Film Reviews by NP

‘Reeker’ doesn’t start well. A family are driving down a desert highway, and the little boy is so nauseating, the viewer is instantly longing for him to come to a sticky end. Sadly, while his mother and father (and dog) are duly despatched after hitting a deer with the family car, the little angel’s demise is unrecorded.

In the end, only Gretchen and Jack survive their meeting with Reeker. As they are driven away by the police, they see their camper van on its side, the remains of their friends’ bodies scattered around it. Despite the creature’s attempts to kill them, they could not die because they didn’t cry in the original crash. The film doesn’t go out of its way to explain the true nature of Reeker, nor the unfortunate events that befall the luckless travellers; the tale is enigmatic but well worth your time.

Considered a lost film since its last showing on television in 1983, this carefully paced, deeply atmospheric tale is only beginning to find a new level of appreciation since its rediscovery. Peter Vaughn, often cast as ‘heavies’ at the time is quietly menacing as Brady, the ‘odd job man. Lorna Leilbron, who was so good in ‘The Creeping Flesh’ plays Anne, eminently sensible and unflappable. And, providing an amazing performance, Angel Pleasance plays Helen, who lives in her huge inherited estate in the middle of the secluded English countryside, convalescing from some undisclosed breakdown and yet still clearly suffering. Whilst not quite as other-worldly as she was in ‘From Beyond the Grave’ earlier in the year, her more subtle playing of quiet madness reveals itself as the story plays on.

The storyline is thin and it comes as a huge non-surprise to find the deranged killer on Anne and other sundry characters is Helen. And yet the fact that Brady is too obviously a red herring (although hardly unimpeachable) doesn’t disappoint because Pleasance plays it so fascinatingly well.

A sequel to Dracula without Bela Lugosi seems unthinkable, but that is what happened - his corpse is represented by a wax model seen for seconds before being extinguished on a pyre presided over by a haunted, dewy-eyed woman claiming to be his daughter.

Gloria Holden plays Contessa Marya Zeleska with a skillful mixture of the sinister and vulnerable. Edward Van Sloan is back from Dracula, although his character is now known - inexplicably - as Prof Von Helsing, and it is his job to wade through the bland veneer of officialdom to continue his pursuit of the undead.

Irving Pichel plays Zeleska's servant Sandor with spine-chilling vigour, all lurking and muttering apocalyptic words of doom as only the best creepy servants do.

My favourite character is Lili, played by Nan Grey, and her plight echoes Zaleska's own. The way the loss of Lili is treated so insignificantly makes her story a real tragedy. Poor little blighter!

This is a modestly budgeted, black-and-white film directed, produced, written by and starring Herk Harvey. Often, when an entire production is placed in the hands of one person, the results can be questionable, with no-one available to advise the auteur that his ambition may need fine-tuning. Happily, this is far from the case here. 'Carnival of Souls' has gained a huge cult following over the years, and quite rightly: it is excellent.

The direction is first-rate. Not only is a seaside town given a genuinely unnerving atmosphere, but the finale, filled with stuttering, staggering undead figures emerging from the abandoned carnival stays in the mind long after the credits have rolled.

If you have an interest in horror, you owe it to yourself to see this.

This strange, folk fairy-tale technicolour nightmare begins with a band of young novice monks eagerly waiting to begin their vacations. Mischievous and cheeky, they waste no time in time in scouring the countryside in search of food and girls. Before long, three of their number are lost and, rather than sleep under the stars, call upon an abandoned farmhouse where they are reservedly welcomed by an old crone ...

From here, events take on a blackly comical tone. The playing across the board is carefully balanced between the more light-hearted moments and the regularly unsettling ones. In the third act, some very '20s grand guignol techniques are used: theatrically effective physical effects that convey darkly the demonic horror unleashed.

Unusual and parable-like, my score is 8 out of 10.

Kevin Bacon stars as Theo in this horror drama about a small family who have moved into a house they don’t feel entirely comfortable in. When I reveal that the family have dark secrets bubbling under the surface, you might well feel you’ve heard this all before.

I’m not sure if it's an intentional irony that pretty young wife Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) is playing an actress complaining about having to do sex scenes ‘because the director just wants to see her body’ – and the very next moment is involved in a sex scene!

With the occasionally tiresome character build-up out of the way, ‘You Should Have Left’ gets a lot more enjoyable. I’m not sure the Welsh would be too happy with their characterisations here, but the beautiful locations really do lend a sense of isolation, and the house itself is far from traditionally ‘haunted’ in appearance, but its spacious, cold design becomes comfortless quite quickly.

When various other twists are revealed, this steps up another gear, and ultimately, I really enjoyed it. The acting is great throughout, and little Ella (Avery Essex) is very appealing. However, the main twist is unsuccessful because the ‘big’ reveal at the end has been pretty obvious since we first glimpsed the antagonist. My score is 7 out of 10.

Six friends give a lift to a young girl on her own out in the rain; she insists on inviting them into her home to meet her mother Dara (Shareefa Daanish) who is instantly so creepy (but so aesthetically perfect she is almost inhuman), you really wouldn’t accept any invitation to stay – which the friends do, of course.

The characters are likeable but non-descript, except Astrid (Sigi Wimala), who is eight months pregnant, her delicate condition rendering her almost completely docile until the inevitable happens.

Pretty soon, ‘Macabre’ developes into a shriek-along bloodbath with many of the characters succumbing to a fatal and gory injury, only to come back to life on a number of occasions – so much so that things become farcical. There’s no point in trying to kill anyone off, because they’ll be back, bloodied and swollen, but able to inflict ‘one more fatality.’

With a more tongue-in-cheek approach, this might have rivalled Peter Jackson’s ‘Brain Dead’ in terms of blood and gore, but I suspect we’re meant to take it seriously. That the lickle newborn survives unscathed until the end underlines how silly this all is. My score is 5 out of 10. Indonesian, with English subtitles.

A juvenile lead in a film can go as far as to make or break the production. Here, the performance of young-looking 15-year-old Ella Ballentine as Lizzy is such that ‘The Monster’s occasional lulls and inconsistencies are entirely forgiven.

The acting is very good across the board. Zoe Kazan as Lizzy’s deeply flawed mother Kathy is also very strong. Their relationship is the glue that holds events together. The monster of the title is a physical costume – no CGI here – and is partially successful. A cross between Godzilla and the titular creature from ‘Jeepers Creepers’, it’s an unforgiving killer. But it’s Lizzy’s heart-wrenching sobs as every avenue of safety is bloodily taken away from her that really sells it. My score is 7 out of 10.

There seems to be a trend in 2021/22 to make films that stretch beyond the two-hour mark, whether or not the story necessitates it. I’m sure ‘Don’t Worry Darling’s story could be shorn of half an hour and not lose much of its impact.

There’s much gossip about alleged problems that occurred behind the scenes. This might be interesting if you’re into Hollywood scandals, but opinions about the film itself shouldn’t be influenced by any of that.

From the outset, we have a convincingly idyllic 1950’s setting, with impossibly co-ordinated lifestyles, glamorous couples and stylised conversations. Olivia Wilde, who directs and stars, conjures up an almost David Lynch-ian environment and peoples it with an interesting cast, from an occasionally wooden Harry Styles to an impressive Florence Pugh.

As soon as the story begins, we get the idea that something is distinctly wrong here - and an inference that male sexism has a large part to play - and are reminded of it again and again without much in the way of explanation. With a tighter running time, this would have been more effectively conveyed.

The third act reveals the truth of matters and again, the directorial flourishes are eccentric and delightfully disorientating. Helpful in expanding on this delirium is John Powell’s feverish score. Rummage beneath all that though, and elements of it don’t make sense. The overall effect depends on whether the viewer is prepared to be swept along by the expansive ride or to be irritated by the moments that don’t quite add up. My score is 7 out of 10.

'Baskin’ is a Turkish horror film that is very easy to enjoy. It doesn't follow any usual route of the usual possession or demonic story, with jump scares, wise-cracking 'final' girls or screeching violin stings. It is a more absorbing experience, dipping toes into a consistently persuasive world of events and characters ‘not being correct’. The horror does not let up but progresses all the time. That the main players are hard-bitten bullies and only empathic beneath their veneer of brutality, gives things an extra edge.

Strongly recommended.

“Open your mind.”

“I’ve just had some psycho woman break in my house and she pulled a knife on me,” explains our hero. The response from the estate agent? “That sucks.”

This starts out quite promisingly, but the acting gets less convincing as soon as the characters begin to go through lukewarm stages of the usual haunted horror happenings. The dialogue doesn’t encourage anything profound either, and the suggestion of ghostly activity is mostly deeply unfrightening – distorted voice, and lots of shouting. Average – my score is 5 out of 10.

A group of excitable young people happen across an old camera that takes eerie pictures; that’s all you really need to know about ‘Polaroid’.

The story has a nice cold snowy backdrop, but other than that, this is fairly standard horror-by-numbers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The direction conjures up an unsettling atmosphere and the effects are at least competent. And yes, the kids drift from appealing to cloyingly ‘cutesy’ but never do you really wish them any harm, unlike in other genre films. My score is 6 out of 10.

The first time I watched this Italian film, I found myself losing interest and turning it off some twenty minutes in. This second time, I was mesmerised throughout. Providing you are in the right mind-frame for a true ‘slow burner’, this is hugely effective – and, yes, very frightening.

The pacing crawls. The scares are drip-fed, but slowly become more intense, and ultimately, the flowing camera and squalid decomposition provide an immersive atmosphere – the camera lingers on every stained, ripped curtain, every mud-strewn pathway, every mildewed window frame: you can almost taste the decay. The dialogue is scarce, and – much like a bigger budget – proves entirely unnecessary. This is haunting at its most effective.

Director Jess Franco's collaboration with French video magnate René Chateau ensured 'Faceless' was a multi-million-pound venture and Franco’s biggest-ever budget. As a result, we're treated to an impressive cast of well-known. Caroline Munro, famous for her work with Hammer films, shares scenes with Brigitte Lahaie, known for her work with Jean Rollin - both have enjoyed prolific careers. To see them together is almost a surreal delight. Anton Diffring also stars, a does Telly Savalas and Franco favourite Howard Vernon; Christopher Mitchum, son of Robert, plays the hero., providing the weakest performance of the lot. Lots of swagger, but little else.

'Faceless' is pretty much a remake of Franco's 'The Awful Dr Orlof' (he liked revisiting ideas from earlier films), itself a reimagining of the 1960's classic 'Eyes Without A Face'.

Writer/director Fabrice Du Welz has become a name I look out for. I hope he continues to make films for many years to come. Like 2004’s ‘The Ordeal’, ‘Vinyan’ is not something I would recommend if you are feeling a little down. Here we have the lengths people will go to resolve a tragedy – in this case, the disappearance of their child – and the true misery that accompanies their failure to do so.

The ending, which I won’t reveal, is shocking and haunting and will stay with you long after the film is over. Suffice it to say, I look forward to Du Welz’s next project with a great deal of anticipation. My score is 8 out of 10.