Skip to main content

Abertoir · 2023

Abertoir 2023

Features

Programme

18 films · 9 reviews

Jump to a film

Darklands

A newspaper reporter is lured into a mire of pagan rituals and human sacrifice.

(Country: UK; Year: 1996; Director: Julian Richards; Writer: Julian Richards, David Mitchell; Stars: Craig Fairbrass, Rowena King, Jon Finch, Roger Nott, Dave Duffy, Richard Lynch, Robert Blythe)

The Dragon Lives Again

Following his death, Bruce Lee wakes up in the underworld and battles a criminal mob consisting of Dracula, James Bond, Zatoichi and Clint Eastwood,.

(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 1977; Director: Law Kei; Writer: Ke Shek, Leung Wai; Stars: Leung Siu-Lung, San Yat-Lung, Tan Ching, Eric Tsang, Alexander Grand)

Enter The Clones Of Bruce Lee (Enter The Clones Of Bruce)

Review preview for Enter The Clones Of Bruce Lee

A fascinating portrait of a cinematic era which will leave those who remain martial arts fans with a lot of titles to hunt down.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A documentary about the men drafted in to fill the gap and keep audiences happy after the death of cinema's greatest martial arts star.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: David Gregory; Stars: Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lo, Bruce Liang)

Full review

The Exorcist (Director's Cut) (The Exorcist)

Review preview for The Exorcist (Director's Cut)

At 12, Regan was a helpless child in 1973; in today's world we instinctively grant her more agency so the territory between self and demon becomes more obscure.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A mother fights to save her child, who may be possessed by a demon.

(Country: United States; Year: 1973; Director: William Friedkin; Writer: William Peter Blatty; Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee j Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran)

Full review

Ganja And Hess

After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.

(Country: US; Year: 1973; Director: Bill Gunn; Writer: Bill Gunn; Stars: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn, Sam L Waymon, Leonard Jackson, Candece Tarpley)

If Footmen Tire You What Will Horses Do?

Based on the preachings of Reverend Estus W Pirkle, this film warns what will happen to America if the citizens do not give up their depraved ways and turn to God and Jesus for salvation.

(Country: US; Year: 1971; Director: Ron Ormond; Writer: Ron Ormond, Estus W Pirkle; Stars: Judy Creech, Cecil Scaiffe, Gene McFall, Wes Saunders, La Quita Scaife)

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

A married, horror-obsessed couple buy a run-down house to make the film of their dream, only for fact and fiction to clash.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Rachel Kempf, Nick Toti)

Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life Of Cliff Twemlow

Review preview for Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life Of Cliff Twemlow

There are so many great stories surrounding Cliff that it’s clear director Jake West was spoilt for choice.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Polymath Twemlow was a nightclub bouncer, novelist, composer, singer, screenwriter, producer and actor, who for a decade was the most prolific indie filmmaker in the UK! Witness how this 20th century Renaissance man created his own innovative micro-film industry in Manchester.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Jake West; Stars: Barry Twemlow, Oliver Tobias, Ginette Gray, John Saint Ryan)

Full review See: Interview with Jake West about Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life Of Cliff Twemlow

Monolith

Review preview for Monolith

Vesely’s camera directs our attention very effectively and makes use of every aspect of the small set.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Recently disgraced and desperate for a story, a young journalist holes herself up in her parents’ luxurious home and gets to work on the only job she can get - hosting a clickbait investigative podcast. Then she discovers a strange artefact and begins to convince herself it is evidence of an alien conspiracy.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Matt Vesely; Writer: Lucy Campbell; Stars: Lily Sullivan)

Full review

The Moor

Review preview for The Moor

Cronin... perfectly captures the atmosphere of the little houses clustered around the moor, the distinctive quality of the light within them, the way that they feel like a small bastion of safety against the vastness of night.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Claire was just a child when her best friend was abducted and murdered. 25 years later, Bill, the dead boy's father, has a plan to learn the truth about what really happened. With the help of psychic Eleanor, they venture deep into a haunted moor to find his son’s supposed resting place. But they find more than just the ghosts of dead children, for something dark and evil stirs at their presence.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Chris Cronin; Writer: Paul Thomas; Stars: Sophia La Porta, David Edward Robertson, Bernard Hill, Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips)

Full review See: Interview with Chris Cronin about The Moor

Psychosis

A criminal fixer who experiences auditory hallucinations must confront old demons when a new contract drags him into a surreal maelstrom of mind-altering drugs, delusional vigilantes and a sadistic hypnotist who seems more monster than man.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Pirie Martin; Writer: Pirie Martin; Stars: Derryn Amoroso, Kate Holly Hall, Henry Errington, Michael Wilkop, Pj van Gyen)

Raging Grace

Review preview for Raging Grace

Raging Grace is a Gothic thriller with the potential to appeal to a wide audience. It’s also a fierce critique of the racism embedded in a culture which still treats it as normal for some perfectly capable people to be waited on by others, and to treat them as less than human in the process.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An undocumented Filipina immigrant is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter when she secures the perfect job, taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads but very soon, she realise that something is amiss.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Paris Zarcilla; Writer: Paris Zarcilla; Stars: Max Eigenman, Leanne Best, David Hayman)

Full review See: Interview with Paris Zarcilla and Chi Thai about Raging Grace

Scala!

A documentary celebration of the Scala cinema in London.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Jane Giles, Ali Catterall; Stars: John Waters, Adam Buxton, Mary Harron, Ben Wheatley, Stephen Woolley)

She is Conann

Gender-flipped version of Conan The Barbarian.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Bertrand Mandico)

Tiger Stripes

A carefree 11-year-old girl begins to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.

(Country: Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Amanda Nell Eu)

The Vampire Lovers

Review preview for The Vampire Lovers

Though it’s a bit stagey in places, the film...hits on something meaningful in the way that it uses 18th Century social conventions to address to the discomfort and hypocrisy of a subsequent age.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Seductive vampire Carmilla Karnstein and her family target the beautiful and the rich in a remote area of Germany in the late 18th Century.

(Country: UK; Year: 1970; Director: Roy Ward Baker; Writer: Harry Fine and Tudor Gates, based on the short story Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu; Stars: Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steel, Madeline Smith, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Dawn Addams)

Full review

The Wicker Man: The Final Cut

Review preview for The Wicker Man: The Final Cut

[The new footage] doesn’t severely blunt, and in some other cases enhances, the impact of a film that yields more with every viewing.

Jeff Robson · 4.5 out of 5
A policeman gets more than he bargained for on a remote Scottish isle - now in a new, restored version with additional footage.

(Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Robin Hardy; Writer: Anthony Shaffer; Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Pitt, Lindsay Kemp, Russell Waters, Aubrey Morris, Irene Sunters, Walter Carr, Ian Campbell, Leslie Blackater, Roy Boyd, Peter Brewis, Barbara Rafferty)

Full review