Articles and Lists

With contributions from: James McAllister, Stephen Mayne, Jim Mackney, Michael McNulty, and Sam Inglis The night is dark and full of terrors… but enough about the trick-or-treaters. For us film fans, Halloween is generally a time to indulge in some creepy thrills from the comfort of our sofas, all the while exerting a tremendous amount of willpower by ensuring we don’t eat all the sweets brought for those hooded figures who come knocking on our doors in search of candy…...

 By Michael McNulty It’s Halloween week.  So, it goes without saying that we’re all looking for films to get the scares in.  For those of you looking for a break from the Slasher films of yesteryear and their countless reboots, prequels, sequels and mash ups here’s a chilling alternative, John McNaughton’s 1986 film, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Although Henry was released in 1986 it didn’t really see much screen time until 1990.  This was largely due to the...

By Sam Inglis  With South Korean revenge actioner/Nikita knockoff The Villainess (with the excellent Kim Ok-vin showing her action credentials) recently released on Digital HD, I thought I’d use this week’s Five… to spin off and take a look at a handful of the many, many great action heroines that Asian cinema has given us over the years. Some are relatively unknown in the mainstream, others are huge stars. Some started working over 50 years ago, others are much newer...

By James Mackney Guillermo del Toro is a creative and visionary director that is known for making emotional and character driven films. He is able to create worlds of daring depth and draw the audience in with fiendish plots. Del Toro made his name by making emotional horror films and has since branched out with more Hollywood romps such as “Pacific Rim” and “Hellboy”; he is a director whose work should be savoured. Pan’s Labyrinth “Pan’s Labyrinth” is a brilliant...

By Jim Mackney Known for his distinctive visual and narrative style, Wes Anderson has produced some of greatest films to have graced our screens over the past decade. The American has a vast array of accolades under his belt despite his relative youth, suggesting there is still a lot more to come from the esteemed film maker. We pick out his top three. Bronze – Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is a film about children that is not for children....

Chloe Bennet, who stars in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, said she had to change her name from Chloe Wang in order to make it in Hollywood. She told an Instagram follower who queried her name change: "Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable." "Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American...

By Michael McNulty Roddy “Rowdy” Piper substitutes his spandex for a flannel shirt and some special shades in John Carpenter’s, cheesier than a croque monsieur, cult classic, sci-fi action thrill ride, They Live. Hitting the big screen in 1988 and scripted under a Carpenter pseudonym, They Live is based on Ray Nelson’s short story Eight O’clock in the Morning. A cocktail of John Rambo and Clint Eastwood’s man with no name, Nada (Roddy Piper) emerges from the early morning mist...

By Jim Mackney Edgar Wright appeared seemingly fully formed in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead and has continued to make exciting and engaging cinema ever since. Wright’s films bristle with energy and are composed with visual clarity and a strong focus on wit. Edgar Wright is a thrilling filmmaker that understands genre cinema inside out and uses pure filmmaking techniques that are often ignored in today’s CGI laden landscape. Long live, Edgar Wright! Films ranked in order of greatness:...

By Michael McNulty Wake in Fright is a film with a more storied history than most. Credited as the film that kick started the Australian New Wave, it was nominated for a Palme d’Or and is one of only two films to have ever been screened twice at Cannes. Directed by a Canadian, Ted Kotcheff (of First Blood) and scripted by Jamaican born Brit, Evan Jones, the film was celebrated by critics the world over. However, Wake in Fright was...