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London Film Festival · 2016

London Film Festival 2016

Cult

Programme

14 films · 9 reviews

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The Autopsy Of Jane Doe

Review preview for The Autopsy Of Jane Doe

Øvredal takes a handful of old tricks - a cheery song playing unexpectedly, lights blinking out in a corridor one by one, the tinkling of a bell - and uses them to chilling effect. The result is a film you really won't want to watch alone.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Father and son coroners get more than they bargained for when they examine a cadaver.

(Country: UK; Year: 2016; Director: André Øvredal; Writer: Ian B Goldberg, Richard Naing; Stars: Ophelia Lovibond, Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Parker Sawyers, Michael McElhatton, Jane Perry, Olwen Catherine Kelly)

Full review

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (Psiconautas, los niños olvidados)

Review preview for Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

With imagery that shifts seamlessly from the kawaii to the diabolical, not least in a darkly psychedelic sequence near the end, this is a film that really makes its mark.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three children decide to leave their homes looking a better life.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Alberto Vázquez , Pedro Rivero; Writer: Joe Deasy, Pedro Rivero, Pedro Rivero, Stephanie Sheh, Alberto Vázquez, Alberto Vázquez; Stars: Andrea Alzuri, Eva Ojanguren, Josu Cubero, Félix Arcarazo, Jorge Carrero, Nuria Marín, Josu Varela, Jon Goiri, Maribel Legarreta, Iker Diez, Juan Carlos Loriz, Kepa Cueto, Josu Díaz, Mónica Erdocia, Ander Vildósola Gala)

Full review

Blue Velvet Revisited

Documentary about the making of Lynch's classic.

(Country: US, Germany, Slovenia; Year: 2016; Director: Peter Braatz; Writer: Peter Braatz; Stars: David Lynch)

Callback

Larry is a fervent Evangelical Christian living in New York who works as a removals man, although his big dream is to become a professional actor in advertising commercials. His luck seems to change the day Alexandra enters his life.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2016; Director: Carles Torras; Writer: Martin Bacigalupo, Carles Torras; Stars: Martin Bacigalupo, Lilli Stein, Larry Fessenden, Timothy Gibbs, Rigoberto Garcia, Dave Bobb, Kathryn Kuhn, Butch McCain, Johnny Serret, Paulina Simkin)

Creepy (Kurîpî: Itsuwari no rinjin)

Review preview for Creepy

To assume it's just another routine serial killer yarn is to miss the emotional subtlety and sharp analysis of contemporary Japanese mores that underlie the greater horror.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
An ex-cop is drawn into a missing persons case.

(Year: 2016; Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Writer: Chihiro Ikeda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, based on the novel by Yutaka Maekawa; Stars: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yûko Takeuchi, Toru Baba, Ryôko Fujino, Masahiro Higashide, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruna Kawaguchi, Misaki Saisho, Takashi Sasano, Masahiro Toda)

Full review

A Dark Song

Review preview for A Dark Song

Walker's performance as a woman mentally imprisoned by the strength of her own feelings is painful to watch, in a good way.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A grieving mother sets out to contact her dead child.

(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2016; Director: Liam Gavin; Writer: Liam Gavin; Stars: Catherine Walker, Steve Oram, Mark Huberman, Susan Loughnane)

Full review

The Eyes Of My Mother

Review preview for The Eyes Of My Mother

Magalhaes is superb throughout and perfectly in sync with the childlike perspective on events that Pesce brings us.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A young woman tries to work out how to live after emerging from a childhood scarred by brutal violence.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Nicolas Pesce; Writer: Nicolas Pesce; Stars: Clara Wong, Kika Magalhaes, Flora Diaz, Will Brill, Joey Curtis-Green, Paul Nazak, Diana Agostini, Olivia Bond) , Trailer

Full review

I Am Not A Serial Killer

Review preview for I Am Not A Serial Killer

I Am Not A Serial Killer strikes rhythmic beats with precision as the story progresses.

Paul Risker · 4 out of 5
A teenage sociopath tries to hunt down a killer.

(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2016; Director: Billy O'Brien; Writer: Christopher Hyde, Billy O'Brien, Dan Wells; Stars: Laura Fraser, Christopher Lloyd, Max Records, Karl Geary, Morgan Rysso, Matt Roy, Bruce Bohne, Tony Papenfuss, Lucy Lawton, Molly Gearen, Christina Baldwin, Emmylou Barden, William Todd-Jones, James Gaulke, A.R. Bjorklund)

Full review See: Interview with Billy O’Brien about I Am Not A Serial Killer

Into The Forest (Dans la forêt)

Two kids head off to a cabin in the woods with their divorcee dad, but begin to realise he may not want to go back.

(Country: France, Sweden; Year: 2016; Director: Gilles Marchand; Writer: Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll; Stars: Jérémie Elkaïm, Timothé Vom Dorp, Théo Van de Voorde)

Lake Bodom

Campsite slasher.

(Country: Finland, Estonia; Year: 2016; Director: Taneli Mustonen; Writer: Aleksi Hyvärinen, Taneli Mustonen; Stars: Tommi Korpela, Nelly Hirst-Gee, Mimosa Willamo, Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä, Mikael Gabriel, Jarkko Niemi, Sami Eerola, Ilkka Heiskanen, Ville Saksela, Pirjo Moilanen, Iiris Kankkunen, Otso Ahosola)

The Noonday Witch (Polednice)

Review preview for The Noonday Witch

Alexander Surkala’s sumptuous cinematography makes the place look endlessly beguiling and, intermittently, delivers us into the kind of darkness that can only exist in contrast with such light.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Eliška moves back with her daughter Karolínka to her husband’s native village. But something strange is going on and, as the temperature rises, Eliška becomes increasingly jittery. Fear is all-pervading and spectres move freely between dream and reality.

(Country: Czech Republic; Year: 2016; Director: Jiří Sádek; Writer: Karel Jaromír Erben, Michal Samir; Stars: Anna Geislerová, Karolína Lipowská, Zdenek Mucha, Daniela Kolárová, Jirí Strébl, Marie Ludvíková, Mikulás Prosek, Halka Tresnáková, Marek Pospíchal, Tomás Bambusek, Petr Kocourek, Zdenek Palusga, Pavel Moravec, Petr Klimes)

Full review

Phantasm

Review preview for Phantasm

You can turn it upside down, inside out and back-to-front and you might be able to work most of it out, but there will always be one thing that doesn't fit.

Gator MacReady · 4 out of 5
Baffling Seventies horror flick about a scary tall mortician, killer dwarfs and sci-fi spheres

(Country: US; Year: 1979; Director: Don Coscarelli; Writer: Don Coscarelli; Stars: Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, A Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Kathy Lester)

Full review

Remastered.

The Void

Review preview for The Void

Gillespie and Kostanski's real talents become visible when it comes to the special effects work, and here the film excels.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
An officer helps a blood-soaked figure on the road but the trip to the hospital turns into a nightmare.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2016; Director: Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski; Writer: Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski; Stars: Ellen Wong, Kathleen Munroe, Kenneth Welsh, Stephanie Belding, Aaron Poole, Art Hindle, Daniel Fathers, Amy Groening, Trish Rainone, Evan Stern, Grace Munro, James Millington, Mik Byskov, Jason Detheridge, David Scott)

Full review

Without Name

A land surveyor has an encounter with the uncanny.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2016; Director: Lorcan Finnegan; Writer: Garret Shanley; Stars: Alan McKenna, Niamh Algar, James Browne, Olga Wehrly, Morgan C. Jones, Brendan Conroy, Bryan Quinn, Paul Ward, Donncha Crowley, Brandon Maher, Helen Roche, Alan McNally)