Shudder Saturday: The Severed Sun (2025)

With the striking imagery of a woman raising an axe against a bright yellow background, The Severed Sun definitely had a poster that caught my attention when I saw it in thumbnail form. I hadn't heard anything about it though, and could only surmise that it seemed to be a slice of British folk horror. That was enough for me to decide on giving it some of my time.

Emma Appleton plays Magpie, a member of an isolated religious community. Magpie is the subject of much discussion when her abusive husband is violently assisted off this mortal coil. Her father, The Pastor (Toby Stephens), thinks he can still help to fix things, and help her by presenting a new husband (John, played by Barney Harris), but maybe another force is ready to guide anyone who believes in it strongly enough. 

Written and directed by Dean Puckett, making his narrative feature debut after years spent working on various shorts and documentaries, this is more interesting than it is successful, but there's a lot here to mark Puckett out as someone very capable and very worth keeping an eye on. He does well with the central idea, as well as allowing his cast to flesh out their characters in a way that I didn't expect when I noticed the relatively brief 80-minute runtime, but there just needed to be one or two other tweaks to tilt the whole thing into something truly unsettling and horrific. For as much as I enjoyed watching how this played out, I am not sure who else I would recommend it to.

Appleton, who I last saw in Lola, does well in the lead role. She gives a performance that establishes her character as bold and defiant enough to make those around her uncomfortable at the idea of how much she could upset the established order of things. It also helps that she spends a lot of the runtime battling against Stephens, doing a good line in sanctimony, and an insistent and unfriendly "neighbour", portrayed very effectively by Jodhi May. Harris does well enough, as do the likes of Lewis Gribben, Oliver Maltman, and James Swanton (the latter unrecognisable in a beastly role).

Puckett doesn't add anything truly exceptional to the general conversation about patriarchy and misogyny that has been more and more prominent throughout the last decade, but he handles the potentially difficult material well, and includes some moments of impressively striking imagery. While this isn't his first film, strictly speaking, it certainly feels like a good calling card for whatever might come next. And whatever might come next is something I will be interested in checking out.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Shudder Saturday: To Fire You Come At Last (2023)

While I appreciate the idea of Shudder allowing Kier-La Janisse the chance to curate a seasonal selection of short spooky tales, in the tradition of the Christmas ghost story best appreciated beside a roaring fire and inky darkness pressing at your windows, I am a bit bemused as to the timescale.* This is the first tale presented, and one will be added every year, apparently. So we'll have ten to choose from if the idea of The Haunted Season, as it has been named, lasts for an entire decade.

Written and directed by Sean Hogan (someone very much worth your time/support), this is the tale of four men carrying a coffin on a lonely stretch of road as the day is turning into night. There's the Squire Marlow (Mark Carlisle), a man grieving the fact that his son is the one being buried, Pike (Richard Rowden), an assistant to the squire, Holt (Harry Roebuck), a young man who was a friend of the deceased, and Ransley (James Swanton), a local often hired for the unpleasant task of coffin transportation. Nerves are frayed and tensions run high as this foursome move along with more than just a corpse weighing on their shoulders.

People may be more familiar with Hogan nowadays for his writing than his film work (but if you're unaware of his writing then you should really change that). I've been a fan of his since he impressed me on two different occasions over a decade ago, with his work on Little Deaths and the superbly spooky The Devil's Business. Both of those films deserve to be rediscovered and re-appraised, by the way. Anyway, Hogan knows how to create tales that can unnerve you and chill your bones, while at the same time keeping you intrigued and entertained. He focuses on dialogue and atmosphere, and then helps himself by making great use of cast members who seem to clearly relish the words they're entrusted with.

Although viewers haven't often seen him looking as he normally looks, Swanton is arguably the most well-known of the central performers here. Horror fans will have seen him embodying a great number of strange and dark characters over the past few years (it would be too easy to refer to him as the British Doug Jones, but it also wouldn't be too inaccurate), yet he has lots of fun here with a wonderfully theatrical performance that serves as a reminder of his excellent one-man turn in Frankenstein's Creature. Whether already familiar with him or not, Swanton makes himself the star of the piece, but he's nicely complemented by Carlisle, Roebuck, and Rowden, who all chew on the material with great gusto.

Hogan doesn't have too much to keep layering over the spooky core of the film, which explains why it's only a 43-minute short, but he sketches out the characters and the group dynamic with attention and care, giving viewers more to appreciate and chew over than can be found in most horror movies, whatever their length. If this is a taster of more to come from him in the film world, I remain very enthusiastic to see anything and everything else he wants to present. I might even end up rewatching this before the year is over.

7/10

*EDIT: Someone rightly pointed out to me that the BBC has been doing the same thing for many years, of course, but the timescale never feels problematic there because they already have a nice backlog to rewatch and enjoy.

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Shudder Saturday: Stopmotion (2023)

If you're a fan of Robert Morgan then you will probably have a good idea of what to expect from his first feature film, especially with it being titled with his favoured form of animation. It's interesting to see Morgan prove himself as a feature director though, and this is a debut that perfectly blends elements of his brilliant shorts with the added luxury of a runtime that allows him to nurture a growing atmosphere of unease and dread.

Aisling Franciosi plays Ella Blake, a woman who is often shouted at and belittled while working on the stop-motion animation being filmed by her mother, Suzanne (Stella Gonet). Things change when Suzanne is suddenly indisposed, leaving Ella to carry out the work all on her own. Leaving Ella with some creations that she start to invade her subconscious. Does Ella have a problem, or are things around her getting very weird?

Co-written by Morgan and Robin King, who has worn many hats throughout his own career, and is certainly no stranger to dark animation, this is a fairly obvious and standard bit of psychological horror that is elevated by those horribly off-kilter and downright queasy creations that Morgan puts onscreen. While it would make an interesting companion piece to something like Censor, I much preferred this. The big difference being that an artist is at the heart of this particular journey through a landscape blurring reality and unreality, whereas Censor was about a poor . . . censor (yes, I am still side-eyeing all of you who absolutely and unreservedly loved it, and probably will forever, but I know I am almost alone in just liking it).

I loved Franciosi in the lead role here. While I don’t think I have personally seen her in any of her orbiter features, she gives the kind of brilliant and confident performance that assures you that she has been honing her craft for some time. Gonet is impressively mean and callous, which she does well enough to immediately make you stay on the side of our put-upon lead, and both Tom York and Therica Wilson-Read do a very good job as people who think they know what it takes to make such impressive art, but really REALLY don’t. The great James Swanton (if you don’t know his name then I implore you to seek out some of his work) makes an impact with his character, and, last hut not least, young Caoilinn Springall is an extra window into this world, and an extra person who may be in danger, as a curious little girl just credited as Little Girl.

Fans of Morgan have been waiting for him to deliver a feature for some time, which saddles this with some extra weight of expectation. Try to leave that aside once you start watching this though. The film itself is nicely in line with what should be expected from Morgan, even if it feels a bit light and tame when placed alongside his memorable shorts. Morgan knows what he is doing, and he knows the pros and cons of different formats and runtimes. Put a bit of faith in him and you should be duly rewarded. This was great. It wasn’t really like his short films, but then . . . what is?

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Frankenstein's Creature (2018)

The feature film directorial debut from Sam Ashurst, who is arguably best known recently for both A Little More Flesh and A Little More Flesh II, what you have here is, as you might expect, an interpretation of the classic Frankenstein tale. Although a different way to relate the events of that landmark sci-fi horror, those involved really underline the superb quote “intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein isn’t the monster, wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster.”

Starring James Swanton in the titular role, essentially delivering an extended monologue that he used to perform as a one-man show, with the emphasis more on the words and the performance than any cinematic bells and whistles. Which isn’t to say that Ashurst adds nothing to the whole experience, but I will get to that soon enough. Telling his tale, the creature is able to fully expound upon his experience as a singular creation, inspiring fear in a father figure who then rejected him, leaving him abandoned, confused, and angry. 

Released in a very limited edition (as has been the case with everything directed by Ashurst so far), Frankenstein’s Creature is probably one of the more niche movies that I have reviewed, and the fact that I own it is something that can allow me to talk about it with an ever-so-slight air of smugness underlining everything. Because I liked this.

It could easily be argued that this isn’t a fully satisfying filmic experience. It’s a stage work, a bit of theatre that just happened to be filmed. On the one hand. But Ashurst DOES complement the material with his approach. Although the focus remains Swanton and the small set (one small section of an abandoned building), visuals run in the background, as if projected there, that help to show the journey of the creature and affect the overall atmosphere (e.g. some flowing ice water adds a chill viewers can feel working into their bones). There are also one or two moments that superimpose a close-up of Swanton’s on top of his ongoing performance, giving viewers a chance to fully appreciate the unnerving, Conrad Veidt, facial make-up.

I think it’s fair to warn most viewers though. Despite the great work from Ashurst, this is deliberately all about the dialogue being delivered by Swanton. It is a powerhouse performance, and Ashurst shows great restraint in not feeling the need to meddle with it. The Pyramid Texts is the only other film I can think of that feels similar to this, and if you ever managed to see that masterpiece then you should already know whether or not you will find this worth your time.

I didn’t absolutely love this, unlike the aforementioned The Pyramid Texts, but I certainly liked, and admired, it. It’s a real treat to see a classic horror archetype reworked so brilliantly,  and with equal helpings of passion and intelligence.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews