Here are ten recent scarers you need to see… If mainstream cinema and blockbuster spectaculars have had a largely tough time finding traction with audiences in the past five years, horror films have had the exact opposite. The past decade has seen a healthy rise in inventive and boundary-pushing horror movies, with the past five […]
Essential Gothic Horror Movies To Scare You Senseless
Tom Jolliffe with an essential selection of gothic horror films guaranteed to scare you senseless… Dark, macabre psychological stories set in isolated locations with the uncanny or supernatural. Gothic horror movies are often dripping in atmosphere, enveloping the audience in a deeply unsettling story. Immersion is the name of the game and we’ve seen everything […]
20 Great Performances from the Past Decade
Tom Jolliffe looks back at 20 great performances from the past decade… There have been plenty of legendary performances through the years. Some gain the greatest of acclaim from the off, culminating in Oscar glory. Others hit below the radar, or don’t get the marketing push required for an Oscar run. Award season is in […]
Why Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is a remake to get behind
Tom Jolliffe looks at the potential greatness lurking within a Robert Eggers version of Nosferatu… Robert Eggers has blazed a trail to the forefront of folk horror. His very auteur approach to horror cinema belies some of the cheaper tricks that other modern horror film-makers might rest on. Eggers has never been about jump scares […]
The Northman – Destined for Greatness?
Tom Jolliffe looks at the upcoming Viking epic from Robert Eggers, The Northman… Robert Eggers is two features into his fledgling film career and has already established himself as a major voice in auteur horror. Comparisons to Kubrick have been thrown his way with two films, The Witch and The Lighthouse, which is high praise […]
The 2019 Movies Unfairly Overlooked During Awards Season
Tom Jolliffe takes a look back at several of last year’s films overlooked by the major award ceremonies…. As we find ourselves almost half way between the last Oscars and the next, with some uncertainty about just what we’ll see at the 2021 Academy Awards (after months of delayed films and closed cinemas), seems like […]
Willem Dafoe: An Underrated Great of his Generation
Tom Jolliffe looks at the career of Willem Dafoe, and why he should be held in even higher regard… There are some actors who magnetise the limelight. Historically we’ve had the movie stars, those great headliners who would surf acclaim and awards as long as they were in good standing in a big studio. Further […]
When Cabin Fever Strikes: The Lighthouse and The Shining Double Bill
Tom Jolliffe delves into the delights of cabin fever and double bills The Lighthouse and The Shining… I do love a double bill. Sometimes it’s pre-planned, like pre-meditated eating of the chocolate in the cupboard. Sometimes it just happens to cross my mind when watching one film, that I can connect it to something else […]
A24: Fighting to keep cinema engaging and promoting diversity
Tom Jolliffe looks at the growing impact of A24 and why they’re the best thing in cinema right now…. The widening grip of Disney expands almost every year. They can seemingly rest a little on their laurels having generally found a formula that works with minimal boundaries pushed, or need for innovative dramatic ideas. Whilst […]
Flatulence in Film: Why cinema’s most maligned trope deserves more love
Coinciding with the UK release of Robert Eggers’ second feature film, The Lighthouse, George Nash lets rip on why cinema’s most dismissed trope, the fart gag, deserves more love… On a small, remote island, two gruff-looking figures, as if frozen in time, stand hauntingly at the door of a rickety wooden shack staring out silently […]
