Reviews

The Return: No Cyclops, Lotus Eaters, Cannibals, Circe ir Sirens. This is just Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washed up naked on the coast of Ithaca< his scars are both external and internal, nowadays we'd say he's suffering from PTSD. He's been away for 20 years, his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is beset by suitors, they have lain waste to the land, oppressed the locals, partying, taken over the castle. His son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) is under threat from the suitors. This is a plain and rough age, few of even the wealthy wear fine clothes, the norm is for men to go bare-chested, wearing a cloak-blanket. Odysseus is nursed back to health by a swineherd, Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria). Concealing his identity he is unrecocognised. He even enters the castle disguised as a beggar. Eventually though he has to challenge the suitors. Penelope's stratagems to ward off thise suitors start to fail. A savage tale of a savage age, the deaths are gruesome in all cases, when his son Telemachus is hunted by the suitors he Becomes his old warrior self. A tale of love, adventure and the need to heal a wounded land. No magic in this tale but the storytelling as it hurtles towards it's grand guignol conclusion. Fine performances by an ensemble cast. Directed by Uberto Pasolini, a retelling of the last sections of Homer's Odyssey as adapted by Edward Bond, John Collee, and Pasolini. 8/10.

The Glass Dome: A chilling Nordic Noir drama from Sweden. Criminologist Lejla Ness (Léonie Vincent), lives in America, as a child she was kept captive by an abductor who was never identified. Her adoptive mother dies so she returns to her hometown in Granås, Sweden and stays with her adoptive father Valter (Johan Hedenberg), a former police inspector. While she is there a friend is murdered and her her daughter Alicia (Minoo Andacheh) is abducted. The circumstances are eerily similar to Lejla's own abduction. Mixed in with all of this is opposition to a local mine. A psychological drama mixed in with family relationships, Valter as well as mourning his wife's death is still tormented by not catching Lejla's abductor, he sees links with other disappearances. Valter's brother Tomas (Johan Rheborg) is now the local inspector and freezes Valter out of the investigation. An unhappy family indeed. As chemicals leak from the mine and the missing girl isn't found, civil unrest brews. Great performance by Léonie Vincent as she relives past traumas and tries to figure out what is really going on in a narrative full of red herrings, false leads with multiple suspects. The possibility of there being more than one predator at work has to be entertained. Returning in her dreams to the glass container in which she was imprisoned. Good supporting performances by Rheborg, Hedenberg, Andacheh and Seraphine Krystek as the young Lejla. Pay close attention or you might miss an important detail. A few interesting plot twists. Six episodes on Netflix. Directed by Lisa Farzaneh and Henrik Björn, Written by Camilla Läckberg. 8/10.

The Gardener: Elmer (Alvaro Rico) totally lacks emotion due to brain damage he suffered in a car crash when he was young, his mother La China (Cecilia Suarez)lost a leg in the same accident. Now in his 20's he is a master gardener at his mother's plant nursery in Spain. His garden creations grow so well because of the fertiliser he uses, human corpses. Elmer is also a ruthless serial killer, his urges controlled by his mother who channels them towards contract killing. All is well until one target, Violeta (Catalina Sopelana) shows him kindness and he falls in love with her. His brain chemistry is changing allowing emotions to develop but there is also a tumour in his brain. The killer's lore is examined, how he stalks, hunts, captures. Kills and inters his prey. Making it look as if they have disappeared, drowned, maybe run away. He has conflicts with his mother over Violeta, through flashbacks we see how the accident occurred, what led up to it and years later Elmer's first kill. Violeta has a few secrets of her own which led to her becoming a target. A love story as well as a mystery with elements of horror and competing demands. Two bumbling, meddling but persistent cops also get involved. Deliciously dark, I'm surprised the garden didn't have Triffids. Six episodes on Netflix. Created by Miguel Saez Carral, Written by Saez Carral and Isa Sanchez, and Directed by Mikel Rueda and Rafa Montesinos. 8/10.

Drop: Another thriller about being blackmailed into committing murder which segues neatly into the slipstream of horror. Violet (Meghann Fahy) is a widowed mother, she is going on a date after months of online contact with Henry (Brandon Sklenar). Her sister is looking after her son. Waiting in the restaurant bar she gets annoying DigitalDrop invites, She is getting on well with Henry but the messages get even more irritating, eventually threatening her son, the sender shows that he has an accomplice in her house. He can also observe her through the restaurant's CCTV and seems to be in the restaurant, so her attempts at getting help are stymied. Her behaviour becomes increasingly odd as she follows her tormenter's instructions, Henry displays the patience of a Saint. Eventually she is told to poison Henry. There are several possible candidates for the blackmailer, one being an annoying waiter who I'd rather see killed than for him to be the villain. A good thriller, even Hitchcockian at times where relatively confined spaces are turned into mostly psychological battlegrounds., there being some savage violence as well. A line of black humour tuns through the film. One crucial scene might have seemed preposterous if handled by a less skilled and experienced director. Have fun trying to identify her tormenter. Directed by Christopher Landon and written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach. 7.5/10.

The Amateur: Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a CIA cryptographer, his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a terrorist attack in London, but these are no ordinary terrorists, they are middlemen between Bad Actor States and terrorist groups. The killing occurred when they took hostages after an arms deal went wrong. Using his skolls Heller identifies the killers but realises that his boss Alex Moore (Holt McCallany) already knows who they are but doesn't want to act until he can roll up the entire network. Heller wants to go on a personal revenge mission but Moore laughs at the idea. With the help of online source Inquiline (Catriona Balfe) he obtains kompromat on Moore, detailing black Ops in which civilians and allied military were killed. Moore sends Heller to be trained by Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), who concludes that Heller is a good bombmaker but would never be capable of killing. Heller sets out on his mission though at this stage Henderson is his nemesis, in pursuit of him. Some really good choreographed fight scenes after Heller meets the real life Inquiline as they are pursued on land and attacked from the air and a river. This is a real hall of mirrors where competing intelligence agencies unite to deal with a maverick. But in this land of fog and mist there is also division within the CIA. Some savage scenes of killings and torture. Heller gets around his inability to kill close up with some ingenious methods. He is no John Wick, just a clever man who uses his skill set well. The levels of surveillance involved at all levels makes this film a good fit foe the SpyFi genre as the action ranges from London to Paris and Istanbul. Convincing performances all round from an ensemble cast. Directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, based on the novel by Robert Littell. 7.5/10.

Death of a Unicorn: Another horror comedy which might have worked better as straight horror (but with a capillary of dark humour/satire). There are lots of laughs as Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his teen daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) are spending a weekend at the estate of Elliot's boss Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) - (he has terminal cancer but he makes that ghoulishly funny) and his family-his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), socialite and inveterate do-gooder and their Elon Musk style son Shepard (Will Poulter), always happy to steal other people's ideas but blame them of things go wrong. While driving to their destination, Elliot, not paying attention and quibbling with Ridley, runs over a unicorn foal with his car. Ridley touches its horn, she experiences strange visions, which Elliot brings to a halt when he beats the unicorn to death with a tire iron. He wants to make a good impression on Odell, a promotion is at stake, so pretends nothing happened. But the unicorn comes back to life and is killed by a security guard. Elliot and Ridley were splashed by unicorn blood and realise their eyesight and acne problems are cured. Even better, the blood also sends Odell's cancer into remission. Odell being a pharmaceutical magnate wants to take advantage of this. The satire goes into overdrive: "Get the Davos attendees list!" When the horror arrives it is all too bloody in a Grendel sort of way. Bodies torn apart, impaled on horns, these are some of the milder deaths inflicted. A tale of greed, revenge, horror, with large dollops of fantasy and medieval tapestries playing a role. Some pretty good performances especially from Grant and Ortega. She's 23 this year though so her time to play teens is running out, be interesting to see if she can make the transition to fully adult roles. Good as this is, I want more unadulterated horror! Written and Directed by Alex Scharfman in his directorial debut. 7.5/10.

Restless: Noisy neighbours, they might just be an irritant or they might turn your life into a Hell on Earth. It's the second variety which steers this psychological thriller into the slipstream of Horror. From the opening scenes it becomes clear that care worker Nicky (Lyndsey Marshal) has been driven to violence. But then things roll back to a week earlier. Nicky is already stressed, her care home is understaffed and she has to fight to get her days off, she lives alone next door to the house where her parents lived, both are now dead. She's lonely relying on phone calls and her cat along with her beloved classical music for company. The adjoining house has just been sold and new neighbours arrive, very noisy neighbours. Trying to reason with them is fruitless, they party into the small hours every night. The police and local council are of no help. Nicky's lack of sleep results in a deterioration in her health and she strikes back at the chavs, things escalate. Most of the horror here is of the quotidian type but their accumulated effect is literally life changing, resulting in extreme actions by someone who won't just be a victim. There are moments of black humour, Nicky gives the main thug, Deano (Aston McAuley) a tainted cake as a supposed gesture of reconciliation. Her relationship with Kev (Barr Ward), is distinctly odd, as is he. He works as a traffic warden, he makes his interest in her clear but then gives her a parking ticket, later buying her a violin because she likes classical music. Some other funny scenes cannot be referenced here without spoiling the movie for you. Convincing performances from McAuley, Ward, Marshal and Denzel Baidoo as Clarkey, another thug. Directed and Written by Jed Hart, in his feature directorial debut. 8/10.

Zero: Dystopian, Post Apocalypse film with a teen cast. Though at times it has the feel of an old BBC or Children's Foundation film it very much deals with adult themes. 2045 after some kind of an event, the adults all fled from a sizeable island leaving children behind. Weird cultish misogynistic behaviour has developed amongst the adolescent males. It's as if the had been inspired by A Handmaid's Tale. Quiet voilent and good performances are delivered all round. Especially by Lauren Grace and Anya McKenna-Bruce as two sisters who wish to escape this hell and reach the mainland. A disturbing film which does a lot with a low budget, At 68 minutes running time it doesn't overstay its welcome. Written and Directed by Faye Gilbert. Saw it on BBC2. 7/10.

An Taibhse (The Ghost): This is Ireland's first and currently only fully Irish-language horror feature.1852, the Great Famine may be over but the land is devastated. Éamon (Tom Kerrisk) and his young daughter Máire (Livvy Hill).are lucky to get a job maintaining an isolated country mansion during the Winter. Their jarvey tells them he'll be back for them in April. Homage is being paid to The Shining here and as the narrative unfolds many of the scenes are obviously inspired by that film but it is no rip off or pastiche. Strange events occur from an early stage, a Mr Punch puppet appears from nowhere, Máire has unexplained bruises and abrasions, she seems to be attacked by an evil spirit named Alexander, This demon is no stranger to her, she had encounters with him in the past. Her father dismisses her concerns, telling her she is imagining things. She has "the Shining" though as she has visions of things yet to come. After her father has an accident all of the maintenance work falls on Máire and Éamon descends into a cycle of heavy drinking. Blood often makes an appearance here, flowing down a ladder rather than from a lift, splattered against a wall, dripping to the floor. The mansion itself is partially in a state of ruin which adds to the build up of psychological horror, there are some anachronisms here but they can be overlooked given the miniscule budget of e3,000. The vastness of the house with its numerous rooms, corridors and outhouses provides scope for entities to hide anywhere. Alexander isn't the only demon in the house, this becomes obvious after an alternate explanation for events is provided. Perhaps someone is gaslighting Máire, maybe it's a mixture of possession and everyday horror, whatever the answer Máire indeed seems to possess psychic powers. A great performance from Livvy Hill with good support from Tom Kerrisk and Anthony Murphy as a visitor to the house. This was a dark time in Ireland's history so a horror film complements Black 47 (2018), the story contained within An Taibhse though is just as relevant today. Written and Directed by John Farrelly.

The Woman in the Yard: A dark horror film, much of the rear generated is psychological nut there are terrifying acts of violence and poltergeist action. A family live in an isolated farm, the mother suffers from depression as well as serious leg injuries inflicted during a car crash in which her husband died. She depends on her teen son to look after his young sister, but is over demanding, food has run out, the electricity is off. A strange woman dressed in black has appeared in the farm yard, she is covered in a black lace shawl, only later do we see her face. She delivers threats to the mother, claiming that she had summoned her. The house comes under siege as the woman gradually moves closer, inside there is chaos, the mother wants her son to assume the duties of an adult but treats him like a child. She also has strange, violent visions. The lady in black will appear in a mirror but not be there, she has slain their chickens. Poltergeist actions and the use of shadows are used to great effect as are the contrasts between light and dark. The constant building of tension as the woman moves nearer does up the levels of existential terror. There are a few plot twists which cannot be revealed without spoiling the film's enjoyment for you. Whilst the explanation for the woman in black and her actions adheres to the film's internal logic I was hoping for a better resolution. Well worth watching though. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Written by Sam Stefanak. 7/10.

The Pod Generation: Science Fiction Comedy/Satire about pregnancy, AI, passive/aggressive HR people and it's a bit of a RomCom as well. A lot of the satire would be more appreciated by a US audience as it's a country which lacks maternity leave or much of any sort of statutory leave. Still HR offering to pay part of a down payment on a POD baby is quite funny in an odd manner. The use of new technology to prevent the loss of good time to the firm is all important. There are even AIs to monitor productivity, as usual it uses a meaningless metric, lower word count, HR pays attention to it though. Pods are given to the parents to care for, but only for a whole, in work, they are viewed as a distraction and must be kept in a dedicated room. Satire biting sharply here again. AI's also operate as counselors and constantly nag people about their diets. A good film but doesn't quite live up to its potential. Written and Directed by Sophie Barthes. On Netflix. 7/10.

Season 2 of Woman of the Dead (AKA Totenfrau): Two years later, Blum seems to have gotten away with her "crimes" She is still talking to the dead and they still reply, not just the customers at her undertakers but also those that she has killed, even her deceased partners in revenge tend to get a word in. . But the police intend to exhume a body and Blum has hidden spare body parts in the coffin. An attempt to beat the police to the coffin goes wrong and the extra bits are found. The Federal Investigator is back intent on cornering Blum. But there is more, the people smugglers are still at work, this time they have hired professionals to deal with Blum. Police corruption is also still rife but different officers are in the pay of conflicting interests. Political corruption also ties everything together. Blum's children also become targets and she has to fight even more savagely to combat her enemies on all sides. Gruesome murders, torture, violence, more happens on screen on this occasion, it's not a series for the squeamish. The tension is well maintained throughout the sic episodes on Netflix. Directed by Daniel Geronimo Prochaska, screenplay by Barbara Stepansky, Wolfgang Mueller , Benito Mueller, Mike Majzen, and Nicolai Rohde, based on the 2014 novel Totenfrau by Bernhard Aichner. 8/10.

1883: An epic savage Western. From the opening scenes it's obvious that this is going to be no jolly Wagon Train type series but it may misdirect you as to who the real villains of the piece are going to be. Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) and Thomas (LaMonica Garrett) are leaders and guides of a wagon train heading to Oregon from Fort Worth Texas. Their charges are a heterogenous group of Ethnic Germans. James Dillard Dutton (Tim McGraw) like Shea and Thomas has a Civil Wat background and all three suffer from it's traumas. Shea has also just lost his wife and daughter to Smallpox,. It's not just martial men who come to the fore in this series though, Dutton's daughter Elsa (Isabel may) is the narrator and her coming of age tale encompasses love won and lost, and her gaining prowess as a warrior. Her mother Margaret (Faith Hill) is also prepared to kill to protect her own. As it travels across the changing terrain the wagon train confronts natural obstacles, bandits and internal dissension. There are many gory deaths, life was cheap in frontier America. This series was an obvious influence on American Primeval and itself adopts some themes from Heaven's Gate. A revisionist western in the best sense of the phrase, it reveals the real monsters of the plains. Great performances from an ensemble cast with the plains, mountains and rivers also figuring. Ten episodes on Netflix. Created, Written and Co-Directed by Taylor Sheridan. 9/10.

Y2K: An American apocalyptic science fiction comedy horror film which perhaps overdoes the teen romance trope. This film had potential but flopped both creatively and at the box office. The stereotypical smart teen boy who wants an intelligent girl who has a jock boyfriend derails the action. This is Y2K if all our fears had come through and more. Jets collide in the skies, the bug has become sentient and sends out malware to corrupt computers and get them to build killer robots. Some really gruesome death scenes, decapitations, stabbings, driller killings, heads microwaved. There are Stephen King influences here, Maximum Overdrive and the bullying. Good dark humour at times but the whole thing just doesn't gel. If this had been done as a serious Y2K apocalypse it might have worked. Directed by Kyle Mooney, written by Mooney and Evan Winter. 5.5/10.

Black Bag: George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is a British Intelligence Agent who is given a list of five senior agents who might have been responsible for leaking lethal malware, one of which is his wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). In this reality, rogue agents are discreetly killed, no need for trials. He invites the other four around for dinner, telling his wife that he has drugged a certain dish to lower their inhibitions, and to avoid it, he doesn't tell her that she is a suspect. Mayhem results at the dinner party, mostly due to personal relationships. George acquires some clues. There is much misdirection in this world of smoke and mirrors and false clues are also planted to fool George. Everyone involved has something to hide but there are different levels of ruthlessness. Nevertheless the body count rises. Satellite surveillance is used to collect information and to confuse, to target and take out fleeing enemies via drone strikes. There are many plot twists and surprises in this superb spy thriller Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp. 8/10.

Season 2 of The Cane Field Killings (AKA Reyka) finds Reyka dealing with another serial killer, this one preys on courting couples. He kills the males and steals their shoes, also killing some of the females if they don't accept that he is rescuing them. Speelman resurfaces, he's impressing a psychiatrist in prison, helping the guards to calm down disturbed prisoners. Reyka's personal life is as chaotic as ever as she makes unwise choices. More secrets are revealed about Reyka's past and an abduction carried out by Speelman four years before he kidnapped her. A satisfying slice of South African Noir. Eight episodes on All4. 8/10.

Opus: Another horror film about a Cult, this time it has elements of satire and dark comedy. 90s pop superstar Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) announces a new album after 27 years in seclusion. He invites five old sparring partners to a listening party at his Utah compound. They include magazine editor Stan (Murray Bartlett), talk show host Clara (Juliette Lewis) and radio shock jock Bill (Mark Sivertsen). Surprisingly a sixth invitee is junior journalist Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), she is used to having her ideas for articles assigned to other people. Even now Stan instructs her to take notes in oddities and local colour. When they arrive at the compound they realise a cult is also present, Levelists who dress in blue. These cultists serve Moretti, laugh at his jokes and applaud his anecdotes. Things turn odd when each guest is assigned a personal concierge who follows them everywhere. The horror begins when Bill is murdered during a massage. Malkovich eats up the scenery and is obviously enjoying himself as he plays Moretti who is out to settle old scores. Each of his victims will face a unique and torturous termination if he has his way. While there are some good jokes and the dark humour manages to leaven some of the horror, the mood becomes deadly serious at times. Perhaps Opus falls between two stools here. The satire is biting, especially when a puppet show lampoons the media and celebrities. There's more than one plot twist, I'll keep quiet about them. Generally good performances. Not a great horror film but certainly a good one. Written and Directed by Mark Anthony Green. 7/10.

A Sacrifice: A film about end time Cults set in Berlin. Social psychologist Ben Monroe (Eric Bana) moved to Berlin after his divorce, he now lectures there and is working on a book about Groupthink. Federal police profiler Nina (Sylvia Hoeks) invites Ben to view the scene of a group suicide, they weren't on her radar, they differ in their analysis but maintain connection. Ben is convinced the deaths are related to a local cult he is researching. His 16 year old daughter Mazzy (Sadie Sink) arrives to spend a semester in a Berlin school, relations between them are strained and Mazzy becomes closer to a German boy Martin (Jonas Dassler) she has met. He introduces her to an environmental group he is involved with which oddly enough has all of the trappings of a cult. You can guess where this is going but there is an interesting journey to the finale. How cults recruit people is explored, how they use/abuse their members and how dispensable individuals are. The horror in this film kind of creeps up on you but clues are supplied, some really disturbing scenes, especially when folk horror motifs appear, the lake scenes in particular. Also, when events are reappraised, everything which has happened almost appears to be part of a ritual. Not a great film, it is a tad derivative but you'll certainly enjoy watching it if you're into psychological horror films involving cults. Good performances all round, Sophie Roos is suitably sociopathic as the cult leader. A few interesting plot twists as well. Written and Directed by Jordan Scott, based on Nicholas Hogg's 2015 novel Tokyo. 7/10.

In the Lost Lands: I think I'll classify this as Horror, though it's also Science Fiction, Post Apocalypse, Fantasy. But as Dave Bautista tells us in his monologue in the prologue: it's not a fairytale and don't expect a happy ending. We've got a city where most of the inhabitants are slaves, dominated by an Overlord who uses a fascist church to keep people down. Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich} is a witch who is in conflict with the church's enforcer Ash (Arly Jover) but the Overlord's Queen (Amara Okereke) sends Gray Alys on a quest to secure her the powers of a Werewolf (it's a bit complicated). Alys links up with the hunter Boyce (Dave Bautista) and they're soon trekking across a desolate landscape, the ruins of cities blasted by nuclear weapons. Mutant creatures roam these blasted heaths. Though the leader of the nastiest of them looks like an evil Groot and the Werewolf when we eventually meet him has the head of a Were Pooh bear, still he's savage enough. The film has the feel of a Western, with Ash as a nemesis in pursuit of Boyce and Alys, killing and burning along the way, she is the ultimate Blackhat. Some great imagery, especially the choreographed fights and the Steampunk armoured train. But it just doesn't all add up, best wait to watch this one on TV. It would also have benefited from a 10 minute cut in it's 101 minute running time. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, Screenplay by Constantin Werner, based on the short story of the same name by George R. R. Martin. 5.5/10.

The Electric State: Another AI gone awry film. In an alternate history robots were developed and took on many menial and not so menial tasks for humans. Their intelligence levels varied, some maybe as smart as animals, others probably the equal if humans, In the early 1990s the robots demanded tights and declared war under the leadership of Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson). Many if the leading robots were built to advertise goods. The robots were winning until Ethan Skate (Stanlry Tucci), CEO of SENTRE develops a system for humans to remote control android drones. Defeated Mr Peanut signs a surrender treaty with President Clinton and the surviving robots are consigned to a reservation in Arizona. Skate's system also allows humans to multi-task after the war, the drones carry out their work while humans enjoy VT entertainment. The guts of this tale concerns Michelle Greene (Millie Bobby Brown) who was orphaned in a car crash and now lives with an exploitative foster father. A robot turns up suggesting that her brother Chris (Woody Norman) is still alive. Along with the robot Michelle sets off on a journey to find her brother, teaming up with a loveable rogue Keats (Chris Pratt) and Cosmo, a sentient robot. In the robot reservation they eventually encounter Mr Peanuts. This is very much an Oz style adventure with Michelle as Dorothy and Mr Peanuts as The Wizard, the real villain is Ethan Skate. They traverse the blasted landscape of the reservation, parts of which where scavenger robots rule, they are also pursued by robot hunter Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito). There are elements of Spielberg's AI here along with Pacific Rim. A fair amount of satire and analogies along with superbly choreographed battles between drones and robots. The haters are out in force to take down this film. While it's not a classic it's a perfectly enjoyable SF fable with some interesting plot twists. Produced and Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely is loosely based on the 2018 illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag. On Netflix. 7.5/10.

A Sunken Place: I got a sinking feeling from the opening scene of this film. A man jumps from a bridge and lands in a car, bouncing off. But there's not a dent on the bonnet. Later at the man's wake a completely different actor is in his coffin. No one suffering from a mental illness is portrayed in a sympathetic manner in this travesty. They are violent and decapitate a woman, suffer from schizophrenia and abuse their invisible tormentors, after failing to commit suicide a girl runs off to join a circus. The plot: set in Ireland, a neurologist develops a chip which when implanted would cure all mental disorders, naturally the pharmaceutical industry sabotages her plans. On this occasion I'm on their side. The neurologist is effectively a Dr Frankenstein, controlling the chips from a laptop, illegally experimenting on humans. The film is drenched with melodrama, bad acting, corny dialogue and unintentional comedy. The makers of this film should be hunted down and sent to film school. Director Ronan O'Leary, Written by Gerard Daly. 3/10 for the inadvertent comedy.

Mickey 17: Clones, a bit reminiscent of Moon by Duncan Jones. Mickey has signed up as an expendable on a starship expedition to a colony planet. It means the scientists on board can test how well he reacts to radiation, to diseases, they test him to destruction, they can just print off a nw Mickey. Eventually they reach the planet and Mickey 17 has an accident and is assumed dead. But he makes his way back to the landed colony ship only to find that Mickey 18 had been printed off. That's a No No as Multiples are illegal.. A satire, a black comedy, a bit of space opera. Some well imagined alien creatures. The starship's interior is to some extent inspired by the Nostromo and the expedition leader might well be an amalgam of Trump and Musk. There are some really gruesome death scenes which the comedy elements just about manage to leaven. Some scenes are overlong and could have been cut to provide more information on the Religious Cult who is also sponsoring the mission. Not up to the standards of Parasite but well worth watching. Written, Produced, and Directed by Bong Joon-ho. 7.5/10.

Dampyr: The Balkans in 1992 is a fitting setting for a Vampire film. The everyday horrors perpetrated by humans there might even negate the need for monsters but things can always get worse, A militia advance party enters the devastated village of Yorvolak, corpses are strewn everywhere, the soldiers are puzzled, throats are ripped out, could it be wolves? That night a militiaman is lured by a woman, Tesla who proves to be a Vampire. Soon the surviving troops are battling the undead. One soldier knows of a Dampyr, a Human/Vampire hybrid who may be able to help. The Dampyr, Harlan, is acting as a charlatan, conning peasants into thinking he's driving Vampires from their areas, unaware of his real powers, Brought back to Yorvolak, Harlan battles the Vampires, learns his blood can kill the undead and is soon involved on a quest to find and fight a master Vampire Gorka, He is accompanied by Kurjak a militiaman and Tesla who wants to be free from Gorka's control. Interesting Vampire lore, how they are turned, the way they attack, on dark streets, in misty forests, ripping throats out, drinking blood. How they hunt. Sarajevo is an apposite setting for the grand guignol finale, civilians mortared as Harlan and Tesla seek their quarry while they themselves are also prey. Good Vampire film in a bleak setting. Directed by Riccardo Chemello, Screenplay by Mauro Boselli and Maurizio Colombo, based on their comic-book series Dampyr. On Netflix. 7.5/10.

Marching Powder: A laugh a minute serious comedy, the serious elements are rather dark. Jack (Danny Dyer) is 45, a cokehead, heavy drinker, still into getting into fights with rival football firms. His mates really lead him astray, so he claims. He is arrested, up before the beak who gives him 6 weeks to clean his act up or it's prison time. Jack still loves his wife Dani and his son but it's hard to stay straight. Especially when his father in law wants him to look after his crazed brother in law who has a habit of attacking and robbing drug dealers. Dani also wants more from life and goes back to Art College. An extremely violent, foulmouthed film, a romcom, a dark comedy, just a comedy anyway at times. The backstory really demands for Jack and Dani to be 35 for it to make sense but even the great Danny Dyer can't pass for 35 without CGI. Still, it's worth watching. Written and Directed by Nick Love. 6.5/10.

Delicious: A wealthy German family is holidaying in the South of France, they get caught up in anti-austerity protests but feel safe in their car. Staying at a chateau as they do each year they go to a five star hotel for dinner. Some of the hotel staff notice their arrival. Driving home, the husband John (Fahri Yarim) who has had one drink too many apparently knocks down a young woman. We know that it's a set up. The wife, Esther (Valerie Pachner ) wants to cover things up and brings the woman, Teodora (Carla Diaz) back to the house to tend to her injured arm. Teodora leaves the next morning apparently content with a small pay off. But returns that evening saying that she's lost her job due to the injury and offering to work for the family. Realising there is a danger that Teodora might go to the police, John and Esther hire her as a maid. This is an unhappy family and each member is unhappy in their own manner including the son Philipp (Caspar Hoffmann) and daughter Alba (Naila Schuberth). Teodora soon gives each what they need, at least for a while but is turning them against each other in reality. This might have continued as a psychological drama, Teodora being part of a con artists ring but it does turn into a horror film. There are a few clues which might make you guess what is really going on but they are fleeting. Some of the best scenes involve members of the family meeting Teodora's pack, on the beach, on bikes. The film explores class differences, snobbery and the not so discreet lack of charm of the Bourgeoisie. A slogan often used by anti-austerity activists might well sum up this movie. Satirical and allegorical in nature at times it is nevertheless a good horror film. I can't say more about the nature of the horror without spoiling things but a feeling of existential dread builds up from the moment Teodora implants herself within the family. Good performances all round. Written and Directed by Nele Mueller-Stofen. On Netflix. 8/10.