Category: Giallo/Thriller

‘Cara’ is a dark and often difficult-to-watch British psychological thriller, blending disturbing subject matter with a slow-burning, unsettling atmosphere. The plot is relatively straightforward, but the execution is layered and challenging, blurring the line between reality and delusion in a way that keeps the viewer unbalanced. The film follows Cara, a seriously disturbed young woman […]

A simple yet tense Aussie psychological thriller, the 13th Summer might not quite have you right on the edge of your seat, but there’s an escalating tension which at times has you close to it. The plot follows an angry cop and his wife as they look for some respite at a remote beachside shack. […]

The Baby Snatcher (aka Maternal Hell) is a slow burn psychological thriller with more of a soap opera/drama edge to it than your typical horror movie. The film follows two best mates in a synchronous pregnancy. Whilst initially things are apple pie, sunshine and rainbows, things begin to take a dark turn when one of […]

Despite its catchy but rather juvenile name ‘Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker’ (aka Night Warning) is a film somewhat ahead of its time with its challenging of social stereotypes and its inversion of the ‘final girl’ role. Despite it being somewhat swept aside given the tidal wave of early 80s slasher movies, there is a complexity […]

‘8 Found Dead’ is an interesting title, filled with great performances and a duo of antagonists who steal every scene they’re in – oddly are the ones you’re left routing for. The film’s timeline is not linear, chronologically at least, but essentially the film focusses on a remote rental property in the desert. With one […]

‘Painkillers’ is an original and well-put-together horror-thriller which sees a surgeon by the name of John Clarke (Adam Huss) develop a condition, triggered by his own guilt over the loss of his son, for which the only treatment is the continual ingestion of human blood. With John being something of a honest gent – the […]

Writer/Director Kristian A. Söderström delivers as much a love letter to the VHS video nasty era as he does a cult film in its own right. As endearing as the film is, it’s a tough one to categorise as the film’s obsession with Giallo videos, including several well executed ‘homage’ scenes executed in that style, […]

Dan Pringle’s debut feature K-Shop sees a modern take on Sweeney Todd, whilst using a far too common sight in today’s society – Booze Britain. Salah (Ziad Abaza) is a student in the midst of his dissertation, his father a kebab shop owner fresh out of hospital dies after an altercation with some local drunks. […]

Balaban’s 1989 film ‘Parents’ is an overlooked but somewhat effective psychological horror. Promoted, initially, and more recently through its release via Lionsgate’s increasingly prominent ‘Vestron’ label as a black comedy, this film has a lot more to offer than perhaps that sub-genre would suggest. The plot introduces 10-year-old Michel as the film’s protagonist, an awkward […]