This Week at Home

Netflix original Mr Harrigan's Phone is a somewhat different film to the one shown in the trailers. While the advertising leant into the notion of a spookfest about a vengeful mentor returned from the grave the actual film is more of an exploration of the grieving process with a heavy dose of "smartphones bad kids". This wouldn't necessarily be a problem but there is a lack of direction in the plot and the passage of time is unclear leading to boredom rather than suspense. The straight out of a kids TV movie idea of having a schools entire social structure based around which phone you own severely undercuts the movies sombre tone and any message the film is trying to impart falls flat

Like Mr Harrigan's Phone, 2019's The Lodge also features IT alumni Jaeden Martell. This time he is one half of a brother and sister duo who are hit with the double whammy of their mum committing suicide and there dad planning to remarry a mysterious cult survivor. The film is shot in a fairly unique style that is somewere between arthouse and the zero budget amateur horror you can find in dark corners of Amazon Prime. It is atmospheric but dour and mean spirited, relying on the "once a victim, always a victim" idea that we really should be past by now.

Halloween H2O is the 1998 sequel marking the 20 year anniversary of the original Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, now living under a new name with her son (a young Josh Hartnet) and running a prestigious bording school. Micheal Myers, of course, returns for revenge around halloween. Its prime nineties slasher with the emphasis on the stalking and chasing rather than the kills, which are pretty lame. Its a passable watch but not much happens for most of the film and the final confrontation is weak. Not one of the best entries.

Anthology horror movie VHS 99 is streaming on Shudder and continues the series track of diminishing returns. Where the found videotape gimmick was once a clever framing device it now feels like its an excuse to cover a low budget and cheap effects. The first story is insufferable and things don't improve much until the final story (of 5) which is, admittedly, great fun and almost worth a recommendation on its own.

Film of the Week: Not exactly a banner crop but Halloween H2O wins for the nostalgia factor. I miss the days when horror films could be well lit and show you whats going on.

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2024 at the Cinema

Bye bye 2024, time to put your ducks in a row. If ducks are films I saw in the cinema. As ever, ranking is purely my opinion (although my opinion is obviously correct), a movie needs to have been released in the UK during calendar year 2024 and I have to have seen it on the big screen for it to be eligible. 60. The Strangers: Chapter 1 Unrelentingly tedious reboot of an already mediocre home invasion thriller that ramps up nothing but the banality. If your idea of entertainment is watching an insufferable couple hide while a man and a woman in stupid masks walk about slowly then this is the film for you. Otherwise the only scary thing here is the fact they have already filmed chapters two and three. 59. In a Violent Nature You don't need to make people drink curdled milk to know it would taste awful. Similarly, you shouldn't need to make people watch a slasher film that follows the killer for the whole runtime to know it's a terrible idea. Dialogue is replaced by endless...

Room With a Viewer

Few directors can release films with same consistency as Steven Soderbergh (he averages over one a year this century), never mind in so many different genres. With Presence, he steps into the world of the supernatural. Don't be fooled by the "presence" of a spirit however, this is not a horror film, more a family drama infused with a sense of doom. The film begins with a family, consisting of domineering mother Rebecca (Lucy Liu), unhappy father Chris (Chris Sullivan), swimming star son Tyler (Eddy Maday) and troubled daughter Chloe (Colina Laing) moving into a new home. Things are far from rosy in the Sullivan household, Rebecca is involved in some unspecified shady work business and dotes on her athlete son (the whole reason for the move is to get him into a premium school) while showing little interest in her daughter, who's best friend recently died. Chris is fed up with his detached wife's favouritism and considering divorce while both the offspring are in ...

Econ Air

Single location thriller Flight Risk is the latest film to suffer from an "over eager" trailer. That is to say, the trailer covers pretty much everything that happens in the movie, more or less in the exact order it occurs. On the plus side, it isn't a film that was ever going to keep any secrets so it doesn't suffer as much as some others have. FBI agent Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) takes a flight with informant Winston (Topher Grace) but a short way into their journey they discover the pilot, played by Mark Wahlberg, is actually a mob hitman there to end them both before Winston can squeal. There is a brief opening at an Alaskan cabin and the finale is on a runway, but for the most part it's just the three of them in the cabin of a small plain. Events unfold almost like a theatrical play as the three talk and argue with intermittent attempts at murder. The main thing to know about Flight Risk is that it is ridiculous. The decisions the characters make a...

My Girl 2025

Companion opens with Iris (Sophie Thatcher) reminiscing on her meet cute with Jack Quaid's Josh before accompanying him to a secluded house for a weekend of partying with his friends. Everything is normal on the surface but there are hints that something else is going on as Iris appears insanely dedicated to her boyfriend's happiness and at least one of his friends are a little off with her. Sure enough, a reveal around a third of the way in switches things up and the film becomes a bungled heist movie leading to a chase through the woods with freedom and lives on the line. If you have seen the final trailer for Companion you already know what the reveal is. I won't spoil it here for those who want to go in blind but it is fair to say this is, partially at least, a sci fi film. You may well spot the twist (especially with the Stepford Wives nod kicking things off) but something so morally abhorrent and potentially dangerous being completely commonplace and having so littl...

Eyes, Eyes Baby

You would be forgiven for thinking Heart Eyes is a simple holiday themed slasher movie riding the coattails of 2023's Thanksgiving. While it takes place on Valentine's Day and features a killer dispatching people with a cupid themed arsenal of weapons, that is only half the story. What Heart Eyes really is, is a full on rom com with a slasher slapped over the top of it. How does that work? Thanks to a heightened comic tone and some sharp writing, pretty bloody well. Olivia Holt plays Ally, a love cynic who stalks her ex online and whose bitterness has seeped into her work, endangering her job as a marketing agent for a jewellery company. She has a meet cute in a coffee shop with Mason Gooding's Jay, only to later find out he has been hired by her company to fix her campaign and may be a threat to her position. True love sceptic forced to work with a hot new guy (who happens to be a hopeless romantic) under tense circumstances is a classic rom com set up and there is even...

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