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Overlook Film Festival — A–Z of films

2023

  • 0

  • Accused
    Review preview for Accused

    Director Philip Barantini was responsible for 2020’s kitchen-set drama Boiling Point, and here he demonstrates the same mastery of tension.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Alone at a remote country house, a young man watches helplessly as a social media frenzy wrongly identifies him as a wanted terrorist. When online threats lead to an IRL home invasion, he must fight for his life in this tense thriller of virtual witch-hunts and false accusations.
  • The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster
    Review preview for The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster

    In the end it’s the boldness of its choices which really makes the difference.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life.
  • The Artifice Girl
    Review preview for The Artifice Girl

    Smarter than most films of its ilk and refreshingly free of misplaced sentiment.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    When an internet vigilante develops a revolutionary new computer program to combat online predators, its rapid advancement leads to serious questions about autonomy, oppression, and what it really means to be human.
  • Birth/Rebirth
    Review preview for Birth/Rebirth

    Young Lister is a marvel, showing a remarkably sophisticated understanding of what her role requires as Lila, having suffered significant brain damage, gradually begins to require verbal and motor skills.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead.
  • Brooklyn 45
    Review preview for Brooklyn 45

    Viewers can expect to find their sympathies shifting over time, and to disagree as to who deserves sympathy in any given moment.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Friday, December 27, 1945. Five military veterans gather in the ornate parlour of a Brooklyn brownstone. Best friends since childhood, they’ve reunited to support their troubled host – but when his invitation for cocktails turns into an impromptu séance, the metaphoric ghosts of their past become all-too-literal.

  • D

  • The Elderly
    Review preview for The Elderly

    Cerezo and Gómez remind us that we are living through some of the strangest days our world has known right now.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    An octogenarian, who enters into a state of dementia after the sudden suicide of his wife, sparks a series of paranormal events that will put his family's lives at risk.
  • Evil Dead Rise
    Review preview for Evil Dead Rise

    Evil Dead Rise doesn’t add much that’s new to the franchise, but it does deliver on entertainment.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    The reunion of two estranged sisters is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
  • The Five Devils
    Review preview for The Five Devils

    While it's a road well-travelled, here it's a road travelled well.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    Eight-year-old Vicky possesses a special power: a hyperacute sense of smell. She spends her days exploring this gift, and lives happily with her mother Joanne, a swimming teacher whom she adores exclusively - to the despair of her firefighter father. When her mysterious aunt Julia suddenly reappears in their lives, secrets from their past resurface both violently and magically.
  • Give Me An A
    Review preview for Give Me An A

    Give Me An A is a vital piece of filmmaking.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    16 women filmmakers make their voices heard with this anthology of genre-themed short films, all made in direct response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
  • Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism
    Review preview for Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism

    Alongside the extreme and dramatic aspects of this story are all sorts of insidious little details which show the harm done by this kind of thinking in day to day life.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Convinced that his wife is possessed by dark forces, a desperate husband puts his faith in the power of a pitiless self-proclaimed exorcist, who is convinced that salvation can be found only through his hands.

  • I

  • It Lives Inside
    Review preview for It Lives Inside

    A superior quality horror film which amply justifies the hype it has attracted on the festival circuit, It Lives Inside is not to be missed.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Sam, an Indian-American teen, lives in an idyllic suburb with her conservative mother and her assimilated father. Sam’s cultural insecurities grow due to her estranged friend, Tamira, who mysteriously carries around an empty mason jar all the time. In a moment of anger, Sam breaks Tamira’s jar and unleashes an ancient Indian demonic force that kidnaps Tamira.
  • Late Night With The Devil
    Review preview for Late Night With The Devil

    It’s Dastmalchian’s light touch which really makes it work.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    October 31, 1977. Jack Delroy’s syndicated talk show Night Owls has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country, but a year on from the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, unaware he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.

  • M

  • Mister Organ
    Review preview for Mister Organ

    If you haven’t knowingly observed a narcissist before, this may well make for fascinating and, indeed, cautionary viewing.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    A documentary about car clamping, an antique shop, an extortion scandal and a mystery man who might be a prince.
  • 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.
  • Only Lovers Left Alive
    Review preview for Only Lovers Left Alive

    What is so disarming about Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is a scarce sense of appreciation - of the vampire couple for each other and the appreciation by both of them for what is great in the world.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
    A vampire couple contemplate a changing world.

  • R

  • Renfield
    Review preview for Renfield

    Though Hoult is as oddly charming as his abilities allow, Nicholas goes as close to the Full Cage as I've seen in a while.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    Renfield is forced to procure Dracula's prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debasing - but now, after centuries of servitude, he's ready for a life outside the shadow of the Prince of Darkness.
  • Smoking Causes Coughing
    Review preview for Smoking Causes Coughing

    There is a complete disregard for any kind of consequence or continuity in this film, and you know that the rug could be pulled from under you at any second.

    Nikola Jovic · 3.5 out of 5
    Tobacco Force are superhero avengers, preparing for their clash with the mighty Lezardin. But what if the real horrors are the stories they tell to each other along the way?
  • The Tingler
    Review preview for The Tingler

    The Tingler is a film that doesn't have much story and that takes so many narrative short cuts it is impossible to treat it with any seriousness, but it retains the potential to be serious fun.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    A pathologist discovers a dangerous parasite that feeds on fear and can only be killed by screaming, but when a mute woman becomes infected, all Hell breaks loose. Famous for the pranks played on audiences at its original screenings.

  • V

  • We Kill For Love
    Review preview for We Kill For Love

    Thorough and insightful, Penta’s film benefits from fantastic editing (his own) and from a self-consciousness about the viewer’s gaze which aptly reflects the genre it’s exploring.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A documentary about the sultry, shadowy world of direct-to-video erotic thrillers — films of mysterious strangers, sexual obsessions and crimes of passion that once dominated video store shelves and late night cable.