FrightFest — A–Z of films

Denovan is a capable lead but it’s Nsue who really stands out and, despite having less screen time overall, gets the most interesting character moments.

What really holds it all together is Hawco’s down to earth performance as a detective striving to retain his focus on the practical side of the job.

The depth of character in the film lends it gravity.

The characters are wonderfully drawn, each with their own complexities which go beyond their reasons for doing this job, and the acting is strong all round.

Though it shifts its focus into something much darker towards the end, the meat of it is in the father-son relationship, in their interactions and the ways that they observe each other.

There are some smart ideas here which help to keep the film interesting even if they never quite achieve their potential.

Everybody is glamorously dressed and there’s a lot of screaming and running about.

Rob Preciado’s film is beautifully crafted, a real labour of love.

The colour saturation in these images is simply delicious. Gorgeous costume work by Guido Bongiorno makes the most of it, and Rome itself seems to have set out to please.

Cleverly shot throughout in a style which contributes to the claustrophobia of the family’s environment and speaks to where power is positioned.

Comedy and horror are well balanced in a film which demonstrates a sharp understanding of social media but is also ready to deliver on the more explicitly gruesome side of the bargain

Very easy to like.

Sadly a misfire from the Troma canon.

A treat for the eyes, if not the ears.

The dreamlike narrative gives Bruchon free rein to experiment with the constituent parts of the room, not just moving his camera around but creating a corridor from sheets and entangling his actors within them.

This kind of scenario is a treat for a good writer and death for a bad one. Jonathan Frank, working together with Mann, has done a decent job, and the actors have sufficient skill to make it work.

An homage to truly bad film-making - but it sails perilously close to self-parody

Made on a very small budget but getting away with it remarkably well, the film succeeds in challenging some popular assumptions about women who seek to become internet celebrities.

The film is pulled in multiple directions at once, and pulled apart.

Skilfully crafted, The Harbinger is a rightly distressing, melancholy take on the events of the recent past and the troubles we still live with today.

Whilst Hounded doesn’t have a great deal to add to the premise, it does have well-drawn characters and a capable young cast who are well worth watching.

Wonderfully uncomfortable.

The struggle which follows is, in places, difficult to watch, especially for viewers who have been affected by such issues in their own lives, so Heimann sensibly leavens it with humour.

What makes all this work is the very straightforward and matter-of-fact way in which Dupieux approaches the story.

Much more fun than, by any reasonable standard, it ought to be.

Pennycoff works hard to keep audience sympathies shifting.

A film full of great stories and packed with details which will fascinate fans.

By turns enchanting and heartbreaking, it speaks to the troubled history of the 20th Century yet feels bang up to date.

Accuracy is not the primary consideration here.

There’s not a great deal of depth to the adjacent narrative, but the film holds together pretty well, the pacing is good, and Cotton keeps us caring.

What begins as a collection of seemingly disconnected events gradually coheres with something of the chilling quality of an early Kiyoshi Kurosawa film.

Next Exit shines because of its finely crafted script and the performances of its two leads, who work wonderfully together.

Corduner is on exceptional form and imbues the early part of the film with warmth and hope.

Gets some of its pastiche spot on, but runs short of ideas well before the end.

With a huge, raggedy string score by Daniel Reguera, the film is big on atmosphere and never gives one the sense that its protagonists wield much control over their destinies.

Though there is a melancholy aspect to it, Orchestrator Of Storms explores who Rollin was as a person with warmth and wit, and shares his enthusiasm for, as it is phrased here, ‘beauty in the grotesque and the morose and the opulent.’

Galán is extraordinary as the traumatised girl in a performance which requires a considerable amount of courage.

It’s hard to imagine that [Poe] would have been anything other that appalled by this shoddy exercise in pilfering the most superficial aspects of his work.

The killings are varied and suitably unpleasant, albeit not quite as unpleasant as some of the characters, who, of course, receive their due.

Barlow and Senes let the situation simmer, with plenty going on to keep viewers entertained.

What matters here is not so much the phenomenon itself, but the way that the characters become obsessed with it.

This may not be a highly polished film but it has a natural exuberance which is both entertaining and endearing.

The subtext here is much darker than the story itself.

Pleasingly disconcerting.

This kind of quality is incredibly difficult to achieve with such limited resources.

Sagal throws herself into the role with such force that’s a wonder the screen doesn’t break.

A solid little thriller.

The wolf cam POV shots are a charming if somewhat over-familiar device, accompanied by growling, and this helps to alleviate what is always the biggest difficulty for werewolf films: showing too much of the monster.

Unashamedly arty yet still packs an emotional punch.