Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

REVIEW: IF… / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: LINDSAY ANDERSON / SCREENPLAY: DAVID SHERWIN / STARRING: MALCOLM MCDOWELL, DAVID WOOD, RICHARD WARWICK, CHRISTINE NOONAN / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 9TH

If… is a beautifully crafted, if not often shocking, British classic. Set in a traditional boys’ boarding school, the story centres on Mick Travis (McDowell) and two of his pals as they look to rebel against the status quo of pompous, callous prefects and blasé teachers who regurgitate the same, sterile tripe year after year. The charismatic Travis wishes to stage a revolution, and his impassioned uprising pushes things forward towards a chilling, impactful climax.

Anderson’s film, his first in a trilogy of Mick Travis-centred efforts, is full of stiff upper lips, razor-sharp side-partings, epic sideburns, and sticking it to the man. The film often plays in a surreal, trippy way, switching to black and white at a moment’s notice, then flipping back to colour. We’re shown a world that is regimented by cold showers and, as one of the film’s dastardly prefects states, homosexual flirtatiousness. Part social commentary, part black comedy, but all entertainment, If… can’t help but grab your attention from the get-go. And from there on out, the film doesn’t let you go until it’s finished with you.

In terms of the performances, Malcolm McDowell is simply fantastic as Travis, the boy who is looking to break free from the chains of the old establishment, go against the grain, and who wants to expand his horizons. So the story goes, it was his turn here that landed McDowell the Alex gig in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and it’s easy to see why. Charming, elegant, intelligent but with clear unsavoury tendencies, McDowell’s turn as Mick Travis has you rooting for him, even at the times when you likely shouldn’t be. The actor is also helped out by some equally brilliant performances from the principal cast and, more importantly, the supporting cast, which is even more remarkable when so many of those involved were so young. All this does is add to the authenticity of the film and give it extra gravitas.

A surreal, spellbinding tale, If… is a brave movie that is laced in commentary, risk, and passion. So revolutionary and impressive was the film on its 1968 release, it actually went on to win the 1969 Palme d’Or. Yes, it may have rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way upon its initial release, but maybe that’s because there’s a lot of heart and truth at the core of If…, holding it together and constantly shining through. It also has to be said that this release is additionally helped out by the now-customary boatload of extras that Eureka are putting out with their Masters of Cinema series, most interesting of which is the commentary from star McDowell and film historian David Robinson. When all is said and done, If… is simply a must-have for fans of British cinema.

Extras: Commentary with David Robinson and Malcolm McDowell / Three short films by Lindsay Anderson / Extensive interviews with cast and crew / Two trailers / 56-page booklet

REVIEW: PORKY’S / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: BOB CLARK / SCREENPLAY: BOB CLARK / STARRING: DAN MONAHAN, MARK HERRIER, KAKI HUNTER, KIM CATTRALL, WYATT KNIGHT, NANCY PARSONS / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 16TH

With a massive cult following, Bob (Black Christmas) Clark’s Porky’s films defined a certain era of American filmmaking. By no means was it the first, but almost definitely the best remembered of the fifties-based college sex comedies, which seemed to flourish after the success of films such as George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973) and John Landis’ National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Porky’s added the extra elements that audiences wanted: more sex and unabashed nudity.

The story follows a group of college kids pulling the usual pranks and desperately trying to bed anything that moves; particularly Pee Wee (Monahan), who will do anything to lose his virginity. Cue a trip to the titular out-of-state redneck bar, run by the imposingly huge and corrupt Porky (Chuck Mitchell). Tricked and humiliated, the teens decide they must get revenge at all costs. Among this thin ‘plot’ is essential a series of vignettes of various sexual high jinks – most of which would put the perpetrator in court if tried today – and a sub-plot involving bullying, parental abuse and anti-Semitism, which doesn’t lower the mood too much.

At times very funny, its success lies in the vulgar, puerile, and offensive nature of the subject. It’s completely un-PC and as mentioned, the behaviour of the gang wouldn’t be tolerated these days; however, sexual curiosity is a very natural thing (although we didn’t all have peepholes in the girls’ shower room) and the females are just as compliant in the antics. Motel Hell star Parsons is formidable as the Nazi-like gym teacher Balbricker, who has a personal vendetta to catch the boys up to no good and features in the most mirthful scenes, to great effect.

While other recent films out-do the outrageousness of the material, Porky’s still stands proud as an entertaining example of the genre.

The main cast are relative newcomers, although Cattrall has gone on to bigger things, notably Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and, of course the popular Sex and the City series; although it’s hard for those who saw the film on first release to think of her as anyone other than Lassie.

As is the case with Arrow’s cult releases, they have packed the disc with some great supplementary features. As well as an entertaining commentary from Clark, there’s a short retrospective with the late director talking about all aspects of the film – particularly appealing for those who don’t bother with chat tracks. Mr. Skin (who, we believe, runs a popular naughty website of the same name, not that we know of or approve of such things, you understand) provides a broader look at the American teen sex comedy genre of the early eighties, and touches on its resurgence with the American Pie films. It’s an interesting look at the films, although it comes from the angle of the groundbreaking nudity rather than artistic merit (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course).

Image wise, the presentation is as would be expected for a relatively low-budget film; while not popping from the screen, there’s a definite improvement on the colours and detail, while retaining the grain and ambience of original viewings, although maybe not sharp enough to make out individual hairs. Now, has anyone seen Mike Hunt?

Extras: Audio commentary by writer/director Bob Clark / Porky’s Through the Peephole – Bob Clark looks back at his box-office sensation /  Skin Classic! – Mr Skin celebrates Porky’s and the heyday of the ’80s teen sex comedy / Porky’s trailer reel / Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jim Rugg / Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Paul Corupe, creator of the Canuxploitation website, and a previously unpublished interview with director Bob Clark conducted by Calum Waddell, illustrated with archive stills.

REVIEW: MISS VIOLENCE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ALEXANDROS AVRANAS / SCREENPLAY: ALEXANDROS AVRANAS, KOSTAS PEROULIS / STARRING: KOSTAS ANTALOPOULOS, CONSTANTINOS ATHANASIADES / RELEASE DATE: JULY 7TH

Ever since Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth wowed audiences back in 2009, Greek cinema has become the new Michael Haneke. Although Lanthimos and others have weaved into the fabric of their sometimes controversial work a certain absurdist humour, the award-winning second feature by Alexandros Avranas, Miss Violence, paints it black and black only.

Angeliki (Chloe Bolota), on her 11th birthday, jumps out of an open window. She is smiling as she does so. The family appear sad and upset for five minutes and then carry on as if nothing untoward has happened. No questions are asked and no soul-searching undertaken. It’s like the poor girl has been erased from memory. But why?

For a long time, and the film’s pace is pitched at glacial, Avranas feeds the viewer crumbs of information about the dynamics at work within the family unit. From the very first scene, even before the shocking act of Angeliki’s suicide, there’s something not quite right. Could it be the Leonard Cohen song, “Dance Me To The End Of Love”, playing on the stereo system or the bland colour scheme of the home interior and costume design?

Miss Violence is an experimental mixture of thriller narrative (removed of all genre thrills), a horror movie and a detective story, complete with a series of revelations so astoundingly grim that the overall reaction, as the film draws to a close, is one of absolute devastation.

The head of the family, superbly played by Themis Panou, is a tyrant. He rules his small fiefdom like the most skilled politician. When not taking part-time employment as an accountant, he is busy overseeing every aspect of life at home. The film’s subtext can be easily enough aligned to the modern state of Greece’s troubled politics, but it casts its net even further afield to dissect the overall relationship between individual and state and the capitalist narcotic that is materialism. The family unit serves as a microcosm.

The father gives with one hand and takes with the other. He inspires conformity through fear and rewards and manipulates with promises. He abuses the most sacred trust under the assumption that nobody will stand up against him. The final twenty minutes is a descent into the darkest hell with a denouement of soul-crushing proportions.

If you look beyond the film’s ability to offend quite possibly every sensibility you hold dear, there’s much to think about and take from it. Nevertheless, Miss Violence is a despairing picture and a tough viewing experience.

Extras: None

REVIEW: VIDEO NASTIES – THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE PART 2 – DRACONIAN DAYS / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JAKE WEST / SCREENPLAY: JAKE WEST / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Jake West has followed up his excellent documentary, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2011), with a juicy sequel focused on the repercussions of the Video Recordings Act 1984 and the continued demonization of horror movies by the British press, ignorant MPs and clueless Johnny Law. Unlike some of the participants, often featured in archived clips, the documentary is critical but open to the opinions of both sides of the argument. It leaves those spouting the most outrageous and ill-informed nonsense to hang themselves.

The film’s remit is to investigate how the classification process became an even more draconian form of movie censorship than known previously. The BBFC, it can be argued, made the rules up as they went along. How do you define and measure potential harm, exactly? The genius of the BBFC’s argument in the post-video nasties era was based on a premise of home invasion. Horror titles could be accessible to kids and their minds warped forever, thus precipitating the collapse of British society and moral standards. Yep, it really must have sucked being a horror fan in the 1980s and 1990s.

Given the shrill and cynical manner in which the news media reported all things ‘video nasty’, you’d be mistaken in believing watching a horror movie turned you into a depraved criminal. It’s a pretty big and presumptuous call to suggest the masses cannot tell apart fantasy from reality. The BBFC’s policies had an unintended result, however: the formation of an enterprising, rebellious subculture, where collectors traded uncut horror movies through fanzines and at various organised events. They stuck it to the Man!

Class prejudice has always been a mainstay of British film censorship. In the early days, politics and religion were the big no-no. As the times changed, snooty attitudes remained the same. According to the BBFC, sex and violence on the big screen would lead us down the road to social chaos. But they ventured even further into the realms of generalised lunacy. Who knew how the uneducated might react if they watched a Ninja Turtle use a string of sausages as a martial arts weapon?! The BBFC quantify it as ‘imitable techniques’. Yes, even a movie that featured talking ninja turtles was trimmed for its UK release.

Watching Video Nasties: Draconian Days, it’s hard not to feel angry and depressed about what has happened in this country over the past thirty years. Movies do not define social ills, they reflect them. Can the BBFC and those in power not tell the difference?

REVIEW: CELLAR DWELLER / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOHN BUECHLER / SCREENPLAY: DON MANCINI / STARRING: DEBRAH MULLAWNEY, BRIAN ROBBINS, VINCE EDWARDS, JEFFREY COMBS, PAMELA BELLWOOD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

There is a certain sort of horror movie that they made in the 1980s that we don’t see as often these days. Softer, sillier ideas tended to be the norm and though there was plenty of terror to be had, the tone was much lighter. Movies like Creepshow proved that they still owed a lot to other types of spooky stories, namely ghost stories and old-fashioned horror comics. Cellar Dweller took this inspiration more literally, being a tale based around comic strip artists.

Our tale begins in the 1950s. Horror comic creator Colin Childress (played by industry legend Jeffrey Combs) is famous for his popular yet scary book, Cellar Dweller. All too late he discovers the ghastly secret behind his success and pays a terrible price for his revelation. Thirty years later, the site of these supernatural shenanigans has been turned into an artist’s colony, filled with all sorts of wacky creative types with interesting hair. The latest addition is Whitney Taylor (Debrah Farentino) a fan of the old Cellar Dweller comic and a master of sequential art in her own right. After a brief confrontation with the lady who runs the facility and some light commentary on art snobbery, the horror begins and a big monster starts eating people.

The acting is just about better than average for an ’80s budget horror movie and the special effects are quite rubbery. There’s some gore, some nudity and a little bit of terror. Experienced horror fans are likely to chuckle and be charmed in equal measure.

The feature clocks in at just 77 minutes long which is the perfect length for a short, schlocky and fun little horror movie. Cellar Dweller was never meant to rock anyone’s world and it’s still as much fun today as it was back in then. It falls short of being a true classic of its kind, mostly due to a goofy-looking monster and flimsy premise. Daft but delightful.

Extras: None

REVIEW: PIT AND THE PENDULUM / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: ROGER CORMAN / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD MATHESON / STARRING: VINCENT PRICE, BARBARA STEELE, JOHN KERR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The second of the Vincent Price/Roger Corman collaborations from the 1960s, in which the duo brought to life (with some fairly liberal interpretations) some of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous tales, The Pit and the Pendulum is 76 minutes of glorious, colourful, melodramatic perfection.

Set in 16th century Spain, it tells the story of Francis Barnard (Kerr) who has travelled to the castle of of his brother-in-law Nicholas Medina (Price) to learn more about the death of his sister Elizabeth (Steele). He is met by his grief stricken brother-in-law who, after initially trying to fob him off with the tale that she died of a blood infection, eventually admits that she succumbed to madness and was found dead of fright, locked up in the torture chamber’s Iron Maiden. From this point on almost nothing is as it seems and one of the story’s chief delights is the way in which it sets a series of enjoyably macabre surprises within a context of some very familiar but nonetheless effectively spooky ghost story clichés. The plaintive notes of a harpsichord echoing down the castle’s empty corridors at night for example is something that is so chillingly realised that, if you aren’t already watching it in bed, will have you wishing you had a duvet to pull up to your nose when viewing the scene alone.

Such an approach to horror could only ever benefit from the presence of Vincent Price and here, playing a man increasingly convinced that he may have buried his wife alive, he is at his haunted, deranged best. As his seemingly doomed wife, Barbara Steele is a hypnotic and unsettling presence, with her uncanny and beguiling physiognomy used to its very best here. For such a beautiful woman Steele was always capable of unnerving an audience, particularly with those eyes which are utilised in one particularly memorable shot that may induce a few nightmares.

However, if you already know all this, then there’s a good chance that what you really want to know is: how does it look? How do all those rich colours and that lush, often psychedelic palette that Corman employed in these films come across on the Blu-ray release? Very well indeed is the answer, with Arrow’s work once again bringing to glorious life the saturated Technicolor that horror films of the period often favoured.

But it’s the extras that really push this disc into the realm of essential purchases. The best of these is Price narrating a selection of Poe stories to a spellbound studio audience and watching this, one can only marvel at the charisma of the man as he makes these stories come alive with a passion and intensity few could match. Add to this two commentaries (one from Corman), a very enjoyable making of documentary and some wonderful artwork commissioned especially for this release, and you have another superb effort from Arrow that does full justice to a film that is at last receiving the treatment it has always so richly deserved.

Extras: See above

REVIEW: DOCTOR WHO – CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS OF FANDOM / CERT: E / DIRECTOR: JONATHON SCRAFTON / SCREENPLAY: JONATHON SCRAFTON / STARRING: LOUISE JAMSEON, ROBERT SHEARMAN, NICK ROBATTO, MICHELLE OSORIO, JOHN PAUL GREEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (AVAILABLE FROM WWW.FTSMEDIA.CO.UK)

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this 45-minute documentary celebrating Doctor Who’s half-century as a TV phenomenon. But you can’t help thinking that it’s a bit late to the party as every last crumb of the TARDIS birthday cake was devoured back in November and the bunting’s long since been put away. But this is a Kickstarter-funded project which has suffered delays and production problems so perhaps we can look at the film as one of those ‘sorry we missed your birthday’ type messages and just sit back and enjoy the show.

Whereas Cameron K. McEwan’s Who’s Changing looked at the ways Doctor Who fandom has developed over the decades, Celebrating Fifty Years just rounds up a bunch of Doctor Who professionals and fans and lets them talk about Doctor Who and how important it is in their lives. So Louise Jameson (Leela from 1977-8) discusses not only her time in the series but the impact the show has had on her life ever since; it is, as she cheerily admits, her pension. Robert Shearman is as avuncular as ever as he talks about his love for the series and his ‘Dalek’ episode from 2005 and prop maker Nick Robatto explains how he turned his work on the TV series into Rubbertoe Replicas, making and selling licensed replica props and collectibles based on his original designs for the series. Then we have slightly more eccentric and yet still endearing fans such as American Michelle Osorio (she describes herself as a ‘film-maker and YouTuber‘…that’s a profession now?) who’s busily making a web series called ‘Dalek Gary’ about a stranded Dalek who has to take up a menial office job to make ends meet – which does seem to fundamentally miss the whole point of the Daleks. Other enthusiastic fans interviewed have fulfilled lifelong ambitions by appearing on the revived show as a high-profile extra (one of the ear-pod humans in ‘Rise of the Cybermen’) and another has built a fully-functioning ring modulator which allows him to distort his voice into the familiar tones of a Dalek or a Cybermen.

Light-hearted and good-natured, Celebrating Fifty Years of Fandom is watchable and unassuming, if entirely inessential, and if it doesn’t come to any specific conclusions about why its interviewees are Doctor Who fans that’s probably because it doesn’t need to and doesn’t want to. It’s just a bunch of folk whose lives have been touched by the Doctor and who, like most of us, can’t help feeling like better people because of it.

Extras: None

  

REVIEW: FOLLOWING THE WICCA MAN / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JACQUELINE KIRKHAM / SCREENPLAY: JACQUELINE KIRKHAM / STARRING: GAZ ELLIOT, CHARLAINE DUNCAN, JACQUELINE KIRKHAM / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Witchcraft has always provided a solid basis for a good horror story, with Following the Wicca Man, writer/director/actor/cinematographer Jacqueline Kirkham has taken genuine Wiccan beliefs and included references to real-life ‘Father of Wicca’, Gerald Gardner and woven them into an intriguing story, which doesn’t need to resort to clichéd horror tropes.

Award-winning filmmaker, Clayton (Elliot) has an idea for his next project: a documentary about witches. He is spurred on after finding out a local woman, Freya (Kirkham) is a practicing white witch, and arranges a meeting. She warns him of the dangers of delving too deep into the Wicca faith, as the dark side is a place no-one can escape once they learn their secrets. His girlfriend, Sophia (Duncan), isn’t too keen on him investigating too much particularly since he finds out that legendary witch Gardner had a coven in a house she was once abused in, plus to add to her woes, she learns she is pregnant. Naturally, the desire to get a scoop for his film gets the better of him, and Clayton’s actions have nasty consequences.

For a début effort, Kirkham hasn’t done too badly. The story and photography are both very good, and the music (by Tony Longworth, with a contribution of an acoustic number from actor Elliot) is wonderfully atmospheric and certainly helps establish an ominous mood. The entire cast are all newcomers and for once it’s not glaringly obvious. One or two wobbles here and there, but nothing to throw the viewer out of the story – and they did well not to be fazed by some strange occurrences on set too, as apparently a number of unexplained happenings shook some cast members.

The big flaw has to be the sound design, which is inconsistent, particularly when it comes to the ADR mix. Many of the voices have been dubbed, and while that in itself is not a problem, they tend not to be placed correctly in the sound space, making it sound a little odd. However, it’s not too distracting and all things considered, it’s a small point, particularly when you realise Kirkham made the jump from stills photographer to filmmaker without going the usual trial-and-error route of making short films or promos, so it’s no doubt been a steep learning curve.

The story is engrossing, and despite being almost two hours long, the pacing is such that it doesn’t sag, and is suitably unpredictable. For a low-budget self-financed film, Following the Wicca Man is an impressive venture, and worth seeking out if you fancy something a bit different to the norm.

Extras: TBC

For more information, head over to the film’s Facebook page.

REVIEW: DEMON LEGACY / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: RAND VOSSLER / SCREENPLAY: TRACY MORSE / STARRING: ANNAMARIA DEMARA, MATTHEW CURRIE HOLMES, KATI SHARP / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Demon Legacy was crowd-funded which, all the film’s problems aside, opens up a great relationship between fans and filmmakers, cutting out studio bureaucracy and keeping backers involved and updated every step of the way. That alone should be celebrated. Horror especially is continuing to flourish with some of the genre’s best and bravest going the fan-funding route alongside fresh faces. But applause for Rand Vossler’s (who co-produced Oliver Stone’s masterfully anarchic Natural Born Killers) and Bob Gill’s Demon Legacy should end there.

The Ouija board is a tired trope and, if horror films are to be believed, all teens have one stashed away. As a means of possession, Ouija has always fallen a bit flat, after all it was just a parlour game. Throw in a bit of cod witchcraft and unfortunately it fails on the scare front.

Billed as a cross between The Evil Dead and The Last Exorcism, Demon Legacy lacks any of Sam Raimi’s twisted humour or ingenuity. The journey up to the cabin in the woods is remarkably similar to the one taken by Ash and co. It doesn’t have a tree rape, though, and that’s one over on The Evil Dead, at least.

The opening credits have more in common with a ’90s TV show, something that wouldn’t have felt out of place scheduled between Charmed and Buffy. Newspaper cuttings pinned to the wall have always been a sure-fire way to show a character’s obsession, but for once will bookmarking articles on an e-reader suffice?

The score, a crack at John Carpenter’s piano compositions for Halloween, is indicative of low budget horror and, while that’s certainly never a bad thing, the rest of the film just isn’t up to scratch. The slo-mo effects and double vision are as cheap as they are ineffective, and again give the film the feel of a trashy ’90s flick. The fast-mo is laughable and while the effect Vossler and Gill are going for has been used effectively (and sparingly) elsewhere, in Demon Legacy it only serves to tickle your funny bone. Similarly, the nudity is neither necessary nor relevant, and notice AnnaMaria Demara and her cast mates are young, skinny and busty. Funny that.

The ranger is about the only half interesting character among a host of hammy performances (including a particularly patronising English accent from Canadian born Matthew Currie Holmes) and while the horror-verse is populated by unengaging characters, there’s usually one worth liking, even if it is normally the killer or ghoul. At least there shouldn’t be a sequel.

Every once in a while the horror genre is deconstructed and redefined, the cabin-in-the-woods subgenre being no different. Lars Von Trier’s highly stylised Antichrist (2009) breathed cadaverous new life into the familiar, and in 2012 Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods offered another fresh spin on the idea. AnnaMaria Demara running through the woods wearing only her nightie in a film that sticks rigidly to the ‘rules’ set down by Wes Craven in Scream… you do have to ask, is this really 2014?

Extras: None

REVIEW: THE ATTIC / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOSH STOLBERG / SCREENPLAY: JOSH STOLBERG, NICK TAVARELLA / STARRING: RALEIGH HOLMES, LORI LOUGHLIN, JONATHAN SILVERMAN, DAVID KOECHNER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

We all love a good drinking game. The Attic (aka Crawlspace) offers up a doozy: knock back a shot every time a lead character, creeping about in the dark, is – eek! – surprised by someone who jumps out at them but who turns out be their dad/friend/boyfriend/neighbour. But be warned; you’re very likely to need your stomach pumped if you’re still in the game by the end of the movie; director Stolberg shamelessly uses this hoary, cheesy old jump-scare tactic seven or eight times throughout the film to the extent that it quickly stops being funny and starts to get just a bit absurd. Which is a shame because The Attic is actually a surprisingly tense and accomplished psychological thriller rather than a cheap and derivative horror quickie. Boo!!! (Ha ha, it’s only me!)

The Gates, a cheery American everyman family, move into their fabulous new dream home but all is not well. The previous owners vacated the premises in disturbing circumstances after the family’s two young kids drowned in the swimming pool. But it seems that perhaps the house hasn’t been completely vacated because, up in the attic (or crawlspace), someone is watching the family’s every move with beady eyes. And he ain’t happy to see his home occupied by a happy, well-adjusted family unit…

The Attic is a chirpy little movie which presents its ‘bad guy’ – Steve Weber’s Aldon Webber – not as some mindless psychopathic slayer but as a damaged, grief-stricken man who’s lost sight of his own sanity. This doesn’t, of course, excuse his behaviour as he quietly terrorises the Gates family and calmly removes anyone who gets in his way, but it does at least make him a slightly more sympathetic figure than we might be expecting. Webber offs his victims in increasingly inventive ways; death by hoover, death by waste disposal and death by Christmas decorations are just three of the methods of execution delivered in Stolberg’s tight, sharp script. In fact, the script is very much the star here and Stolberg’s taken the hokey ‘hider in the house’ horror cliché and resuscitated it courtesy of a pacey narrative which never flags or drags, naturalistic dialogue performed with gusto by the likeable cast (newcomer Raleigh Holmes is one to watch as the family’s college-age daughter Kayla who carries most of the big dramatic moments) and a rounded and satisfying denouement which neatly wraps up the story whilst offering up room for a sequel or two.

Notwithstanding a few nasty graphic death sequences, The Attic isn’t especially scary but then, despite its cheapjack UK DVD sleeve promising an entirely different sort of movie, The Attic really isn’t out to deliver cheap thrills for the Saturday night horror crowd. It’s subtler, classier and better than that. Waaah. (Only me again…)

Extras: None