More folk horror, old and new

Maura O’Donnell (Mary Ryan) can see beyond the material world in Robert Wynne-Simmons' The Outcasts (1982)

Three recent releases from England explore the survival into the modern world of ancient mystical forces, illustrating different aspects of folk horror. In Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre (2023) a pagan entity brings tragedy to a family; in Robert Wynne-Simmons’ The Outcasts (1982), villagers in 19th Century Ireland believe a farm girl is a witch: and in Peter Sasdy’s The Stone Tape (1972), scripted by Nigel Kneale, a research team believe they’ve found the mechanism behind hauntings.

New limited editions from Second Sight, part two

The arrogance of European invaders isn't enough to protect against the natural fury of the invaded land in Grant Harvey's Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Four new limited edition releases from Second Sight gave me a reason to revisit and to some degree re-evaluate movies I was quite familiar with. While my opinions may not have changed radically, each set did give me a new appreciation for the filmmakers’ work, most particularly in the case of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s influential The Blair Witch Project (1999). The care and attention the company lavish on genre films – here, in addition to Blair Witch, the Ginger Snaps Trilogy (2000-04), Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor (2020) and Ti West’s The Sacrament (2013) – is exemplary.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part three

Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) loses his sense of identity in George A. Romero's Bruiser (2000)

Recent viewing includes a mix of horror, sci-fi and social commentary, from George A. Romero’s Bruiser (2000), about an office drone whose social invisibility enables him to exact revenge on his abusers, to a pair of Mexican Gothic fantasies about a vampire count; from an Aussie Indiana Jones rip-off to late effects artist David Allen’s passion project The Primevals, left unfinished at his death in 1999 but now completed by his friends.

Columbia Horror from Indicator

Is Lilyan Gregg (Rose Hobart) the Devil or merely one of his minions in Will Jason's The Soul of a Monster (1944)

Indicator’s new Columbia Horror box set collects six B-movies from the ’30s and ’40s, only half of which can honestly be called horror – the other three are adventure/crime movies. But all of them provide breezy, atmospheric entertainment, with strong casts (including Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Edward Van Sloan, Ralph Bellamy, Rose Hobart, Nina Foch and Fay Wray) and noirish cinematography.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part one

Every two minutes Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) finds herself back in the same moment in Junta Yamaguchi’s River (2023)

My Fall viewing has been the usual varied mix, with a number of new and classic Japanese movies, John Boorman’s fantasy sequel to The Exorcist, Alex Garland’s uncomfortably prescient depiction of America tearing itself apart, a slice of anti-drug exploitation from the late-’60s, and a surprising discovery from none other than Bert I. Gordon.

Recent big-screen viewing

Young Alena (Natalie Jane) and Benny (Christian Meer) share a terrible secret in Sean Garrity's The Burning Season (2023)

I don’t get out to a theatre very often these days, so my choices of what to see are more judicious than they used to be, generally the work of directors I’m particularly interested in. The one dud is the latest superfluous entry in a franchise I’ve quite liked – Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – but the rest have been satisfying to some degree: George Miller’s latest apocalyptic action epic, Furiosa; M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which as usual I liked in contrast to the predictable critical derision: MaXXXine, the conclusion of Ti West’s trilogy starring Mia Goth: and the small Canadian drama The Burning Season by sometime Winnipegger Sean Garrity.

Blasts from the past

Shameless exploitation

Asian action and fantasy from 88 Films and Eureka

World Cinema Project 2: Criterion Blu-ray review

The 5th Hong Kong International Film Festival, part eight

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