Many horror films from the late 1960s and the early 1970s are marked by disillusionment, by a sense of slipping reality, a malignant and sometimes surreal sense that the world is not a kind place. Films like Night of the Living Dead, The Devils, Straw Dogs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre emerged from a period […]
Longlegs and the Burden of Feminine Sacrifice (2024)
Care has been taken to avoid spoilers in this review but please proceed with caution if you have not seen the film. An innovative and aggressive marketing campaign may have prepared audiences for Longlegs’ nightmarish visual elements and unsettling tone but it certainly didn’t signal the film’s complex and deeply intimate take on motherhood and […]
The Invisible Man and the Paradox of Invisibility (2020)
Most people who have had lived experience as a woman could attest to the occasional fantasy of invisibility. Being seen, particularly under the harsh lights of the male gaze, begins to erode girls’ self-esteem and sense of security from the time they’re in primary school. In order to counteract the vulnerability that comes with being […]
Pulse (2001)
That Pulse came out when home internet was still in its relative infancy is particularly impressive given how prescient the film has continually proven itself.
Parasite: Screwball horror
Much has been made of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and its domination as a Korean production of awards season in the United States (including Best Picture at the Academy Awards). But to pigeonhole this as a “Korean” film suggests that it’s overcoming some sort of cultural divide. Bong has always been savvy about genre, combining a […]
Pumpkinhead and Viewing Trauma Through a Patriarchal Lens
This review contains spoilers. Keep away from Pumpkinhead,Unless you’re tired of living So begins a schoolyard rhyme recited about the titular character during an early scene in VXF artist Stan Winston’s directorial debut, Pumpkinhead. Over the next 70 minutes, the movie proves this adage true, in a way that we may not have foreseen. While […]
In Fabric (2018)
A cursed red dress leads to misfortune for those who wear it – but with that jumping off point In Fabric leads down a deep rabbit hole of identity and belonging
Bliss (2019)
Young filmmaker Joe Begos has a tough sell on his hands with Bliss, his new psychedelic, drug-fuelled horror. Though only 80 minutes long, it’s hard to tell where in that runtime you are in any given moment, or to remember when you started. The film seems to play with the concept of time itself, making […]