Film Reviews by NP

To me, this Swedish vampire film is like an appreciative throwback to the handful of European horror films that proved popular in the early '70s and is a cosy bedfellow alongside the wonderful, and better-known 'Let the Right One In' from the same year. This isn't quite up there in comparison (not many things are), but it promotes a convincing lifestyle for modern-day vampires.

Two sisters, Vera and Vanja (Jenny Lampa and Ruth Vega Fernandez), celebrating the freedom their 'addiction' gives them, attend an illegal nightclub. Almost raped by a clubber, they drain him of his blood, little knowing he's the (now former) head of a notorious biker gang. As the gang pursue them through the night, these 'ordinary people' become the aggressors and the vampires are the ones we find ourselves sympathising with.

That's the main thrust of the film. It's a slim story told well and performed wonderfully. Events come at their own pace, and there's a bittersweet ending that proves very effective. Director Peter Pontikis also writes and produces, and happily, has not let the unfairly negative reviews this film garnered hamper his career. Thick with all the giddy delirium you'd expect two vampires to experience during a typical night, 'Not Like Others' (also known as 'Vampyrer') won't exactly tempt you join the undead, but might allow you to view them in a different light.

I love the classic idea of vampires, the grand, cape-swirling children of the night. But I also really enjoy films that suggest that vampires are perfectly ordinary people you would pass in the street.

This Swedish vampire story deals with two sisters who make the mistake of killing and draining a key member of a biker gang (which could easily be seen as self-defence as he was trying to rape one of them at the time). Suddenly our sympathies are with Vanja and Vera and the remaining bikers – the ordinary people – are very much the aggressors as they follow them relentlessly through streets and town centres.

This isn’t an eventful film, but I get the impression it is deliberately low-key. It’s just one event in the day-to-day (or night-to-night) existence of two vampires in the modern world, and as such it is worth watching – not least for the excellent performances, and the night-time filming, which puts over the loneliness and desolation the two sisters have to deal with.

Stephen McGeagh has written and directed a grimy, messy horror film. You may imagine the title focuses on an addiction of some kind. Set in the rougher parts of Manchester, the drug in question may not be what you expect, although with this being a genre film, it might well be!

There's a strong cast at work here, convincing and likeable (well, some of them), and the revelations as to the nature of events are skillfully handled. Set against a rainy, urban backdrop, the unrelentingly grim future these characters are desperately trying to escape is all-enveloping. Whether Lee (Jessica Bardon) and Michael (Elliot James Langridge) do eventually find a way out from the lives that shackle them is not for me to say, but their journey is a shocking and bloody one, and 'Habit' is a film I enjoyed very much. My score is 8 out of 10.

The style of 'If A Tree Falls' marks it out as something different from the oft-tread woodland slasher genre. Stuttering camerawork, grainy inserts, imagery that momentarily obfuscates what we are seeing. Certainly Gabriel Carreris a director determined to make a mark - and most of the time, he succeeds very well.

The characters in Ry Barrett's story, Brad and Lisa Carpenter (played by Barrett and Jennifer De Lucia respectively) and friends Will and Vanessa (Daniel Zuccala and Breanne TeBoekhorst) are well-played and fairly likeable, although they are hardly flawless. Such depth, it could be argued, makes them more interesting to watch. Certainly, we, see them suffering at the hands of masked assailants and are moved by the motiveless brutality of it all.

A slasher film with a difference, I found 'If A Tree Falls' thoroughly entertaining in a violent, bloody kind of way. Directorial flourishes ensure that visually, things are always interesting. My score is 8 out of 10.

I'm not sure the phrase 'you've been had' is quite as apt as it is with this film. And rarely has it been so enjoyable to be on the receiving end of such a big tease. Director and co-writer Andrew Weiner has assembled a fine cast and crew to helm this found-footage extravaganza which takes in extensive location filming in Canada, although the end credits state filming in Alaska. Another little tease?

We spend much time with a group of filmmakers eager to capture the sight of the legendary Frankenstein Monster, rumoured to be hiding in the showy wastes. It's wonderful to believe the poor Creature has indeed made a home for himself far from humankind and is relatively happy. Entrepreneur Jonathan Venkenheim (Kris Lemche) isn't interested in the Monster's contentment; he wants to make a name for himself. The crew he gathers around him are caught up in his dreams, but become increasingly - and understandably - despondent. All are very well cast and share many moments of amusing camaraderie - or not.

So good is their company, that I almost forgot what I watched this for, and it's just as well because we have to wait an inordinately long time before we set eyes on the furious focus of Venkenheim's obsession. You may feel cheated by the outcome, or you may thoroughly enjoy this venture. I did.

'Abattoir' immediately arrests the attention. Julia, the lead character played by Jesica Lowndes, appears to have drifted in from a noirish film from the '50s. Her boyfriend Detective Grady (Joe Anderson) talks like a modern-day gumshoe. The setting, however, is distinctly in the present. This strangeness is only compounded further by the storyline, involving collecting rooms that have witnessed murders.

It's an eccentric premise, and one that is too abstract to appeal to everyone. I loved it. In fact, I love anything that does something 'different' with the horror genre. The finale too, plays very much into the world of the fantastic which also proves to be mind-boggling. Director Darren Lynn Bousman pulls out all the stops to ensure that although what you may have seen is deeply unnerving, the climax moves things into another dimension.

A group of typically beautiful young people are holidaying in Mexico. Amy (Jena Malone) seems to be the butt of the others' meanness due to her fragile nature. Catwalk models can be so cruel! Anyway, the group are persuaded by a German tourist Mathius (Joe Anderson) to visit some local ruins. That's when the perfect holiday becomes something less savoury.

Their teen tales of adolescent mino-drama may not be enthralling, or put another way, mind-numbingly tedious, but they're not really a bad bunch. Certainly, the viewer is not baying for their death as in any 'Wrong Turn' sequels, and when they begin to suffer some nicely imaginative horror punishment, it's hard not to feel for them.

The sun-stroked Mayan locations are gorgeous, and strangely very 'right' for the story. Away from home, away from the familiar trappings of your ordinary life, there is a real sense of displacement here - even if it is a kind of paradise. Things become more desperate and nasty as time goes on. This does not disappoint. Stick with it. My score is 8 out of 10.

Prolific director Jess Franco follows up his previous very successful Orloff films with this stylish black and white chiller. As is often the case with Franco, this production has been distributed around the world under several titles. Some refer to the title character as Orloff, and some as Jekyll. But who cares when we're having this much fun? The weakest link is the main man himself - whatever his name is! With Howard Vernon unavailable, Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui steps in; he's avuncular, cuddly and friendly-faced, the polar opposite of Vernon.

Everything else is much as it often is in monochrome Jess Franco films. Stylish, arty, stark, polished, creepy and ever so slightly dull. The magnificent monster is far too handsome to warrant all the shrieking that greets his every appearance. Hugo Blancoplays zombie henchman Andros very well, and he's aided by sinister lighting and spooky music, but really, his 'hideousness' amounts to nothing more to bad acne.

This is an enjoyable ride, though, and a million miles away from the gleeful bargain-basement fetish-romps that Franco would soon be producing. Some seeds of his future obsessions are sown here, in what would become familiar character names (Andros, Melissa for example) and a lengthy exotic jazzy cabaret sequence.

Perhaps not quite up there with the earlier 'The Awful Doctor Orlof', this is nonetheless unsettling, riotous early picture from the notorious Uncle Jess.

Ten years after his successful stint as Tarzan, Lex Barker is still in hero mode. At the end of the '50s, he found work surprisingly hard to come by and so travelled further afield than his native America where he still received top billing. He's a bit wooden in this, to be honest, but then he isn't required to do an awful lot other than to look smouldering and get involved in a few scraps - which he does with aplomb.

There are echoes of Dracula here, with blood providing life (long) after death, and Christopher Lee as Count Regula. Dripping corridors, a doomy atmosphere and plenty a heaving bosom, all heartily directed by Harald Reinl, ensure a thickly sliced slab of gothic splendour.

Edgar Allen Poe had barely begun to write his final work, on which this film is based before he passed away. Here, the talented Benjamin Cooper takes hold of the bare bones of the story and turns it into a sedately paced 88-minute film. Although achieved on a modest budget, the results are far from impoverished, and prove to be highly enjoyable - more than I expected.

JP (Matt O’Neill) finds himself washed up on an island, where he sees the apparition of a young woman. He's looked after by gruff lighthouse keeper Walsh (Vernon Wells). "I'll always keep a light burning during the night," he promises.

From here on in, we're treated to secrets, wraiths, apparitions, mysterious fever dreams, and a finale that only tells us what it wants us to know. This is a carefully made horror pot-boiler which may lack spectacle but tells a richly atmospheric tale very well. My score is 9 out of 10.

As with many modestly budgeted monster films, our views of the titular creature are fleeting and often obfuscated - at least until the end. This shouldn't be any kind of deterrent to anyone seeking out 'Night of the Wolf': it's great fun. A shaggy killer wages terror over a gentle, picturesque retirement community, and that's all you really need to know.

The story is imaginative and never run-of-the-mill. As we get to see more of the antagonists, it's good to see a lack of CGI, which for me, robs a production of its essential sense of 'place' - unless there's millions of pounds or dollars being spent. Much better that, for their flaws, these creatures are of the physical variety. Nice transformation too.

Directed effectively by Adrián García Bogliano and wonderfully scored by Wojciech Golczewski, 'Night of the Wolf' gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

Two's company, and all that. Alex and Jenn, embarking on a backpacking trek through the Canadian forests, are such good company that when Brad joins them, he spoils the balance, no matter how much he ingratiates himself. Jeff Roop and Missy Peregrym play the couple, and Eric Balfour is Brad, and the further he is on screen, the less likeable he seems. The Canadian Ranger, played by Nicholas Campbell, completes the modest main cast list. They're all so well played, it doesn't matter that we have to wait a long time for any of the expected attacks to come.

When they do, they don't disappoint. Director and writer Adam MacDonald, in his debut feature, ensures that tensions are ratcheted up a few notches as the film goes on, with many scenes full of perfectly judged jeopardy that also prove to be surprisingly gory. Only the finale seems a little anti-climactic. My score is 8 out of 10.

Amber (Courtney Hope) is surrounded by failing parents and appalling friends. You know the type - alleged teens who are horny/stoned/drunk at all times, with the kind of pack personality you'd expect from such a lowbrow designer catwalk crew. When they end up in the kind of trouble a film with a title like 'Prowl' couldn't exist without, it's difficult to care for such preening twits. They attempt to ditch their former unfulfilling lives by hitching a ride which unexpectedly leads them to no-nonsense Veronica (Saxon Trainor), and her delightfully bloody slaughterhouse. From here, things get progressively more messy and tense.

'Prowl' is good once it gets going and we get past the lazily drawn 'hero' types. It staggers me how obvious it seems to me to make your characters likeable, but that so many directors - Patrik Syversen, here, is one - seem to think that's too easy. Better to make them edgy in the belief that makes them interesting. It doesn't! Or perhaps we are supposed to be aching for them to get dispatched in as gory a way as possible. If that's the aim, then it succeeds.

Possibly the biggest challenge in watching this Spanish/French horror extravaganza is the dubbing. As is sometimes the case, less than a scrupulous translation of the dialogue can produce unintentionally hilarious results. Some would say that adds to the charm. Perhaps they are right.

You may be led to believe this is a Jess Franco production. I was. It is in fact directed by Pierre Chevalier who delivers a comparatively accessible yarn filled with genre cliches used to fairly good effect. Once again playing Orloff is the mighty Howard Verson (who had played the character for Franco before, and would do so again in the future), the hero-type is Dr. Garondet (Frances Valladares), and the vampy young lady of the piece is Cécile (Brigitte Carva). If you're ready, there's also an invisible ape who gets up to all sorts of nasty business - again, some of his vile antics do unintentionally (I presume) raise a smile.

The story seems to have bits and pieces from most of the horror classics thrown in. You might recognise elements from Dracula, and Frankenstein, and there are dark tunnels and a hero who delights in wearing a red-lined cloak. It's all here and is delightfully unconventional in places and darn right ridiculous in others.

Based on a horrifying true story, the promotional material tells us. A slasher film set in Scotland where a group of friends are commemorating the legendary Redwood Massacre by camping out in the locations of the murders. As you might imagine, the Scottish locations are gorgeous, a real highlight of the film.

This is a very enjoyable, fast-moving directing/writing horror film from David Ryan Keith who has rightfully won a series of awards. Ryan has made a run of genre films, including 2020's sequel, 'Redwood Massacre: Annihilation' (which I fully intend to see). Ghostly apparitions, missing bodies, well-drawn characters you actually care about, and most impressively a killer scarecrow. Scarecrows seem tailor-made for horror films - lonesome, soulless mannequins who stand in solitary splendour - but are often used so ineffectively. Luckily that isn't the case here. My score is 8 out of 10.

David Schofield is brilliant at broken, sozzled teacher Mr Anderson, or Robert to his co-workers (I hesitate to say friends). He has a precocious daughter called Kate (Eliza Bennett) and bows to the reprimands of the headmistress Sarah Balhan (Ruth Gemmell). These three main characters are nicely written and convincingly played.

Anderson is flawed and shunned for it. A pupil accuses him of marking him down for an exam (the 'F' of the title) and knocks him to the floor; the student's parents then go about suing him for his alleged victimisation. When the beleaguered teacher warns of something being 'wrong' at the school, he is laughed at. When his words turn out to be true, the laughter abruptly stops.

'F' is excellent. Apart from being a frightening story (that is mainly so effective because it is set very much in the real world), it has comments to make about the system in general. Writer and director Johannes Roberts has turned in a well-rounded tale that appeals on several levels. More than just a slasher movie, the open-ended nature of some story elements indicates that such a situation is never a million miles away from happening again. I mean, why not?

My score is 9 out of 10. Or A+, if you prefer.