The Thing (1982)

The Thing was the highlight of my movie marathon (having already seen The Shining in the cinema a couple of months ago). The Thing is one of those films that I avoided growing up cause my tolerance of gore was quite low in the early 90’s when I would have watched this. Thankfully I put this right and was glad to be able to see it on the big screen. I think this might actually be John Carpenter’s best film although there are other films that deserve to be involved in that particular discussion.

The special effects are glorious and show why practical effects will always be better than CGI (something the 2011 version should have realised). They look really good on my TV at home but on the big screen you can appreciate the effort that went into them. They all look disgusting and are just as effective today as they did in 1982. There is one stop motion shot which doesn't quite work towards the end but apart from that the effects that Stan Winston created here are some of the best ever.There is one matte painting shot which is designed to show the where the spaceship was buried and it does look like a matte painting on the big screen but that is one of the few dated things that is in the movie.

One of the things that I love about this film is the isolated setting. I always like isolated settings because they mean that the cavalry isn't going to come over the nearest horizon or help our main characters out. The characters have to use their heads to try and get them out of the situation and the way that the characters are written means that you can see them working together even if they are at odds some of the time. I do think that there are too many characters for too much of the film so it means that we have to put up with some characters that don't really connect with me. The only ones that do are MacReady, Blair & Childs and that is because they are played by Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley & Keith David. To be fair, they are really good as Kurt Russell is at the peak of his career and the thing to like about MacReady is he doesn't start off as the tough guy but is sort of forced into it by the actions of the film. Wilford Brimley is distracting at first by not having a moustache.

I like the fact that we don't know for a long period of time who the ‘thing’ is. The shadow doesn't look like any of the cat so there is no way of knowing until the big reveal. The Thing is not in any rush to show itself and that is another thing that the 2011 version fails to understand. You don't have to have everything spoonfed to you and apart from the opening shot, we don't know anything about what the Thing is and how it got here. 

The Ennio Morricone credited score sounds an awful lot like a John Carpenter score and that is probably because it is. Carpenter views his score like wallpaper which is a bit dismissive but in the context of this film and a lot of films around this period, that attitude works to the film's benefit. There is something alien sounding about the score and when there is an alien hiding in plain sight it does what a score should do and that is compliment what is going on.

I have always thought that this film was very good but seeing it on the screen has made me appreciate it even more. The story is simple, the setting is perfect, the way that suspense is used is brilliant and the gore/horror is some of the best of this era. I have changed my rating which isn't something I tend to do with films that I have seen before. This is a five start film in my opinion and one of the best horror films of all time. 

The Omen (1976)

The Omen is the first part of a four part movie marathon which starts at nine at night and ends around eight hours later in the early hours of Sunday morning. The 1976 Omen is arguably the best and starts at 6am on June 6 and sees Gregory Peck star as Robert Thorn who is the US Ambassador and his pregnant wife gives birth but sadly the baby dies. Thorn is given the choice of taking a baby who has just been born but has lost his mother and taking him as his new child but without telling his wife Katherine (Lee Remick).

Gregory Peck is very good as Robert. His world slowly starts to crumble and he seems to accept what is happening but with an understandable amount of scepticism. The only time this scepticism becomes an issue is when he is told to kill Damian and Robert goes back to seeing Damian as a child.Lee Remick does ok as Katherine although her role is somewhat limited and the only time she really gets anything to do is when Katherine jumps out of a window and into a neatly placed ambulance. It is always harsh to criticise child actors as especially now they are quite good but back in the 1970’s that wasn't the case and Harvey Stephens does ok as Damian. He does a good job of looking like a normal young boy which plays into the ideal of him being the son of the devil even harder to believe.

I have never felt this before but the whole part of the film where Robert and Keith go to Italy and visit the graveyard is actually my favourite part of the entire film. It’s done with a great sense of atmosphere and it is the part of the film where we really get some development in the story and crucially some answers to what is going on. It takes place at night but we can still see what is going on which is the main issue with a lot of horror films today.

Being a Doctor Who fan, the inclusion of Patrick Troughton is a main reason why I will always rewatch the show. It is only three years since his last appearance as the Doctor and this might be a dumb thing to say but as Father Brown it is very different to the Cosmic Hobo that he played in Doctor Who. His run is also very different and shows that his run in Doctor Who was a stylistic choice instead of how he normally runs or it could have been a stylistic choice in this film. His role in the film is important because he is trying to convince Robert of the danger that is about to come over his family. He is obviously dismissed by Robert but it leads to his death which is a really good one because it seems to come out of nowhere. David Warner is another person with Doctor Who connections having starred in several audio adventures right up until his death. In this he is very good as Keith. Saying Warner is good in something is an obvious thing to say but he brings something great to whatever role he is in and seems to have better luck in making Robert understand the severity of the situation. His importance to Robert inevitably leads to his death and its a very good death like Father Brown. He loses his due to a freak accident and whilst the prop head does look like a prop head, his death is still shocking.

Given that Damian isn't in it as much as you would expect, it's a credit to the film that his importance to the plot comes across as effective as it does. It’s only at the end when Robert takes Damian to the church with the intention of killing him that the scale of what could happen is really understood.

The writing and directing were very good. It always amuses me that the director of this would go onto direct The Goonies which is one of my favourite films and is tonally very different to this film. I like this film but have to admit that I don't love it. I think that there are moments which are very well done but there is something that doesn't quite work for me. I have watched it many times over the years and with each watch I hope that something stands out to me but each time I find myself feeling the same. It’s not bad by any means but it doesn't work for me in the same way that it works for others. It is still the best of the series even though it works as a good double bill with The First Omen.

Backrooms (2026)

I was genuinely looking forward to this film more than Mandalorian and Grogu. The trailer had a lot of mystery without spoiling too much so was the perfect type of trailer. The film is based on a web series that started on creepypasta and this got picked up by A24. Now I have never seen the YouTube stuff that he did but this film is a continuation of that stuff but I dont feel like i was missing out on not having seen it. There will obviously have been Easter eggs in the film but I never felt like I was missing out but if you have seen the other stuff then you will get the references.

I thought that when Mary is pulled away by the people in the hazmat suits and it fades to black that the film was over would have been a terrible ending but then thankfully it continues but then worried again that we were going to be bombarded with exposition but thankfully we weren’t and what we ended up getting was a satisfying ending that l thought was mysterious but still gave us enough information. The explanation is that a company that started to do work in MRI stopped all that so that they could research this area that seems to go on and on forever. 

The film doesn't have many performances but that two central ones are Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays Clark and Renate Reinsve who plays Mary the psychiatrist. I liked Reinsve in Sentimental Value which was Oscar nominated this year and both of them play flawed people. Clark runs a furniture store that is failing (never see a customer) and his marriage is falling apart and he lives in the store and once Mary finds him, he decides to stay because its where he feels at home and can sort of wallow in his misery. Mary has her own issues, she seems to have a good life by being a psychiatrist but we see that she has a book for sale and we see her eating her dinner on the couch and she had a mother who seemed to have a mental illness. The film ends with her seemingly trapped in this world but it is left ambiguous. Ejiofor is very good as someone who can’t get past the fact things have happened to him and he can’t accept that he is responsible. The scene where Clark is at the dinner table with Mary, the bearded guy and the woman in the red office dress and he grabs chunks of white something and puts it on the plates and it was at this point that the focus shifted to Mary as she is trying to escape from the 8ft Pirate Clark. They dont spend a huge amount of time together so it’s hard to really rate their chemistry but on their own they were both very good.

There is a great sense of claustrophobia when they move into the Backrooms. There were a couple of moments which genuinely did make me jump and this was a rare case of jumpscares actually working because they weren’t earnt so I didn’t mind. The fact that it is brightly lit shows that you can light rooms and things can still be unnerving or scary. The 8ft Pirate Clark looked creepy even when we got to see it which is not what I was expecting but again shows that you can make this stuff work when you reveal things.  

I do think that we are in a strong period for horror films. There is this, there was Obsession, Iron Lung, Exit 8 and this is another film that is made by a YouTuber and it’s shocking and quite frankly soul destroying to know that Kane Parsons is 20 YEARS OLD!!!! This film did have involvement from the likes of James Wan and Osgood Perkins so hopefully they had a positive impact on him and this is the start of a very promising career. Very good stuff.

Obsession (2025)

Obsession is a film that says be careful what you wish for, cause you will get fed your recently deceased cat in a sandwich. Barker’s previous film Milk & Serial got my attention because it was released on YouTube which is a novel way of getting attention and it worked. Aside from the fact that it was a bold move to give a film away for free, it was an enjoyable horror film. The set up of the film is that Bear wishes for someone he works with and fancies to fall in love with him and only him and things go very wrong very quickly.

Michael Johnston is quite good as Bear. He is someone who comes across as somewhat of an introvert and when push comes to shove, he always chickens out. You could argue that he is putting his will onto Nikki but the film manages to make it a bit more ambiguous when there are moments which show the real Nikki trying to get Bear to kill her. Inde Navarrette does a great job as Nikki. Playing someone that crazy and yet still coming across as somewhat grounded is a hard thing to pull off. There is one moment where is she is smiling as Bear leaves the house and it did remind me of the ending of Pearl where Mia Goth’s character has an exaggerated smile and stays like that for what must be a couple of minutes. In this film the smile is slightly made worse by the sight of Nikki wetting herself. Both Navarrette and Johnston work well together which is why the story works as well as it does.

The film has an 18 certificate for gore but to be honest I don't think the film was that gory. I’m not a huge fan of gore and I would never sit and watch stuff like Terrifier or Saw or any of the torture porn genre films but I thought that the gore is elevated because it comes at times of extreme violence such as when Sarah’s head is pummelled against a brick on her steering wheel at the hands of Nikki.

There are a few issues with the film. In no particular order, the moment when Bear realises he is eating his cat in his sandwich was quite an obvious thing and although it is still a screwed up thing to do it is something that I saw coming and I usually see that as a bad sign. If I can spot it then it means that it's either way too obvious or the film isn't working. On this occasion it is the former. Then there is his ‘friend’ who fancies Nikki and I think that aspect of the plot and their relationship is a bit underwhelming. When Bear is trying to get Ian to make the wish to get the curse off of him, Ian decides to wish for a billion dollars and in literally his next scene is killed so it kind of made that money scene pointless.    

I enjoyed Obsession. I thought that it took a pretty simple concept and managed to make it atmospheric and proves that smiling is one of the most horrifying things you can do. We have really been on a great run of horror films over the last few years with Weapons, Bring Her Back, Smile, Barbarian and Nope. This more than deserves its place amongst those films and it was to see what Curry Barker could do with a stronger story and also a bigger budget.

Hokum (2026)

Hokum was a film that I didn't know a whole lot about but I did hear it advertised on the radio and they called it ‘a near perfect horror film’ which did put me on edge because its one bar below ‘the greatest horror film since The Exorcist’. I had hopes that it would be very good because it's directed by Damian McCarthy who previously directed Oddity which was an enjoyable and equally atmospheric horror.

There are Stephen King vibes throughout this film. The frustrated writer, the isolated hotel and the room that no one is allowed in. Now I am not comparing this to The Shining because that would be foolish but the hotel is a big part of the film and the film benefits from having a great sense of atmosphere. The film utilises the darkness quite well although there were a few times that I wished the brightness had been turned up a little bit but McCarthy showed in this film just like he did in Oddity that he understands how to create an atmospheric film that isn't just style over substance.

I did feel like the honeymoon suite layout was designed by James Wan. He loves his houses to be oddly large and it seems just a little too big but having never been in a honeymoon suite I don't know if this is too big or too large but it is something that I noticed in the middle of Ohm running around. The film does have a decent number of jump scars but unlike most horror films, these felt earnt. They felt like they had been worked into the story because they didn't take me out of the story but just kept me interested in what was happening. 

I did like the scenes from the book. It would have been nice if they were peppered in throughout the film but I suppose they served their purpose in the two parts that we got. 

Adam Scott is good as Ohm. He starts off as a typically unlikeable and possibly pretentious writer. He has a trauma which sees his mother killed by a gunshot wound and his father resenting him. I thought that the twist that he was responsible for his mothers death is something that might have been obvious to some but it led to the end of his time in the hotel. David Wilmot was good as Jerry. Jerry was styled as the weird guy in the story but by the end of the film he became one of the few dependable characters that Ohm could rely on (arguably the only one). I thought that Brendan Conroy was good as Mr Cobb the hotel owner but sadly he only has one scene which probably lasted for a minute and it would have been nice to have him feature more but that’s just the way it is.

I think the fact that Ohm is still unlikeable means that the ending isn't a good as it could have been. The last meeting between Ohm and Alby was a great opportunity to show some warmth and development on Ohm’s part but the fact that he is dismissive shows that he hasn't really grown despite what he has been through. He got some closure over the death of his mother and seemed to get the ending to his book that he was searching for but he still hasn't softened to a degree that I would have been happy with.

This was a very enjoyable film that shows that Damian McCarthy understands horror and understands that you can use atmosphere and use it well without relying on cheap jump scares. The only real issues with the film are with character development (or lack of it) but if you dont get the chance to see it at the cinema then this is perfect viewing during the Halloween season. 

Exit 8 (2025)

Exit 8 was a mystery screening at my local cinema and I thought that based on the clue that it was going to be Passenger but Exit 8 was definitely on my watchlist so it was a win win as far as I was concerned. The premise is simple a man simply called The Lost Man tries to reach Exit 8 but if he ignore ‘anomalies’ then he goes back to Exit 0. Along the way he comes across a little boy (simply called The Boy), a man walking towards and past him called The Walking Man and they all have the same goal which is to reach Exit 8.

The Lost Man is the one that we are introduced to as he is on a train and observes a woman being shouted at because her baby is crying. He then gets a call from his ex-girlfriend who tells him that she is pregnant and wants to know what to do. The Lost Man is the smarter of the two men we meet. He is describing every little thing that he sees whereas The Walking Man doesn't seem observant, missing a key detail (a door handle in the middle of the door) and as a result misses the anomaly and seems to then be destined to stay in this situation.

Mystery films are a risk and this is the second mystery film of the year where someone has walked out. In fact three people walked out before the film was five minutes old. I’m guessing that they didn’t want to spend any time watching a film with subtitles. I can understand their reluctance but I think they are missing some absolute gems and this is definitely a film worth seeing. Considering that the film takes place in a bland white corridor it still manages to find interesting ways to keep the story going. 

I will be honest, as much as I enjoyed this film, I found the ending confusing. After reaching Exit 8 and seemingly about to make a decision with his ex-girlfriend, he decides to board the train from the beginning of the film and encounters the shouty man. Are we supposed to assume that he is going to try and put right the wrong of not standing up to the guy but the ending is too ambiguous to make sense.  

Despite the confusing ending, I really enjoyed this film. I would have seen it anyway even if it hadn’t been a mystery film but it was a nice surprise. It’s a singular setting which always works well for me and there is enough of a mystery to stay intriguing and the film progresses at a good speed and at 95 minutes the film doesn't outstay its welcome. 

Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026)

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy or The Lee Cronin’s Mummy as it appears on the screen does seem to be the latest attempt to try and resurrect the Mummy franchise given that the 2017 Tom Cruise version was a failure on every conceivable level. The set up of this version is that parents Charlie who is a journalist and his nurse wife Larissa (who is also pregnant at the start of the film) lose their daughter Katie who is kidnapped in Egypt. The film then moves forward eight years with the family now living in New Mexico when they get the call that Katie has been found and the film follows the family coming to terms with Katie’s return and her strange behaviour.

The performances are decent enough although the detective in Cairo is sort of sidelined for most of the film until she arrives at the family home to deliver some exposition because the video tape she has come across is in Egyptian. She then gets a scorpion down her throat that pierces through and prevents her from speaking that leads her having to stick her finger in her throat to talk. The kids apart from Katie weren’t particularly strongly written. Maud (the youngest daughter) had some good moments including pulling out her own teeth without anyone noticing or making a scene and there is one moment where she calls her teacher a c**t which did make me chuckle although it did seem a bit out of place.

A main issue with the film apart from the runtime is that it feels very disjointed. It moves from Cairo to Albuquerque which look the same so it would have made much more sense to set it somewhere that looks different to the desert of Egypt. Also Sebastian does nothing of any worth in the story. He only does something in the final act when he is possessed. The rest of the time he is just…..there. There is also the fact that the woman who kidnapped Katie decided to record what she was doing and she did it on VHS and that people still seem to have VHS players including Katie’s parents. 

In the climax of the film it did come across as a bit like an Evil Dead movie which makes sense as Lee Cronin did direct the most recent Evil Dead which I actually did like but that was the moment when a film about a mummy stopped being about a mummy and instead became about a possessed girl. It could be argued that happened at the beginning of the film but due to the director’s connection to that other film it seemed obvious at this point.

The film is too long. It’s 2 hours and 13 minutes and it could easily have lost 40 minutes. I thought that it was a decent film. If they had tightened up the runtime then this would have been a much better film. It might seem strange to put the director’s name in the title but apparently it was Jason Blum’s idea in an attempt to differentiate it from the Universal Mummy films which will be resurrected in due course. Ultimately this film isn't quite as good as Evil Dead Rise but it is better than I thought it was going to be and definitely deserved its 18 certificate because I don't mind admitting that I did look away a couple of times because it is quite gory and definitely felt gorier than Evil Dead Rise.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026)

I am a big fan of Ready or Not. So there was a certain amount of trepidation when I went to see Ready or Not 2 cause I am still wary of sequels being better than the first. Despite coming out six years after the original, this film takes place immediately after the first one. As Grace survived the game the scriptwriters scrambled around for a way of rehashing the original plot and introducing her sister Faith played by Kathryn Newton.  The additional aspect of the plot is that the Le Domas’ were part of a group of families and Grace now being the winner is forced into playing double or nothing/ There are suppose to be six but with  the Le Domas’ were wiped out and Kevin Durand’s Bill Wilkinson and his family were wiped out so we are already down to four.

We meet Francesca (Maia Jae) who was originally suppose to marry Alex in the first film but he ditched her for Grace for some reason so this seemed to be introduced to add some drama. Her father Ignacio (played by Nestor Carbonell who is frankly chewing the scenery) seems to be lousy with a weapon and then when Francesca has a bazooka she is also rubbish with it, firing it in the opposite direction. If they wanted to they could have made her the driving force of the conflict but then again Maia Jae isn't Sarah Michelle Gellar. When Virat is killed, his brother Madhu he forfeits his position in the family to his wife who then decides to leave. She is actually the smartest of the entire cast and she drives off into the sunset and out of the movie. All the supporting characters of the supporting characters add nothing to the plot.

My main issue with the film is that its the first film but way more bloated in terms of story. Not just in terms of the cast numbers that don't do anything substantial but there are also way too many plot points where they try and get themselves out of a hole only to dig themselves into another hole. The first one was simple and effective, this time it just felt bloated and unnecessarily so. It’s not a terrible film by any means but I think that it's a classic sequel in that it does the first film but with a bigger budget so it’ll be bigger and louder and most of the time it doesn't work.

I don't think that this is a terrible film by any means because Samara Weaving is likeable as Grace and the absurdity of the whole film is used well enough but I don't think that this needed to exist. The script is weighed down by having to do too much and whilst it ends in a satisfactory way, it makes life very difficult for itself. There is potential for more if they wanted to although I think that they should stop now but I suppose it depends what happens at the box office.

They Will Kill You (2026)

They Will Kill You was a film that I got interested in purely because of the trailer. It’s advertised as being produced by Andy Muschietti although he didn’t direct it. Zazie Beetz plays Asia who starts a job at a fancy apartment block. It is soon revealed that she is looking for her sister who she abandoned 10 years earlier when they were trying to escape their abusive father. The film takes place primarily inside the complex and that is one of the things that appealed to me because I really like a film that has just one setting. There is a nice sense of claustrophobia about it and even though there are plenty of rooms, the isolated setting is used quite well here. 

The apartment complex is led by Lily (Patricia Arquette) and her husband Ray (Patterson Joseph) and a group of residents which include Tom Felton as Kevin and Heather Graham as Sharon. I thought that they were both quite good and it's always funny seeing someone from Harry Potter doing a role that is as far removed from Draco Malfoy as its possible to get. Patricia Arquette is fine as Lily and her story as to why she is there was interesting enough but Arquette is putting on the worst Irish accent I think I have ever heard. There are a couple of moments where I could hear some decent Irish words but for the most part it was pretty bad.

The film owes a debt to Ready or Not in a good way. People have to be sacrificed and one woman who isn't trained for this sort of combat has to try and defy the odds. I thought that Zazie Beetz was quite good as the older sister trying to go through the madness so she could rescue her sister. The final act of the film is where things start to fall apart a little bit. I thought that the relationship between Asia and Maria was quite good and I thought that Myha’la was quite good but her character doesn't really have much to do when she is on her own. It’s only when she is with Asia that her character works. The idea that the big boss is a headless pig that is keeping people’s names on him and the pen is tied to him is strange but it doesn't feel in keeping with the whole vibe of the film.

I thought the fight scenes were all pretty good. They looked great on the trailer and in the context of the film they looked even better. They did remind me of the fight scenes in Atomic Blonde and the director managed to show restraint by not having shaky cam so that we can’t see what’s going on. Things moved but you were still able to follow what was happening and appreciate the kills. 

I enjoyed this film but I think that it doesnt quite have the ending that it should have. I thought that the performances were really good (minus Arquette’s accent) and the style was something that I really liked. The film has a simple premise and the film was paced perfectly and ended at the right time. I thought Kirill Sokolov directed the film well and I look forward to more films from him.

The Good Boy (2025)

Good Boy (or Heel as its known on Letterboxd) sees Tommy played by Anson Boon who is a totally unlikeable man who causes fights, takes drugs, has sex and is then kidnapped by Chris (Stephen Graham) who has him chained up in the basement. Chris lives with his wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) and their son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). The film is directed by Jan Komasa who previously directed Hater which was one of my favourite foreign language films of 2020 and this film sees Komasa make his English language film debut.

The film doesn't get off to the best start with what feels like 20 production companies. It reminded me of the gag from Family Guy where Peter is watching a film and there is what he thinks is the start of the film but its just a production company logo and it keeps going and that is what it felt like in this film. Thankfully things improved immediately although I think for some people the loud dance music might be off putting. The film does a good job of making Tommy (Anson Boon) seem really unlikeable. In fact he could come across as too real because I suspect we have all encountered someone like Tommy over the years. 

The film takes place largely in this big house. Now singular settings always go down well with me because it means that your entire focus can be aimed on what is happening in the house. Yes there are moments where we leave the house and go into a more populated setting but those are very brief and dont distract from the story.

Stephen Graham is very good in this film. I feel like at this point saying that sentence is like saying day follows night and Tuesday is followed by Wednesday but he is really good as Chris. He is doing this horrible thing which isnt made better by the fact it’s being done to someone that is very unlikeable. There is a suggestion that he is ex police but it’s never properly explained. In fact there is something off about Graham’s performance which makes it uneasy to watch. It’s difficult to tell if he is the mastermind behind what is happening or is being controlled by Kathryn. I have never been the biggest fan of Andrea Riseborough. I think she is a very good actress but there is something that doesnt quite work for me and i think she seems to thrive in very sad and downbeat roles which in a weird kind of way is why she is so good as Kathryn.  Anson Boon is very good as Tommy. He’s so unlikeable at the beginning but as the film progresses then he matures and becomes a bit more likeable. 

There is one aspect of the plot that feels out of place is the Rina being followed part. I understand that she is at risk of being sent back to Macedonia but having someone follow her in two scenes only for he to be taken by a group of men who don't blink twice at the guy being chained up in the living room but once she is taken then that is it for her story so it seemed to be there just to add a convenient way to write the character out of the story.

At the point where it’s obvious that Tommy would escape isn't done in the way that I thought it would be. Tommy is allowed to leave by Chris and Kathryn which seemed like a strange thing to do and then we see Tommy going back into the club to see Gabby and the film ends with Tommy ‘kidnapping’ Gabby and bringing her to Chris and Kathryn to the only ‘family’ that he has probably ever had. 

I feel like ‘enjoyed’ is the wrong word to use. I thought this was a very good film but I doubt I would ever watch it again. There was a walkout which wasn't the most surprising thing given that it was quite a downbeat movie although that is about the fourth movie this year where someone has walked out although this is the only one that made sense. It was a mystery screening but another one that I am glad that I watched because I doubt I would have seen it of my own choosing. 

The Bride! (2026)

The Bride! will probably go down as the most polarising film of the year and the film had already some negative reviews and my expectations were high when it seemed to suggest that this film was a musical akin to the second Joker film. This is a remake/reimagining of the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein and stars Jessie Buckley in her second cinematic role of 2026 as Ida and The Bride and also Mary Shelley who speaks through Ida at several points of the flm. After being killed by members of the mob, Ida is brought back to life so that she can be the titular bride to Frankenstein’s Monster played by Christian Bale. Annette Benning’s Dr Conelia Euphronius is this film's Dr Frankenstein and there are a couple of detectives trying to catch Frank and the Bride in something that resembles Bonnie and Clyde.

Second film of the year starring Jessie Buckley and once I heard about this film I thought that the only thing stopping Jessie Buckley from walking away with an Oscar would be this film. I don't think that this will affect her chances at all which is a relief. She is very good at playing Ida and Mary Shelley. There is something about Ida which even when she is speaking as Mary Shelley she becomes mesmerising. Whenever Buckley was on screen I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen and was totally engrossed with what was happening. I couldn’t quite make my mind up about Bale’s version of Frank because it has come relatively recently after Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi’s version and whilst it is unfair to compare the two because they are two very different films. This version of Frankenstein’s monster doesn't quite have the menace that Elordi’s does. Together though I thought the chemistry between Bale and Buckley was great and the film works because you buy into their relationship.

The only real issue with the story was the use of Myrna played by Penelope Cruz. The recurring gag that she was overlooked because she is a woman felt a bit weak and wasn’t really needed. In fact the whole detective part of the plot felt a bit unneeded and whenever the story moved away from the Bride and Frank was the time of the film where I was less interested in what was happening. The impression that the film gave or was given by some that this was a musical is very misleading. There are musical moments but these can all be written off as just happening inside Frank’s head and they are totally bonkers but somehow the film manages to pull them off.

I enjoyed The Bride!  The film is the most batsh*t thing I have seen for quite sometime and its obvious that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea due to how disjointed it feels. The film totally flips all over the place and you are either going to be on board with it or not and I was on board from the very beginning. It’s not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination but the film's flaws are kind of why I like it. I think that the idea that a major Hollywood studio would give someone $80 million to do this sort of film is such a risky thing to do especially for one like Warner Bros. and I am glad they did. I think this will not do well at the box office which is a shame but this worked a lot better than the second Joker film and was a genuine surprise.

Scream 7 (2026)

I can’t quite believe that we are now seven films into this franchise and the seventh time they have tried to squeeze the last drop of money out of the first film. I went into this film having heard nothing but negative things which did surprise me. Some of that may come from fans of the franchise but not being one of them I have just viewed them as slasher films that have at times bordered on pretentiousness. Oh look at us we’ve watched horror films and understand the ‘rules’ of sequels, prequels and something else I can’t quite remember ending in quels. The ‘plot’ sees Sidney (Neve Campbell) and one her kids that we have never heard of before Tatum (Isabel May) and her husband Mark (Joel McHale) and someone is trying to get to SIdney by pretending that Stu Macher from the first film is alive and well. 

I thought that Tatum was quite unlikeable at first. I don't think that it was necessarily the fault of Isabel May but just the way that she was written. She was being grumpy for no real reason. It’s sort of defended with the fact that Sidney is being over protective without telling Tatum what happened to her when she was younger or help defend herself from the inevitable time when someone dons the mask. Thankfully that stuff gets ironed out in later scenes but it was a ropey couple of scenes for her. 

I am quite glad that they went with the idea that Stu’s appearance was AI/Deepfake. The idea that he had been in an insane asylum for 30 years and no one would have spotted him was suspending disbelief a little bit too far. This is another horror film where Mckenna Grace appears for 10 minutes only to be killed off.  It also felt like Courtney Cox was in this film just so they could bring in another legacy character cause they are running low on established characters. She pops up, does the interview with Sidney and then literally disappears for a good 20 minutes. She doesn't really add anything to the story. It was fun to see Matthew Lillard back in the franchise after 30 years but the scene towards the end where he, and other past characters return in a cheap looking video.

There was something else that stood out to me. This was an 18 certificate film and I thought it was less gory than Whilst that I saw the previous week which was a 15. I’m assuming that the stabbing itself is what got it the 18 cause the blood sure didn’t. It does feel like there is a bit of inconsistency when it comes to classification from the BBFC. Most of the deaths are stab related deaths but one was quite impressive and its when of them gets skewed on a drink lever and not only it remind me of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but when the guy is finished being skewed on it the flow of beer through his mouth did make me chuckle and I thought it was the one creative death in the entire film. 

This is one of those times that I genuinely don't understand the hate. Ok it's not brilliant but it's not terrible either. The previous film was not just the worst film in the franchise but honestly the most boring horror film I have seen for some time and I'm not sure if I can see how this is worse. They will inevitably make an eighth one and a ninth one so it really doesn't matter what we say about these films cause as long as they keep making money then they will keep making them cause Paramount need to pay off that huge debt they’ve now got. Despite all the things wrong with the film it is still infinitely better than Return to Silent Hill.

Whistle (2025)

Is it possible for the guy who directed one of the dullest horror films ever to direct a good horror film? Well The Nun was awful on many levels so the chances of Whistle being worse was quite remote. The set up of the film is that Dafne Keen tries to pull off being a high school student and after arriving at her new high school goes to her locker which they haven’t bothered to clear out beforehand and she finds the titular whilst and after Nick Frost dies moments after trying to flog it on the antiques version of eBay the new friends that Chrys has befriended blow the whilst and death is now following them. 

The idea that when we are born our death is also born is kind of a neat idea although the film can’t help itself by being stupid and goes on to say that if we live to be 90, death will spend 90 years finding you and if you blow the whistle it finds you quicker.

Dafne Keen is perfectly fine as Chrys. She has a backstory where she is moving in with her aunt after she took drugs and killed her father. We never see the aunt or any adults really with the exception of Dean’s parents for about 30 seconds. Keen does well as the lead although I do think she just about gets away with being a High School student. The romance between Chrys and Ellie was one of the more interesting aspects of the two characters.

Nick Frost pops at the beginning and it would have been nice to have him do something more than deliver some exposition and then become greedy. Michelle Fairley’s role as Ivy is literally nothing more than exposition. She only has two scenes but they do nothing other than tell Chrys and Ellie what’s going on. She conveniently tells them how to cheat death and that is basically sacrificing someone else in their place. Even after telling them this they have to have it spelt out to them.

You would think that death would be the villain but they decided to introduce Noah (played by Percy Haynes White from Wednesday) who basically gives drugs to the kids from one of them overdosed so that makes him the bad guy and is the obvious choice for the sacrificing part but our scooby gang are so good that they don't want to go through with it even though he is loathsome.. The film gets around this by pretty much forcing  the situation so we get a satisfactory ending but the film ends with the most predictable sequel-bait ending where the pot containing the whistle has found its way back inside the locker. I’m not sure why the whistle doesn't try and find a new location but I suppose that doesn't really matter cause I am highly doubtful that we are going to get a sequel.

The deaths are quite good, especially Dean’s but that might be because he was very annoying and playing the typical irritating sports guy. Rel’s death was quite gory and I was surprised that it was a 15 because 10 years ago this would have received an 18 certificate but I think they probably got away with it because there is a surprisingly gory film and it seemed like the blood was real and no CGI blood which a lot of horror films seem to rely on.

I had very low expectations of Whistle and I have to say they were met. It’s nowhere near as bad as Return to Silent Hill because at least the film made sense but this will only really please people who want to stick on a dumb horror film on a Friday night when they don't have to pay any attention. It is neither terrible nor any good so average is probably the best word to use.