Category: Horror

Final Destination 5 (3D) ****

The thought of another dance with Death – and in 3D – fills anyone tiring of the accident-obsessed franchise with dread. But Steven Quale’s addition to the grizzly iconic series, Final Destination 5 (3D), should not be dismissed so easily, and begins with a glass-smashing, gore-dripping, pole-flying 3D title extravaganza that makes you sit up …

Mother’s Day ***

As everyone knows from nature programmes alone, ‘Hell hath no fury like a Mummy scorned’. After creeping out audiences back in 1992 in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, then-maternal Rebecca De Mornay proves she’s still got the superior chill factor to scare the living daylights out of you in Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman’s …

Julia’s Eyes ****

Writer/director director Guillem Morales has a great talent for horror that fantasy-horror maestro and co-producer of this film, Guillermo del Toro has recognised. Morales is certainly welcomed into the del Toro fold, here, as he comes on board to direct del Toro’s The Orphanage leading lady, the mesmerising Belén Rueda, in this richly layered, beautifully-shot, …

Attack The Block ***

Aliens landing on a South London estate are interesting enough to give new domestic schlock horror, Attack The Block, a moment’s consideration. Coupled with a stoned appearance from Anglo-US success Nick Frost (he of the Pegg-Frost partnership behind Paul and Shaun of the Dead) and Spielberg-backed Joe Cornish of Adam and Joe TV fame is …

Insidious ****

Effective horror films these days are harder and harder to come by. But it all depends on what you want from the genre? In Insidious, Saw creators Wan and Whannell appear to have collected together all their favourite horror elements from scary classics – namely Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror and The Shining – but not …

The Resident ***

If you live alone this film is targeting you, playing on that feeling of foreboding you might experience when things go bump in the night, or the landlord gets a bit too familiar. In addition to the celebrated return of the Hammer Films with this film, The Resident also rejoices in the idea of creepy …

I Spit On Your Grave – 3*

It would be very easy to dismiss Steven R. Monroe’s 2010 remake of one of the most controversial thrillers of all time, I Spit on Your Grave, as a tasteless and unimaginative money-spinner by those who have not yet seen it – or the original, for that matter. Hearsay is a powerful publicity tool, and …

The Ward – 3*

After a ten-year absence, John Carpenter’s return to feature films with The Ward is one of two exciting releases this week, including the 2010 remake of Meir Zarchi’s controversial I Spit On Your Grave. Both thrillers go head to head, but both offer a horror helping of differing proportions and for different fan bases. After …

Season of the Witch – 2*

Nicolas Cage recently admitted he’s always wanted to be a knight, ever since the age of five. Well, it looks like he got his wish, chain mail, Crusades and all, in Season of the Witch, which is a curious mix of supernatural horror and historical period drama, with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from one of Cage’s …