What the hell was that?… Spaceship is written and directed by Alex Taylor, who’s known for making well-acclaimed short films like Release of the Flying Monkeys and Kids Might Fly, and has described this film as being a film “fuelled by teenage energy”. It revolves around a cyber-goth teen mysteriously disappearing, and following this, her father begins searching for her while other teens start fantasising the circumstances of her disappearance as well as being lost in their own little world. Sounds interesting enough, but in all honesty, this is the kind of film that will either fascinate or alienate audiences, and for this reviewer, it was kind of film that was truly hard to engage with emotionally.
A lot of the narrative and characters feel too vague to connect with, and while it can be okay to keep things unclear when telling a story on film if you think the audience is smart enough to work it out on their own, there is nothing here to draw them in emotionally. It could be that Taylor was to trying to give us a revelatory insight into teen culture and the notions of being a teen outcast with quirks and all, however, there’s isn’t any depth or intrigue to any of these characters. In truth, they all act like glorified mouthpieces spouting out all this pseudo-intellectual and philosophical platitudes of conscience and one’s self that Taylor thinks is thought-provoking but instead comes off as naval-gazing and disconnecting.
Taylor wanted us to embrace the strangeness and weirdness this movie throws up, but whenever you see filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky try to do strange, thought-provoking movies, they at least tried to make it clever while also generating an emotional response. In the case of this, Taylor thinks that rambling on about unicorns, alien abductions and rainbows amounts to depth that will fascinate the audience. It doesn’t though, despite it looking pretty to look at through its neon day-glow aesthetic, plus the actors are clearly trying their best despite the hokey dialogue.
In the end, Spaceship is a confusing mess, that’ll either entrance or befuddle you with its pseudo-philosophical dialogue and visual-heavy narrative. Maybe there is the germ of an idea in there that has the potential to be exciting and thought-provoking, but it’s a shame that there are all the other elements dragging it down, and it isn’t hard to see why this film has grated a lot of people off the wrong way.
SPACESHIP / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ALEX TAYLOR / STARRING: ALEXA DAVIES, LARA PEAKE, LUCIAN CHARLES COLLIER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW




Guillermo Del Toro has firmly established himself as an auteur in modern filmmaking. His stylistic and self-described ‘personal’ cinematic canon expertly combines fantasy with realism for narratives that are rich in both imagery and cultural context. Perhaps the most salient pieces of his filmic jigsaw are the three times he has made features in the Spanish language – Cronos (1993), The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Pan’s Labyrinth was obviously lauded the world over, but its predecessor and “sibling film” The Devil’s Backbone is not as widely renowned. However, this new Blu-ray re-release of The Devil’s Backbone from Umbrella Entertainment allows us to revisit this gothic tale in all its glory, with some informative special features thrown in for good measure.

With the live-action 
Italian locations standing in for the real thing – check. Italian actors doubling for other nationalities – check. Entirely ADR-ed soundtrack with poor lip-synch – check. Ennio Morricone-alike music score – check. Impassive American star flown in to play the lead – check.


A hired guide leaves his family in an urban hellhole to navigate a path into a different kind of hell – a restricted territory known only as the Zone. Thought to be the site of an ancient meteor strike or alien landing (no one quite knows any more), this decaying no-man’s land is somehow alive, possessed of a sentient intelligence that infests the minds of those who enter it and sends them towards the many traps it has laid to discourage them from discovering its secrets.

Conceived by writer and director Fritz Lang shortly after his mother’s death, 1921’s 

Dan Stevens stars in this sci-fi action film, 

Although most recognised for her starring role in 