DOG SOLDIERS **** UK / Luxembourg 2002 Dir: Neil Marshall. 105 mins Neil Marshall’s feature directorial debut was refreshing in the early 2000s (along with a tiny few other modestly budgeted genre films like GINGER SNAPS) for its enthusiastic use of old-school werewolves and make-up effects at a time when godawful CGI lycanthropes were starting to become the norm in Hollywood movies. DOG SOLDIERS even has a transformation sequence involving a character disappearing behind a desk in the vein of key metamorphoses in classic horror. The set-up is simple, albeit with some backstory twists in the second half: six squaddies…
Author: Steven West
FAIR GAME *** Australia 1986 Dir: Mario Andreacchio. 86 mins Budding artist / wildlife sanctuary manager Cassandra Delaney is harassed by a leery, grinning bunch of pre-apocalyptic, sub-MAD MAX thugs (the more charming one is actually the worst of a lot) in this briskly paced Ozploitation number. They’re flouting the rules, hunting and wounding kangaroos in the vicinity (echoes of WAKE IN FRIGHT) and she strives to run them off the road after their initial bout of verbal and physical harassment. The local cops consider her “frothing at the mouth like a mad dog” with no evidence and recommend nothing…
THE REEF: STALKED *** Australia 2022 Dir: Andrew Traucki. 92 mins In the decade or so between THE REEF and its sequel, writer-director Andrew Traucki has operated on similar ground, unleashing THE JUNGLE (2013) and 2020’s BLACK WATER: ABYSS. Like the latter, THE REEF: STALKED is a belated sequel to a well-received natural horror film with an all-new, similarly small cast and a similar scenario. It also continues Traucki’s preference for largely avoiding CGI in favour of carefully superimposed footage of real sharks. It’s a solid, suspenseful sequel, with better performances than its predecessor, beautiful location work and a couple…
THE REEF *** Australia 2010 Dir: Andrew Traucki. 94 mins By 2010, the Asylum / Nu Image craze for MEGA SHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS-style cheapjack CGI giant monster movies had saturated the market, so anything relatively restrained and geared toward straight suspense stood out from the crowd. Writer-director Andrew Traucki followed his excellent, small-scale killer croc movie BLACK WATER (2007) with this stripped-down entry in the sharksploitation cycle, erring closer to Chris Kentis’ superb indie OPEN WATER (2003) in its effort to craft a reasonably realistic survivalist yarn. Matt (Gyton Grantley) and girlfriend Suzie (Adrienne Pickering) reunite with old buddy…
THE VVITCH ***** USA / UK / Canada 2015 Dir: Robert Eggers. 92 mins With his big-budget, visceral epic THE NORTHMAN marking his most ambitious work to date, writer-director Robert Eggers continues to earn acclaim as one of the major filmmakers of our time – and a tantalising reworking of NOSFERATU is also in the pipeline. His earlier, more contained pictures confirmed a vast talent on the rise: before the hilarious / harrowing, Expressionistic two-hander THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019), he enjoyed a rapturous reception to feature debut THE VVITCH. Billed onscreen as “A New England Folk Tale” and inspired by 17th…