Whilst mainstream horror seems to be getting progressively worse, the indie scene is going from strength to strength, with creative and exciting new directors turning their hands to genre flicks and making some modern classics. Recently, The Babadook, It Follows, The Innkeepers, Goodnight Mommy, and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, have all proved … Continue reading
It’s easy to list what’s wrong with the prequel trilogy – poor characters and non-existent character development, nonsensical and boring political plots, over use of CGI and green-screen – but harder to pinpoint why they went wrong. Looking back on the whole saga, it seems the original movies were probably more of a collective effort … Continue reading
Casino Royale pulled the Bond template apart to start fresh, giving us a raw and unpolished Bond in a world without gadgets and eccentric villains. The suggestion then was that this was the new Bond, the serious, semi-realistic and edgy Bond; the Bond for the 2000s. Then we got Skyfall, which ended on very familiar … Continue reading
David Fincher’s first movie – Alien 3 – was a ropey mess, and one subsequently disowned by the director. But despite the studio-meddled final result, the film showed a great amount of promise – there was a bleak, uncompromising quality to Alien 3 – here was a movie which killed off beloved main characters with … Continue reading
David Cronenberg is often seen as the Canadian David Lynch; both directors rose to prominence in the early 80s, exploring modern culture through a satirical and very individual lens, each working with a distinct visual style, both heavy on atmosphere with flashes of brutal violence and horror. Stylistically, the two don’t have that much in … Continue reading
Alien 3, though now undergoing something of a critical reappraisal, was not a popular movie when released, and was panned by audiences and critics. Despite its problems and public opinion, Alien 3 did provide closure for the franchise; Ripley – the centre of the series – was dead, and in both thematic and narrative terms, there … Continue reading
Critical opinion regarding the first two Alien movies is fairly unilateral; the first is considered a masterpiece of science-fiction horror, the second is seen by many as one of cinema’s strongest sequels. When it comes to Alien 3 however, opinions get a little more divisive. The film, directed by then unknown filmmaker David Fincher, came … Continue reading
Alien was a critical and commercial success, but 20th Century Fox had little interest in a sequel until James Cameron came along. Cameron had a love for Ridley Scott’s original movie and a vision for the expanding the Alien universe, and after wetting Fox’s appetite with a powerhouse script – not to mention proving his … Continue reading
The story told in Jodorowsky’s Dune is a fascinating one. It’s a cinematic ‘what if?’ – as Frank Pavich looks back at a movie which should have been. The documentary focuses on avant-garde movie-maker Jodorowsky – best known for his surrealist and symbolic pictures El Topo and The Holy Mountain, two movies which still make … Continue reading
Even putting aside the fact that Maleficent was only green-lit because some producer realised that Angelina Jolie shared a similar facial structure with a drawing, it’s difficult to approach Maleficent without an edge of cynicism. Disney’s latest plan for making all the money in the world seems to be ‘reimagining’ their animated and existing properties … Continue reading
