In Review
Welcome to In Review! Check out the latest reviews across film, TV, theatre and so much more…
Film Review - The Nun II
While The Nun II isn't exactly breathing new life into the genre, horror fans should find themselves satisfied, offering a course correction after the first entry underwhelmed.
MIFF 2023 Film Review - Hounds
Hounds, is a bleak portrayal of the criminal underbelly within the Casablancan Medina, where no man is safe from mafia led antics, and this movie gives us a peek into how drastically lives can be changed within one night.
MIFF 2023 Film Review - You’ll Never Find Me
Though it shoots well above its budget in terms of its production value, and features potentially star-making turns from its central actors, You'll Never Find Me winds up feeling more like a sheep in wolf's clothing, fizzling out before it can attempt to wow you with its hypnotic but overlong conclusion.
MIFF 2023 Film Review - Late Night With the Devil
Late Night with the Devil is destined to be a halloween cult classic.
MIFF 2023 Short Review - We Used to Own Houses
David Robinson-Smith, director of Mud Crab (MIFF 2022), returns to MIFF 2023 with We Used To Own Houses, an explosive cine-poem about the housing crisis.
MIFF 2023 Film Review - Phenomena
Featuring Argento at his most feverishly creative, Phenomena lives up to its title, providing an experience that's as difficult to rationalise as it is rare to come by.
MIFF 2023 Film Review - Birdeater
If this scene and the overall use of tension represent the start of a pattern for Jack Clark and Jim Weir, I look forward to catching their next film.
Film Review - Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter
Voyage of the Demeter's real problem is that the audience already knows where the map leads, and the film does little in its way to add any bite.
Film Review - Talk to Me
Talk to Me is another solid addition in the outback horror canon - a beating heart, pumping with fresh blood.
Film Review - Insidious: The Red Door
It might appeal to die-hard fans who want to see how it all ends, but for casual viewers who are looking for a fresh and exciting horror experience, it winds up feeling more like this door could've stayed shut.
Film Review - Marlowe
You’d be hard-pressed to say that its intended audience of older, weekday-matinee filmgoers won’t be satisfied by watching a canonised movie star like Neeson doing his thing as a 1930’s detective. Just don’t expect to be wowed by its stunning execution or originality.
Fantastic Film Fest 2023 Review - The Outwaters
The Outwaters is a found-footage horror film that takes the genre to new extremes of experimentation.
Film Review - Evil Dead Rise
Lee Cronin's latest stab Evil Dead Rise carves out new horizons for the horror franchise, while still boasting enough of the strengths of what came before.
Film Review - John Wick: Chapter 4
Like its predecessors, Chapter 4 indulges in its extravagance unapologetically and gives us some of the best action scenes not only in the franchise, but in cinema as a whole.
Film Review - Scream VI
We've gotten particularly nasty Ghostfaces two years in a row, but since their creator's passing, the actual films seem trapped in a creative rut, doomed to sacrifice the slick edge that the series was once celebrated for in service of broad appeal.
Film Review - Missing
As the feature debut from directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick - the editors of Searching, the film goes to town on inventive editing techniques and uses all the comforts of technology that we take for granted, twisting them into complete discomfort for a layer of tension that stays through almost the whole film.
Film Review - Stars at Noon
A grim look at international relations through the lens of a hostile Nicaragua, Claire Denis’ latest ‘romantic thriller’ Stars at Noon is unfortunately lacking in both romance and thrills.
Film Review - Terrifier 2
Halloween may have come and gone, but I have one last spooky movie to talk about - director/special effects extraordinaire Damien Leone's 138-minute splatterfest epic Terrifier 2, a film that came with reports of people fainting and vomiting due to its incredibly vile and gratuitous violence.
Film Review - Barbarian
Barbarian is a wild ride full of twists and turns, sure to light a fire under the butt of hardened horror fans and would-be screenwriters alike.
Film Review - THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH
A policeman’s life is not for me. The frustration and tedium bleed through in The Night of the 12th and I’m convinced it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.