Film Reviews by NP

This is a terrific, wintery horror film not dissimilar to a Pete Walker production with, I suspect, a slightly more available budget.

As you might imagine, the narrative is laced with sporadic scenes of Satanic cults, ensuring we are aware – as if we weren’t already – that evil forces are behind everything. There are harder and softer-core versions of this; I don’t know which version I saw – somewhere between the two, possibly - but there are a few gloriously bright moments of gore to punctuate the autumnal gloom. There is nudity too, and no dilution of some of the unsavoury relationships between certain characters. An obscure gem, my score is 8 out of 10.

A lost-footage film written and directed by an American comedian is bound to have comedic elements within, but happily, Bobcat Goldthwait’s Bigfoot story also contains many moments that work very well as a horror film.

[Plot spoiler] The ending has led to some confusion. It appears that, from a brief glimpse, there was a woman – or women – that tends to the Bigfoot creatures and leads them to their victims. They would appear to be former missing children now grown, feral and either under some kind of spell or unable to escape their captors. This isn’t made hugely clear but certainly provides an effective shock as events draw to their grim conclusion.

Based on true events is always a tagline that makes me suspicious. In this case, it makes me nauseous, because I couldn't sleep after watching this, and I've been enjoying horror films for many years.

The most horrific aspect of this story is that there are no monsters (in the traditional sense), no special effects and there is hardly any gore. The miscreant here is a mentally unhinged Aunt called Ruth, and the gang of 'normal' children who are either related to her or simply call round for a beer and the spectacle of degrading, humiliating and relentlessly torturing Ruth's two young nieces. The nieces, 16-year-old Meg and 10-year-old Susan (who is suffering from polio) suffer unspeakable, ritualistic psychological and physical abuse.

The one glimmer of hope comes in the form of neighbour David, who befriended Ruth when she first came to stay.

Halfway through this film, I questioned what the hell I was watching, but I felt I had to continue in the hope of a happy ending. The eventual despatch of the unstable Aunt wasn't satisfying. Her exit was nothing compared to the horrors she inflicted on others. What is particularly repellent is that the regime of torture was presented as some kind of game for the local kids, who came to see Meg as a vessel for their own violent and emerging sexual outlets, and even David doesn't manage to summon up the courage to act until it is far, far too late.

This is a stunningly acted film, well directed and with a minimalist score that enhances the degradation and horror inflicted upon the two young girls. I could appreciate that. I could also appreciate the braveness of a film that actually moves and affects the viewer, especially at a time when horror has become so formulaic. But did I enjoy watching it? In all honesty, I hope nobody could.

This is a low-budget film. Let's get that out of the way. Taking its storyline from HP Lovecraft's Cool Air, it concerns a scientist's means of extending life which becomes more and more grisly as the film progresses.

It is not brimming with spectacular special effects and extravagant production values (there is a climatic explosion that doesn't convince). And yet it is mainly well acted, and the storyline is compelling, unravelling slowly so as not to reveal too many answers until toward the end. It is eccentric, grisly stuff and I really enjoyed it.

The characters we meet in 'Dead Mine' are invariably hard-bitten types, employed by inherited rich boy Warren Price to explore deserted Japanese bunkers from the war. The bravado exhibited by this collection of mercenaries is soon put to the test as the group is attacked by pirates as they near their intended location. Shortly, the group are forced to take refuge in the nearby caves, which is presumably exactly what the pirates want … for inside the caves, things take on a much more macabre turn.

This Indonesian film makes excellent use of its subject matter and presents the crumbling underground labyrinth as a truly claustrophobic, doom-laden myriad of secret corridors, death camps and impressive rooms, very moodily lit in a sickly green/yellow that compounds the unnatural atmosphere. When the Samurai types emerge - and there are loads of them - they appear unstoppable. Technically augmented, undying killers who know ‘no surrender.’ A terrifying presence!

I really enjoyed this. Two families, both laced with their own secrets, meet up at a house viewing, where they are astonished to find no one from the estate agency to greet them. Instead, there is a recorded message on a seemingly endless loop inviting them to explore each room. Bemused that both families should turn up to view the stark, isolated property at the same time, they look around briefly and decide to leave. But they can’t. All roads impossibly lead back to the house.

As with other low-budget films, the location is very important, and this is filmed in a hugely open area with a Blair Witch-type woodland nearby, all bathed in biting, crisp sunlight, creating a very evocative visual. Also, the real villains are the ‘normal’ people, often the heads of the two families. The supernatural elements just encourage the small-time villainies to break out and cause dangerous paranoia amongst the characters.

Some of Hammer’s most interesting films were made during their perceived decline and ‘Vampire Circus’ is one of the defining examples of this. It’s also probably the company’s bloodiest feature.

The cast is faultless (only the dubbing threatens to spoil things), with the evil circus people emerging as more interesting than our heroes. Emil is played brilliantly by Anthony Higgins/Corlan – smiling and stroking the face of Albert (Laurence Payne) as they throttle each other; Lalla Ward and Robin Sachs as the two dancers, are twins both seductive and deadly (dare I suggest Rollin-esque?) and fresh-faced, young and sweet Lynne Frederick makes the most of innocent Dora; Robert Tayman is Count Mitterhaus and does very well considering he is definitely dubbed by a different actor and has to wrestle with some very outsized fangs. James Whittaker’s rich, layered score is among the most haunting Hammer ever featured. Sumptuous and atmospheric, this confident film belies the company’s fortunes at the time of release.

The film has been heralded for inciting the ‘torture porn’ style of projects like ‘Saw (2004)’ and ‘Hostel (2005)’, and yet remains more effective than any of them for not giving any clue or indication as the depths of the depravity unleashed toward the close. Truly shocking, hauntingly beautiful and not easily forgotten.

This is an odd one. There’s some good acting and beautifully haunting locations on display. There’s a creepy apparition type (Shane West), and a nice, slow-burning story being told, featuring some appealing characters. Yet for some reason director Tom Provost doesn’t seem to want to make the most of the more dramatic moments.

An accident involving a rock fall is adequately staged, and yet contains no threat whatsoever. The music (provided by Jay Duerr among others) is determined to undermine such scenes. Often the incidentals are curiously jaunty when they should contain some menace.

Most characters remain unnamed; West provides a very solid ‘ghost’ – clean cut, hair gelled, looks like he might work out. Only a grey pallor indicates any other-worldliness. For a while, the most alarming things are the woman’s (Mira Sorvino) mood swings.

I applaud Provost’s desire to do something different but wish that more could have been made of the creepier moments. My score is 6 out of 10.

Fabio Testi certainly played some unorthodox ‘heroes’ in these Giallo films. Here he’s a police inspector who is quite happily having an implied affair with a habitual shoplifter. No wonder little Fauta Avelli says, “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

‘Red Rings of Fear’ is actually the final film in a ‘schoolgirls in peril’ trilogy, which also included the superior ‘What Have they Done to Solange?’ and completed with the mediocre ‘What Have They Done to our Daughters?’, and with an umbrella title like that, you know the level of sleaze you’re wading into.

A group of teenage girls known as The Inseparables seem to know more than they’re letting on regarding a recent murder, and so – purely in the line of duty, Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Testi) turns his (professional) attention onto them.

Giallis are often accompanied by a memorable score, often by Ennio Morricone, Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai or as here, Riz Ortolani, who fills his soundtrack with ambient thumps and crashes rather than infectious melodies.

The ending is both a surprise and a shock and proves to be the highlight of an entertaining, but middling, Giallo film. My score is 6 out of 10.

Despite ‘60’s supernatural soap 'Dark Shadows' making an appearance or two, and a villain that looks like 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation’s Leatherface, this is a very talky, turgid affair.

The film goes through all the beats of being fascinating – vaguely arthouse direction, intense performances, much grandstanding – but really, it isn’t. There’s nothing for the viewer to latch on to and becomes frequently incomprehensible. As a result, it seems to go on for far longer than its 102 minutes.

A couple of creepy moments exist in a vacuum but aren’t enough to generate much interest. When it ends, you’ll wonder why you stuck it out for so long. My score is 4 out of 10.

This starts with an intriguing premise where an escapee from a dark cult tries to begin a new life as a carer. The people she cares for are played by members from special needs communities. We then get intermittent flashbacks and bloody entrails with added offal.

And that’s about it really. The audience is led to believe things will happen and then they don’t. There’s no progression, no real explanation, just occasionally blood-soaked imagery.

As a series of set pieces, it creates a sense of jeopardy, but we’re not given a tangible reason why. What we end up with is a production memorable for its obscure oddness. My score is 5 out of 10.

Wolf has a terrific cast, and it’s just as well because the story – and the way it is told – relies a huge amount on the players.

This is exactly the kind of production the excesses of drama school caters for. Main players George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp star as Jacob and Wildcat, part of a group of mainly young people who believe they are birds and animals. Paddy Considine is also very good as The Zookeeper, whose brutal methods of therapy blur between brazen cruelty and viciously curative – we’re not sure which.

What develops isn’t easy to define. Part horror, part possible love story, but bizarre on all levels, the results are not uninvolving, but seem to meander before some sort of conclusion is reached. Watching this is certainly an experience, and kudos to director Nathalie Biancheri for trying something so unorthodox, and the brilliant cast for entering into it so wholeheartedly. My score is 6 out of 10.

This is a superbly atmospheric ghost story set in a remote Icelandic town, involving a couple who – unadvisedly, as you would imagine – set out to renovate an old house. Equally predictably, this isolated, dilapidated building holds its own dark secrets.

The twist at the end works nicely and underpins the bleakness of it all, but again, it’s the atmosphere that sells ‘I Remember You’ to me. An unusual and quietly powerful ghost story. My score is 8 out of 10.

When a middle-aged couple Anne and Paul Sacchetti (Barbara Crampton and Andrew Sensenig) move into an isolated, creepy-looking house, in a film called ‘We Are Still Here’, it’s no great surprise to guess what will happen.

Explanations are brief and scant. We learn that the house may have been built upon an ancient burial site, was owned by the Dagmars, and that they used the place as a funeral home and sold the corpses. Whatever the explicit reasons, there’s more than enough ghoulishness within the premises to make reasonable the current hauntings.

The superb score is composed by Wojciech Golczewski, and was released in 2015.