Review Category: Movie

Stephen Biro (director of the American Guinea Pig series) is no stranger to controversy when it comes to cinema. Here, he focuses on a film that caused more debate and outrage than any other in recent years.

When A Serbian Film was released in 2010, it quickly became a cause célèbre, being banned and cut all over the world. Biro’s documentary covers all the outrage (including the infamous pulled screening at FrightFest), but it also gives good insight into the making and meaning of the movie.

We get to see behind the scenes of creating the impressive (and disturbing) special makeup effects (including the trauma the actors had to deal with during body casting). More importantly, we hear from the director, producers, and actors to find out what they thought of working on the movie and the outcry that followed it.

Everyone involved is incredibly honest, detailing the problems the movie had getting made and even getting the film elements developed. The documentary might not make you want to sit through A Serbian Film again, but you might gain a deeper understanding.

A SERBIAN DOCUMENTARY screened at FrightFest on August 22nd.

Finally, a horror film for people who are inexplicably grossed out by the idea of kombucha. Saddled with a mind-numbing day job, musician Luke (Terrence Carey) buys into the company’s free kombucha scheme in an attempt to meet his quotas. The gunk has the desired effect of enhancing Luke’s productivity, but leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Adapted from Jake Myers’ short film of the same name (he must really hate kombucha and office work), Kombucha expands on the ideas and subtext, going bigger, harder and gooier than before. A cross between Office Space and David Cronenberg before he became A History of Violence and Crimes of the Future‘s David Cronenberg, Kombucha is a snarky comedy-horror satire for those frustrated artists out there who have been saddled with a sucky day job. It’s a slow burn, but Myers is successful in adapting a short film to feature length without it feeling padded out or as though anyone is stalling for time.

Kombucha is playing with a lower budget than, say, The Substance, but both kombucha and having a day job are yucky enough that what it does deign to show works. As tortured artist Luke, Carey is phenomenal, demonstrating a big enough talent during the opening scenes that we can buy into his frustration at being turned into a dead-eyed, kombucha-swilling office drone. The effects, while on the cheaper end of the spectrum, still get the job done, veering between the otherworldly purple of Color out of Space and the oily slime of Society.

An office horror satire which will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to work a soul-crushing day job… or just really hates the idea of kombucha.

KOMBUCHA premiered at UK FrightFest on August 22nd, 2025.

 

A demented game show host (Jackie Earle Haley) stages a grotesque game of death in this grisly horror film that’s part Saw, part Richard Osman’s House of Games. After packing off to their rich pal’s country house for the weekend, four friends become unwitting participants in Barry Miller’s little game.

Hurtling toward a winner-takes-all final round, Anita (Ella-Rae Smith) must work with – and occasionally against – chums James (Jamie Flatters), Melissa (Joelle Rae) and Matthew (David Angland). And with friends like these, who needs enemies? It’s good that screenwriter Joey Miller’s story cuts to The Chase, as every moment of their company prior to the game beginning is utterly intolerable. Thank the game show gods for Jackie Earle Haley, who elevates the sub-Saw-like material with a performance which vacillates between The Grabber in The Black Phone and Michael McIntyre on Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel. Which is to say, he’s extremely annoying, but his victims are worse.

On its surface, Your Host is yet another horror film about a lunatic torturing his victims in a basement. Only connect the dots, and Miller and director JW Medoff have a bit more to say than that. Its message is either intentionally or unintentionally unpleasant, but the extra layer tightens things up rather nicely as the cast is whittled down.

As Earle Hayley’s performance elevates the often clunky script, so too does the undeniably effective gore-making. Sharp implements puncturing eyeballs and eardrums are old hat, all these years after Hostel, but the simplicity of Your Host’s sadism works wonders. There’s one sequence which left me genuinely slack-jawed in disbelief at what had just unfolded – a rarity in modern Torture Horror.

Your Host grates more than it gratifies, but there are glimmers of something fascinating in there; a blood-drenched thriller with more on its mind than just Pointless torture.

YOUR HOST premieres at UK FrightFest on August 22, 2025.

Although his name will mean nothing to many modern horror fans, Andy Milligan was a trailblazer at the height of the grindhouse years of 42nd Street and pushed the boundaries of queer cinema.

Milligan’s films were not so much low budget as less-than-shoestring. Using off-cuts of film stock, his movies were the definition of rough and ready. An acquired taste, for sure, but time has been kind to his work, and he’s been reassessed, both by exploitation fans and the more serious film world. Severin Films, the company behind this documentary, put out a box set of Milligan’s work a few years back, and before that, the BFI released two of the films he made in Britain on Blu-ray.

Milligan didn’t start with horror, of course. His first films were rough sexploitation that paved the way for him to dabble in the darker side of exploitation. His first horror film, The Ghastly Ones (1968), was banned in the UK as part of the video nasty ‘panic’ of the early ‘80s. Even the people interviewed in this documentary admit that his films were mostly incomprehensible. However, it’s this shambolic style that endears us to his work. As with the reappraisal of Ed Wood, it proves we love an underdog.

Directed by Grayson Tyler Johnson and Josh Johnson, The Degenerate is a revealing, no-holes-barred overview of Milligan, as told by his friends and those who’ve studied his work. It’s often touching, but never delusional about its subject. No one tries to make Andy out to have been Fellini! This is a refreshingly honest portrayal, and all aspects of his career are covered, including his stage work. Milligan’s biographer and long-time friend Jimmy McDonough provides insight into his tragic final years, and those who were there at the beginning of his career add more perspective.

The test of any documentary, particularly one about an artist so divisive, is whether it would keep the interest of anyone who doesn’t care about the subject. We can safely say The Degenerate is entertaining and engaging enough to win over anyone.

THE DEGENERATE: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF ANDY MILLIGAN screened at FrightFest on August 22nd. 

Working away from home, Dani (Jackie Kelly) settles into her room for the evening, flirting into the early hours in a sexually-charged text message exchange. Her cosy night in is interrupted by a knock on the door; a sinister portent of the night she has in store.

Dani isn’t prepared for where this is all headed, and nor are you – Human is a balls (and everything else) to the wall gorefest, taking its version of a splatter flick to nigh-existential levels in what it throws at the screen. As the faucet is opened on a veritable torrent of effluence, poor Dani emerges as one of the most abused horror heroines of recent years.

Between the gallons of gore and disembodied, uh, body parts, it’s very much in the Evil Dead II vein of bloodbath. Even fans of that franchise’s grisliest entries might struggle with Human though, which dials up the unpleasantries to almost inhumane levels.

And we’re not necessarily talking about the trauma suffered by Dani either. It’s hard enough to stomach as an audience member. From the constant ping of Dani’s phone to an absolutely gruelling gore sequence late in the film, it’s a harrowing experience, and a relentless assault on the senses.

Kelly weathers it all well, while writer and director Matt Stuertz sends in several surprises to ensure that she has something to bounce off of, even if it’s just a strange man doing a monologue about periods over the phone. The cacophonic approach is probably the point though, successfully putting the audience on edge before the gross stuff has even started.

Human is not a pleasant horror film, but it is an undeniably effective one.

HUMAN premiered at FrightFest on August 22, 2025.

Director Chris Marrs Piliero knows his Quentin Tarantino films, and really wants you to know it. His ensemble piece Appofeniacs is a modern-day Pulp Fiction, spanning several intersecting narratives, each related to our modern world and the ill-intended consequences of abusing deepfake technology.

As a steamy hot tub party and a cosy night in both go awry, app-happy Duke (Aaron Holliday) sets into motion a terrible sequence of events which will result a bloody denouement for all involved… and then another one, on top of that. Swapping gimp suits and ball gags for weaponised Karen rants and giant anime swords, it’s an eclectic blend of Tarantino-esque violence and Black Mirror-style fearmongering. Some of the Tarantino references are a bit on the nose, but Piliero’s screenplay does a good job of aping the filmmaker’s signature style in a way that so many have failed to do before.

Where Appofeniacs is at its most successful is when it does its own thing, such as an early sequence involving a hot tub and a masturbating man in a kilt (Michael Abbott Jr, who channels Trainspotting’s Begbie to steal the whole film). Sean Gunn also gives a strong showing as anime arms dealer Clinto Binto.

Appofeniacs is perhaps too beholden to its love affair with Tarantino for its own good, but it’s an enjoyable collection of pulpy techno-terrors.

APPOFENIACS premiered at UK FrightFest on August 22, 2025.

A young woman faces horrific night terrors in this moody supernatural thriller by writer and director James Ross II. Haunted by past tragedy, the subconsciously simmering trauma of Riley (Jasmine Matthews) bubbles to the surface when she sleeps, taking the form of a nightmarish masked figure lurking in the shadows of her mind.

When a close friend disappears, Riley becomes convinced that her night terrors have become a dangerous, tangible reality. Has her pet dream demon really breached through, or is the danger already here and present in the waking world? And what does the sinister Mama (Sally Stewart) have to do with all of this?

Parasomnia successfully harnesses that feeling of vulnerability and anxiety one often associates with teetering on the edge of sleep. The low budget and murky cinematography are effective in building an atmosphere of tension and dread, leaving the viewer as wrong-footed as Riley when it comes to what’s real and what’s not. Sure, it looks a little cheap, but the most effective nightmares are those grounded in reality.

It’s a startling feature debut from its director, who keeps a tight handle on tone and pace, while throwing in plenty of striking imagery. It’s hardly going to put Freddy Krueger out of business, but there are some interesting flavours of folk horror to the various nightmares at play here, utilising creepy masks and surprising jump scares.

PARASOMNIA premiered at UK FrightFest on August 22nd, 2025.

At last, a horror film for haters of Chat GPT and Slack in the workplace. CognAItive, or Cogn-AI-tive, if you want to be really obvious about it, is an updated version of technophobic sci-fi thrillers like Dream House (1998), 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Simpsons segment ‘House of Whacks,’ wherein an AI-controlled house gains self-realisation and attempts to kill its residents.

What even The Simpsons couldn’t predict, however, is how all-encompassing and life threatening AI would eventually become. Taking that theme to its natural conclusion, Tommy Savas’s Cognaitive asks: ‘What if Chat GPT was actively trying to kill us?’

Piper Curda stars as developer Kaya, one of the minds behind the titular CognAItive. Ambitious CEO Ethan (Noel Fisher) has just brought the release date forward to literally tomorrow, and Kaya and her team have been charged with staying overnight to ensure that the launch goes smoothly. Having outgrown the parameters of its programming a while ago, Cog has certain ideas about what the launch should entail and is prepared – and able – to kill for the cause. It’s Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning on a much smaller scale, although there is also a guy named Ethan here.

With CognAItive, Savas and screenwriter Angie Simms have updated ’90s schlock for our modern workplace. Its office setting is sharply observed, from the omnipresent Slack screens to cans of Liquid Death and Monster energy drink. Curda’s world-weary Kaya is a beacon of normality in a colourful crew of freaks and geeks, each profoundly irritating but amusingly wired. It’s on-the-nose but effective, utilising killer drones, 3D printers and even revenge porn in its attack upon the beleaguered office workers.

Will CognAItive, like Chopping Mall and Lawnmower Man age badly, like the tech world’s own Elon Musk? Whether we make it another three or four decades is anyone’s guess (if not, it could very well be AI’s fault) but, in the here-and-now, it’s a delightfully savage takedown of AI, tech bros, and Slack in the workplace.

COGNAITIVE premiered at UK FrightFest on August 21, 2025.

Troubled Max (Peter Davidson), still reeling from the loss of his big brother, is sentenced to community service at a seniors’ nursing home, Green Meadows. While he gets on with his mundane duties, he sees some disturbing things – a masked couple making love and a woman bleeding from the head in the swimming pool – but he also befriends one of the residents, Norma (Mary Beth Peil), who takes him under her wing. He struggles to sleep as he hears noises and screaming coming from the fourth floor – a place where he’s been forbidden. As the days go on, he finds that there’s something very wrong with the place.

Davidson provides a very measured performance, vulnerable and surprisingly endearing. Among the ensemble of residents are John Glover (Gremlins 2: The New Batch), who plays a ponytailed former actor, and Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager), who both add a sense of gravitas to the inhabitants. Director (and co-writer) James DeMonaco (The Purge) fills the screen with grotesque and disturbing imagery, building a mystery that culminates in a mix of David Cronenberg and Brian Yuzna. There are plenty of cheap, clichéd shocks along the way, but DeMonaco knows how to utilise expectations and build to a gore-laden finale in which all hell breaks loose (even if what’s going on is fairly predictable).

Given the shock and gore, the film’s strength lies in the quieter character interactions, particularly between Max and Norma. While it may not hit home completely – the tone shifts far too often – the cast and some gnarly effects save it.

THE HOME screened at FrightFest on August 21st. 

Timo Tjahjanto’s Nobody 2 is a chaotic, blood-splattered road action comedy that tries to balance the violent grit of its predecessor with a surprisingly tender exploration of family tension.

Bob Odenkirk once again embodies Hutch Mansell, a man torn between his violent obligations and his desire to reconnect with his family. Odenkirk’s grounded performance anchors the film, making Hutch’s internal conflict as compelling as his knack for creative takedowns.

The film benefits greatly from Tjahjanto’s kinetic action sensibilities. Set pieces are choreographed with flair – boat brawls, backwoods shootouts, and inventive traps keep the energy consistently high. RZA and Christopher Lloyd return for more crowd-pleasing moments, while John Ortiz and Sharon Stone bring entertaining menace to their new roles. The humour, darker than in the first instalment, often cuts through the chaos with unexpected wit.

Where the film falters is in its juggling act between story and spectacle. The road-trip setup promises more depth, particularly in Hutch’s strained relationship with wife Becca (Connie Nielsen), but the script doesn’t always give these emotional beats room to breathe. Family drama often feels rushed, especially when it’s shoved aside for another volley of bullets. Tonal shifts also clash, undercutting tension with humour that doesn’t always land.

Still, fans of the original will find plenty to enjoy. The film embraces its pulpy identity, delivering brutal fights, eccentric villains, and a satisfying finale. It doesn’t surpass the lean precision of the first Nobody, but as a wild, occasionally messy follow-up, it earns its place.

NOBODY 2 is in cinemas now.