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Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
The giallo is a curious breed. Italian for “yellow”, the word refers to the colour used for paperback crime fiction that was sold in Italy and intended to be quick, exploitative, pulp entertainment. The term in its colloquial sense means murder mystery or horror thriller. Also known as Spaghetti Slashers (a la Spaghetti Westerns), the…
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Suzume (2022)
I just saw Suzume, an anime sub, and it might be my favourite film of the year. It’s funny, moving, suspenseful, visually splendid, and an almost perfect film experience. It was kind of shocking to see a fantasy film, set in the present day, with such genuine warmth and innocence about it. The fantasy films…
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Renfield (2023)
Vampires have had a long and storied history in fiction, but in recent years the Dracula mythos in particular has been used to explore the dynamics of relationships between these creatures of the night and those whose lives they touch. Since the Dracula story was always in part a metaphor for sexual predation, it’s perhaps…
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Prom Night (1980)
This is a slasher film to make you appreciate both the fine artistic craft of the original Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the crude efficiency of the Friday the 13th sequels. Heck, even the original Friday the 13th wasn’t this dull. I’d be interested to see the 2008 reboot of Prom Night…
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A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
Set mostly over 24 hours, A Rainy Day in New York is a romantic comedy starring Timothee Chalamet as the evocatively named Gatsby Welles, a gambler and gadabout who takes his girlfriend, student journalist Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), for a romantic time in the Big Apple. Both are, however, sidetracked by misadventures and temptations as rain…
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023)
I saw this one as part of my local cinema’s “screen unseen” programme, where they screen a mystery movie that hasn’t yet been given a wide release. I heard some groans from the audience when the title card appeared, though I don’t know what they were expecting and they seemed to enjoy it well enough.…
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The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)
I just saw The Pope’s Exorcist and it was really funny, which I guess is a shame as it wasn’t trying to be, I don’t think. It stars Russell Crowe as the real-life Father Amorth, who in the late 1980s visits a Spanish abbey being renovated by an American widow when a demon possesses one…
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The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023)
I just saw The Super Mario Bros Movie and now I’m hooked on the brothers to the end. Well, maybe not, but it was a pretty good movie. It’s kind of amazing that it’s taken Hollywood this long to do a Nintendo film right, but I guess even Marvel had many years of failed projects…
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When a Stranger Calls (1979)
There’s a quote on the poster for When a Stranger Calls that describes it as the most terrifying film the critic’s ever seen. What film they saw I can’t say, but I’d be shocked if it was the same one I did. We begin with Carol Kane playing a babysitter for a doctor and his…
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The Skull (1965)
Tonight at my local arts centre I saw The Skull, a 1965 British film starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, as part of its classic horror nights. Based on a short story called “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade” by Robert Bloch, it begins with a 19th-century grave robber who brings the titular skull…
I Just Saw
Telling you about movies I just saw
I Just Saw 