It’s been just over a decade since Ryan Coogler emerged with Fruitvale Station, a complex and engaging character study that examined a plethora of themes that are too familiar to contemporary audiences. Over the past few years, he made a small handful of films, each one brilliant and dynamic, and touching on complex themes that…
Tag: horror
Companion (2025)
We all yearn for perfection in some form or the other – whether it is related to ourselves or someone else close to us, there is something very appealing about the prospect of meeting the ideal, regardless of the cost or consequences. In his ambitious directorial debut, Drew Hancock uses it as the foundation for…
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Every small town has its secrets lurking beneath the idyllic surface. There have been so many works that situate themselves in quaint hamlets and use these settings as the foundation for examinations of the darker and more perverse side of society, usually being fashioned as darkly satirical subversions of common perceptions of small-town life. One…
One Body Too Many (1944)
Far too many people act surprised when they come across contemporary horror films that contain a comedic sensibility, as if the idea of blending humour and terror hasn’t been around since the Golden Age of Hollywood, being as pivotal to the development of both genres as any other element that is usually associated with them….
Gothika (2003)
We all fear to become what we criticise – it’s an inherent anxiety embedded deep in our consciousness, a desire to acknowledge those who pose danger in order to prevent ever becoming akin to them in any way. It’s a philosophical concept that has been explored often in both fiction and documentary works, and bears…
A Minecraft Movie (2025)
At some point in the last thirty years, someone decided that video games would be fertile ground for extracting stories – there were a few made in the decades preceding it, but distinct video game adaptations are a uniquely modern phenomenon, which is obviously due to their rise in popularity during the 1990s, which continues…
Willard (2003)
In a world with over eight billion people, some are just born to be alone, and whether solitary by choice or through circumstances, it can tell us a lot about the human condition when we set out to observe the daily lives of these individuals. In his fascinating novel Ratman’s Notebooks, Stephen Gilbert tells the…
Scarred Hearts (2016)
As far as contemporary filmmakers go, few are genuinely exciting as Radu Jude, whose rise from acclaimed but obscure Romanian auteur to arthouse darling who has decided to redefine what cinema represents has been nothing but extraordinary. My own admiration for his work is certainly well-documented, and he continues to be such a surprising and…
Typist Artist Pirate King (2022)
Upon her death just over a decade ago, no one other than her family and friends (or what few she had left) knew the name Audrey Amiss, since despite being a gifted artist and someone who strove to make an impression, she lived most of her life in obscurity, oscillating between her squalid flat in…
The Blob (1958)
There is a misconception that art, particularly cinema, becomes better as time progresses and new developments emerge, since many believe that having access to cutting-edge technology and more expansive resources somehow equates to quality and artistic merit. While this may be true in a few cases, no film has ever truly benefited primarily from an…
The Postmodern Pelican 