Film Reviews by NP

It's very difficult to find a horror film that dares to do something different. As a sometimes jaded genre fan, I found this Steven Judd film refreshingly new in its approach. Low budget it may be, but there's a fascinating mix of styles on display here, with even the line between thriller and comedy sometimes blurred - but be assured, this is no laughing matter.

An odd mismatch of characters - including a seedy bus driver, a pouting angry goth, a health fanatic, two gum-chewing teen girl temptresses, and Simon (Damien Puckler) who seems earmarked to be a hero figure of sorts. The situations they find themselves in are every bit as extreme and idiosyncratic as they are.

I enjoyed this very much. The film begins in a certain way, lurches in another direction, and then becomes something else entirely. Such savage unpredictability is rare and dangerous - and well worth seeing.

A satisfying mixture of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot' and Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds', 'Kaw' deals with the uprising and increasing onslaught of an unkindness of vengeful ravens. CGI brings the majority of these birds to life and although I have deep reservations about such effects used when the budget is less than stellar, the results are convincing enough here.

What really lifts the film, though, is Sheldon Wilson's confident direction, Ben Sztajnkrycer's pacey story and the strong playing of the cast.

'Kaw' doesn't revolutionise the face of horror, or even avian horror, but it tells its story well and presents a convincing atmosphere of growing unease.

George A. Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead (1968)’ ushered in a whole new wave of zombie-flavoured horror films, and many of them rose to stumble from the grave in the early '70s. This is an Italian/Spanish project, which has been released in a variety of strangely jokey titles including ‘Don’t Open the Window’ and ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie’.

Ray Lovelock plays hero George, initally in a very difficult-to-like manner not atypical of films of this time. He's especially mean to Edna (Christine Galbo) who admittedly makes a very bad impression of him to begin with. Llumbered with each other's company, they nevertheless become close as gruesome things start to occur.

Jorge Grau directs this twisted, turning story very effectively, making good use of the British location - especially at the beginning - although the police force isn't portrayed in a very sympathetic light. Filmed in Rome and Madrid, with extensive footage shot in Manchester there is the genuine feeling that things are going to get a lot more bloody as the 95 minutes roll on. Giuliano Sorgini also deserves a mention for his highly sinister score.

This is a festive kitchen sink cum horror drama, and as you might imagine from such a description, events are never predictable. Passionately acted, the family squabbles and fights take on a new perspective when a bigger antagonist is at large.

The wonderful Never McKintosh plays the rebellious mother Beth; beau Kieran is played by Shaun Dooley. Beth's lot is a challenging one, brutal and horrific too.

It's perverse to set this around Christmas time. Goodwill is in very short supply, and there are few happy moments. The performances are raw and convincing, and the pacing and production make events compelling viewing.

If the domestic locations seem familiar, that's because the film is shot on the disused sets of axed UK soap opera Brookside. Even that was more cheerful than this terrific chiller!

‘Lamb’ is an extraordinary film from Iceland, which leaves you in no doubt that working on a farm there is hard, relentless and isolated. So when Maria (Noomi Rapace) and her husband Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are visited by Ingvar’s errant brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), you realise how idyllic their life was, despite the hardships.

The reason for this is, after the loss of their child some unspecified time earlier, they have a new little one. Strange and mysterious: an aberration, it seems, but nevertheless, the apple of their eye. The child’s strangeness provokes a series of reactions from the audience – laughter, incredulity and even revulsion, all of which are accommodated for in the production – and yet, when Pétur is similarly incredulous, we resent what he might do.

The effects in ‘Lamb’ are as wonderful as they can possibly be, and Ada the child (voiced by Lára Björk Hall) is, when we have finally realised what she is, utterly appealing. It’s easy to understand the couple’s attachment to her – so much so that when her maternal mother shows ‘too much’ interest, Maria’s reaction to the perceived intrusion is explosive. So too, is the final, astonishing twist which came as a huge surprise to me, but makes perfect sense.

Not an easy film to define, and it leaves you with several different emotions once it ends, ‘Lamb’ is thoroughly recommended.

A group of students – Mikey, Leyla, Harold, Felix, Sessa - some of whom are given the briefest of backstories, spend a night at Central Park. They don’t let anyone know that’s where they’re going, of course, because they intend to do three things that every young person does in this kind of film – get stoned, get drunk and indulge in mild sex acts. Here, this trio of pastimes is joined by a fourth essential in such circumstances – when they ‘gotta go pee’ (as happens on a number of occasions), that’s often when the killer strikes.

There’s a dishevelled man who lives in the caves in Central Park. Perhaps we’re meant to believe he’s the killer. There’s another man, who has wrapped his head in tape. He intends our group of noisy youngsters harm – and to the often spaced-out Mikey’s teacher too, who comes along to join the fun. These people spend a lot of time apart yelling – but are never heard by the other party.

Any pacing that might be brought on by the remaining group’s rising panic is undone by the inclusion of two policemen, whose appearances could almost have been spliced in from another production for the most part. They are woefully behind events for the longest time.

This is a mixed bag. Ultimately, the story is confusing, but I like the fact that events occur in and around an identifiable location; it is efficiently acted (Justin A. Davis as Harold is probably my favourite performance), Justin Reinsilber’s direction is quite nice, but the story is without much focus. The characters are not easy to care for, and the antagonist – or antagonists – remain mostly unexplained and equally difficult to invest in. My score is 6 out of 10.

‘Schizoid’ has a definite giallo flavour to it; the members of a therapy group provide some of the potential victims, and of course, with Klaus Kinski in the cast, there are certain expectations as to who the darkly-dressed killer is!

Christopher Lloyd also stars, in one of his earliest appearances, as does Marianna Hill, Donna Wilkes and Craig Wasson.

My problem with ‘Schizoid’ is that, despite all these (and more) performances, the pacing is often leaden. There is little flair to the kills, and the bright red blood for which these slasher films are often known, is in very short supply. Kinski, who when given the right role can be electrifying, seems miscast here as Pieter Fales; his entreaties to his daughter Alison, for example, are repetitive and uncharacteristically lifeless.

As a slasher film, this disappoints, but as a giallo it partially succeeds with a fairly satisfying reveal at the end. My score is 6 out of 10.

Directed by Pat Mills (not the mighty comics writer!) and written by Alyson Richards, this is a fairly straightforward horror/slasher production. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – you’ll have seen the kind of thing before, but at least this is pacey, well made and beautifully acted.

What marks this out as different, is that the protagonists are targeted because of their sexuality. Valeria (Sarah Allen) and Renee (Tommie-Amber Pirie) are a couple, as are Connor (Chad Connell) and Scottie (Munro Chambers) who run the gay B&B where the mayhem begins. I found the characters sympathetic and likeable, whereas the hillbillies (who might well be classed as a victimised minority – when do they get positive imagery in a film of this type?) are brutal, sadistic cowards.

My only problem was in some brief, badly lit scenes in the mid-section of the film, it was impossible to see what was going on. The incidental score, by Steph Copeland, to balance things out a bit, is excellent, and available to buy (although curiously – and disappointingly – the vocal tracks that bookend the film aren’t included). My score is 7 out of 10.

The low-key film won’t be everyone’s cup of tea for precisely that reason, but I really enjoyed it; the grainy images provide a slightly murky realism to the spooky goings-on. The mousy-voiced lead actress (Trista Robinson) gives an eccentric performance, but consistently so. She seems very young and when her partner turned up, I genuinely thought it might have been her dad!

The scares are mainly successful – all physical too, no CGI to be seen.

I found this to be a really good film – I was as concerned about the fate of the mouse apart from anyone else. A good, solid, non-flashy haunted house mystery – filmed in the director’s house, apparently!

From the opening scenes, there is no excuse to look away. Director Eros Puglielli does a brilliant job of dragging the viewer kicking and screaming into this eventful giallo-flavoured thriller. He doesn't shy away from the gratuity either - whereas such films from the classic early '70s era where the blood was paint-shop-bright red, here, it is rather more realistic.

This is the story of a sadistic and highly inventive serial killer. We are given an entertaining array of characters, many of whom could well be the antagonist. We are also given some flawed but compelling protagonists too, all wrapped up in a swirling, atmospheric production that I'm not sure has received the attention it deserves. My score is 9 out of 10.

If I was a writer of any note, this is the kind of horror tale I'd like to write. Character-based, but not in a way that detracts from the very unsettling, often visceral goings-on. It also plays on some very genuine fears - mainly to do with hospitals, of tubes and needles etc.

Nails is a character, and he is a truly horrible piece of work. He's very effectively played (by Richard Foster King) and directed (by Dennis Bartok, who also co-wrote) - sometimes as a spectral figure, sometimes more tangible.

The acting throughout is mainly very good with a few stilted moments, and if I'm pressed to be at all negative, it would be to mention how Nails is perceived, and who can see him. Sometimes, it appears only Dana (Shauna Macdonald) can see him, but later on, it seems he's visible to anyone. Perhaps he is simply gaining power.

Ultimately though, this is excellent - surprising, horrific, genuinely nasty in places and thoroughly entertaining. The very effective score is by Tim Slkade and frequent Gary Numan collaborator Ade Fenton is available and highly recommended. My score is 9 out of 10.

Writer, director and producer Steve Lawson has built up quite a portfolio of these kinds of films. A limited cast, limited sets and plenty of conversation: three things I also liked about his ‘Bram Stoker's Van Helsing’ from the same year as this, are prevalent here.

If you want to concentrate on the modest budget and lack of spectacle, and a lot of reviewers do, that’s one thing; if you want instead to enjoy the performances and go along with a well-written story – complete with many suspects as to who the Ripper actually is – that’s another.

If you love wildly swooping camera shots, CGI, swift editing and a sense of spectacle, this may not be for you. But lower budgeted films are not lesser production because of lack of millions; in fact, I would take ‘Ripper Untold’ over any number of the high-financed crowd pleasers we are bombarded with constantly. Talky this may be, but it’s a good story cleverly told – with a cracker of a twist too. My score is 8 out of 10.

Alice and Luc (Natacha Régnier) and (Jérémie Renier), having committed a murder, (of Said, played by Salim Kechiouche) go on the run. The pair of them are, as you may imagine, perverse, but not always logical in their perversity.

In this French film, the two impetuous youngsters bury the deceased Said in a forest, get lost and take refuge in a cottage, where a hermit called Karim takes a fancy to Luc and has an intense dislike for Alice. From here, events become less and less predictable and more and more grimly enjoyable.

The meaning behind this curious tale is open to interpretation. There is a certain adult fairy-tale quality to it. The location and atmosphere have a story-book flavour. 'Criminal Lovers’ is odd and unfathomable, unyielding and tremendously well-acted.

Everyone's entitled to a lapse of logic, and in horror films, this happens more often than not. Here, Richard (Richard Armitage ) leaves his two young children in the care of troubled Grace (Riley Keough). I mean, you just wouldn't, would you?

If you can get past that miss-step, there is a huge amount to enjoy here. It comes from Hammer films, who just a few years earlier, had a big success with 'The Woman in Black'. 'The Lodge', in comparison, only had a sporadic release, especially in the UK - which is unforgivable.

As is often the case, despite some really strong performances - the juveniles are well played and contain none of the often bratty petulance sometimes seen in this kind of film - and Alicia Silverstone adds a big name to the cast list, the location has to share top billing here. It is wonderfully isolated.

The directors, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, do a great job of heightening this bleak setting, and the story's revelations come in a refreshingly restrained way, which makes them even more powerful.

The main twist is very effective, more so because it is revealed in a very unspectacular fashion, and the overall tale is as bleak as anything you might have expected. My score is 9 out of 10.

There were so very many interesting films released in the early 1970s, especially those from in and around Europe, it’s inevitable that some escape the attention they may deserve. As a personal observation, I can’t believe it has taken until 2022 for me to see this extraordinary and decidedly odd little UK/West German coming-of-age production.

Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski gives us an accurate look at London at the tail end of the swinging sixties, even though large portions of the film were shot in Munich. Beautiful people John Moulder-Brown and Jane Asher play Mike and Susan, who appear to be on course for a rocky love affair. Of course, things aren't as simple as that. Diana Dors is also excellent in a sensual role that reinvigorated her career.

Scenes were carried out with only a loose script, encouraging improvisation which gives a raw, sometimes awkward set of performances. The characters also come across as completely naturalistic, even if - as was common practise back then - many of the lines of dialogue were redubbed.

A heady slice of apparently small-time adolescent melodrama, this nevertheless becomes increasingly unsettling as it goes. It never becomes a horror film, but certainly has trappings of that genre. I absolutely loved it.