When Dutch director Paul Verhoeven let RoboCop roam the dystopian city streets of Detroit in 1987, the result was a smart satire on corporate greed, consumerism and rebirth that explored a cyborg super cop’s lingering humanity. It became an instant science fiction classic. When a sequel was greenlit and Verhoeven passed, there was seemingly only
Interviews
What did you do while in lockdown earlier this year? Well, while this particular writer decided to watch all seven seasons of Mad Men (true story), the cast and crew of Host made what the poster boasts is ‘the scariest film of the past decade’. Now, that’s saying a lot during this particular year but
“It’s so over the top,” laughs Stephen Hopkins, director of sci-fi sequel Predator 2. “I just sort of went for it and made the biggest, boldest, loudest movie I could make. I was only 29 years old – I was like a rampant child, running around Los Angeles, blowing the shit out of everything and
In The Stylist, Claire’s job as a hairstylist means she can move through other people’s worlds… but when the right target sits in her chair, she does more than observe their life – she ends it, and keeps a permanent souvenir. However, her lonely life, meticulous method and secrets are suddenly thrown into turmoil when
Director Yeon Sang-ho is back with the sequel to Train To Busan with Peninsula. Set four years after the devasting zombie outbreak as seen in Busan, this time we follow soldier Jung Seok (Dong-Won Gang) who returns to the now-quaratined South Korea after narrowly escaping. There, he finds a family of survivors including mother Min-jeong
Written and directed by Jon Stevenson, Rent-a-Pal is set during the Nineties and tells the story of lonely bachelor David (Brian Landis Folkins) who is searching for an escape from the day-to-day drudgery of caring for his ageing mother (Kathleen Brady). Whilst seeking a partner through a video dating service, he discovers a strange VHS tape
Often cited to be one of the greatest horror films of all time, George A. Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead was the long-awaited, highly anticipated sequel to the genre-defining Night Of The Living Dead. Released in 1978, Dawn Of The Dead showed Romero once being again ahead of the curve, mixing biting political satire with
Featuring five twisted tales of terror, The Mortuary Collection is an anthology horror that pays homage to the fun, classic horror films of the Seventies and Eighties but with a fresh, new twist. Following the story of Montgomery, a creepy mortician who tells spooky tales such as ‘Monster Cabinet’ (featuring a tentacled monster), through to the
Telling the story of a mother’s worse nightmare, My Zoe was directed, written and stars Julie Delpy as Isabelle – a woman who faces a morally questionable decision when she loses her beloved daughter. Following a divorce, geneticist Isabelle is trying to rebuild her life. She has a new boyfriend and plans to revitalise her
It took Peter Parker 40 years to make it to the big screen. Miles Morales has done it in just seven. He’s yet to take a live action bow – although his Uncle Aaron appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming, played by Donald Glover – but Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is his big-budget animated movie debut. Created
Following the story of DI Clive Lussac, Jem Tugwell’s iMe series (consisting of Proximity, No Signal and a third edition – coming soon!), is a dystopian detective series full controlling technology, murder, corruption and more. In the near future, Britons are now implanted with the iMe chip – a piece of implanted technology that has
Back in the days before social media or tell-all trailers threatened cinematic secrecy, The Sixth Sense emerged as a sleeper hit that was able to keep its big twist denouement respectfully shrouded in mystery. A seemingly straightforward supernatural thriller about a troubled boy who sees ghosts and finds a kindred spirit with a dismayed child
Cognition is a short sci-fi story of man who has to face his traumatic past when he’s tasked with an intergalactic mission. A story that focuses on a central relationship with a father and son, Cognition is a personal tale set in the far reaches of space (and a little closer to home!) and stars
Inspired by Paul Kane’s short story ‘Men Of The Cloth’ (and shown at FrightFest this year), Sacrifice follows US-based Isaac and his pregnant wife Emma, who return to the Norwegian village on a remote island of his birth after receiving an unexpected inheritance following the death of his mother. There they find themselves caught in a waking
Following the story of Nathan (Russell Tovey), The Sister (originally called Burial… then renamed Before The Night) is a tense four-part series that has a tinge of the supernatural. Ten years into his married life with Holly, Nathan is unnerved when Bob (Bertie Carvel) – an unwelcome face from the past – turns up at his door with some
Following three generations of women as they face a very real terror with the realisation that the eldest, Edna, is suffering from Alzheimer’s, along with the more supernatural horror of a potentially haunted house, Relic is sure to terrify you on a number of levels. Starring Robin Nevin as Edna, Emily Mortimer as her daughter
Surrounded by controversy, intrigue and debate, the story behind I Spit On Your Grave is almost as interesting as the one portrayed on-screen. The 1978 movie written and directed by Meir Zarchi about a woman who gets her revenge after being raped has had a re-name, was banned when it was released and is still
Marina Sirtis made her first step towards iconic status back in 1987 in her role as Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation alongside Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes and since then, has cemented herself in legendary status, appearing in a plethora of TV shows and movies besides. From the Nineties/early
Part one of The Hanged God trilogy, Thilde Kold Holdt’s epic fantasy is Northern Wrath is out now. Full of Norse myths, compelling characters, war and treason – we had to speak to Thilde to find out more about her novel… When/where did you first get the idea for Northern Wrath? A writer I once
“There’s something wonderful about horror that provides this kind of buffer between difficult subjects and the viewer,” says Australian writer and director Natalie Erika James as we discuss her debut feature, Relic. “It’s like being on a roller coaster at the same time as talking about grief.” Relic follows three generations of women – grandmother
Launched in 2015, the 12 Monkeys TV series raised a few eyebrows when it was announced. Based on the successful film of the same name directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Bruce Willis, many thought there wasn’t anywhere else the story could go. That couldn’t be further from the truth – three years and four
Back in 1988 DC gave Batman fans the chance to choose the fate of one of its most divisive characters – Jason Todd; the young man who Batman takes under his Bat-wing after finding him trying to steal the tyres off the Batmobile. Well… apparently Jason wasn’t as divisive as it initially seemed after an
To a new generation of filmgoers, the summer blockbusters of 1999 probably seem like they belong to a strange alternate universe – certainly far more dated, and even forgettable, than their relatively meagre 21-year timespan would suggest. Witness the snore-inducing fantasy-farce of Wild, Wild West and, of course, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace which threw
“I was nervous that, you know, can we pull this off?” says actor Sunita Mani when we speak to her about her upcoming film Evil Eye. “It is a very particular Indian story, although it is quite relatable to a lot of South Asian and Eastern cultures. It was a tricky balance. I just wasn’t
Pet follows Seth, a lonely man working in an animal shelter whose monotonous routine is broken one day when he bumps into Holly, a girl from school. After she rejects him, Seth becomes obsessed with his high school crush and soon his infatuation with Holly turns sinister. However, Holly is hiding a few secrets of
“Dick said to me: ‘There must be nothing in this movie that you can’t believe is [real] – the whole force of this movie is going to be the critical mass of a man’s paranoia coming to be realised as actual,’” recalled The Omen scribe David Seltzer regarding director Richard Donner’s intentions for the 1976
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 Gothic novella has a long history of adaptation and reinvention in cinema. In 1932, Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr stripped away the lesbian erotica, in the Sixties, horror legend Christopher Lee starred in a good-looking but barely coherent Italian version of the text called Terror In The Crypt, Hammer Horror had a
Set in the high-pressured, passionate world of an elite arts academy, Zu Quirke’s Nocturne explores dark rivalry and the deep desire to succeed. Part of Amazon Studio’s Welcome To The Blumhouse, Nocturne stars Sydney Sweeney and Madison Iseman as Juliet and Vivian respectively – twin pianists whose sibling rivalry takes a sinister turn when the
Set in a remote area of Scotland, Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers follows a group of soldiers who find themselves facing an unusual enemy while on a training exercise. This foe is fierce, ferocious and looks like a big, feral dog. Also, if you get bit, you seem to become a lot less like yourself during
“It was kind of miraculous that I ended up being in the film at all,” chuckles Sharlto Copley, thinking back to the creation of 2009’s scrappy, surprise sci-fi hit District 9. Whenever talk turns to how director Neill Blomkamp brought this politically charged tale of alien and human strife in Johannesburg to life – and