PUSSYCAKE (aka Emesis) ** Argentina 2021 Dir: Pablo Parés. 82 mins PLAGA ZOMBIE / I AM TOXIC director Pablo Parés returns with this busy, eager-to-please splatter movie indebted to 80s gore flicks like THE EVIL DEAD and DEMONS, and with a mostly female cast. “PussyCake”, which sounds like something that might be shoved in your face during a stag night in Amsterdam, is an all-girl rock band keen to snag a record deal and hit the big time – and fronted by Elle (Macarena Suárez), who has one of those abusive-ex backstories that the film tries hard to make us…
Author: Steven West
THE LEECH **** USA 2022 Dir: Eric Pennycoff. 82 mins Writer-director Eric Pennycoff’s second feature, after 2018’s SADISTIC INTENTIONS, reunites its (since-married) stars Jeremy Gardner and Taylor Zaudtke for a suitably cynical and darkly amusing Christmas-set tale of religious hypocrisy and mania. It has a career-best performance from Graham Skipper as a celibate priest, first seen preaching at length about gifts in all their forms and the notion of bringing people face to face with God by helping them…all set to sarcastically tinkly sentimental music before a cutaway reveals a miniscule number of people in his congregation. The appearance of…
HOUNDED *** UK 2022 Dir: Tommy Boulding. 94 mins Here’s another variation on the oft-adapted THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, transplanted by co-writers Dean Lines and Ray Bogdanovich (who wrote Christopher Smith’s effective THE BANISHING) to Boris Johnson’s England and unsubtly reminding us of the central themes from the get go: “Rich pricks, more money than sense…” Malachi Pullar-Latchman leads a crew of South London thieves, first seen with partners in crime Ross Coles, Hannah Traylen and Nobuse Junior stealing a painting worth more than the average English schmuck’s annual take-home pay. Their latest target, thanks to the machinations of art…
THE BLACK PHONE **** USA 2021 Dir: Scott Derrickson. 102 mins The movie that Scott Derrickson made following the creative differences surrounding DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is a reminder of his talent for sustaining a dread-filled ambience (as best demonstrated in SINISTER) while telling a story of surprising emotional resonance. Though adapted from a 2004 Joe Hill short story, Derrickson has been honest about the very personal connection he has to the themes and horrors at play here. It’s a period piece that doesn’t feel a need to overemphasise the period – and a grim horror tale of…
ALL ABOUT EVIL **** USA 2010 Dir: Joshua Grannell. 98 mins While the title riffs on one of the greatest Hollywood movies of all time, the prologue of this delicious slasher / pastiche directly nods to the backstory of another iconic Bette Davis movie, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? A grotesque showbiz mom forces her tuneless kid on stage, where the humiliation begins even before she pisses herself and is electrocuted in front of a barfing juvenile audience. To highlight some major influences for writer-director Joshua Grannell (better known as Peaches Christ), the title sequence is accompanied by vintage posters…