For It Is Man's Number

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Prime Time: Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

There may be a different writer for this next (last?) instalment in the Tremors movie series, but I was very worried that everything would be spoiled by director Don Michael Paul, who helmed a number of the previous outings, including the dire Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell. Thankfully, this is a big step up from the last movie.

Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) is once again called upon to save the day when some people find themselves with a big Graboid problem. This time around the creatures are ruining a pleasant tropical island environment, having been deliberately placed there by Bill (Richard Brake), a man who leads people on various hunting parties. Burt has a bit of resentment towards his ex, Jasmine (Caroline Langrishe), but he knows that he needs to stick around as he's the one with the experience to eradicate the pesky Graboids.

Written by director Paul and Brian Brightly, Tremors: Shrieker Island somehow manages to feel comfortable and familiar without also feeling stale. It's helped by not having Jamie Kennedy back (who wasn't a great fit in the previous movie when he was allowed to do his standard Jamie Kennedy schtick), and also benefits from putting Jon Heder in a supporting role. The various creature effects work well, the arrogant human villain of the piece is a big improvement than the blank "agency staff" of the previous film, and there's just a better mix of everything, from the pacing to the interactions between all of the main characters.

Gross IS Burt Gummer, and has been a perfect fit for that role since the very first movie. If you didn't like his performance in that film then you're not going to like him here. But if that's the case, I'd have to ask . . . what the hell is wrong with you? Anyway, Langrishe and Heder do well alongside him, often tempering his deliberately aggressive tactics with questions or different perspectives. Brake is a charismatic bad guy, acting polite and respectful of Burt and co. until they get in his way one too many times. I wish he'd been in the series before now, and would love a prequel detailing some other fateful encounters between Burt and Bill. Jackie Cruz is an enjoyable addition as someone keen to stay alive, and keen to listen to the advice of Burt, and Cassie Clare is entertaining as a skilled shooter who soon sees that sticking with Bill may leave her on the wrong side when battle lines are drawn. Others also do good work, but they're really there to be Graboid fodder (in line with so many others who have had their moment in the Tremors movie universe).

Not only does this feel like a proper movie, one that has been given some care and consideration to make up for the careless messiness of the last film, but it also feels like a proper end to the whole series. It could carry on, in so many different ways, but I like to think that this stamps a seal on the scroll that has been used to hold the collected adventures of Burt Gummer. Any future Graboid tales should be kept Gummer-free as someone else tries to find a way to recapture lightning in a bottle. Or, if you prefer, get as close as they can to cinematic Perfection.

7/10

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Tuesday, 20 October 2026

Pledge Night (1989)

The feature debut of director Paul Ziller, although you can have a lot of fun working through the wide variety of creature features and TV movies that he's helmed since this one, Pledge Night is one of those odd slasher movies that came along far too late to be considered in the company of many of the better examples of the sub-genre, but also doesn't commit to the more bonkers idea at the heart of the screenplay, written by Joyce Snyder (who apparently wrote this and four much more adult movies).

It's that time of year again. New students are put through a variety of humiliating hazing rituals as they desperately hope to become members of a college fraternity. Crimes will be faked, cherries will be picked up by clenched butt-cheeks (and the loser eats the cherries), and the spirit of a student who was accidentally killed will start to cause some chaos and kill off those around them. Standard stuff.

Although there's a clear attempt here to make something that mixes plenty of comedy in with the horror, Pledge Night doesn't work. None of the cast are good enough with the material, which isn't the best to begin with, and Ziller can do little more than ensure the camera points in the right direction, generally. None of the kills impress, things go from zero to one hundred without a more satisfying and steady build up, and even the final sequence fails to deliver any great reveals or corpse tableaux.

Are there any highlights? The performance from Will Kempe as the killer is a fun one, and could have been something very memorable in a much better movie. I also liked Shannon McMahon in the role of Wendy, but that's more because of simply liking McMahon than liking anything that was done with her character.

It's always good to be wary of any slasher movies that were released either late in the 1980s or close to the start of the 1990s. Not many of them were strong enough to make up for the fact that they were being made long after the sub-genre had fallen slightly out of fashion (even if a resurgence was as inevitable as the killer making one last grab for the final girl before being dealt a killer blow), but Pledge Night at least tries to play around in a well-used sandbox without being dismissive or disdainful. I can't deny that some of the silliness amused me, but not nearly enough to make up for the many sections that unfolded without memorable characters, memorable kills, or more layered comedy.

It's not down in the muck with the worst of the slashers, but it also doesn't do enough to sit comfortably in the middle ground. Lesser fare, and not recommended to anyone except those (like myself) who feel they have already made their way through every single one of the many better slasher flicks from this decade.

4/10

Monday, 19 October 2026

Mubi Monday: Rapture (1979)

Written and directed by Iván Zulueta, the main thing to bear in mind when watch Rapture (AKA Arrebato) is that the creator spent a long time in the grip of heroin addiction. If you didn't know that when the film started then you should have a suspicion when the film ends.

Essentially all about a film-maker who has been sent a slightly mystifying gift package, Rapture shows José (Eusebio Poncela) thinking back to a couple of past encounters he had with a young man named Pedro (Will More). While nothing major seems to happen in those encounters, the two people clearly have a strong connection that they're initially unaware of. They both seek something. And it becomes clear to José that Pedro may have actually found it.

Messy and disorientating throughout, yet not as surreal and impenetrable as it could have been, Rapture may be wearing a number of items from the horror genre wardrobe (the puzzle loaded with potential danger, the unknown fates of certain characters, the growing obsession), but it won't be one that people necessarily seek out when they want to watch a horror movie. I would definitely allow it to carry that label though, especially if you've ever known the pain of watching someone held tight in the life-sapping grip of addiction.

Poncela gives a fantastic performance, convincingly pretending to be carefree while he starts getting that particular unscratchable itch that is about to set his whole body on fire. More is allowed to be a bit more relaxed and enigmatic, which is important as everything builds to a quietly disturbing and haunting third act. The two main female characters are played by Cecilia Roth and Marta Fernández, and both of them do well as they stay alongside men who have their heads turned by something that the ladies cannot compete with.

The most impressive thing about Rapture is the way it really delivers an obvious story of someone who becomes an addict, and ends up searching for what will ultimately lead them to oblivion, without having it all play out as literally as it so easily could. There's still a sense of hopelessness, and you see characters starting to push aside everything else as they chase the one thing that now gives them solace, but it's an entirely convincing journey through drug addiction without ever putting a standard drug at the heart of things. And that must have been a hard choice for Arrebato, considering the life he lived. It's also the right choice, and it helps the film to hold up very well even now, almost fifty years after it was first released.

8/10

Sunday, 18 October 2026

Netflix And Chill: Ghost Stories (2020)

It's easy to stay within your comfort zone when it comes to watching movies and TV shows. You now have more choices than ever before, and many of them will be pushed in front of you by an algorithm that knows what you've already seen, and hopefully already enjoyed. I am not averse to filling my viewing schedule out with easy picks, something featuring a favourite star or a preferred sub-genre, but I do sometimes try to make time for something that is far from my usual fare. That's why I decided to set aside 144 minutes to watch Ghost Stories, an Indian anthology horror film made up of four tales that may very well include some specific cultural references that passed me by.

Directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Anurag Kashyap, with the first three also writing their instalments, and Isha Luthra and Avinash Sampath adding a good amount of input to the screenplay, what you have here are, for the most part, familiar tales slightly freshened up by the setting and language.

First up is the story of a young nurse, Sameera (Janhvi Kapoor), helping a bedridden old woman (Surekha Sikri) who keeps insisting that her son is in the room next door. The room is empty, of course, but something isn't right about the situation. Then it's the tale of Neha (Sobhita Dhulipala), a pregnant woman who starts to have horrifying visions while babysitting her nephew (Zachary Braz). Next up we have someone (Sukant Goel) visiting a desolate and dangerous small town. Some children explain the situation to him, most people have been eaten and the only way to stay alive is to convince the flesh-eaters that you are one of them. Last, but by no means least, is the story of Ira (Mrunal Thakur), a woman who enters into an arranged marriage with Dhruv (Avinash Tiwary). Dhruv was besotted with his grandmother, and still continues to talk with her and play "peek-a-boo" most days, despite the fact that she died some time ago.

Despite the details and points I may have missed, at least two of the main stories here feel like very obvious metaphors for aspects of society. We're all aware of the pressures put upon young women to become mothers, which runs through the second tale, and as for the third episode, any story that has a community devastated by flesh-eaters who will only let others survive if they see them engaging in the same behaviour is analogous to pretty much any fluctuating social group you can think of.

The cast all do great work, with particular praise fur to Kapoor and Goel, both allowed to be bombarded with strangeness, to say the least, as things get creepier and creepier for them. Dhulipala has to contend with a wide variety of impressive special effects, some of them obscuring her central performance, and Thakur is slightly undermined by the fact that everything unfolding around her is so unsubtle and obvious.

The writing and direction are good enough, although it seems inevitable that I could suggest trimming some of the runtime to make this a leaner and scarier experience. While not up there with the best horror anthology movies, Ghost Stories is a good time for those who have already seen all of the more well-known titles. I wouldn't say that any one chapter here is particularly weak, and that's always a pleasant surprise in any anthology movie. I also wouldn't say that any one chapter here is particularly unforgettable either though.

7/10

Saturday, 17 October 2026

Shudder Saturday: V/H/S/Mixtape (2026)

Another year, another instalment in the now traditional October V/H/S anthology movie series. This particular edition has sound and music being the main connective tissue running through it, and it's good to see the idea used well enough in a number of the stories.

There's a wraparound section that features GWAR doing GWAR things, and their first scenes are unlikely to impress any newcomers, but the majority of the runtime is taken up by four stories. Well . . . four narrative stories, one stop-motion horror fairytale, and one music video. The first is "Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance", written by Zoe Cooper and directed by Renee Zhan. This may be predictable, but it's very fun and in line with the gleeful gory lunacy that this series does best. Then you get Another Cabin, the stop-motion short, directed by Flying Lotus. Writer-director David Moreau then delivers Heartbeat, a tale of urban explorers who go somewhere they shouldn't. This was my least favourite, but it undeniably leans into the mission statement of the movie, essentially giving viewers a nightmarish slice of ASMR. Then it's over to Ernest Dickerson, who serves up a classic bit of Lovecraft, reimagined slightly, with "The Music Of Mr. Sze". Tobias Forge directs a darkly entertaining music video, "Premature Burial", and then it's over to RZA for the final tale, "Death Tone", all about a young sound engineer following the instructions of her late father as she tries to create an amazing and enduring soundscape.

More about the talent behind the camera than in front of it, although it helps that Barbara Crampton is allowed to have fun in a small role in the first tale, V/H/S/Mixtape really helps to show why this series should be allowed to just run and run. It's a creative experiment that really works, and everyone involved seems to enjoy both the opportunities and the challenges that it presents. I can't think of how these tales would work in other formats, but they all fit together well here because the V/H/S brand allows for such a wide variety of weird and whacky episodes.

The cast members may be secondary to the IP, but highlights include Jihad Brent and Alex Hsu acting exactly as you want characters in a Lovecraft tale to act, and Neela Jolene having a whole lot of fun as the central character in "Death Tone". It's also worth noting that nobody is notably bad. Say what you like about this surprisingly enduring series, the acting has never been the worst element of any instalment.

I'd end up placing this at about the halfway point if I was presenting a ranked list of the entire series. It's a very solid entry, and one that already has me excitedly considering what the next theme could be. Maybe weddings. A wedding gone horribly awry, a wedding in which someone is being forced to marry a demonic bride or groom, a bride keeping a video diary as she goes to extreme lengths to ensure that she fits into her dream dress, etc. Hey V/H/S producers, you know it makes sense.

Whatever the concept, I'll be ready to lap it up anyway. And I hope we keep getting one of these every year. It has become as much a part of the Halloween season as eating an excessive amount of sweet snacks, pumpkin spice being added to everything, and glaring at kids who have been allowed to carve jack-o-lanterns without unlocking the painful memories of trying to engage in that same activity decades ago in the UK when pumpkins were less plentiful, and we had to make do with almost losing fingers while we hacked and chopped into a swede.

7/10

Friday, 16 October 2026

It Ends (2025)

There's making the most of limited resources, there's making existential horror without having to bombard viewers with too many ideas and visual gimmicks, and then there's It Ends, an 89-minute nightmare that has a group of young people simply stuck on one long road that really shouldn't stretch on for as long as it does.

Our four main characters are James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Tyler (Mitchell Cole), and Fisher (Noah Toth). They are four friends who may not be as close as they once were, but they hope to enjoy one another's company on this particular road trip. Until this particular road trip takes them along one particular road. No ways to turn off. No actual progress being made. Just one long drive along one long road.

The feature debut of writer-director Alexander Ullom, It Ends sets up a number of questions that he doesn't seem all that interested in fully exploring. That wouldn't be so bad if his characters weren't also so unmotivated. Yes, there's the obvious initial curiosity as they realise their predicament and start to figure out the rules now governing their journey, but the one or two main conversations that try to stay focused on what exactly is going on don't come anywhere close to the reactions and self-reflection that you would expect. I would argue that a sense of resignation and acceptance come along far too early in the proceedings, especially when there's nothing else to really help fill out the runtime.

The cast do a good job, although Toth is a bit of a weak link in the central quartet (perhaps due to the writing leaving him feeling even less substantial than his under-developed co-stars). Yoon is enjoyable for showing how beneficial it can be to try thinking logically about the situation until various logical options quickly disappear, Cole has the advantage of playing someone with a painful background, although that is never fully explored, and Jackson does well to show how she has stayed friends with the three young men around her.

I can see why this idea would spark in the mind of someone creative. It's a simple premise, and there are moments outside the car that work to ensure the main characters stay inside and keep driving. Ullom errs on the side of caution, however, perhaps believing that any explanation would be a lot worse than no explanation. On the one hand he's absolutely right. On the other hand, sorry, the film needs a bit more substance to it. As it is now, it's like witnessing a conversation between four students about some hypothetical GPS and dashboard warning lights that could both guide and misdirect you as you steer your way from birth to death.

5/10

Thursday, 15 October 2026

Insidious: Out Of The Further (2026)

There are times when I will happily remind people that I can be a very mainstream guy. I don't mind watching something slick and polished. I don't even mind watching something that's tame enough to offer some mild chills to a potentially much larger audience demographic. I really enjoyed Insidious, and even, to a lesser extent, some of the sequels. This is a series that should have ended about a decade ago though, but that opinion seems to put me at odds with those who very much appreciate the mainstream thrills and chills that it provides.

This tiresome tale concerns Gemma Hall (Amelia Eve, looking for all the world like 2000s Naomi Watts) and her young daughter, Maya (Island Austin). Gemma appears to sometimes be seeing dead people. Worse, dead people sometimes appear to be seeing Gemma. That's why she ends up being helped by Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), who can often talk through the physical body of Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers). All working together, and with the help of Gemma's boyfriend (Nick, played by Brandon Perea), the group hope to stop Cyrus Lam (Sam Spruell) from finding his way back from The Further into our plane of existence.

I am genuinely depressed at the thought of writing a full review for this. It feels like writer-director Jacob Chase had a couple of good scares in mind, and then figured out a laughably weak plot that would allow him to deliver those infrequent treats. The longer this movie series has endured, the more it all boils down to people simply warning others about going into The Further, stopping entities from coming out of The Further, or just spending a bit of time wandering about The Further. Now that The Further is such a familiar environment, despite how it can be manipulated and played around with, it's not an interesting setting for scares, which is proven here when the best moments all take place in what is supposed to be our own world. You'll have seen one of those moments if you saw the trailer, but if you have somehow avoided that so far then keep avoiding it until/if you give this a watch.

Richardson-Seller is the one person here who feels as if she could carry a movie, and her scenes help a lot when things aren't being moved between the various cheap frights. Shaye remains a welcome constant, but her character was reduced to the "kindly guide" archetype many movies ago, which is all she gets to do here. Eve, Austin, and Perea are all fine, but I didn't ever truly care about their fates (possibly due to this being a very "safe" movie series nowadays). Spruell is helped by some great makeup, but the best of the creepy interlopers is an old man, Lester, played by Joseph Lopez, who also benefits from one hell of a makeover.

I would say, charitably, that there were three good moments in this. Three good moments adding up to about one whole minute of the runtime. Sadly, that leaves you with another 105 minutes to endure. And that's not a good time. Yet this has somehow done well enough at the cinema to make another instalment almost inevitable. And I'm sure I'll see it. I won't be getting to it until it hits home viewing markets though. Perhaps I'll buy a cinema ticket for something a bit less mainstream that weekend.

4/10

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

Prime Time: Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell (2018)

I used to think that the Tremors franchise was one of the best we ever got. It was consistently enjoyable, even if none of the many sequels (and one prequel) came close to equalling the first movie. This film has made me reconsider that opinion. And I have one more to watch, which I am praying will be a return to form after this chilly mis-step.

Once again written by John Whelpley, who wrote two of the previous three instalments in the series, this continues to make use of the great character of Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). Burt now has a son that he's dealing with (Travis, played by Jamie Kennedy, introduced in the last movie), and the two of them end up in a very cold part of Canada that has become a new and unexpected area for Graboid activity. Plans are made, and traps are built, but things change when it turns out that someone has been infected by a parasite that can only be removed with the help of some materials taken from a live Graboid.

Director Don Michael Paul should be used to things by now, having joined Whelpley in the making of Tremors 5: Bloodlines, but I fear that there were too many obstacles placed between him and making something decent here. There's a definite feeling that the budget was slashed at some point, leaving viewers with a film that needs a better cast of characters to make up for the disappointing Graboid moments.

Gross is as good value here as he has been in any movie in this series, and he's the reason to make some time for this. Kennedy is a bit more annoying than he was the first time around, a consequence of the actor being able to play his character with a bit more ease and familiarity, and the likes of Tanya van Graan and Jamie-Lee Money aren't given enough to work with. Money is particularly ill-served, especially when she has to reveal how her character is connected to the ever-growing family tree of Graboid survivors. Paul du Toit is a "suit", and has an agenda to make him as much of a potential threat as the monsters, but he's also not used well.

The 98-minute runtime feels much longer, the callbacks to the first film aren't clever enough to be cute, and the ending feels as if it was slapped together by someone who ran out of time when it came to the deadline for the final draft of the screenplay to be handed in. I'm going to get to the next film soon enough, but I have my expectations seriously dialled down after this disappointment.

4/10

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

Pinocchio: Unstrung (2026)

Another cinematic entry in what we can all now depressingly call "The Pooh-niverse", a cinematic selection of titles based on properties no longer covered by copyright laws, Pinocchio: Unstrung is, as you may have guess, all about everyone's favourite puppet who just wants to get rid of his strings and be a real boy. That means some life lessons, some misunderstandings, and a fair amount of blood and guts.

Richard Brake is Geppetto, and he somehow decides that his grandson, James (Cameron Bell), needs a new friend. One that will never die, and never leave him. Pinocchio (voiced by Jude Evan Lloyd). Pinocchio has a lot of questions, and is soon causing some accidental deaths . . . before being manipulated into causing some deliberate deaths. It doesn't help that he has a scheming cricket (voiced by Robert Englund) whispering in his ear.

Look, the performances here aren't great, as you might expect from another horror riff on Pinocchio (the little puppet has had a few murderous moments over the years). Brake is good fun in his role, and Englund's voice does a lot to make his character a highlight of the supporting cast, but Bell isn't very good, Jessica Balmer and Jack Art Gray are equally weak as his onscreen friends, and poor Lloyd can't do anything to improve upon the repetitive and inane dialogue that he's supposed to keep delivering during the gory set-pieces. Belinda Fenty isn't bad, playing a dentist who we know won't stay healthy and happy for long after "hurting" young James, and Toni Olabanji and Luca Marandola are decent as bullies, also not expected to stay happy and healthy for very long, but the gap between the good and the bad performances is pretty huge.

Writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield isn't the greatest wordsmith. He's also not the greatest director. Fair play to him though, this has some practical effects, puppetry, and stop-motion animation that show a level of care and skill you wouldn't expect from such low-budget schlock. Even the opening and closing credits have some genuinely impressive animation helping them along, which some may say is better than anything in the main body of the film. Despite the reason for films like this existing, Frake-Waterfield and co. have shown a notable improvement in their approach to the material since they started trying to make money from the various IPs they could exploit.

And as for the gore gags, well, they take things to another level. I was trying to enjoy this as it played out, and my mood was lifted by the aforementioned animation and effects, but when the first bit of serious bloodshed happened onscreen I was very pleasantly surprised. Obviously aiming to appeal to those who have had a good selection of extreme gore to entertain them nowadays, Pinocchio: Unstrung takes time to present a number of hilarious and ridiculous injuries and kills. Nothing here is ever close to being believable, but at least everyone involved just decided to shrug and throw around more fake blood, and fake organs, and fake severed body parts.

I doubt too many people will rush to see this if they aren't already familiar with the other films in this vein from Frake-Waterfield, but I'd tentatively recommend it to anyone who fancies something silly and gory. It's not actually a good film, but it's consistently amusing, sometimes even deliberately so.

5/10

Monday, 12 October 2026

Mubi Monday: A Woman's Torment (1977)

If you look up writer-director Roberta Findlay online then you will see her credited as a "noted adult and exploitation cinema filmmaker". That's the first line of her description on IMDb anyway. So it's not very surprising that I haven't reviewed any of her films here before. I don't think I've seen anything else that she's done. Given what she delivers here, I'm not averse to checking out other titles from her directorial career.

Tara Chung plays Karen, the woman who is due to go through some of the torment that the title promises. Karen has some serious mental health issues, which doesn't stop others around her from thinking that she may be willing to get down 'n' dirty with them. And sometimes she is happy to get naked and engage in some special happy happy time, but there's often a point when she'll be pushed to react strongly and violently. Which is a real mood-killer, you can be sure of that.

Making use of familiar moments seen in other psycho-sexual horrors of the 1960s and 1970s, Findlay seems to struggle here when it comes to mixing in the character study moments and the requisite sex scenes. The examination of a fragile and crumbling mental state is perhaps a bit better than expected, although not at all subtle or nuanced (of course), but it's very hard to interrupt that developing storyline with some random sexy time.

It helps that Tara Chung works so well in her main role. Having only acted in a handful of movies, from the information I could find anyway, Chung has the ability to be cute and sexy one minute and frantic and dangerous the next. There are other people with main roles here (Jennifer Jordan, Jake Teague, Jeffrey Hurst, Crystal Sync, etc), but they're very easy to forget as soon as the movie is over. Chung isn't, although that's to do with both her screen presence and the material she has to work with.

Give this to twenty different film-makers and you'd end up with twenty very different films. Findlay knows what she wants to do though, and the end result is interesting for the fact that it's filtered through a '70s sexploitation lens. It's just not wholly satisfying. Things would have been improved if Findlay had committed to one particular direction, be it the sex or the insanity and potential horror. It's paced much like a tame slasher movie, and the very last scenes provide a very interesting, and rare, depiction of a killer overwhelmed by their own emotions, but nothing is helped by the juxtaposition of specific events, nor by the tone of the whole piece.

Interesting, but far from the best example of this kind of thing, whichever way you look at it.

6/10

Sunday, 11 October 2026

Netflix And Chill: Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)

Considering the fact that I seemed to enjoy Bird Box more than most people, it's a bit odd that it took me a few years to finally get around to this sorta-sequel/spin-off. Bird Box remains one of the best sensory-based monster movies from a time when we had a few of them released in fairly quick succession, but Bird Box: Barcelona proves to be a surprisingly good attempt to revisit that world without simply retreading very familiar ground.

The plot this time around focuses on Sebastián (Mario Casas) and his young daughter, Anna (Alejandra Howard). The world remains a dangerous place, nobody should be stepping outside without some kind of blindfold, and some kind of plan, and those caught unawares by the entities that invaded our planet some time ago are either driven to kill themselves or turned into some kind of loyal "seer". Sebastián soon meets up with some other survivors, and he hopes that he can be the one to guide them through the world, but everyone has a different opinion on the best way forward. And some may not agree on what constitutes a happy end point to their journey.

Co-written and co-directed by Àlex and David Pastor, who have both worked with similar material previously in their shared filmography, Bird Box: Barcelona is a genuinely interesting companion piece to the first film, and it's something that becomes more engrossing and thought-provoking as each scene plays out. Some early developments may make viewers roll their eyes, but things are set up nicely for a tale that more fully explores the choices that people might make in such a life-threatening apocalyptic scenario.

It helps that the leads are great. Casas continues to show why he's become such a popular choice for Spanish film and TV roles over the past couple of decades. He's very easy to keep rooting for, even as his behaviour is reframed quite early on in the proceedings. Howard does well, although is understandably sidelined as Sebastián starts to connect with other characters who may change his main objectives, and both Georgina Campbell and Naila Schuberth do very well as a couple of vulnerable individuals who could greatly benefit from Sebastián's protection. Campbell has quickly become quite the horror genre stalwart, and that's no bad thing.

As much as I liked this, however, it's hard to say for certain whether many others will share my view. I think this is on a par with the first film, but it quickly becomes a very different beast. Whereas that film was a survival horror, boosted by the star power of Sandra Bullock, this is a bold attempt to show a very different perspective. Some will just want another version of the first movie, and those people are likely to hate this. Anyone willing to appreciate some interesting story-telling decisions should respond positively to it. So don't make the same mistake I did. Get it in your eyes ASAP.

8/10

Saturday, 10 October 2026

Shudder Saturday: Infirmary (2026)

This debut feature from Nicholas Pineda, who directed the film, and also co-wrote the screenplay with Katy Krauland (also making a feature debut), Infirmary is a film that makes you think. Unfortunately, it makes you think about how many different ways you can refer to something as truly awful.

Yet another "found footage" movie that doesn't really know how to make the best use of the format, this is a tiresome tale of a new employee (Edward, played by Paul Syre Lee) being shown the ropes by an old hand (Lester, played by Mark Anthony Williams) before finding out that the building he has to spend time in, an old psych hospital, isn't one that abides by the established rules and logic of our everyday world. There are a number of things ready to go bump in the night, including a variety of handy, and creepy, mannequins.

I wanted to spend this review just ranting and raving about everyone involved. Then I decided that didn't seem fair. The cast are just doing what is asked of them, after all. Then I changed my mind again. The cast may just be doing what is asked of them, but they could have made a bit more effort. While I don't believe that anyone here could have saved this from being a waste of your time, Lee is staggeringly awful throughout, which makes it a lot worse when he has to carry so many scenes by commenting on his journeys through the building, or reacting to things around him. Williams isn't much better, although he doesn't have to spend as much time narrating his own step count. Danielle Kennedy plays the other main character, and she does well enough, although there's nothing she can do to stop the third act feeling so tiresomely predictable as things look set to go from bad to worse.

Most of the blame still has to lie with Pineda though, and Krauland. There's nothing here that feels properly thought about and planned out, from the developing minor background details to the reason for the footage we're watching to actually exist. All you have is a horror film made by someone who seems to have thought "I know a location we can use to make something cheap".

Everyone knows the risks of found footage horror movies nowadays. There have been too many duds. "Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me multiple times and that just shows how ridiculously optimistic I remain when I see a found footage horror movie promoted with a hint of praise from other horror movie fans". Infirmary has a great setting, but even that major positive isn't used well. I genuinely believe that almost anyone else could have made use of what's onscreen here to make something much better. Pineda will probably get an undeserved boost from this. I won't be quick to see whatever he does next, and I doubt many will strongly disagree with me on this squandered opportunity.

2/10

Friday, 9 October 2026

Soulm8te (2026)

On the one hand, I'm already a bit fed up of AI-infused tech thrillers. On the other hand, I'll keep sitting through them as long as they keep making them. Especially when they're as silly and entertaining as Soulm8te. Or I should say . . . especially when they're as silly and entertaining as the third act of Soulm8te. The rest of the film is a disappointing slog, but there are some gleefully sadistic moments near the end that almost make it worth your time. Almost.

The plot could be written on a grain of rice. David (David Rysdahl) ends up testing a prototype of a Soulm8te (Lily Sullivan). Things seem good, but there are glitches in the system. And one of those glitches is some serious jealousy.

Sullivan isn't bad in her role here, pitching her performance nicely between moments of complete roboticism and moments of extreme emotions. She also looks the part, which is necessary for the developing relationship, and certainly sells viewers on the idea that she would be much better company than a chatty Alexa device. Rysdahl is the lesser of the leads, especially as he has to overlook the early warning signs that turn into massive red flags by halfway point. Claudia Doumit is a welcome presence, playing a young woman named Audrey who may inadvertently position herself as competition to be dealt with by robo-lady, and Arty Froushan is a typical tech boss, which makes it all the more satisfying when he gets stuck in a very sticky situation.

Co-written and directed by Kate Dolan, who helmed the excellent You Are Not My Mother a few years ago, this isn't interested in being too sophisticated or heavy on the commentary. It's a psycho-killer movie, with the psycho just happening to be an AI-enhanced fem-bot. The screenplay, co-written by Rafael Jordan, livens up in the moments that have men being pained and killed in majorly traumatic ways (including two separate incidents of serious penile trauma) before sleepwalking through the rest of the runtime. It's like watching a fun home gadget that puts on a show twice a day, with everything settling down to normality and stillness immediately after each display.

The biggest shame is that nobody seems confident enough to lean in to what should have been campy and over the top ridiculousness. This should have been a bloody and violent slice of fun that felt in line with M3GAN 2.0, but I suspect that the relatively disappointing box office performance of that film had producers here desperately trying to course-correct, which subsequently left us with something toothless, light on bloodshed, and, worst of all, lacking any commitment to the fun factor that's clearly running just underneath every main scene.

5/10

Thursday, 8 October 2026

Psycho Killer (2026)

Writer Andrew Kevin Walker has given us a wide variety of movies throughout his career. But he also wrote Seven. Which, rightly or wrongly, creates a certain expectation in people when he decides to write once more about a serial killer. Psycho Killer is also titled to let people know what it is, but it's an otherwise very different beast in comparison to Walker's best screenplay.

Georgina Campbell plays Jane Archer, a cop who starts obsessively tracking the titular killer (James Preston Rogers) after her husband, who was also a cop, becomes his latest victim. The killer seems to be connected to another notorious figure from the past, but nobody is willing to believe the theory that Archer is working on.

The feature directorial debut of Gavin Polone, Psycho Killer is moderately fun and entertaining, if you go into it knowing that it's absolutely preposterous. It's a comic book version of a rampaging serial killer, and some of the poor continuity in early scenes should clarify that Polone and Walker are more interested in being bloody and amusing than gritty and serious. This psycho killer is the ROTLD Suicide of psycho killers, and very quick to ensure that people know how committed he is. "You think this is a fucking costume? This is a way of life."

Campbell is very good in her lead role, arguably much better than the movie deserves. She's the one person allowed to have some emotion, but she's also believably capable and determined while keeping her prey in sight. Rogers brings an impressive physicality to his role, at times aligning him with unstoppable horror movie icons like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Malcolm McDowell is a lot of fun as the kind of Satanist really just interested in something that affords him the opportunity to enjoy some drug-fuelled hedonism, Logan Miller is a much more devoted acolyte, and many others appear onscreen just long enough to be added to the impressive bodycount being racked up by the killer.

Perhaps it helped that I finally got around to seeing this after hearing a wide variety of views on it already, or perhaps I was just much more willing to suspend my disbelief, but I was happy enough to go along with this all the way up to a final sequence that was as audacious and fun as anything else in the movie. I can imagine many rolling their eyes at it, but I actually enjoyed the reveal of the killer's grand plan.

Would I recommend this to others? Not really. I wouldn't dismiss it as unwatchable trash either though. It IS trashy, in a good way, but it's also made with at least a semblance of wit and intelligence running through it. That may ultimately be outweighed by the sillier elements, but at least it tries to do something a bit different with a handful of familiar tropes.

6/10

Wednesday, 7 October 2026

Prime Time: Shelby Oaks (2025)

Some people really enjoyed this movie, and I myself have somehow watched it three times already, but I am not a big fan. Starting off seeming like one thing, format-wise, before turning into something very different, and highly derivative, Shelby Oaks is one of the weaker slick horror movies I have seen throughout the past year.

Camille Sullivan plays Mia, a woman who is obsessed with finding out what happened to her missing sister, Riley (Sarah Durn). Riley was part of a group of YouTube paranormal investigators, which made me care very little about her fate anyway (but that's just me), and the easily-solved mysterious circumstances of their disappearance seem to lead Mia, as the title suggests, to Shelby Oaks.

Another person who made their initial connection to audiences via YouTube, director Chris Stuckmann (who also co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Samantha Elizabeth) positions himself here as a prime example of why we shouldn't necessarily be expecting great things from everyone who has grown up with that platform and advanced level of tech-savviness. Shelby Oaks isn't an incompetent film, not by a long shot, but it's so tiresomely unoriginal and simplistic that it highlights what happens when you have someone wanting to blend their many influences without being able to add enough creative spark to the mix.

Sullivan does a good job in her role, thankfully (considering how much of the film remains very focused on her), but nobody else gets to make a strong impression. Brendan Sexton III is "the husband", and that's the sum total of his character, Charlie Talbert plays obvious pawn in the ongoing chess game between our main character and whatever she is due to encounter, Keith David appears in a role that does little more than allow horror movie fans to say "yes, Keith David", and Robin Bartlett plays someone who feels as if they've wandered in from a Resident Evil storyline. Durn doesn't get enough good stuff to sink her teeth into, sadly, and that's a real shame. Taking us on the journey alongside her would have been better than constructing a narrative that has to spend far too much time trying to ensure that viewers don't notice the blindingly obvious clues laid out like a set of super-sized arrows pointing in one direction.

I started this review by mentioning that I have watched this three times already. There won't be a fourth, unless someone forces me into a rewatch for some godforsaken reason. The reason I had to watch this multiple times is simply because I kept forgetting to write up a review for it and there was not enough here that managed to stick in my memory. At all. Even the final moment, which is clearly something that Stuckmann and Elizabeth were very pleased with.

I don't want to end on a negative though, especially after reading what Stuckmann has said about his changing approach to film criticism now that he's been able to get more insights into productions and what can go into making any feature. It's admirable that he's put his money where his mouth is, as it were, and it's more than I would manage. There's enough here to show potential, especially considering the fairly low budget, and I think Stuckmann could do much better helming something that was written by someone else. Something a bit more inventive and able to better blend familiar horror genre moments.

4/10

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Tuesday, 6 October 2026

Faces Of Death (2026)

I'm absolutely sure that my reaction was in line with most other horror movie fans when I heard that someone was "remaking" Faces Of Death. Why? That title, as notorious as it is, now feels like a laughable and rightly-forgotten relic of a bygone age. While it used to have a certain value to it, in terms of it being a shorthand connection for those who sought out the kind of titles that were hard to find in the video nasty era, it has now been greatly overshadowed by photos and footage that can be found with just one or two key strokes on any device connected to the internet. But that's what works about this interestingly meta reworking of the concept.

Barbie Ferreira plays Margot, a young woman who works as a content moderator. She's also had her own moment of viral infamy, a tragic incident caught on camera that makes her less inclined to venture out to places where others may recognise her. Things become very serious for Margot when she discovers one or two clips that she suspects may actually be footage of real murders, overlaid with audio from the old Faces Of Death. Is someone trying to create a modern version of those clips, or is it all just as fake as so many other staged internet footage?

With such consideration given to what is real and what is fake, the performances here need to be as strong as possible. Sadly, they're not. I'm not sure I have seen Ferreira in too many other roles, but she's a disappointing choice for the lead role here. While she exudes a sense of unhappiness and mental fatigue, there's nothing else to her performance. She never quite convinces when trying to display real fear or remorse, or any of the few other emotions she's asked to perform. Dacre Montgomery is asked to play a villain with no real depth or character, but I was suitably impressed by his performance when I finally figured out that I'd last seen him in the very different guise of Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things. Aaron Holliday is a friend to the main character, Charli XCX has brief moments of being antagonistic, and Josie Totah is a stereotypical influencer, so obsessed with her online life that she pauses to reconsider things when she is scared after being kidnapped and held captive, but informed by her captor of the amount of attention and likes being garnered by the situation.

Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, who also co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Isa Mazzei, Faces Of Death is relevant, yet also already slightly outdated already (thanks AI). There are ideas here that are interesting and worthy of exploration, but they end up being cast aside in a third act that has to deliver more of standard movie moments. Early scenes will work best on people who have had a photo flagged because there may have been some hint of a nipple visible, but have then found themselves unable to report something violent and/or graphic and bloody on the same platform. It's an obvious double standard, one that is often replicated in censorship in so many other areas. Later scenes will work best on people who can be entertained by something that becomes increasingly implausible with each passing minute. I appreciated the unpleasant and dangerous tone that was created at times, but that completely dissipated by the time the end credits came around.

6/10

Monday, 5 October 2026

Mubi Monday: Daughters Of Darkness (1971)

A celebrated Euro-horror that leans more into the Euro than the horror, Daughters Of Darkness is a film best explored through the lens of people much more knowledgeable and passionate about it than myself (e.g. check out anything that Kat Ellinger has to say about it). I've always found enough here to enjoy, but it's a very slight and ethereal film, one that feels almost as much about the time it was made as about the characters at the heart of it.

John Karlen and Danielle Ouimet are newlyweds Stefan and Valerie. They're supposed to be heading to meet Stefan's mother, but Stefan is actually trying to delay that encounter. Instead, the pair end up checking in to a hotel in Belgium, where they are soon also joined by a countess (Elizabeth, played by Delphine Seyrig) and her "assistant" (Ilona, played by Andrea Rau). The two couples start to interact in ways that are both exciting and dangerous, observed by an anxious hotel clerk (Paul Esser).

Presented in a number of sequences that feel like assembled painterly compositions, Daughters Of Darkness is a vampire film, but it's also much more concerned with looking at unbalanced relationship dynamics, sexual freedom, and self-exploration than fangs and bloodshed. You do get some interesting twists on classic vampire tropes (especially in one shower scene that ends badly for someone), but those expecting something traditional may be disappointed. This sits almost equidistant from both the Hammer horrors of this time and the toothy eroticism of Jean Rollin.

Director Harry Kümel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Pierre Drouot, Jean Ferry, and one or two others assisting, doesn't have the biggest filmography, but this film alone has been enough to maintain his reputation for over fifty years now. It's mysterious without being too impenetrable, slow-paced without being boring, and gorgeous without being all style over substance. While I have yet to full embrace it as some others do, it's something I find myself drawn back to once every few years, the film itself seeming to emulate the powerful mesmerism and allure of Elizabeth.

For as well as Kümel does, (and it's also worth praising cinematographer Eduard van der Enden, as well as everyone involved in the set dressing, makeup, and costume departments, at the very least) he has a lot to be grateful for when it comes to the casting. Seyrig and Rau are an iconic duo, and both are captivating in very different ways. It's easy to see why the young newlyweds are drawn to them. It's also easy to see how Stefan and Valeria can be so easily exploited and manipulated. Karlen and Ouimet have the lesser roles, but both are fine with what they're asked to do, and that works out well when Ouimet appears to remain passive as she finds herself heading to a very important crunch point in her relationships, with others around her and with herself. Esser is enjoyable in his small role, Georges Jamin is a retired policeman who may spell trouble, and the wonderfully out-of-time hotel itself is another important character.

I can only apologise to others who will view my opinion of this as something approaching blasphemy, but I am simply putting this review and rating here as a starting point. This won't be the last time that I view this film, and future viewings will also be accompanied by deeper explorations that should only serve to enrich the experience for me. And then, one day, I may well see this as the absolute classic that others see.

7/10

Sunday, 4 October 2026

Netflix And Chill: AfrAId (2024)

It's ironic that many of the techno-thrillers showing people being threatened by dangerous AI are made nowadays by studios who seem to be selling us on the inevitability and usefulness of AI. It may be inevitable, and there are times when it can be useful, but we're already heading too fast down a dark tunnel that doesn't have enough safeguards to stop people from crashing into a spike-covered wall hidden somewhere at the end of it.

In order to secure a lucrative business contract, a family is asked to spend some time testing a new home tech device, AIA. AIA is your standard super-charged Alexa/Siri device, able to entertain and educate the kids, order good shopping deals, and generally make life a bit easier. It can also create deepfakes, monitor all communication, and start to act autonomously in ways that seem just a bit psychopathic. That's when mum and dad (Katherine Waterston and John Cho, respectively) start trying to find a way to keep their family (Iris, played by Lukita Maxwell, Preston, played by Wyatt Lindner, and Cal, played by Isaac Bae) safe. It's very hard to find a safe space away from AIA though.

Written and directed by Chris Weitz, who has done much better work in other genres throughout the past quarter of a century, AfrAId is another film from the past few years that already feels somehow ridiculous and paranoid and outdated and naive all at the same time. Dressing things up with overt genre trappings would be fine if the end result was fun and worth your time, but it's not, which makes me wish we spent more time being shown the smaller and more subtle ways in which AI could cause problems, including the erosion of free-thinking and intelligence that stems from being minds being trained to rely on tech and trust it for answers and various tasks.

Cho does well in his lead role, even as things get more ridiculous on the way to the very last scene, but Waterston remains someone I can take or leave in most of her movie roles (and this is one I would have liked to see someone else take on). I really like Maxwell, who at least gets a lot more to do here than in her minor Backrooms role, Bae is very good, and Lindner, well, he does what his asked of him, if nothing more. David Dastmalchian and Ashley Romans have fun for their few minutes of screentime, Havana Rose Liu gets to play two parts (being a real person, Melody, and also the chosen voice for AIA), and does well with both, and Bennett Curran is easy to hate as the whining and sleazy Sawyer, a young man trying to manipulate Iris into sending him some nudes.

There's zero tension throughout this, especially in a ridiculous third act that limps from one unbelievable moment to the next, and it doesn't lean into the ridiculousness of the concept in order to at least deliver some enjoyable set-pieces. It's a bloodless, toothless, pointless waste of time.

3/10

Saturday, 3 October 2026

Shudder Saturday: Above The Knee (2024)

Amir (Freddy Singh) has Body Integrity Dysphoria, and that's the main character we're stuck alongside for the duration of Above The Knee. In this case, Amir is obsessed with the idea that his left leg shouldn't be there, from the knee down anyway. He actually tries to sit with it tucked under his body a lot, and gets some pleasure and satisfaction from the times when it feels slightly paralysed. It really needs to go though, but how will others view him if they know that he plans to "solve the problem" himself?

Based on an idea created by Singh and director Viljar Bøe, Above The Knee is a dark and intriguing exploration of a very unusual psyche. I don't think I would have been able to stick with it if it had only given us Amir as an important character, but the fact that we also see how things affect his partner (Kim, played by Julie Abrahamsen), and how one other individual (Rikke, played by Louise Waage Anda) seems to flirt with the central concept without wanting to commit to it, really helps the whole thing to take viewers down some other dark alleyways without losing sight of the main road stretching through the runtime.

Singh plays his part with very little energy, but it's a performance that feels deliberate, and very much in line with his character. He's miserable, he's just killing time until something can happen to completely alter his life, and he won't feel like a complete person until, ironically, his body is as incomplete as he believes it should be. Abrahamsen has the least rewarding role, but the wild nature of the problems at the heart of their relationship help to keep viewing her as sympathetic and sorely ill-treated. In fact, the final scenes are more impactful than expected due to her involvement. Then we have Aanda, giving a great performance as the most fascinating character in the film. She is, to pick a movie analogy, very similar to the character of Marla in Fight Club AKA a tourist who makes another tourist uncomfortable by being so obvious in her attitude. The very best scene in the film has Amir and Rikke testing one another in regards to their ultimate goals.

Bøe may not do much to bring attention to his direction, but the structure of the screenplay and a number of inserted images work to keep viewers interested and curious about how everything will play out. We know what Amir wants. We know how society would view his behaviour. Will he be able to execute his plan, and, if he does, what will he face in the immediate aftermath?

Not a traditional horror movie, and probably not for those looking to fill their viewing schedule this month with easygoing October thrills and chills, but this is an excellent little film that starts from a very dark place and somehow keeps finding ways to get darker and darker all the way up to the incredible last moments.

8/10

Friday, 2 October 2026

Hungry (2026)

While the tagline says "this hippo isn't playing games", which should at least let you know that Hungry is a film about a killer hippo, this isn't a film stuck firmly within that one idea. Let's face it, it would be hard to make a horror movie with someone caught in the middle of a quartet of hippos all trying to eat as many snacks as possible before a timer runs out. What you get instead is a decent creature feature that tries to sell itself on a cute name and tagline. And that was enough to get me to watch it.

As per every successful creature feature, and it's a similar template already put in place by disaster movies from decades ago, viewers are introduced to a selection of characters who will all soon end up in jeopardy as they enjoy a riverboat tour in New Orleans. The main two, the potential leads, seem to be friends Sistine (Madison Davenport) and Hannah (Olivia Bernstone), but there's also a multi-generational family group, a busy businesswoman, and the tour guide himself to become endangered when they all inadvertently place themselves in the hunting ground of a hungry hungry hippo.

Written and directed by James Nunn, a man who started his feature career well with Tower Block, but has more recently given us the absolute awfulness of Wildcat, Hungry is a relatively fun and enjoyable slice of nonsense. There could have been a better mix of characters, and more time spent showcasing the practical effects ahead of any computer FX would have been appreciated, but there's enough here to make it exactly what you expect it to be, even down to the grizzled hunter character played entertainingly by Joaquim de Almeida.

Davenport and Bernstone are likeable in their roles, Tracey Bonner has to be less likeable as the woman who apparently causes the tour to be so far away from the usual safe waters, but she does well, and Jim Meskiman, Samantha Coughlan, and River Codack provide a good mix of family members who will suffer greater shock if one of their group is put in hippo-critical condition. Michel Curiel gets to play his guide character as someone pleased to receive some extra money, but not looking to deliberately screw anyone over, and de Almeida does well to avoid going into full on "Ahab/Quint" mode.

Nunn knows what he's doing when it comes to building up the tension, in terms of the creature activity that occurs before the main characters become fully aware of their situation anyway, but there comes a time when everything suddenly becomes much more volatile and dangerous, and that's when he falters slightly. There just isn't enough inventiveness, perhaps due to the fact that a hippo (although a very dangerous mammal) isn't easy to portray as cunning and deadly. It doesn't help that the finale is bogged down by exposition that could have been hinted at much earlier in the film, and the predictable one on one "showdown" is disappointingly anti-climactic.

If you're after some easy entertainment then this should fit the bill. I doubt we'll see a sharp rise in killer hippo movies after this one. It's much more fun to spend time with killer crocs, large alligators, or deadly sharks . . . when it comes to these kinds of films anyway.

6/10

Thursday, 1 October 2026

Meatcleaver Massacre (1976)

While I wasn't initially aware of Ed Wood being involved in this (apparently taking over the directing duties and credited with an alias), the staggering ineptitude of Meatcleaver Massacre soon gave me a clue to their involvement. Not that I am a hater of Wood. Indeed, many of their clumsy failures have a charm lacking from a selection of more polished mainstream productions I could name, but it would be disingenuous to try and hail Wood as some kind of misunderstood great. An important part of cinema history, yes. A misunderstood genius, I think not.

Meatcleaver Massacre contains neither a meatcleaver nor a massacre, as far as I could tell anyway (it's not the sharpest picture quality I've ever seen). It instead contains a messy and tame horror film that in no way lives up to the promise of the title. There's also some footage of Christopher Lee bookending the film (and I encourage you all to investigate how that happened to end up there) with some dialogue that attempts to add some weight to the nonsense you're about to watch. The silly plot has Professor Cantrell (James Habif) left paraplegic and comatose after a group of abusive thugs break into his home and kill his family. That doesn't mean that Cantrell is powerless though. His years of studying the occult mean that he can still find a way to get revenge on the criminals.

Keith Burns and Ray Atherton are the two people credited with writing this, but it's not something that most people would put on their C.V. The dialogue is dire, there's no tension, and most of the characters blend into one another. There's the Professor, there's the detective investigating the situation (played by J. Arthur Craig), and there are the corpses-to-be.

If the writing and direction are poor, the acting generally matches them. There's nobody here (Lee aside) who you could imagine one day making their way through some big award campaign. I've seen a hell of a lot worse though, especially while sitting through many SOV and/or microbudget horror movies. Larry Justin plays the ringleader of the reprobates, and isn't actually terrible. He just cannot do anything with the material to make it better.

There's not much else to say about this. It runs for 85 minutes, but viewers spend 8 of those minutes being spoken to by Christopher Lee, and there are no depths to explore and examine. The fact that it has been given a limited release on Blu-ray by a couple of different companies (Shout! Factory in the USA, 101 Films here in the UK), while I still eagerly await a collector's edition release of Screamtime, is just downright perverse.

2/10

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Prime Time: The Love Hypothesis (2026)

When I started watching The Love Hypothesis I was unaware of the fact that it was based on a story that started life as Star Wars fan fiction. All I knew about it was that it was a rom-com, it was directed by Claire Scanlon (who also helmed the enjoyable rom-com Set It Up), and it starred two people in lead roles that I wasn't very familiar with.

Lili Reinhart plays Olive Smith, a very smart student with a very bright future. She doesn't have anyone really close to her though, which is why her relationship with uni bestie Anh (Rachel Marsh) is so important. More important than her crush on Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). When she realises that Jeremy actually has a crush on Anh, but knows that Anh won't pursue it if she thinks that Olive will have her feelings hurt, there's only one solution . . . pretend to be in a relationship. Events conspire to push Olive and the notoriously mean Dr. Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) together, which could work out well for both of them, as Dr. Carlsen needs to show how settled he is in order to be rewarded with some vital grant money. The pretence has rewards, but it isn't without risks, including the development of some real feelings.

Once you know what (or who) Ali Hazelwood was writing about then The Love Hypothesis becomes amusingly obvious in how the leads are characterised, but Sarah Rothschild does good work in crafting a screenplay that keeps everything moving quickly from one satisfying rom-com moment to the next. There's a couple of "meet cute" scenes that work well, plenty of fun to be had with the initial awkwardness between our stars, and a believable development in the strength of the connection between them. Lessons are learned, obstacles are put in their way, and you will know how it is going to end as soon as it starts. But that's part of the appeal. If I don't want a formulaic movie then I will look elsewhere, but if I seek out a new rom-com then, dammit, I want enough rom and enough com, and director Scanlon delivers on both fronts here.

Reinhart does well in her role, and she's good enough to warrant top billing. Bateman also does well, and he provides a lot of the comedy with his stern and analytical approach to most interactions. Marsh is the kind of best friend that everyone wishes they could have in their lives, Duvernay does perfectly fine with what is asked of him, although that's not too much, and Jaboukie Young-White is more enjoyable when he's partying and neglecting his studies than when he has to face any consequences for partying and neglecting his studies. Arty Froushan is a very important secondary character, Dr. Thomas Benton, but the plot thread concerning Olive's research, and attempts to impress the likes of Benton and his peers, feels slightly undercooked until it becomes pivotal to the third act.

I'm not going to rush to recommend this to everyone, but you could do a lot worse if you're after some fluffy and (mostly) sweet fun. The more adult moments that are presented in the third act may put you off slightly, but it's all handled in just the right way by Scanlon, who allows her characters to maintain a vulnerability and/or defensiveness that, while part and parcel of the sub-genre, will be very familiar to those who have tiptoed through the early stages of any major relationship.

And, hey, at least it didn't stick close enough to the source material to have our protagonists presented as two Death Star-crossed lovers.

6/10