https://www.starburstmagazine.com
  • Subscribe
  • Featured
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • News
  • Trailer Park
  • Subscribe
  • Film Festival
  • Store
  • Cart (0)
  • (0)
  • Account

Sorry there are no results, please try searching for something else

Please Use the search box on the left to search the site.

Search Results:

News

Out Now – ISSUE 448

STARBURST celebrates the anti-hero with previews ...

reviews

I KILL GIANTS

Director Anders Walter’s festival favourite ...

reviews

THEY CAME TO A CITY (1944)

Ealing Studios are best known for their post-war ...

reviews

DARK BLUE (2002)

Dark Blue is based on a story treatment from ...

reviews

STREETS OF RED: DEVIL’S DARE DELUXE

Taking its cues from games like Streets of Rage ...

reviews

FAHRENHEIT 451

With a television adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 ...

reviews

THE WAR IN THE DARK

Followers of occult history will know that our ...

reviews

ADULT FAIRY TALES (1978)

The legendary Charles Band had already been ...

reviews

RAMPAGE

Ever felt a bit like you want to see stuff get ...

reviews

PARTY BUS TO HELL

From writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky, Party Bus to ...

News

ASH VS. EVIL DEAD Cancelled After Three Seasons

No, no, no, no, no! We’d all hoped that the ...

Reviews | Written by Andrew Marshall 23/06/2015

THE CIRCLE

When six high school girls begin to develop magical powers, it’s only the beginning of the mystical world they are about to be plunged into. Forces of darkness are gathering in their quiet little mountain town, and the girls’ emerging powers may be all that there is to stand against it.

The current trend of adapting of young adult novel series into films is now spreading internationally. The Circle is the first of the Engelsfors trilogy by Swedish authors Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg, introducing readers to a world of witches, demons and the mysterious Council.

Its base ingredients are all very familiar. The girls develop powers like telekinesis, invisibility, firestarting, mind control and the ability to read arcane runes, all of which ultimately play a part as the story develops. Prophetic rumblings of dubious provenance use the clichéd phrase Chosen One without a hint of irony, along with a typically nebulous warning of hidden dangers and battles to come.

With the girls being highly diverse in both personality and social demographic, the story appeals to a wide audience, presenting them as dealing with issues that many teenagers face such as loneliness, isolation, bullying, unrequited crushes and unstable home lives, only with the added pressure of an encroaching apocalypse to contend with. Several of the film’s sextet of stars are giving their acting debut, and despite their inexperience each of them perfectly embodies her character. Judging by the varying levels of insight we into each girl’s home life, it’s clear how much empathy we are expected to have for each of them, effectively having our opinions of their character dictated to us, while also skipping over some murky areas such as the questionable ethics of mind control.

The crumbling ghost town after which the trilogy is titled is a perfect setting for a confrontation between good and evil, the settlement being isolated enough that the rest of the world could remain oblivious to the magical forces building within the creepy Silent Hill fog enveloping the eerie settlement. Like many YA adaptations, The Circle’s core audience will be existing fans of the books or anyone else who eats up similar works. Everyone else will likely find its nearly two and a half hour running time a bit of a slog.

THE CIRCLE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: LEVAN AKIN / SCREENPLAY: LEVAN AKIN, SARA BERGMARK ELFGREN / STARRING: IRMA VON PLATEN, MIRANDA FRYDMAN, HELENA ENGSTROM, LEONA AXELSEN, HANNA ASP, JOSEFIN ASPLUND, RUTH VEGA FERNANDEZ / RELEASE: TBC

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Reviews you may like

Read More

reviews | 21/04/2018

RAMPAGE

Ever felt a bit like you want to see stuff get smashed up by a mutated ...

View Article Read More

Share

reviews | 20/04/2018

PARTY BUS TO HELL

From writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky, Party Bus to Hell sees a group of ...

View Article Read More

Share

  • RAMPAGE

    Ever felt a bit like you want to see stuff get smashed up by a mutated giant animal? Of course you have. When you’re sat in traffic, wi...

    Read More
  • PARTY BUS TO HELL

    From writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky, Party Bus to Hell sees a group of horned-up, boozed-up partiers heading across the desert on their w...

    Read More

© Starburst Magazine - all rights reserved

  • Contact
  • Privacy