Enemy (DVD Review)

15 – 86mins – 2013

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MULTIPLICITY

Jake Gyllenhaal plays an average Joe college professor who catches a glimpse of a very familiar face in the background of a DVD he has rented, kickstarting an increasingly obsessive quest to track down his fame-seeking doppelganger (also Gyllenhaal). Well, I was sold by the synopsis! I didn’t even have to know that Oscar winner Denis Arrival Villeneuve was behind the lens – I needed to see this film and I was shocked that it had evaded my attention for five years.

The Party (DVD Review)

15 – 68mins – 2017

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REVELATORY REVELLERS

At a dinner party for a few close friends to commemorate Janet’s (Kristin Scott Thomas) political victory and ministerial appointment, her husband Bill (Timothy Finding Your Feet Spall) derails the celebrations with a pair of explosive revelations which have catastrophic ramifications for the majority of those present. Will everyone make it out of The Party alive…?

Finding Your Feet (Cinema Review)

12A – 111mins – 2018

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LEAP OF FAITH

Full disclosure: I did not set out to watch this film. With the best will in the world, I realised from the silvery-haired cast list alone that it clearly was not my kind of film. My parents would love it (in fact, my aunt – who very rarely goes to the cinema – has seen it TWICE), but I am half their age. However, when traffic delayed me and I missed my pre-booked screening of Pacific Rim Uprising, I arrived at the cinema with the option of a second viewing of Unsane (reviewed HERE) in as many days, Finding Your Feet, or a nearly 90 minute wait. So impatient me chose option B.

Unsane (Cinema Review)

15 – 98mins – 2018

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THE GIFT OF FEAR

Magic Mike maestro Steven Soderbergh bounces back after what was, for me, an unengaging misfire (2017’s heist dramedy Logan Lucky) with a bold and unconventional low-key experiment: psychological thriller Unsane was filmed entirely on iPhones! While the film isn’t shot as though diegetically through a mobile phone (fear not, shaky cam haterz!), Soderbergh ratchets up the paranoia and tension with many tight angles and close ups. Combine this with murky, natural lighting and a lack of cinematic sheen and Unsane certainly succeeds in evoking a dark, unsettling tone.

Ready Player One (Cinema Review)

12A – 140mins – 2018 – 3D

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V.R. TROOPERS

Cineworld were in full alert last night with bouncers at the doors of their latest Unlimited Preview Screening to physically watch you switch off your mobile phones before you entered for an exclusive viewing of young adult sci-fi action adventure adaptation Ready Player One. This didn’t, however, stop the projectionists from messing up and starting the film too early, so we got to watch the opening five minutes twice in the space of a quarter of an hour.

Fifty Shades Freed (Cinema Review)

18 – 105mins – 2018

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COMING TO A HEAD

Now married to the love of his luxurious-if-troubled life, can billionaire spank-lover Christian Grey (Jamie Shadows in the Sun Dornan) and his innocent and grounded new wife, Anastacia (Dakota How to be SingleJohnson), live happily ever after, or will shady figures from Christian’s murky upbringing come back to haunt Mr and Mrs Grey’s honeymoon period?

The Strangers (DVD Review)

15 – 85mins – 2008

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DOLL-FACED KILLERS

With the belated and long-teased sequel Prey At Night just opening Stateside (it was originally announced for a 2009 release date before entering development hell for the best part of a decade), I thought it was high-time I got my act together and finally watched the first Strangers film. Now TEN years old, the DVD has been lingering on my to-watch pile for far too long.

Verónica (Netflix Review)

15 – 105mins – 2017

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GAME NIGHT FRIGHT

Based (albeit sketchily) upon a real-life case from Madrid in 1991, this haunting new horror from [REC] co-director Paco Plaza takes full advantage of its “true crime” roots by beginning and concluding with title cards establishing the unique police case which investigated this occult-dabbling nightmare. Purportedly this was the first ever case in Spanish history to be officially attributed to “paranormal phenomena”.

Exorcist II: The Heretic (Blu-ray Review)

18 – 117mins – 1977

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CALL ME BY MY DEVIL NAME

Cynically made on-the-cheap by a new creative team after the two Williams (original Exorcist director Friedkin and author Peter-Blatty) flat-out refused to be involved in a follow-up, The Heretic was also beset by a mountain of production problems (its script was rewritten FIVE times DURING filming by uncredited writers; the final product scarcely resembles the first draft) and – rather predictably – it garnered near-universal derision upon release. Frankly, it’s a miracle that the franchise survived such a monumental blunder, but clearly the power of Pazuzu conquers all set-backs!

It Comes At Night (Blu-ray Review)

15 – 91mins – 2017

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IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Having been intrigued by the stark and mysterious marketing campaign, I was devastated to miss writer/director Trey Edward Shult’s post apocalyptic horror at the cinema. Therefore, It Comes At Night was an instant blind buy on Blu-ray for me, on the strength of its critical acclaim alone. I purposefully refrained from reading up too much on the intricacies of the plot, only aware from a couple of podcast reviews I had listened to that it was ‘nothing like you expect’.