FALL **** UK / USA 2022 Dir: Scott Mann. 107 mins Here’s another in the sub-genre of nerve-wracking, single-location, one-word-title tiny-cast (it’s a two-hander for most of the running time) survivalist movies. Following the harrowing likes of BURIED and FROZEN (not that one), FALL is a vertiginous, sweat-inducing endurance test for audiences of a particular persuasion. And just a dynamic, intense cinematic experience for everyone else. It opens in CLIFFHANGER territory with a past-trauma prologue to launch the bereaved heroine’s narrative arc before the first half-hour positions all the essential elements that will pay off as major suspense beats later…
Author: Steven West
BARBARIAN **** USA 2022 Dir: Zach Cregger. 102 mins One of the prominent “sleeper” horror hits of the latter half of 2022, writer-director Zach Cregger’s picture offers everything from ironic needle drops and incidental social commentary to a couple of surprising narrative shifts in line with modern genre milestones as diverse as PSYCHO and AUDITION. The movie suggested by both the opening stretch and the (clever) marketing is not quite the one you get – and it’s all the better for it. The first half an hour is a masterclass in nervy tension, and it nods directly to the Hitchcock…
BURIAL ** UK 2022 Dir: Ben Parker. 95 mins Despite a suitably portentous score by Alex Baranowski and effectively eerie woodland camerawork by Rein Kotov, this is a disappointingly dull second feature from writer-director Ben Parker, who made the claustrophobic THE CHAMBER (2016). The framing story initially compels, with the excellent Harriet Walter (who replaced the late Diana Rigg in the role) as a former Soviet translator watching the end of the old Soviet Union on TV news at Christmas, 1991. When her home is invaded by a neo-Nazi (David Alexander), she turns the tables on him and tells the tale…
CANDY LAND **** USA 2022 Dir: John Swab. 93 mins Writer-director John Swab’s features to date, including IDA RED, RUN WITH THE HUNTED, BODY BROKERS and LET ME MAKE YOU A MARTYR (all released within the last six years) have gamely dealt with tough subject matter: child abuse, drug addiction, revenge and crime, though his scripts are punctuated with compassionate characterisations and cleverly balanced dark humour. CANDY LAND, which has a fine score by IDA RED’s David Sardy and is strikingly shot by Will Stone, is an assured, sometimes very funny, often harrowing (and always unpatronising) character-driven piece about sex…
PIGGY **** France / Spain 2022 Dir: Carlota Pereda. 99 mins This is writer-director Carlota Pereda’s solo feature directorial debut, adapting her 2018 short CERDITA and bringing back its remarkable star, Laura Galán to expand upon her original performance. The set-up suggests a relatively straight-forward, cathartic, CARRIE-like revenge saga – as does the startling poster image of the bullied protagonist Sara, blood-soaked and alone in the middle of a road. The narrative path cleverly subverts these expectations while telling a wholly empathetic story of Sara’s plight. Superbly shot in the Academy ratio to emphasise the stifling, insular Spanish community and largely…