Cert 15 Stars 2

This US slasher horror aspires to be a dark fairy tale for a modern age, but is mostly a familiar mix of teenage fear, skinny dipping, blood letting and jump scares.

John-Paul Howard plays the terrifyingly ordinary teen Ben who has moved in with his dad for the summer only to discover the mother of the young family next door has started to behave strangely, and mysterious symbols are appearing scratched onto windows and tree trunks.

Co-director’s Brett and Drew Pierce apparently claim their script is inspired by their parents’ divorce and a love for Roald Dahl’s The Witches, but I’m not convinced the author would approve of the way his kids story reinvented with a deathly lack of imagination as a standard tale of a teenager fighting local bullies and supernatural forces.

It begins with a flashback to a Rubik’s Cube, and the scratchily written caption which tells us this was 35 years ago is probably the most shocking moment on show.

Cert 15 Stars 4

This demanding and demented gothic horror about a pair of 1890’s lighthouse keepers is as far from the Adventures of Portland Bill as Dorothy was from Kansas.

As uncompromising as the rain-lashed stump of rock off the US’s Atlantic coast on which they begin a four week stint of duty, it’s a barking study in madness from Robert Eggers.

Having previously directed 2015’s acclaimed art house horror The Witch, which was also creepy if low on scares, the atmospheric black-and-white photography is nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars.

Committing to their roles with impressive vigour, Willem Dafoe plays a one-legged crabby old sea dog, from whom Robert Pattinson is supposed to be learning the ropes.

But with the weather even more foul than a British summertime picnic, they punctuate their drudgery with dancing, drinking and violence, they lose all sense of time as their sanity is battered by hallucinations, seagulls, storms, and sexual fantasies about mermaids.

Pattinson also goes batty in his next film, playing Gotham City’s Caped Crusader in next years superhero reboot.

 

Stars 1

This violent psychological thriller is shamelessly provocative, unconvincing and dull, and sees director Jennifer Lynch insulting the intelligence of the audience with a transparent attempt at courting controversy by treating a murderous sex offender with sympathy and understanding.

When a young boy is kidnapped by a Vincent D’Onofrio’s taxi-driving psychopath, Bob, he’s taken to a remote farmhouse where he’s chained to the kitchen sink and renamed Rabbit, where he’s forced to clean up the bloody cadavers that are the result of Bob’s night-time cruising for female victims.

Lacking wit, insight or even the cheapest of thrills or hollow spectacle, this is a contender for the worst movie of 2012.

Cert 15 Stars 2

This found footage low rent horror sequel is a cynical and dull addition to a once promising franchise.

Once again an emotional disturbed child is thrust into the home of a middle-class family whose mother is ill, prompting things again to go bump in the night.

There’s a curious moving shadow, a strange sound, and doors that stand menacingly open. Eventually the signs of the occult begin to appear, strange symbols are drawn, and a cat wanders around, probably looking for an agent to fire.

Our fear and dread rises at the sight of a rolling ball, and wooden floors in long corridors, and a child riding a cycle, as all of a sudden we mortified we’re watching a bargain basement version of The Shining.

There are no new ideas and the found footage device has to work very hard to justify itself, as no matter how scared people are, they just will not let go of their phone.

Easily the most terrifying aspect of this movie is apparently how simple it is for teenagers to use technology to spy on their own family.

Cert 15 116mins Stars 5

Get scared out of your skin by the full-blooded popcorn thrills of this intense home invasion horror which asks cutting questions about identity.

A suburban family holiday near the coastal resort of Santa Cruz, turns into a fight for survival when attacked in their house.

They’re terrorised by a family who are identical to themselves, except for wearing prison fatigues and bearing scissors and a grudge.

Having won an Oscar for harrowing drama, 12 Years A Slave, Lupita Nyong’o is now the woman to beat at next year’s awards ceremony for this demonstration of her remarkable range in a physical demanding role.

She’s an electric wire of anxiety as the fearful mother on a mission to protect her husband and two kids, and her fellow cast members are equally likeable and committed, and not shy of talent.

With telling nods to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, this is an ambitious and scalpel-sharp fable which combines deadpan humour, acute social observation and stomach churning violence.

The assured storytelling is in the cruel tradition of folktales in leading us down a very dark path to reveal hard truths about ourselves.

As the story expands with an apocalyptic vibe there’s a welcome element of political paranoia typical of 1950’s sci-fi, which isn’t surprising as the script is influenced by an episode of TV’s The Twilight Zone from the era.

Writer, director and co-producer, Jordan Peele is the multi-talented and busy creative force who was responsible for 2017’s comedy horror smash, Get Out, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. 

And while again exploring racial fault lines in US society Peele also broadens his scope to include class division, but he never sacrifices pace, excitement or knuckle-chewing action..

It’s a privilege to watch as Peele pushes on creatively, and I’ll be shocked if this isn’t scaring up support at next year’s Oscars.