beyond its first phase. Even when the Wolf Man aspects of the story take shape, it still feels largely uneventful and dare I say, dull. Back in 2020 Leigh Whannell directed The Invisible Man which was a modern vision of one of Universal’s classic monsters. It was an excellent thriller that used the titular character to tackles themes of domestic abuse within its narrative. Fast forward five years and Leigh’s follow up is yet another film centred around a classic Universal monster, The Wolf Man . Wolf Man tells the story of Blake ( Christopher Abbott ) who along with his wife Charlotte ( Julia Garner ) and daughter Ginger ( Matilda Firth ) are attacked by an unseen animal, whilst saying at a remote house. As the night continues Blake himself begins to transform into something unrecognisable.  This iteration of the Wolf Man attempts to present a unique perspective for a werewolf story. Gone are many of the tropes we have come to expect from ...

“Every frame is meticulously crafted and contribute to this overbearing atmosphere and sense of foreboding dread, that is present from the very first frame until the final one.” The dawn of a new year is upon us and with it comes the fourth film from director Robert Eggers. His iteration of  Nosferatu  has been in varying stages of development for almost ten years. It was originally planned to be his second feature after The Witch, and at that time Anya Taylor Joy was his favoured choice portray the lead role of Ellen. Nosferatu  now comes to us after  The Lighthouse  and  The Northman  which have increased Robert’s cachet as one of the best directors of his era. Nosferatu  has staked an important place in the history of film with the original 1922 silent film producing some of the most recognisable frames in all of cinema. In 1979 audiences were introduced to Werner Herzog’s remake,  Nosferatu the Vampyre.  Now Robert Eggers has brought...