We’ve spoken often about the formula that drives a strong horror film, which is remarkably similar to the process that goes into the creation of an excellent action film, a genre that we have not explored in nearly as much depth, despite it containing some terrific and unforgettable films. The key comparison between the two…

Rebecca occupies a peculiar place in the career of Alfred Hitchcock – it was neither his first major film, nor the one that can be considered his breakthrough. However, it was the first time he had made an American film, as well as his first collaboration with David O. Selznick, who is often considered the…

While we normally tend to gravitate towards films that follow a familiar structure (granted they are not predictable to the point of being tedious), there are some occasions when a more subversive work catches our attention, whether either in terms of narrative or execution, there is something quite different about a work that piques our…

The events surrounding the murders that took place in the city of Mashhad have lingered in the global culture as some of the most shocking crimes in recent memory, with the holy Iranian city being terrorized by a serial killer, known only as The Spider Killer (the term used by the media to refer to…

Not many people can attest to having to present an idea to the great Alfred Hitchcock, and only had it rejected after intense deliberation resulted in neither the director nor writer being able to come up with a feasible way of making the film’s premise work, but where Hitchcock himself was so interested in the…

The pleasure of being a completionist when it comes to certain artists is that it allows you to pay attention to smaller works that you might otherwise ignore due to them being overshadowed by the more major achievements. I’ve been gradually working my way through the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and while it has been…

Let us be perfectly honest here – we’ve discussed Alfred Hitchcock on nearly two dozen separate occasions, and in every one of those reviews, reference was made to the esteemed director’s impeccable and undeniable genius, even in the case of the rare misfire that comes about when dealing with someone so prolific. Few filmmakers could…

Notes on a Scandal is perverted, deranged and filled to the brim with some of the most unbelievably grotesque characters in the history of cinema – and it also happens to be one of the most deliciously off-the-wall dramas of the past two decades. Richard Eyre’s adaptation of the novel by Zoë Heller is an…

One of the more interesting anecdotal facts about The Paradine Case is that, at the time of its production, it was considered extraordinarily expensive, with the cost to produce this film being close to that of Gone with the Wind, the gold standard for epic-scale filmmaking. Where this money went is anyone’s guess, since the…

As David Lynch once famously said about suburban life “I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath”, which is a quote that is often brought out when any work of literature is produced in which an artist is looking at the broken promises of…