HORROR– tag –

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) Made a decade before Cannibal Holocaust and generations before Blair Witch, Punishment Park is a 1971 mockumentary by the British director Peter Watkins, released as a Blu-ray/DVD by the Eureka label. Wh...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) Thanks to his friend, Ryo, the sensitive, weepy Akira is merged with a demon in a blood-drenched orgy. Now he transforms into the berserk hero Devilman, created to save humanity. Or was he? Now on Netflix, Devilman ...

(My review of the 1998 Berserk TV series, published in Neo magazine, is below; my reviews of the film versions are underneath.) In a medieval-style world, as brutal as Game of Thrones, the ragtag Band of the Hawk wins acclaim on the batt...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) Stake Land is a zombie apocalypse picture. The undead may burn in the sun, and they may be dispatched by pointy sticks rather than headshots, but the film still belongs on the “Z” side of the library, no...

(I reviewed the first Mardock Scramble film in Neo magazine, Uncooked Media, below. My reviews of the second and third films are linked underneath.) In a future New York where cars drive on air and technology resembles magic, a wretched ...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) Director Adam Green previously made the outrageous slasher film Hatchet, whose style is in stark contrast to his new film Frozen, although both rely on real effects rather than digital fakery. This is an...

I wrote an article for the AllTheAnime blog reflecting on Perfect Blue as a horror film, while my Neo, Uncooked Media review of the 2013 Blu-ray release follows. Following Cowboy Bebop, the fledgling label Anime Limited’s new release is ...

(Sight & Sound, BFI) In London, 25-year old Jamie Morgan lives with his mother, Marion. Jamie has birthmarks on his face and body, and feels outcast from society. Hooded gangs commit a spate of murders. Jamie sees the thugs as reptil...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) There’s plenty of enjoyment, if less true weight, in Shutter Island, the new mystery-melodrama from Martin Scorsese, teamed up once more with star Leonardo DiCaprio. The story is based on the book by Den...

(Sight & Sound, BFI) In 2153, a space probe discovers Tanis, an Earth-like planet which can support human life. A giant spacecraft, the Elysium, is launched towards it, carrying thousands of humans in artificial hibernation. Some tim...

(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) Like law-enforcers who go up against Death Note's killer with a notepad, this Netflix remake is brave but futile. Transposing the franchise from Japan to Seattle, the film tries new twists and takes on t...

My review of the Netflix series Love, Death and Robots is on the AlltheAnime website (although the series itself isn't an anime).

(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) In a future of mud, blood and grot, a degenerate, war-addicted humanity is attacked by zom… Sorry, mutants. Only a ragtag band of soldiers can save Earth, led by sonorous, begorrah-sounding monk Ron Perl...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) I saw Ruben Fleischer's comic Zombieland expecting little and enjoyed immensely. True, there's a big problem with the concept; it's a zombie pic where the two key characters are a college-age maybe-coupl...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) Ajin is Tokyo Ghoul meets 24. That’s not a subtle analysis, but then this horror-action-thriller isn’t in it for the subtlety. It’s about grabbing the viewer early and propelling you through chases, story rug-pulls,...

The following retrospective on the film was published in SFX Magazine, Future Publishing. I also wrote a piece focusing on the Battle Royale novel for the Manga Entertainment blog. Half asleep, Japanese author Koshun Takimi envisioned a ...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) The Cabin in the Woods (out now), produced by Joss Whedon, directed by his former Buffy collaborator Drew Goddard, and written by both of them, has had a favourable reception from reviewers. The film is ...

(Sight & Sound, BFI) Phuket, six months after the Asian tsunami. A couple, Paul and Jeanne, are devastated by the disappearance of their young son, Joshua, in the disaster. Jeanne sees video footage shot in Burma, and insists that a ...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) Drag Me to Hell is about director Sam Raimi’s long-awaited return to horror after spending the 2000s web-slinging. But let’s be honest. If Raimi really wanted to return to his true indie horror roots, th...

(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) You’re reading SFX, which means you’re almost certainly not the target audience for Devil’s Due. This fright film is aimed at teenagers – particularly teenage girls - who haven’t seen many horror picture...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) After the accomplished Carriers at the end of last year – the one in which Star Trek’s Chris Pine was an utter bastard on a plague-emptied world – it’s heartening to see another earnest apocalypse that d...

(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a completely different kind of “horror.” Directed by newcomer Jalmari Helander, it’s close – though perhaps not close enough, commercially speaking – to Joe Dante fare s...

(Sight & Sound Magazine, BFI) New England, the present. In the town of Blithe Fell, eleven year-old Norman sees ghosts wherever he goes, while his family and schoolmates think he’s deranged. Norman is pestered by his eccentric uncle ...

(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) Look, just ignore our star rating for the moment, okay? Antichrist is the kind of film that many viewers will give zero stars, or minus five stars, and no doubt the enfant terrible director Lars von Trie...