BREEDER ** Denmark 2020 Dir: Jens Dahl. 107 mins A renowned health supplement company, run by a ruthless businesswoman, is selecting and abducting young women as part of an experiment bio-hacking babies’ DNA to enable her clients to reverse the aging process. When Mia (Sara Hjort Ditlevsen) goes to investigate, she finds herself trapped, branded, and tortured in a grim underground facility. Familiar faces start to appear, and she realizes that she is not alone in this. Can she somehow find inner strength and escape from the nightmare? Overall, there’s just very little to like about “Breeder.” Among the few…
Author: Don Anelli
CANINE ** USA 2018 Dir: Sean Richard Buddhe. 5 mins While trying to track down his missing dog, a man (Ira Amyx) comes into contact with various passersby in his quest to find it. When a jogger (Sloan Davis) happens upon it, her good deed to return it to the owner puts her in great danger. Overall, there’s just not much to say about this. The fact that it’s so short that it barely has time to develop its central plotline or generate any kind of suspense or tension here since nothing gets the chance to go anywhere. The off-screen…
100 CANDLES ** New Zealand 2020 Dir: Victor Catala, Brian Deane, Oliver Lee Garland, Guillermo Lockhart, Tony Morales, Nicolas Onetti, Nicholas Peterson, Daniel Rubesam, Christopher West. 101 mins Sitting in a circle surrounded by candles, a group of friends is forced to tell scary stories in front of a mirror in a strange room until they’ve completed a ritual involving the candles in the room. As they continue throughout the night getting closer to their quest, they start to hit a breaking point as the stories make them notice that the rules are being changed by the malevolent spirit holding…
THE PEY *** USA 2021 Dir: Ramone Menon. 9 mins After sharing a mysterious GIF online, a social media-obsessed teenager is hunted by a terrifying monster known as The Pey. This was a rather fun and enjoyable short. The concept is quite intriguing, taking a monster that would’ve normally come from folklore and attached a modern bent to it with the connection to social media obsession and the desperation people have for likes and followers. This feels quite original and charming with a great setup to it that is paid off nicely with the chilling sequences of the creature stalking…
THE GHOSTS OF BORLEY RECTORY *** UK 2021 Dir: Steven M. Smith. 79 mins Arriving at the Borley Rectory in 1937, Harry Price (Toby Wynn-Davies) and his assistant Mark (Reece Putinas) are settling into Borley Rectory for a six-month stay to investigate the reports of ghostly activities. Sidney Glanville (Richard Harfst) stops in for a visit and leaves his daughter Helen (Louisa Warren) and son Roger (Lee Hancock) behind to help Harry in his investigations. As their investigations continue with the help of medium Estelle Roberts (Toyah Willcox) and Charles Sutton (Colin Baker) and the testimony of the local Vicar…