Tag: thriller
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High Tension (2003)
Perhaps all you need from a slasher film is a lot of gory killings and cat-and-mouse scenes. If so, Alexandre Aja‘a High Tension is for you. As for me, this is a film that forced upon my consciousness a realisation: whatever mood I’m in, I do at least need a story that makes a basic…
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Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1972)
I just saw Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, the last of the local art centre’s choices for Classic Horror Nights, and it was a jewel, so to speak. Based loosely on The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker, most famous for Dracula, it utilises a lot of the elements of British and Hammer…
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Scarface (1983)
A classic of its genre, Scarface typifies ‘80s materialism in much the same way that the 1932 movie of the same name that it was based on symbolised the Prohibition era. Back then it was booze, now it’s cocaine. Then it was jazz and the Charleston, now it’s big hair and electro-pop. Like all great…
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Thanksgiving (2023)
I just saw Thanksgiving, the new slasher film by Eli Roth, and it was fun. Featuring a great cold open wherein a Black Friday sale leads to a deadly rampage of greed in a small town, we cut to one year later as a slasher in a Pilgrim hat and mask starts insisting on the…
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Cat Person (2023)
I just saw Cat Person and it was good. Based on the short story of the same name by Kristen Roupenian, which went viral in 2017 for its exploration of gender dynamics as per modern dating, it’s a cleverly constructed black comedy and psychological thriller about an awkward flirtation that ends up going horribly wrong.…
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
I just saw Killers of the Flower Moon and it was really good. I was trepidatious about seeing it because it’s three and a half hours long, but having booked myself a seat with a lot of legroom and popped out for a comfort break midway through, I didn’t feel the length at all. (Sidenote:…
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Horror Classic Quickies: Friday the 13th (1980) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Arguably the true first of the slasher boom that would help to define ‘80s horror cinema, for better or worse, this is the film that codified and thereby effectively birthed the sub-genre without even meaning to. Director Sean S Cunningham had no intention to make any sort of inspirational piece, he was just ripping off…
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The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
What is it with David Gordon Green and vintage horror reboots? His first Halloween reboot (2018) was fine, probably the best of the Halloween sequels, but the others were trash and now we have this. Why has he gone from such worthy indie dramas as George Washington (2000) and All the Real Girls (2003) to…
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Saw X (2023)
“You people are f***ing sick…” You’re telling me. How did the Saw franchise end up spawning 10 films? Why, of all the films to come out of the dark days of “torture porn” in the early ‘00s, did this premise have such longevity? Well, a few reasons. The most important probably being Tobin Bell as…
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The Creator (2023)
I just saw an early screening of The Creator and it was surprisingly good. When I saw the trailer I thought that it was going to be an extremely generic and sentimental American action film about a lantern-jawed man protecting his family at all costs. But it’s actually a somewhat subtle and thoughtful genre mashup…
I Just Saw 