Skip to main content

Abertoir · 2017

Abertoir 2017

Features

Programme

25 films · 11 reviews

Jump to a film

All The Colours Of The Dark (Todos Los Colores De La Oscuridad)

A woman joins a Satanic cult in an effort to bring an end to her incessant nightmares.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1972; Director: Sergio Martino; Stars: Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Marina Malfatti, Susan Scott, Ivan Rassimov)

Better Watch Out (Safe Neighborhood)

Review preview for Better Watch Out

Miller is outstanding.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
As a 12-year-old prepares to confess his romantic feelings for his babysitter one Christmas Eve, something starts trying to break into the house.

(Country: Australia, US; Year: 2016; Director: Chris Peckover; Writer: Zack Kahn, Chris Peckover; Stars: Levi Miller, Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton)

Full review

A Blade In The Dark (La Casa Con La Scala Nel Buio)

Review preview for A Blade In The Dark

As so often in giallo, the gore is where the director's style really comes into its own.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
As a composer works on the score for a new horror film, a series of brutal murders occurs.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1983; Director: Lamberto Bava; Writer: Dardano Sacchetti, Elisa Briganti; Stars: Andrea Occhipinti, Anny Papa, Fabiola Toledo)

Full review

The Bloodstained Shadow (Solamente Nero)

A student visit his priest brother and discovers that the clients of a local medium are being murdered one by one.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1978; Director: Antonio Bido; Stars: Stefania Casini, Lino Capolicchio, Craig Hill)

Blood And Black Lace (Sei Donne Per L'Assassino)

Review preview for Blood And Black Lace

One of the most startlingly erotic mass market films of its era.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Six models are stalked by a psychopath.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1964; Director: Mario Bava; Writer: Marcello Fondato, Giuseppe Barilla, Mario Bava; Stars: Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Lea Lander)

Full review

Canaries

A group of friends at a New Year's Eve bash in thw Welsh Valleys are confronted by an alien invasion.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Peter Stray; Writer: Peter Stray; Stars: Robert Pugh, Hannah Daniel, Richard Mylan, Kai Owen, Craig Russell, Robert Boulter, Sheena Bhattessa, Aled Pugh, Steve Meo, Marc Rhys, Dominique Dauwe, Richard Corgan, Tsilala Brock, Sophie Melville, Kevin McCurdy)

Demons (Dèmoni)

Review preview for Demons

Importantly, the director approaches the fantastic elements of the story with complete conviction throughout, making it easier for the viewer to accept them and focus on the action.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A group of people are trapped in a large West Berlin movie theater infected by ravenous demons whom proceed to kill and posses the humans one-by-one thereby multiplying their numbers.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1985; Director: Lamberto Bava; Writer: Dardano Sacchetti, Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini; Stars: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, Paola Cozzo, Fabiola Toledo, Nicoletta Elmi, Stelio Candelli, Nicole Tessier, Geretta Geretta, Bobby Rhodes, Guido Baldi, Bettina Ciampolini, Giuseppe Mauro Cruciano, Sally Day)

Full review See: Interview with Lamberto Bava about his career.

Diani And Devine Meet The Apocalypse

When communications fail and other people start behaaving strangely, a couple take their dog and their cat on the road in search of safety.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Etta Devine, Gabriel Diani; Stars: Etta Devine, Gabriel Diani, Barry Bostwick, Armin Shimmerman)

The Endless

Review preview for The Endless

The proportion of films opening with HP Lovecraft quotes that manage to live up to the visionary writer's work verges on the infinitesimal, but The Endless is one of the special ones.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Years after escaping a cult as teenagers, brothers Aaron and Justin return to their former home after receiving a mysterious message. While Aaron is quickly drawn back into the fold, Justin remains uneasy.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead; Writer: Justin Benson; Stars: Callie Hernandez, Tate Ellington, Lew Temple, Emily Montague, Justin Benson, James Jordan, Ric Sarabia, Kira Powell, Aaron Moorhead, Shane Brady, Peter Cilella, Vinny Curran, David Lawson Jr., Glen Roberts)

Full review

Five Dolls For An August Moon (5 Bambole Per La Luna D'Agosto, 5 Dolls For An August Moon)

Review preview for Five Dolls For An August Moon

Bava's trademark brilliant framing and his playful relationship with modernism maximise the visual appeal of every scene.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
A wealthy industrialist gathers his friends on a remote island for a party, but they soon realise that there's a killer on the lose.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1970; Director: Mario Bava; Writer: Mario di Nardo; Stars: Edwige Fenech, Ira von Fürstenberg, William Berger, Howard Ross)

Full review

The Housemaid (Cohaugai)

Review preview for The Housemaid

It's astoundingly beautiful, with the costumes, set decoration and cinematography all sumptuous.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A peasant girl who embarks on a romance with the landowner she serves begins to suspect that the spirit of his dead wife resents her.

(Country: Vietnam, South Korea; Year: 2016; Director: Derek Nguyen; Writer: Derek Nguyen; Stars: Kate Nhung, Jean-Michel Richaud, Kim Xuan, Svitlana Kovalenko)

Full review

Housewife

A housewife with a fragile grip on sanity joins a cult in the hope that it will stop her becoming like her murderous mother.

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2017; Director: Can Evrenol; Stars: Clémentine Poidatz, David Sakurai, Ali Aksoz, Alicia Kapudag)

The Lodgers

Review preview for The Lodgers

Richard Kendrick's cinematography is gorgeous and O'Malley is unafraid to let his camera linger, drawing out the atmosphere in scenes lesser directors might have rushed.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Twins in a crumbling family home live according to rules set by a mysterious supernatural entity, but when one of them falls in love, the stage is set for conflict.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2017; Director: Brian O'Malley; Stars: Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner, Eugene Simon, David Bradley)

Full review See: Interview with Brian O'Malley about The Lodgers

Meatball Machine Kodoku (Kodoku: Mîtobôru Mashin, Kodoku: Meatball Machine)

A 50-yea-old debt collector learns that he has cancer and only three months to live. But then there are those pesky aliens, who might shorten the time even more by turning him into a cyborg, and he’s not the only one.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura)

The Mimic (Jang-san-beom)

A family encounter the Jangsan Tiger, who mimics human voices to lure them close.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2017; Director: Huh Jung; Writer: Huh Jung; Stars: Jin Heo, Jun Hyeok Lee, Hyuk-kwon Park, Shin Rin-Ah, Jang-ah Yum)

Mon Mon Mon Monsters!

An initially sweet boy finds himself losing his moral compass as he gets involved with a vicious teenage gang.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2017; Director: Giddens Ko)

Opera (Terror At The Opera)

A masked killer becomes obsessed with a soprano's young understudy.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1987; Director: Dario Argento; Stars: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Daria Nicolodi, Urbano Barberini, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni)

Return To Return To Nuke 'Em High

A young lesbian couple, aided by Kevin the Wonder Duck, must fight to save their troubled school.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Lloyd Kaufman; Stars: Asta Paredes, Catherine Corcoran, Zac Amico, Lloyd Kaufman)

The Sleep Curse

A neurologist afflicted by insomnia uncovers a terrible secret dating back to the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 2017; Director: Herman Yau; Stars: Anthony Wong, Jojo Goh, Michelle Wai, Gordon Lam)

Tales Of Terror

A triptych of stories based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe

(Country: US; Year: 1962; Director: Roger Corman; Stars: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone)

Tokyo Ghoul

Review preview for Tokyo Ghoul

With its combination of rather sweet teenage angst and extremely gory action scenes, the film serves its natural audience well but is unlikely to reach far beyond that.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
Following an organ transplant, a shy young man becomes a half-ghoul and beins to crave human flesh.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Kentaro Hagiwara; Stars: Masataka Kubota, Fumika Shimizu, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Hiyori Sakurada, Yû Aoi)

Full review

Top Knot Detective (Ronin Suiri Tentai)

A talentless director sells out in pursuit of fame.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2017; Director: Aaron McCann, Dominic Pearce; Stars: Toshi Okuzaki, Masa Yamaguchi, Mayu Iwasaki)

Vampire Clay

Review preview for Vampire Clay

This is an enjoyable creature-feature, a special-effects showcase on a small budget.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
A group of art students seem to fall under the influence of demonic clay.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Sôichi Umezawa; Writer: Sôichi Umezawa; Stars: Asuka Kurosawa, Kyoka Takeda, Ena Fujita)

Full review

What The Waters Left Behind

A group of students explore the ruins of an abandoned town - and accidentally get stranded there overnight.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2017; Director: Luciano, Nicolás Onetti; Stars: Victoria Maurette, Paula Sartor, Paula Brasca, Victorio D'Alessandro, Agustin Pardella, Mirta Busnelli)

Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key

Review preview for Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key

Undulating bodies and splattering blood stand in for more explicit imagery and give the impression of spectacular excess.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The mistress of a burnt-out novelist is brutally murdered - and she's only the first.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1972; Director: Sergio Martino; Writer: Luciano Martino, Sauro Scavolini, Ernesto Gastaldi, Adriano Bolzoni, based on a story Edgar Allan Poe; Stars: Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, Daniela Giordano)

Full review