Film Reviews by NP

You’re not to worry too much about period detail and accuracy in this ridiculous but entertainingly grim film.

Visually, this is superb. There’s a Dario Argento flavour to the rich colour canvas used by director Neil Marshall (who co-wrote this with leading actress Charlotte Kirk). Things are briskly paced too, sometimes too much during important scenes (the Squire’s lacing of one character’s drink in a fairly crucial bar scene, for one; blink and you’ll miss it). The 106 minute running time never stands still for long.

Despite this, some explanations might have helped my appreciation. Does heroine Grace hallucinate that she sees, and gets intimate with, the devil, or is he real? There’s a scene that indicates that his night-time visits might be real, but as Grace is closely guarded at all times and no-one notices anything out of the ordinary, this is far from clear.

If this is about female empowerment, it doesn’t convince because Grace’s Herculean recovery from the relentless and staggered punishments she receives are preposterous. She suffers nothing more than a slight limp which doesn’t impede her overpowering various powerful people and freeing prisoners. At the end, I wondered – jokingly – if she was going to swim across the lengthy moat as well. Blow me, she did! An alternative view is that she was indeed willed to survive by the demon, which would make sense, but doesn’t do a lot to underline her own strength.

The torture she endures never quite makes the us hide behind our hands because we’re spared truly graphic scenes – but we’re left in doubt exactly what will happen to her, as it is often described in loving detail by terrific villains Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee) and The Squire (Stephen Waddington).

This is a ‘Witchfinder General’-type film given the 2021 ‘final girl’ treatment. Whilst Grace looks every inch a modern day lass and her physical prowess under the circumstances is ludicrous, I had a good time with this. It’s colourful, has some terrific imagery and displays some committed acting. My score is 7 out of 10.

Condensing Stephen Fry’s mammoth story into a 90 minute film cannot have been an easy task, with its bulging cast list and wealth of set-pieces, but director John Jencks makes a good fist of it.

I’m not sure anyone other than Fry himself could do justice to the role of Ted Wallace, or at least so I thought before watching Roger Allam in the role. Ensuring a jaded, disillusioned, permanently bad tempered alcoholic is so likeable must have been tricky, but it works here. In fact most of the characters as written, are distinctly dislikeable – or perhaps flawed would be a better word. If they were not, they wouldn’t be so interesting, or the story so entertaining. Bringing Wallace’s endless tirade of expletives to life so hilariously is done as well as it could possibly be.

It’s true to say that, with so many characters, some are distinctly under-written and don’t feature quite as heavily as they might, but as far as I remember from the book, no relevant scene has been excised, and no character has been forgotten.

Greatly entertaining. My score is 8 out of 10.

Imagine if family favourite ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ had been produced by Freddie Krueger, this is the kind of thing you might have ended up with. Raucous, coarse, loaded with every variation of every expletive you have ever heard; brutal, violent and completely ridiculous, ‘Hidden in the Woods’ is, if you’re in the right mood, highly entertaining.

There’s nothing like a father’s love, is there? “Nobody messes with my babies,” says Oscar Crooker (Michael Biehn) at one point. To list the depravities this man has subjected his ‘babies’ to would be to venture into spoilers. He’s a phenomenally diabolical character – and he’s in good company.

The atrocities heaped on various characters are relentless and appalling, but there’s a dank humour in there also, and despite being shocking, the films is a highly entertaining way of spending just over 90 minutes. 7 out of 10.

‘The Other Lamb’ tells its slim story amidst some beautifully shot Irish locations. The acting on display from all concerned is very persuasive and convincing.
There is, however, an element of ‘is that it?’ as the final scene rolls along. There are no real surprises here, and the audience is allowed instead to follow events until the inevitable occurs at the end. That’s not to say the influence of Shepherd (Michiel Huisman) isn’t convincing – because it is - and his flock’s devotion to him equally so.

We’re not given any reasons, other than Shepherd took girls from their ‘broken’ lives to be with him, as to how he achieved his status, where he came from or what his aims were/are. Perhaps this is to perpetuate the view that he is truly as benign and timeless as he is seen to be.

Enjoyable and scenic, this won’t thrill you with its story; but that doesn’t seem the intention. My score is 6 out of 10.

Written and directed by Sam Farmer, this film involves a recent widow (Camille Keaton) – and occasionally her equally resolute daughter – and her fight against the sons of a local extortioner. That’s about it as far as the story goes.

My favourite aspect of this is the level of most of the performances, in which the actors go to town to let us know how thoroughly despicable they are, particularly Scott Peeler as Wayne McMahon.

As Marsha, Keaton begins the story as a gun-wielding no-nonsense taker, and that’s how she stays. Little progresses in this story, and with an equally thin pay-off, it doesn’t make for a hugely rewarding experience. My score is 5 out of 10.

Directed by Louisa Warren, (who brought us ‘Pagan Warrior’, ‘The Tooth Fairy’, ‘Scarecrow Rising’ and ‘The Ghosts of Borley Rectory’) this clearly low-budget venture has once more been written off by a number of online critics because … it’s a low-budget venture. With that in mind, one can either admire the ambition of such a production as this, featuring much physical conflict and extensive location filming, or moan about the occasionally stilted acting and tepid fight choreography from the performers.

I’m a big fan of low-budget films. Any lack of resource is often more than made up for by freedom of ideas and lack of pandering to high-flying producers (no pun intended – this is distributed by High Fliers films) and demographics.

I enjoyed this. There’s a good story being told, some impassioned performances and a genuine build up of tension as the tale progresses. There are some pacing issues, and some characters’ antics suffer from a certain repetition. Lead Ingrid (Darcie Rose) in particular, looks far too modern, as do some of the others, but is played well enough to excuse that. Darrell Griggs is especially good as the unhinged Gunner and Peter Cosgrove snorts and snarls nicely as Snorre. Technically, the production is faultless – great use is made of locations. Mr score is 7 out of 10.

Produced on a micro-budget, ‘Night Kaleidoscope’ makes every moment count – at least visually – with varied camera effects and sweeping, distorted panoramas across Edinburgh, usually at daybreak.

Director Grant McPhee provides us with a grim and dangerous world, and the cast are very good; much better than is often the case with films like this.

The story is a thin one, which may annoy some people. I loved every grimy, seedy second of it, and I hope it isn’t the last we hear from Grant McPhee. My score is 8 out of 10.

Very odd to see genre beauties Ewa Aulin and Gina Lollobrigida brandishing dead chickens, but this giallo goes out of its way to perplex and stupefy us, thanks to director and co-writer Giulio Questi’s vision. The music, usually sweeping and inviting in these kind of films, is a series of tuneless flourishes here, as if Bruno Maderna had been instructed to provide anything as long as it wasn’t melodic.

I found ‘Death Laid an Egg’ too 60s-kitsch-quirky to become completely involved in, although Ms Aulin is ridiculously cute throughout. The story is a thin one, and engages mainly because of the performances. My score is 6 out of 10.

The cons: the ‘odd’ couple, especially Richard Kilgour as Mr. Farrow, make what might kindly be described as bizarre acting choices, and they are amongst the very first characters we meet. Later on, in context, their OTT melodrama has more meaning, but to open a film with these two proves a major stumbling block.

The pros: everything that follows is hugely effective and on occasion, genuinely frightening. Jump scares, so often and repetitively featured in such films, actually do their job here. The main antagonist is extremely creepy, made all the more so because the camera only allows us fleeting glimpses of him.

The cast provide competent performances throughout, but Aisling Knight carries the whole thing beautifully as Charlotte. Her journey is made compelling due to the performance, even when the characters choices are – typical of horror films – not always wise.

Director and writer Simon Richardson has put together a terrific story here. There are enough revelations and intrigue to keep things compelling, but the whole thing is also directed very well, making the most of the darkness and the stunning locations.

Some online reviews have been unnecessarily harsh on this film, I think. Perhaps the theatricalities of some early scenes put people off. My advice – stick with it. ‘Darkness Wakes’ gets better and better as it rolls along. I had a great time watching it. My score is 9 out of 10.

This is a surprisingly flat adaption of the Susan Hill story, in which the sweeping locations come first, most of the acting comes a distant second and sadly, the plot doesn’t really get past the starting block.

It’s very difficult to engage with the characters. There’s not much to them, and the playing is often stilted. The scares are occasionally effective, but when the manifest ‘ghost’ is a very physical being – and an irritating bully rather than a demonic spirit to boot - there’s nothing to elicit the mildest chill.

What a shame this is, when the mood sets us up for grand things – slow, lingering camera work, a minimalist, darkly ambient score and a stunning location. Effective dressing, but barely anything to hang them on. Only Neve McIntosh puts in a committed performance. My score is 4 out of 10.

This Canadian film takes a while to get going, but it is worth sticking around. The initial sight of pretty people basking in their love threatens to topple into soap opera petting, but things are soon turned on their head – as the opening ritual indicates they might.

Everything works well here, and there are some very satisfying twists in the story that certainly fooled me. These twists don’t stop until the very end and it is up to the individual to decide whether they’re all as successful as they might be: I thoroughly enjoyed being led by Director Chad Archibald through the maze of his and Jamie Laforest’s story.

The acting is good throughout, but mention should be made of Nina Kiri as the unfortunate Gloria, Ry Barrett as the equally wretched Thomas and Jorja Cardence the feisty Joan.

Grim and sweaty, this is an atmospheric and satisfying horror. My score is 8 out of 10.

Beware, this opens with a truly appalling bunch of manicured, horny catwalk ‘campers’ acting like dicks - but mercifully, events leave them behind very quickly and become a lot more interesting.

The director’s homage to the horror genre loses points for wearing its inspirations on its sleeve and ultimately resulting in a rudderless film. What appears to be one thing, becomes another, which in turn becomes another, which certainly keeps the audience on its toes.

It’s an enjoyable ride, and you can’t really ask for much more than that, cheeky even in its myriad ‘homages’ – but the final revelation will divide some. My score is 6 out of 10.

This German recounting of the exploits of the Whitechapel Murderer is a well told, lavish looking adaption of the story that sags just a little in the middle.

Anna Kosminski (Sonja Gerhardt) travels to London to discover that her brother Jakob is in an asylum and has been wrongly accused of carving up locals – or so she believes. Swimming against the stream, she sets out to find the truth behind the accusations and exposing one of history’s most notorious killers. Whether she succeeds or not is for the viewer to find out – but I would recommend the journey.

The recreation of London in 1888 is painstakingly achieved and the acting, taking into consideration the English dub, is uniformly excellent. The plot twists and turns and offers up a few genuine surprises, although don’t expect a particularly accurate representation of the facts (after all, this doesn’t pretend to be a documentary). My score is 7 out of 10.

I wasn’t overly enthused about watching this having read some reviews – which serves me right for reading them before watching! I honestly don’t know what some people want from a film. That’s to say, I enjoyed this.

It took me a while to appreciate the lead actress. Unlike other cast members, Jess Chanliau initially mumbles her lines and is incomprehensible some of the time. A shame, because Stone is very interesting and not a run-of-the-mill heroine, and when circumstances become more intense, her performance is excellent. The standard of acting elsewhere is often very good, with only a few performances not quite convincing.

The story involves a zombie breakout on an island prison. The location is beautifully filmed and we get a real sense of isolation. Also, as Warden Crowe insists, extreme measures must be taken not to allow the infection to spread onto the mainland.

The story moves at an energetic pace, features lots of well defined characters and at just over 90 minutes, gives us time to get to know them. There are some impressive moments of gore, and the infected are very convincing – descendants of films like ’28 Days Later’ rather than the shufflers from Romero’s vision.

I had a great time with this. My score is 8 out of 10.

This is a good, raucous film in which one scene full of cruelty is followed by another. There is a modicum of nudity but it is light on gore. The success of ‘The Witchfinder General’ informs the mood here (featuring fine performances from Vincent Price and Hilary Dwyer from that production.

It is interesting that all the misdoings aren’t entirely due to corrupt law enforcers, although the true nature of the threat isn’t revealed until later on, almost giving the impression of it being an afterthought.

No banshee, people say? Perhaps not, but their cry is referenced and alluded to, so the title isn’t a misnomer.

A solid, good looking, feisty, well directed horror; my score is 7 out of 10.