Film Reviews by NP

Strange how, outlandish as they were, the fashions of the early ‘70s leant giallo films a certain sense of style and identity – whereas the overt use of make-up and perms and shoulder pads of the ‘80s look hugely, and comparatively ghoulishly, dated. The male characters are fairly non-descript, heavily chauvinistic but less Neanderthal than their counterparts from a decade earlier; the women all saunter around like they’re Joan Collins; unsurprising perhaps, as the famous actress’s arrival in the TV series ‘Dynasty’ had helped turn it into a continual ratings juggernaut around the time of this film’s conception.

Scratching beneath the brashness of the decade’s veneer, ‘Delirium’ is directed by Lamberto Bava, who seems to promote style over substance. That’s not to say the story is bad, just difficult to engage with. The main character Gloria (Serena Grandi) looks terrific – again heavily manicured, made up and blow-dried – but isn’t really much of character. When the kills occur, they are accompanied by chunky guitar music and the victims assume curious identities (one becomes an insect, another has her head turned into a giant eye). As is often the case, the deaths provide the film's highlights.

It could be said that all gialli is style over substance, so ‘Delirium’ is running to the genre’s form, but it isn’t quite as engaging here as at the height of their popularity, and the musical score is lackluster. My score is 6 out of 10.

Idris Elba gains an American accent for his role as Nate Samuels, doctor, and lion fighter (wisely opting for a ‘soft’ inflection), and is very effective in this nicely directed, fast-moving thriller. He’s ably supported by Sharlto Copley as Martin, and Leah Jeffries and Iyana Halley as his daughters Norah and Meredith.

Visually, the production is near flawless, with the various lions presented as a mixture of real-life and commendably restrained CGI, and the story is a good rush of increasingly dangerous situations.

I read some criticisms that the youngsters behave in an illogical manner. My argument is that bad decisions have long been a lynchpin of this kind of film, even before Dwight Frye’s Renfield ignored the impassioned advice of the locals and decided to travel to the castle in 1931’s ‘Dracula’. If everyone had behaved sensibly and stayed where they were and waited for help, what a short and uneventful film it would be. My score is 8 out of 10.

Prolific UK filmmaker Charlie Steeds writes, directs and edits this medieval horror chiller based on the infamous legend. As usual, this is a slim-budgeted venture, but Steeds enlivens scenes with some terrific cinematography and lighting and some (mainly) convincing acting. The playful, sometimes coarse, humour prevalent in some of the director’s other productions is mainly absent here – instead, gratuity and gore is the main staple.

I really like these kinds of productions, and currently, there are plenty being made in the UK. They remind me of a modern-day Hammer style (the titles here are extremely reminiscent of the legendary studio’s output and locations look similarly winter-bound).

It isn’t flawless. The pace slackens here and there, some of the performances are not as sharp as they might be and occasionally the dialogue is anachronistic – but the story is a good one and well told. Happily, there are also some effectively creepy moments (and a particularly nasty third act). My score is 7 out of 10.

This film, by Charlie Steeds (who is also behind such bloody extravaganzas as Barge People and A Werewolf in England amongst others), features Billy (David Lenik) and Agnes (Rowena Bentley), who are holed up together in Mama Agnes’s log cabin. Despite Bentley's extravagant playing, this production is serious - even tragic - in tone, unlike some of Steeds' other work.

I enjoyed this. The feeling of icy isolation is exemplified by the excellent score. The supporting cast is not quite as convincing as the main two and it’s something of a relief they only occupy a small amount of screen time, as does the main monster figure, featured on the promotional packaging. When we see the creature, he is very effective. My score is 8 out of 10.

This independent production contains much that is good about low-budget, independent films. Every film trick in the book is thrown at the beautifully macabre, grainy locations to make this journey as unsettling as possible. It's clear the narrative isn't hugely important. The acting is often eccentric, accentuating the unreality of the mood - the staple observer, Rachel Audrey (as Cooper) turns in an often self-conscious performance, whose early bizarre grinning 'to camera' is accompanied briefly by a laughter track! Very strange.

Cooper meets up with a frightened, sick local girl played by Mari K. She speaks fearfully of The Beast. It may be the demonic force within her to which she is referring, which gives cause to a disturbing, even erotic, exhumation.

Director Cosmotropia de Xam throws everything at the audience to unnerve them, and the result is a moody, melancholy tour of some truly breathtaking locations: a study of decay.

The DVD of this art-house horror also contains 'The Contaminated Photos of Valentina Crepax' which is exactly that - a selection of images from 'Phantasmagoria' treated with all kinds of effects that blur, fracture, disintegrate, explode, evaporate and unfurl into one another. It is all grotesque and very effective.

Writer and director Steve Lawson produces a rare light-hearted film from his growing stable. Known for slim-budget, mainly studio-bound, dialogue-heavy productions, there is more location work and physical stuff going on here. As with most of his output, I found this very enjoyable.

Morgan Rees-Davies plays Turpin, here revealed as a scoundrel and trouble-maker, and not a very successful highwayman. The books about him, he admits happily, are heavily exaggerated. The hapless Elizabeth (Mollie Hindle) finds this out to her cost, her initial dislike of him inevitably melting as the film goes on.

This is a nicely paced adventure, not quite the bawdy romp it might have been, although lines like “I’m looking for Dick,” and “Yes, I’ll bet you are,” ensure we’re never encouraged to take things too seriously. My score is 7 out of 10.

Director William Eubank succeeds in making a Paranormal Activity film that isn’t like a Paranormal Activity film at all. I think this is the only time that the long-running central character Katie, whose story has been well and truly told, is not given so much as a mention. By this time (2021) there had been seven films in total since the unexpected success of the 2007 original, and the formula – found footage, often taken from static security cameras and protracted scenes – had been over-utilized to the point of stagnation. So this offering goes outside, to an open and detail-filled location, that of a farm run by a large Amish family. Leading the expedition to meet her estranged relatives is the appealing Margot (Emily Bader) and her small gang of filmmakers, determined to find out the reason why Margot was abandoned as a baby by her mother. Great use is made of the nicely shot locations, and the characters are believable and well-played.

The drawback is, without the signature ‘look’ of this entry into the series, Next of Kin becomes just another found footage film, albeit a very well-made, picturesque one. The variety of styles mixes things up, but there are some very obvious jump scares early on, which don’t bode well.

Luckily they are kept to a minimum; this is more about the atmosphere, about an encroaching feel of dread, and features typically illogical decisions from the characters. It has a folk horror, even a Blair Witch vibe, which further separates it from the usual Paranormal Activity films.

The final act is where the scares come out of the dark, and it’s all very effective. I get the impression the sound levels throughout have been set deliberately low so that the increasing number of bangs and crashes are unnervingly LOUD by comparison. Very enjoyable. My score is 8 out of 10.

Argentinian irector Martin Desalvo has created an understated horror film that is the epitome of 'a hidden gem'. The accent is very much on isolation, loneliness, seduction and sickness. Lots of sickness. The pacing is leaden, and there is very little in the way of spectacle - and no CGI (some consider this important). The atmosphere is the thing, and the viewer is given every reason to immerse themselves in it. Jorge Chikiar's haunting score embellishes this further.

Mora Recalde plays Virginia, a lonely woman living with her father in the midst of the bleakest of locations. Romina Paula is Anabel, a cousin who comes to visit - and it's very clear all is not well with her.

There is much emphasis on eyes, on furtive glances, of something vaguely sexual. This will be too uneventful for some, but it ticks all the boxes for me.

With subtitles.

The dangers of taking someone for granted!

We all get into a rut from time to time and it is human nature not to always respect others. This is very much how Herr Raab finds himself - or at least, how his nearest and dearest find him. Part of the perverse joy of watching RW Fassbinder films is that we're only privy to what he wants us to be privy to. We observe people, and hear their (often meaningless) small talk, but don't necessarily know what they're thinking. Raab seems to endure his lot with stoicism.

There are parallels within Fassbinder's to that of the UK's celebrated director Mike Leigh: the minutiae of the everyday takes on a new and often murky meaning under their lens. And yet their observational film-making is never boring. Such is the case here. Throughout the cringingly monotony, there is the feeling that not all is well.

Pressures to succeed, to conform, to literally keep up with the Joneses, delivered so casually on a day-to-day basis with no possible way out shows very well the smallness of existence. An unforgiving life study, this is well worth a watch.

This has been compared to ‘It Follows’; while I didn’t enjoy that, I had a great time with this. The nature of the evil being passed from person to person is much more solid here and smacks less of the superficial titillation the earlier film is guilty of. If it reminds me of anything, it would be ‘The Ring’.

Plenty of frightening moments and jump scares enliven a fairly slow-burning story that could easily have fallen into a pattern of repetition. Director Parker Finn accomplishes this with imagination, and a true sense of unease, helped enormously by Cristobal Tapia De Veer’s kaleidoscopically manic soundtrack.

As the threat becomes more tangible, the ghost of CGI threatens to cartoon-ify some climactic scenes, but they are subtly used and so much more effective for it. While the story uses many set pieces that have been done before, the acting is strong enough to keep it entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised by ‘Smile’, and am glad it appears to have become 2022’s Halloween ‘hit.’ My score is 8 out of 10.

This is a very good, intelligently scripted film. The cast comprises three people mainly and contains many long conversations. For such unrelenting dialogue, most of it one-note, nearly 100 minutes is far too long. Shorn of twenty minutes, things would be so much more effective.

Having said that, the acting on display is excellent, with the intruder suggesting a number of possibilities that remain largely unexplored, leaving the implications to the audience. The ending, for example, is largely open to question.

Filmed in cold black and white, and featuring some memorable haunted-house imagery, often beautifully lit, ‘The Righteous’ is unquestionably a fine film, and although the attention wandered a little once or twice, I ended up enjoying it a lot. My score is 7 out of 10.

… the ‘original’ living vampire, not this pasty-faced newcomer ‘Morbius (2022)!’ From Asylum films, this ‘mockbuster’ set in designer-Victorian times, takes its title from the original Marvel Morbius comic strips, always subtitled, ‘The living vampire.’

There are some atmospheric recreations of Gothic castles and general Victorian-looking panoramas. I couldn’t work out if they were model work, enhanced actual cityscapes or CGI, which is the whole point, I’m sure.

The historical accuracy is loose at best but looks good, and the actors do a fair job of getting their tongues around some very olde-world dialogue - and fangs - and some very interesting things are done with many characters from the original novel – different genders, different sexual preferences and different beliefs. The result is very talky a lot of the time but features occasional effects that are pretty impressive, and ultimately, I enjoyed this.

Charlie Steeds, who has brought us ‘The Barge People’ and ‘Winterskin (2018)’, brings forth Victorian-era England, and with it, a selection of characters so eccentric, I pictured them being played by bawdy UK series ‘Carry On’ performers. It’s not a bad mix. The humour is of the coarse – sometimes perhaps too coarse - bodily-function variety and delivered with a raw, knowing twinkle.

It looks good throughout – some subtle effects give the sets and locations a rich period ambience, and the werewolves during the brief periods when we witness them, are surprisingly effective, although their choreography is a little peculiar (perhaps this is deliberate?).

A mix of raw humour and genuine horror, this is an acquired taste – as Steeds’ films often are – but I enjoyed it.

This is a British found footage film and, as such, is similar to the template set out by the phenomenally successful ‘Blair Witch Project’.

The three characters take time to like. Raz (Parry Glasspool), the sole male, is a cocky, good-looking lad who will say inappropriate things for ‘a laugh’; Lucy-Jane Quinlan plays Charlie, who spends most of the first half of the film frowning at Raz’s antics, and Lydia Orange plays Jess, possibly the ‘nicest’ of the trio – while their very patient teacher Mark is played by TJ Herbert. He is openly ridiculed by Raz, particularly for his ‘four stripe’ trainers – a detail that is worth remembering during the closing shots.

It takes too long to get going, but during that time, I warmed to the three youngsters. Raz is a bit of a twit, no question, but he’s often genuinely funny, if foolhardy.

The third act is where the scares finally come along, with the kind of stumbling confusion and terror synonymous with the found footage genre. The descent into dark, isolated tunnels is creepy and unsettling, and the final scene serves us with a good twist.

This is a Welsh-language rural folk horror which, as the title suggests, focuses on the (very) slow build-up to, and commencement of a much-anticipated dinner.

Annes Elwy stars as the central character Cadi, and yet she spends most of the first three thirds of the film very much on the periphery. Her humble, freckled features are markedly different from rest of the sleek, chatty ensemble. Much is made of the atmospheric sense of isolation of the house, but any suggestions of horror are few and far between. My advice would be to stick with it, because things become surprisingly nasty as they progress – with the finale jarringly uncharacteristic of the previous 93 minutes - but we have to wait for it!