Author: Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins

Small Town Monsters has announced 20th September as the release date for the DVD and VOD release of Seth Breedlove’s docudrama MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER. The latest title to crawl forth from the production powerhouse behind last year’s best-selling documentary ON THE TRAIL OF BIGFOOT, MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER seeks to tell the true, and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster. The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of Star Hill, near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of 1972 where it was spotted by terrified citizens for weeks. The case gained national media attention during…

CARGA **** Portugal 2018 Dir: Bruno Gascon. 113 mins Writer-director Bruno Gascon’s feature debut begins and ends with text reminders that CARGA tells an all too real tale – specifically of the enduring problem of sex trafficking in Portugal in the context of economic crisis, poverty and post-USSR migration. Against this backdrop, a young woman (Michalina Olszanska) is transported across the border by an ageing truck driver (Vitor Norte), delivering her to the human trafficking ring overseen by Dmitry Bogomolov, whose younger sister (also played by Olszanska) helps with the operation. Stripped of her identification and shut in a cell,…

LEVEL 16 *** Canada 2018 Dir: Danishka Esterhazy. 102 mins Writer-director Danishka Esterhazy is destined for some level of cultdom due to her BANANA SPLITS horror movie, but this earlier credit is an understated, chilly sci-fi spin on familiar genre themes: class division and the extremities of the 21st century obsession with physical perfection. At a regimented boarding school for teenage girls, everyone is named after famous old movie stars and are in receipt of regular “vitamins” to protect from the unclean air outside. Virtuous behaviour is rewarded, while curiosity and sentimentality are considered vices. Level 16 is the culmination…

THE WITCH: PART 1 – THE SUBVERSION **** South Korea 2019 Dir: Hoon-jung Park. 125 mins This bold and gripping genre hybrid opens with disturbing hints of a massacre: two kids are on the run from some kind of experimental science lab where blood splattered teddy bears decorate what’s left behind. One of the kids shows up wounded at the farm home of friendly couple Choi Jung-Woo and Oh Min-hee. With no memory of her earlier existence, she grows up to be a fun-loving teenager (Kim Da-Mi) and even appears on a TV talent show (singing a rock version of…

CHILD’S PLAY **** USA 1988 Dir: Tom Holland. 87 mins A mainstream, slasher-era reworking of the unforgettable Zuni doll story from Dan Curtis’ TRILOGY OF TERROR, this also replays the “boy who cried wolf” scenario from director Holland’s earlier FRIGHT NIGHT. Hapless vampire-bothering teen William Ragsdale is replaced with juvenile hero Alex Vincent, who equally fails to convince cynical adults that his annoying “Good Guy” doll (catchphrase : “I’m your friend to the end!”) is possessed by the murderous spirit of gunned-down serial killer Brad Dourif. Chris Sarandon, the suave vampire of FRIGHT NIGHT, is given a functional male lead…