BLISS *** USA 2019 Dir: Joe Begos. 80 mins Although he has yet to make a fully satisfying feature, there is much to admire in writer-director Joe Begos’ 80’s-infused output, and BLISS cuts loose in ways that ALMOST HUMAN and THE MIND’S EYE never quite managed, even if it doesn’t…
Browsing: Frightfest 2019
HERE COMES HELL *** UK 2018 Dir: Jack McHenry. 80 mins Set in the 1930’s, shot in Lincoln and filmed in black and white in Academy ratio, this opens as a riff on Agatha Christie-infused old dark house murder mysteries and incorporates an initial straight-to-camera curtain-raising intro in the spirit…
THE DARK RED ** USA 2018 Dir: Dan Bush. 102 mins Brought up in social care after her mother’s death, young April Billingsley spends much of THE DARK RED trying to convince the professionals that her own baby’s recent, alleged abduction is not just a delusion in a life marred…
EXTRA ORDINARY *** Ireland / Belgium 2019 Dir: Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman. 94 mins The first of several appealing gags in the wittily titled EXTRA ORDINARY sees the over-used “Based on a true story” tag (often present for supernaturally infused horror) wiped away by a departing bin lorry. Corny celebrity…
FEEDBACK **** UK / Spain 2019 Dir: Pedro C Alonso. 97 mins At the start of this intense, timely London-set thriller, station boss Anthony Head dismisses radio host Eddie Marsan’s long-running late-night talk show “The Grim Reality” as too bleak and contentious for Brexit-era listeners just wanting to be cheered…