IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS *** UK 2019 Dir: David A Weiner. 264 mins There’s no doubting the affection behind this four hour celebration of 1980s horror: the title design is lovingly modelled on Carpenter’s THE THING, the synth score (by Weary Pines and New Retro Wave) is a spry homage to the period’s soundtracks and the video wall backdrop is a warm nod to the VHS horror section of our misspent youth. Director David A Weiner has assembled talking heads pivotal to the decade’s genre output – among them, John Carpenter, Doug Bradley, Tom Holland and Greg Nicotero – and…
Author: Steven West
THE DEEPER YOU DIG **** USA 2019 Dir: John Adams, Toby Poser. 95 mins An opening credit for “An Adams Family Film” gets a wry smile at the start of this character-driven indie horror film written and directed by John Adams with his wife / leading lady Toby Poser – with Adams also credited with the score, editing and (along with teenage daughter / actress Zelda Adams) the cinematography. All three impress in front of the camera. Zelda authentically portrays Echo, a sweary but loving 14 year old with black lipstick and an eclectic taste for music from generations ago.…
AN IDEAL HOST *** Australia 2020 Dir: Robert Woods. 84 mins From a witty script by Tyler Jacob Jones, debuting feature director Robert Woods (also nabbing credits for music, cinematography, editing and visual effects) has made an engaging riff on Carpenter’s THE THING within a broader satire of social mores. It follows a minor trend for dinner-party-based horror films in the wake of THE PERFECT HOST, THE INVITATION and THE DINNER PARTY. The playful approach extends to a succession of title fonts as hostess Nadia Collins frets over the form, style and very specific scheduling of her imminent housewarming party.…
URUBU **** Spain 2019 Dir: Alejandro Ibanez. 90 mins The best known English title of one of the great 1970s horror films asks rhetorically “Who can kill a child?” Remade in Mexico in 2012 as COME OUT AND PLAY, Narciso Ibanez Serrador’s harrowing parable posits a violent juvenile revolt as the natural response to decades of suffering doled out on children courtesy of their elders. In the five decades since Serrador’s film incorporated real images of child suffering in war zones, our 24/7 news media tells us daily that things have only gotten worse. The director died in 2019, the…
TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT **** USA 2020 Dir: Eric Bloomquist. 73 mins One of the most memorable horror heroines of the 1980s – and the second greatest horror movie DJ of all time, after Stevie Wayne in THE FOG – Caroline Williams’ Stretch was crucial to providing Tobe Hooper’s subversive THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE PART 2 with a human centre amidst the cartoonish madness. Eric Bloomquist’s short, dynamic picture gives Williams her best role since 1986, and she relishes every minute. During a Category III hurricane, Williams – about to host her last show after 30 years – is…