Film Reviews by NP

Michael J Murphy was a prolific, mostly unknown writer and director who died quite suddenly in April 2015.

He leaves behind a film legacy contained here in what must surely be its entirety. 26 films on 10 discs, together with a plethora of extras.

The first thing that grabs you when watching is that the 'micro budget' label on the cover is painfully true - you cannot help but be thrown by the DIY quality of many of the productions; it's also very interesting to see how they progress technically and professionalism over the years. Very cheaply made to the end - Murphy talks about at length in the interviews - they are nevertheless engaging in terms of story and situation. There are more twists, turns and revelations than you might imagine, and that - for me - outweighs the deficiencies in budget.

My preference is for the thriller/horror featured here rather than the sword and sorcery efforts (although the three visitations to the story of 'Tristan' are very strong and surprisingly touching). Perhaps 'Torment' is my favourite - a twisted story that balances the brutality of celebrity culture with full-on horror - although 'Death Run', 'Moonchild' and the last film 'The Return of Alan Strange' all come a close second. It's difficult to place them in order.

I knew nothing about Michael J Murphy, but I'm really glad I took the plunge with this set. His repertoire of actors became his close friends, their fondness for him evident in the interviews. The only question that remains after watching, is 'what could he have achieved if he had a budget?'

One thing virtually guaranteed with Irish horror films such as this is that the locations are stunning. Beautiful landscapes, lush countryside and ancient buildings that, if directed with care (as is the case here - Corin Hardy takes full advantage of the surroundings), could possibly house hidden horrors.

Conservationist Adam Hitchins (Joseph Mawle) isn't easy to empathise with. His wife Claire (Bojana Novakovic) is being menaced by intimidating local Colm (Michael McElhatton) and takes umbrage when she suggests leaving. His decisions serve to further and thicken the plot but hardly mark him out as likeable.

At the centre of this is baby Finn, whose cuteness is played upon too much for my tastes. Others may disagree, but there's only so much a cutesie kid can deliver without becoming saccharine.

Other than that, this is a very effective folk-type horror. The performances are savvy enough not to allow the characters to be stereotyped in any way, and Hardy knows exactly to ramp up the tension and give us a scare.

A leisurely-paced ghost story set in broken-down locations; this features understated performances which take precedence over special effects. We get to know the characters and are given good reason to care about them once they are in danger. Carmen (Elarica Johnson) appears initially cold and distant; Timmy (Clem Tibber) is a vulnerable loner trapped in a volatile life; his father Mark (Shaun Dingwell) forever chasing the elusive dream and never quite reaching it. Timmy's mum Sarah (Lyndsey Marshal) is either insane or saner than anyone. They are a fascinating combination, and their twisting, turning story, is embellished with minimal, mostly monosyllabic communication - as if they don't really want to speak at all.

The sound design is equally minimal - little more than a consistent low moan of night winds lurking through decaying corridors. Very effective and very spooky.

An accident robs January (Amy Manson) of her senses, and she and her boyfriend Callum (Simon Quarterman) travel to January's family home, which turns out to be a very bad decision indeed ...

Director Adam Levins plays with audience expectations and the dark teases scattered over initial scenes become less subtle and deadlier as the story rolls on. James Cosmo is excellent as the towering Albert. Repressed Katherine (Nora-Jane Noone), sneaky sniggering brother Laurence (James Lance) and mother Marilyn (Eileen Nicholas) complete the family ensemble, and a brutal, deadly mixture they are. The butler Thomas (Craig Conway) may be the only sympathetic character involved, and we're not sure we can trust even him ...

A highly recommended, extremely dark film ...

Journalist Alicia (Sabrina Ramos) is investigating the disappearance of local children, and travels to an Argentinian orphanage called Limbo. Limbo houses a group of youngsters with rare diseases. Just what these diseases are and how they manifest, provides the thrust for this film.

Iván Noel, who writes and directs, has delivered a horror story that manages to do something different with the vampire theme, and as such, should be applauded. Some performances from the younger cast members are typically a little awkward, but this doesn't detract from the unusual power that exists in Limbo.

This is one of those found footage films that does something slightly different with the much-used formula. It's written by Derek Lee and Clif Prowse, who also star and direct. The character of Derek suffers from a rare disease which could kill him at any moment. His situation isn't helped when, during a well-deserved holiday abroad, he is seemingly attacked in a bloody physical assault.

The film charts his subsequent descent (or ascent, depending on which way you look at it) into something ... different. His malady is effectively conveyed, as is the effect it has on others around Derek, Clif and Audrey (Baya Rehaz), his attacker.

Despite the artistic success of this, it seems neither Lee nor Prowse have directed any films after 'Afflicted.'

I highly recommend it.

John Karlen, famous with horror fans as Willie Loomis in the gothic American daytime soap Dark Shadows, here plays Stefan. We're not sure what to make of him. Introduced hopelessly in love with his slightly drippy new bride Valerie (Danielle Ouimet), he reveals himself to have a much darker, violent side to him. And wait until you meet his mother!

Ouirnet is the weakest performer in this otherwise monumental Belgian/French/German production. It embraces the style of the European horrors of the time - much blood, arty direction, lower budget - but also adds a great deal more, much of it supplied by the magnificent Delphine Seyrig. The name of her character, Countess Elizabeth Báthory, might well give away some clues as to her lifestyle, and Seyrig plays it with every last drop of deadly sensuality. Andrea Rau rounds up the central performances as the dark-haired, ultimately tragic Ilona Harczy.

Director ensures that the settings for these icily seductive goings-on match the opulence of the performances by filming Hotel Astoria, Brussels, itself picturesque, from a variety of imaginative angles, to give this out-of-season building a real sense of emptiness, of isolation. Infusing certain scenes with a splash of red - either on clothing, curtains or wine - gives an additional sense of bloodiness.

Eschewing most of its contemporaries and emerging as very much a film on its own, watching Daughters of Darkness is an unsettling, but very haunting experience. Timeless horror at its most bewitching. Fully recommended.

This is a difficult-to-define horror fantasy involving the titular four characters living in a world within a world, where the sexually active (or provocative) children are treated, and behave like, they are about 5 years old. To enjoy it, you have to buy into this eccentric way of life, but don't get too close - because the games played here are deadly.

Award-winning director Freddie Francis, the man behind this, names it as his favourite project. During filming, it became apparent that Vanessa Howard was stealing every scene from her talented co-stars, and so her part was brought more to the fore. In America, where the film performed quite well, the title was shortened simply, to 'Girly.'

In the UK, it suffered the fate of many of the swathe of horror films released around this time - it got lost. The lack of plaudits it received influenced Howard's decision to quit acting not long after, which is a real shame.

Some may not enjoy the fairytale cross between 'Red Riding Hood' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' presented here. Others - myself included - thoroughly enjoy the experience. Everyone is dying to meet them ...

Young care nurse Lucie (Chloé Coulloud) is the live-in carer for dying millionairess Deborah Jessel. When she invites her boyfriend Will (Félix Moati) and his brother Ben (Jérémy Kapone) over in order to rob the premises, you just know things aren't going to end well.

Things get progressively weirder from there, with directors (and writers) Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury pulling out all the stops to provide the trio - and the audience - with a truly delirious, arty, strangely beautiful horror experience. Following the intricacies of the story proved too much of a challenge for me, and I simply basked in every nightmarish set piece that is relentlessly displayed.

I'd recommend that approach, because I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. My score is 8 out of 10.

This genuinely strange film features a group of friends who have made it their mission to visit as many haunted houses as they possibly can. They decide to film the extravagant journey, which results in this found footage film - so it will depend on how you feel about this genre as to whether you'll enjoy this. I think the approach works well here, creating an additional sense of the chaotic and overwhelming - the deeper you get into this, the more disturbing the endless cavalcade of shrieking grotesques become.

It's often irrational - a lot of horror films are - the way the friends plough on with this, despite things getting genuinely frightening, but you can justify it by the excitement of group mentality (or should that be group stupidity?).

Best not to wonder why they don't all just turn around and go home - instead, enjoy the chuckling mannequins and ghost faces that scamper out of the darkness to unnerve you. And look out for the gloriously creepy doll-faced girl who boards their bus for a while. She might just be the star of the show.

There's no hanging about at the beginning of this one - no lengthy introductions or explanatory backstory. We learn about the characters as we go, holed up in a dark and forbidding prison in an unspecified location.

Into this chamber of torture and abuse enters a fresh inmate - Princess, played powerfully by Tiffany Shepis. She seems a little ... different to the rest.

This is a highly enjoyable horror production from Ivan Zuccon, who among other things, directed 'Herbert West: Re-Animator' in 2017 for disappearing for a while. As I write, he's behind the forthcoming adaption of Le Fanu's 'Carmilla', which promises great things.

There are many potentially humourous moments in this black-and-white Iranian film (Arash coming home from a fancy dress party, dressed as Dracula, chatting up the unnamed girl – not knowing that she is a real vampire who expresses a fondness for the music of Lionel Ritchie), but all of them played absolutely straight. The effect is therefore extremely successful.

Music plays a large part in this film. Thankfully, it isn’t the standard grunge metal fare usually (and tiresomely) associated with horror, but the tracks selected actually succeed in complementing the mood. The cast is terrific, from the repellent pimp Saeed (Dominic Rains), and ravaged Hossain (Marshall Manesh) to the likeable hero Arash (Arash Mirandi). It is Sheila Vand who takes the honours here though. Even in the many moments of silence, she is fragile, sinister and somehow tragic all at once.

This is a hugely recommended film.

Jonathan MacKinlay (Michael Jefferson) has been reduced to a virtual agoraphobic as the result of a car crash. His illness i very well conveyed, and we are allowed to sense the crushing isolation and fear he encounters every day. Only a handful of other characters occasionally enter his life. When 'other things' begin to happen, we're not sure whether they are real, or a figment of his fevered imagination. This theme has been explored many times in the past, but it is all refreshingly produced here.

Even as the story draws to a close, there are several events that remain unexplained, several doors left slightly open, ensuring 'Phobia' lingers in the mind long after the credits have rolled ...

Newlyweds Clark (Ian Duncan) and pregnant Summer (Tess Panzer) are stranded in the middle of the Nevada desert after their car breaks down. Imaginative camera work really sells how desolate the location is, and how far away from civilisation the two characters are.

They make their weary way back to a cluster of abandoned buildings, where a drifter cowboy, Joseph (Andrew Howard) arrives and immediately impresses Summer with his forceful personality. Although Clark is angered and intimidated by this, the two of them agree to traipse back to the car to ‘siphon off the gas’, leaving Summer to discover a room full of photographs, where the various subjects have their eyes blanked out. Among their number is a picture of Summer, Clark and Benny (Summer’s elder child). Startlingly, she turns to see Joseph standing behind her, where he explains he is a kind of angel of retribution, and that her unborn child is his now. Only minutes earlier, Joseph was with Clark at the car, some five miles away … and in the boot/trunk was the body of Benny.

Initially, Joseph’s proclamations of angelic status seem as ridiculous as his accusations of Clark’s alleged ‘sin’ – the ravings of an outcast – but slowly, it seems likely that he may be telling the truth. Quite what sin Clark is guilty of we’re not sure. The body of the child in the car was not there earlier and is likely a metaphor for Clark’s benefit. Summer’s crime, the reason for her punishment, is the sin of apathy – she knew what was going on and did nothing about it.

Child abuse, or child murder, seems likely, although never remotely specified – such things are left to the viewer. Murder is improbable, as Benny’s photograph is unblemished when Joseph hands it back to Summer. The wounds inflicted on Joseph by an enraged Clark also disappear, including the re-growing of three removed fingers, indicating that everything Joseph has said is true.

Andrew Howard in particular is extremely powerful as Joseph. If there are any prosthetics on display, they are very subtle. And yet as his enigmatic persona becomes more convincing, he appears not quite/more than human in certain scenes. The glistening eyes and lack of eyebrows add a certain inhuman menace to his fury.

It's easy to imagine the idea of The Lord of Vampire's owning a dog as a bit of a joke. This film's tagline wouldn't necessarily stray you from that viewpoint - ''There's More To The Legend Than Meets ... The Throat!'

This is certainly a film produced with its tongue in its cheek, but it is a lot more entertaining than many Dracula films that have garnered more respectable views over the years. Putting to one side the curious decision to repeatedly label hero Michael Drake (Michael Pataki) as the 'last of the Dracula line' when he is the proud father of two children, there's a genuine bargain-basement appeal to this.

For a start, the wonderful Reggie Nalder, who has played a number of unpleasant characters over the years (most notably the indomitable Mr Barlow - uncredited, can you believe?? - in 1979's 'Salem's Lot'). José Ferrer plays the Van Helsing-lite Inspector Branco. The rest of the cast delivers universally good performances - even the lad who plays Zoltan.

There's a real spookiness here too, aided very much by Andrew Belling's minimalist score. A definitive work this may not be, but it doesn't pretend to be. My score is 8 out of 10.