A Nightmare on Elm Street ★★★½ 1 MICHAEL, 2 Jason, 3 Freddy That’s my ranking of the three greatest slasher characters in horror film history. Michael Myers from the Halloween series has always been the most compelling on all levels, with Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees just edging him for […]

Dreaming of a nightmare

Fear the Night ★★ DON’T get me wrong – Maggie Q definitely has screen presence. But in more than 20 years, this Hawaiian actress has mostly appeared in average material. Her latest, thriller Fear the Night, is on par with the majority of her B-grade filmography. Borrowing from a whole […]

Question still hangs over Q

Kill ★★★½ FOLLOWING hard on the heels of Dev Patel’s Monkey Man comes the highly entertaining Indian action thriller Kill. Both films are full of great hand-to-hand and armed fight sequences that will enthrall John Wick fans. But where Patel’s film incorporates a mystic, supernatural aspect, in keeping with most […]

Raid on a train – Indian style

The Convert ★★★ THERE haven’t been many films made about the Māori Wars in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the latest, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert, takes the familiar path of focusing the story on a western character. Even if Guy Pearce’s lay minister, Thomas Munro, is based on an historical character, I suspect […]

Maori story told conventionally

A Quiet Place: Day One ★★★ IF YOU thought A Quiet Place: Day One was going to bring something knew to this film series you weren’t alone. But, as usual, we were sucked in by the marketing and the third film basically just repeats similar circumstances to the initial section […]

Shh…it’s Day One in A Quiet Place

Trigger Warning ★★½ FOR somebody whose been around the business for 30 years Jessica Alba really doesn’t have a lot to show for it. Even in her best films, such as Sin City and The Killer Inside Me, her performances aren’t the best thing about them. Alba’s latest is Trigger […]

Trigger warning – it stars Jennifer Alba

Lake Mungo ★★★ PERHAPS the Australian horror film Lake Mungo would have had more impact on its original 2008 release. Joel Anderson’s film had been on my watch list for a while due to regular recommendations. But I think it’s mockumentary style would have been more effective if there hadn’t […]

Lake Mungo more drama than horror

Mother’s Instinct ★★★ JESSICA Chastain and Anne Hathaway have great fun playing warring neighbours in the American psychological thriller Mother’s Instinct. It’s a remake of a 2018 French film, adapted from a 2012 novel, re-set in 1960s suburban America. Alice (Chastain) and Céline (Hathaway) are next-door neighbors and close friends. They […]

Great actors follow their instincts

Under Paris ★★★ SHARKS in the Seine? C’est fou! Yes, it is, but the madcap premise of French horror/thriller Under Paris actually works for the most part. There is an almost plausible reason offered as to how a shark gets into the river, but it doesn’t really matter. What we’re […]

Sharks under Paris? C’est fou!

No Way Up ★★½ HOW’S this for a ridiculous premise. A commercial flight crashes into the ocean and sinks. The surviving passengers are holed up in an air pocket at the rear of the aircraft with sharks stalking them. It sounds like another version of Sharknado but, on a technical level […]

No way up for downed flight

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice  ★★★ TIM Burton’s first film in five years is arguably one of his best of the 2000s. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice may be a little lazy in its overarching story, but all the moving parts are pretty entertaining. It’s meant to be a sequel to the 1988 film, but most […]

Burton and Keaton back for more fun

The Substance (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★★ TWO French women are among my favourite current directors. Julia Ducournau has given us Raw in 2016 and Titane (2021) and Coralie Fargeat, Revenge in 2017. Fargeat’s latest is the absolutely bonkers sci-fi horror The Substance featuring a career-best performance from Demi Moore. These […]

Be prepared for The Substance