Review Category: Movie

Since playing Hawkins in 1987’s Predator, Shane Black has gone on to build quite the impressive reputation as a screenwriter and director. For example, his writing credits include the likes of Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Iron Man 3 – the latter two also featuring him on directing duties. Here, Black goes full circle and returns to tackle the latest outing for the Predator franchise, but is this a long-delayed return to form for the series or simply yet another example of why sometimes it’s best to leave old favourites behind?

In terms of plot, an alien ship ends up causing all kinds of carnage in a jungle locale – sounds familiar, right? – and Boyd Holbrook’s McKenna is the last man standing, able to make it out alive and even able to send some swanky Predator souvenirs back home. Of course, McKenna is quickly being grilled by the powers-that-be over just what it was that he saw, while in the meantime a Predator ship is headed to Earth and seemingly on the hunt for McKenna’s newfound gear. The bigger problem here, mind, is that this gear is residing in McKenna’s estranged wife’s basement, where his young son (the ever-impressive Jacob Tremblay) has accidentally begun communicating with the alien mob. Quicker than you can say “get to da choppa!”, McKenna has ended up assembling a ragtag team of former soldiers and Olivia Munn’s science whiz as they look to save his son from this most savage of alien menaces. And yes, much like has been bafflingly shown in the film’s trailers, there is indeed an even bigger Predator in on the hunt, too. Not to mention Predator-style dogs. Dun, dun, dun, dun!

Sure, we’d love to try and play this up and to at least string you along with some sort of hope that The Predator could well actually be a film that has rejuvenated a much-loved property, but we’ve got to be blunt: it isn’t.

While big and dumb can work in the right context and handled in the correct way, sometimes big and dumb is simply, well, big and dumb. And sadly, The Predator struggles for any real redeeming qualities bar the fact that it sometimes looks impressive. Dig under the surface, however – or get slapped in the face with one of its plot points or plentiful gags – and you’ll find that the sheen may be decent, but the substance is sorely lacking in anything resembling a half-way decent plot, with truly awful dialogue, some utterly minimal character development, cuss words for the sake of cuss words (and trust us, we swear like sailors!), and performances that range from painful to just about bearable.

Is The Predator a new low for the series? That’s debatable. But the fact that that’s even a thought – y’know, considering how awful Alien vs. Predator: Requiem is – should tell you all you need to know about Black’s movie. This is a film that nobody particularly asked for, and then just when you think that maybe – just maybe – this might be an effort that could salvage the franchise, the end result is a dull story with paint-by-number characters that does relatively little to excite (particularly after it decided to blow its biggest money shot – the giant Predator – in its trailers).

Shane Black is better than this. Fred Dekker is better than this. But if it’s a case of “what have you done for me lately?”, then we sadly have to judge the pair on this most recent offering; an offering that is a let down in so many ways. And those loose plans of this being the launching point for a new trilogy of Predator pictures? If we’re being brutally honest, The Predator could – and some would argue should – be enough to kill off this genre mainstay once and for all.

THE PREDATOR / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: SHANE BLACK / SCREENPLAY: SHANE BLACK, FRED DEKKER / STARRING: BOYD HOLBROOK, OLIVIA MUNN, TREVANTE RHODES, JACOB TREMBLAY, STERLING K. BROWN, KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, THOMAS JANE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

As a kid, writer-director Panos Cosmatos would gaze at the luridly colourful empty VHS covers on display at Video Addict, his local rental store, and let his imagination do the rest. In 2010 he finally got to channel his potent daydreams into Beyond the Black Rainbow, a first feature that played like the quintessential late 70s cult sci-fi horror movie. In his words, he had created “a film that is a sort of an imagining of an old film that doesn’t exist”. With Mandy, his long-awaited follow-up, he dives straight back into the same low budget, dread-soaked pool to conjure something even more compelling, straight from the video shop of your dreams. Mind you, if you tried to rent this one in 1983, someone else would surely have gotten there first, just like they always did with the Evil Dead, Videodrome and The Thing, the buggers.

The year, appropriately enough, is 1983 and we’re in the company of a lumberjack called Red (Nicolas Cage) and his store clerk girlfriend Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). These two damaged souls have found each other in a remote region called the Shadow Mountains, where they live in quiet solitude in a bizarre house constructed almost entirely of panel windows. This means that, unnervingly, they sleep in full view – all the better for unwanted intruders to case the joint. One day while Mandy is winding her way to work, she locks eyes with a man in a passing RV. This is Jeremiah, Jesus-styled leader of a cult psycho hippy tribe called the Children of the New Dawn. Played with odious relish by Linus Roache, Jeremiah is clearly a man used to getting what he wants, and now, having seen her, he wants Mandy. He has useful assistance in the form of the most powerful LSD ever created and a chain-clad biker gang with knives for limbs (and other appendages, as it turns out) and the look of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Cenobites.

Mandy is a film of two halves, both of them brilliantly conceived and executed. Initially we’re in sweaty-palmed Wes Craven territory, the sadistic capture and drugging of Mandy transposed with poor Red’s agony as he’s gagged and forced to bear witness. You’re not sure what direction the film will take after this, but the track-jump Cosmatos makes is just majestic: the second half is a huge exhalation of pent-up vengeance that rides a wave of invention unlike anything you’ll see on the big screen this year. Extreme gore, bonkers sex and drugs, crazed animation, chainsaw battles, rug-pulling concept twists – it unfurls like a rock opera on acid in a cosmic graveyard, powered along by a blitzkrieg musical assault from the late composer Johann Johannsson. The cumulative effect is a drop-kick to your blasé expectations.

At the centre of it all is a mesmerising performance from Nicolas Cage, re-wired from victim to dark avenger, upping his fabled ‘Cage Rage’ to 11 yet never overpowering the film itself, so custom-built is it to accommodate him. If it occurs to you as he slashes, shoots and screams his way to the climax (pausing only to snort a giant heap of coke off a shard of broken mirror) that you are witnessing his finest hour, you’d be dead right. Indeed, Cosmatos’s real achievement is that despite all the madness and hyper-violence, his performances are utterly believable and affecting. The intimacy created in the first half between Cage and Riseborough plays brilliantly into the crazed trip of the second, making it gripping and immersive even when you’re watching a man crush another man’s head until his eyeballs pop out.

Mandy is a glorious rough diamond in the pristine corporate dust of modern genre cinema that confirms Panos Cosmatos as one of the most essential filmmakers working today. See it with your mates on a big screen.

MANDY / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: PANOS COSMATOS / SCREENPLAY: PANOS COSMATOS, AARON STEWART-AHN / STARRING: NICOLAS CAGE, ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, LINUS ROACHE / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 12TH (UK)

Veteran character actor Harry Dean Stanton sadly left us in 2017. Be it in the likes of Alien as Nostromo engineer Brett, the detective in Christine, or as the wandering drifter Travis Henderson in Wim Wenders’ classic Paris, Texas, Stanton could always be counted on to add relevance and resonance to every film role he did.

Happily, one year on from his passing, we get a final chance to see a master actor in action in Lucky. The film certainly has won some acclaim and awards recently, with some posthumous nods for Stanton’s performance. Whether or not it will lead to a posthumous Globe or Oscar remains to be seen.

Stanton is the Lucky of the title, a retired Navy officer, living in a rural American small-town. He leads a simple life in the twilight of his existence, doing crosswords at the local diner and watching game shows on his plasma at home. One day, he suddenly falls down at home and discovers during a medical check he is in pretty good health for his age.

He is a cynical type and begins to have all kinds of reflective musings about his place in the universe, not least amongst the locals, including Howard (director David Lynch), whose attachment to his tortoise named Roosevelt heightens when it goes missing. Before long, the locals are taking more than their usual interest in his well-being and a growing bond evolves…

Now, not a lot happens in Lucky, although the possibility of a punch up between Lucky and an insurance salesman hangs over the world at one point, but this is a very theatrical affair, with Stanton front and centre as the curmudgeonly affectionate title character. Alien fans can also get a kick out of a lovely exchange in a diner between Stanton and Dallas himself, Tom Skerritt, as a retired Marine, a reminder of where these actors are in our memories.

David Lynch proves he can act as well as direct with some memorable brief scenes here and the whole thing is held together thanks to John Carroll Lynch’s tight assured direction and a reflective screenplay by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja.

Fans of Paris, Texas will certainly feel that Stanton has come back for one final wander. A worthy coda to a great career.

LUCKY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JOHN CARROLL LYNCH / SCREENPLAY: LOGAN SPARKS, DRAGO SUMONJA / STARRING: HARRY DEAN STANTON, DAVID LYNCH, RON LIVINGSTON, ED BEGLEY JR, TOM SKERRITT / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 14TH

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

It’s hard to stand in line at the multiplex for your tower of popcorn and bucket-sized soft drink nowadays without the image from some new Cinematic Universe film poster leering down at you demanding your attention and your cash. If it’s not the Marvel Cinematic Universe (thumbs up), it’s the DC Extended Universe (thumbs-sideways quivering downwards) or the Universal Dark Universe (thumbs removed, dead in the water). The Conjuring Universe seems to have crept up on us in a series of largely well-received horror movies orbiting around the exploits of spook hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) in the two Conjuring movies which have somehow begat two Annabelle deadly doll efforts. Now we have The Nun, a prequel of sorts to events depicted in The Conjuring 2 and unfortunately it’s an insipid, derivative and ultimately deadly dull horror-by-numbers that doesn’t do the reputation of this formative fear franchise any favours at all.

It’s 1952 in Romania, and two nuns living in a remote abbey are attacked by a sinister presence whilst searching for some nameless artefact. One of the nuns accidentally hangs herself in her haste to escape the strange entity which is dressed as an especially-malevolent nun. The Vatican, acting as a sort of ersatz holy MI5, sends Father Burke – a blessed Bond, if you will – to investigate the incident, accompanied by novitiate Sister Irene. At the abbey they discover that the body of the hanged nun has been moved from where it was hidden by local yokel Frenchie and when the abbey itself is infiltrated Burke and Irene discover that the nuns are desperately trying to keep at bay an evil demonic presence known as Varek, released during the Dark Ages but sealed up in the catacombs by Vatican troops centuries earlier. But the creature has escaped, taken the form of an evil nun and is busily getting into bad habits and creeping about scaring the bejeesus out of anyone who crosses its path.

The Nun is as drab and tedious as it sounds and quite possibly a lot more. The film is essentially a hackneyed collection of horror clichés and tropes which were jaded when Hammer was in its prime and the scares are strictly of the unsubtle ‘Eek, look what’s behind you!’ variety which just aren’t good enough any more and especially not in the latest entry into what’s often seemed like a promising horror franchise. The demon Varek doesn’t actually appear enough to make much of an impact here and all we’re really left with is a bunch of rather dreary stereotypes trudging around through the film’s unappealing, murky visual palette jumping and shrieking and, eventually, getting possessed and conspiring to banish Varek and her ghostly nun-chums by some arcane ritual involving blood and pentagrams. Yes, of course there’s an ‘OhmiGod’ ending which hint at a sequel if this one does well enough (and initial Box Office indications suggest it’s going to turn a chunky profit on a decent budget) but there’s really nothing here to frighten even the most timid of horses and seasoned genre fans will be rolling their eyes in despair at The Nun’s lack of originality and ambition. Don’t cancel a prior-y engagement for this Nun; let’s draw a veil over it and pray for something better from the next visit to the Conjuring Universe…

THE NUN / CERT:15 / DIRECTOR: CORIN HARDY / SCREENPLAY: GARY DAUBERMAN / STARRING: DEMIÁN BICHIR, TAISSA FARMIGA,JONAS BLOQUET, BONNIE AARONS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected rating: 5 out of 10

A seemingly normal online video chat turns nasty in this technology-based supernatural horror tale of witchcraft and the devil as four friends unwittingly unleash the deadly E-Demon.

The horror genre is one that tends to evolve across generations in order to keep things fresh. This was most prevalent back in 2014 when Universal Pictures unleashed Unfriended to the masses, a film which took place entirely on one person’s laptop. To that extent, E-Demon takes a lot of ideas from its tech-thriller predecessor and, in some cases, manages to build upon this unique foundation.

The story follows four friends (Kendra, Dwayne, AJ and Mar) whose innocent video chat meetup takes a sinister turn after Mar decides to play a prank on his friends and open a “cursed trunk” in his attic. Little to his knowledge, the trunk actually contains a deadly demon who, after being released in our era, manages to adapt and begins possessing everyone, from the friends themselves to the police and paramedics, through the cameras in an attempt to unleash a physical form of the devil into our world.

What really makes E-Demon stand out in this subgenre is its full commitment to its direction right until the final act. The narrative embraces the history of Salem (where the film is set) and the witchcraft/demon connections, and keeps that at its core for the 86-minute runtime.

Unfortunately, the film falls into a trap of having to use some traditional horror tropes to get by including having a particular character that just so happens to be a specialist in demonology and can conveniently forward the story, acting solely as lazy exposition. To add to that, some glaring plot holes are nonchalantly glossed over, such as characters having head cams that conveniently have built in 4G and can work wherever they go, in the hope that the audience is caught up elsewhere to notice.

To its credit, E-Demon, even with a lack of licensing so that the YouTube and Facebook logos are blurred out, still manages to create tension through some interesting special effects. For example, at one point a character is possessed and as he moves off screen, it glitches, leaving a still image of him in the corner of his chat window. When he comes back and is free of possession, his former image is made to seem like the demon is looming over him waiting to strike.

Even with its downfalls, E-Demon is still a strong entry into this new subgenre of horror. It never strays from its original intentions and should be commended for trying something new. Credit should also go to director Jeremy Wechter and his team for creating a really unique end credit sequence which earns some bonus points. If you liked Unfriended then you will most certainly get much enjoyment from this one.

E-DEMON / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JEREMY WECHTER / SCREENPLAY: JEREMY WECHTER / STARRING: JULIA KELLY, JOHN ANTHONY WYLLIAMS, CHRISTOPHER DAFTSIOS, RYAN REDEBAUGH / RELEASE DATE:  SEPTEMBER 14TH

Leigh Whannell is one of the creatives behind two of the most successful franchises of recent years – Saw and Insidious – but goes it alone for this timely slice of horrific sci-fi.

Grey (Logan Marshall-Green) is an old-fashioned guy living in a near-future that he hates. He enjoys doing up and selling gas-guzzling cars, listening to Howlin’ Wolf on his record player and revelling in not having a clue what his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) does when she’s at work for her hot-shot tech company.

When Asha’s self-driving car malfunctions and crashes in the wrong side of town, the pair fall victim to a gang who kill her and leave Grey paralysed from the neck down. Wishing for nothing but to get those who perpetrated the crime as well as his own death, he’s visited by his last paying customer, reclusive genius Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) – the head of a tech company whose ‘cloud’ is quite literal – who offers to give him back the use of his body if he’s become a guinea pig for his miraculous invention: a microchip called Stem.

Once installed, Stem not only allows Grey to move once more but – as he finds out when he tracks down one of the crew who attacked them – gives him superhuman strength and Matrix-style reactions. Communicating with his new partner, Grey sets out to bring his own kind of justice to the gang.

Upgrade has a familiar feel – an unspecified hi-tech future that’s a mix of shining neon and grim brown – but is full of unique visual flourishes and enough gory set pieces to keep viewers smiling. It doesn’t take too long before we’ve sussed out what’s really going on, but getting there is an exhilarating self-driving ride. Giving the camera the fluidity of Grey’s super-enhanced body is a masterstroke and allows for just enough light comedic moments to offset the effective body horror. Tom Hardy lookalike Marshall-Green excels throughout; both in the heartrending portrayal of his loss and in the aforementioned action scenes – Venom can only wish to be this much fun.

There’s a wry Stark/JARVIS type relationship going on with Grey and Stem (as voiced by Simon Maiden), and it adds to overall enjoyment and keeps the interest when the plot becomes a little predictable.

Why would anyone choose to live in a world of VR Grey asks at one point, with the rather logical answer being “A fake world is a lot less painful than a real one”. It’s a statement that will no doubt resonate with many, and by spending most of the time in the less salubrious areas of the future, we’re not left relishing what’s to come in our own world.

UPGRADE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: LEIGH WHANNELL / STARRING: LOGAN MARSHALL-GREEN, MELANIE VALLEJO, BETTY GABRIEL, HARRISON GILBERTSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

We have always been engrossed by sinister myths, legends and fairytales and in this modern Internet culture, we often consider ourselves above such folklore but the legacy of The Slender Man suggests otherwise. First created in 2009 by ‘Something Awful’ forum user Eric Knudsen (aka Victor Surge) as a Creepypasta Internet meme, the character has since taken off and become a fearfully instantly recognisible symbol. This notoriety has come with consequences, most famously the 2014 attempted murder of a young girl by two of her friends in Waukesha, Wisconsin – an event that has meant a degree of controversy has surrounded this feature film production.

Sadly this accusation of bad taste is the least of problems for this most disappointing big screen debut for the horror character. This story focuses on four young female school friends in Massachusetts, who watch a scary video together one night in an attempt to raise the Slender Man only for their spooky game to turn into a waking nightmare that they desperately must try to escape.

The sad fact is that Slender Man has lots of potential and the character is undeniably chilling but this film fails to muster anything as frightening as the true events that have surrounded the characters pop cultural impact since 2009. There are some effective jolts of atmosphere here and there, and the viral virus concept – that takes more than a hint from The Ring (only for a YouTube generation) – is an interesting idea but the longer Slender Man lumbers forward the more it loses what little grasp it has on the viewer. What should have been an alarming and memorable horror comes to fall boringly flat, as the plot pushes the boundaries of idiotic character decision making and worse than that pads out the running time with drab shock tactic (often darkly lit) imagery that is either unmeaningful or unintentionally comical.

Indeed the most efficient parts of the film come in its use of real video clips or the bell tolling/tree cracking sounds but these atmospherics are lost on a narrative that fails to properly make use of them. While the untapped potential of Ramin Djawadi and Brandon Campbell’s score is frustratingly not capitalized upon. Some of the young cast tries but lines of clunky dialogue, illogical developments and predictable jumps hamper their efforts. As this film fades from memory very quickly and feels unworthy of its impactful antagonist.

Perhaps the reprted lack of studio faith in the production and the interference to get the film its PG-13 rating in America has a lot to do with it but all the same, in a year where Hereditary has left its lingeringly evil fingerprints on audiences, a film like this feels all the more disappointingly tame. More so considering its central figure’s notoriety. Maybe Slender Man just came a tad too late to properly exploit the character’s disturbing craze (both as a meme or the infamous online game or videos) but whatever the case may be, if you want a truly unnerving film featuring the Slender Man, you would be much better served giving this forgettable flick a miss and seeking out the infinitely superior and rather disturbing 2016 documentary Beware The Slenderman (which focuses on the events of the aforementioned Wisconsin incident).

After this messy introduction, chances are as slim as the lanky title monster that we’ll see the Slender Man get another chance at the big screen, unless they pull out a Ouija: Origin of Evil style unexpectedly great follow-up down the line – here’s hoping.

SLENDER MAN / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: SYLVAIN WHITE / SCREENPLAY: DAVID VIRKE / STARRING: JOEY KING, JULIA GOLDANI TELLES, JAZ SINCLAIR, ANNALISE BASSO, JAVIER BOTET / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating:

6/10

The figure of the nun has proven to be cinematic kryptonite from the classic (Black Narcissus) to the experimental (The Devils), the austere (The Nun) to the exploitative (Killer Nun). That the iconography of the nun figure can act as a conduit to explore sexual repression, spirituality and discipline also makes it ripe for the horror genre.

Paul Hyett’s period drama cum supernatural nun zombie horror does not deserve its place in the nun canon. Its first mistake is taking itself too seriously – the cinematography is lifeless and drab, as opposed to taking advantage of the austere, gothic-style convent, and this gloomy palette only draws attention to the overly earnest acting and constantly distressed enunciation of each word of Hyett and Conal Palmer’s script.

Set in the 17th century, Persephone (named after the Queen of the Underworld in Greek Mythology, played by Hannah Arterton) is accused of being a witch, but saved from damnation by Mother Superior (Hellraiser veteran Clare Higgins, whose appearance can’t even save this film) and then chastised for not bearing the name of a saint. Her lack of discipline is constantly tested by the convent, who frequently punishes her, confining her within the maze-like basement walls of the convent in utter darkness, isolating her from the other girls. The darkness of the majority of scenes is all-consuming, and the sounds of the undead figure that haunts the convent is revealed in its glory far too soon to justify any scares.

Instead of an air of hysteria that builds, the film runs through the motions – possessions occur, one by one a girl gouges out her own eyeballs. The Mother Superior unsurprisingly forbids anyone to leave, leading to a revelation that the demonic spectre is the ghost of a nun who was given up for sacrifice to the devil during a ritual, with the Satanic figure showing up literally in a ridiculous cloud of smoke, horns and all.

Hyett previously worked as a special effects artist, so it is surprising to consider how amateur the makeup and effects are. One scene seems to only use coloured contact lenses to signal the change from “nun” to “possessed demonic nun”.

Heretiks is two different films. The first half, a film that attempts to conjure up the same atmosphere of Robert Egger’s The Witch, without any of the skillful use of shadows, darkness and suspense to facilitate dread. The second half wants to be a Hammer-style campfest, completely confusing the tone. The film’s setting fails to evoke the same type of English rural folk horror (of The Wicker Man or Blood on Satan’s Claw) that it promises, instead wanting the audience to take it seriously when it can’t even take itself seriously.

HERETIKS / DIRECTOR: PAUL HYETT / SCREENPLAY: GREGORY BLAIR, PAUL HYETT, CONAL PALMER / STARRING: MICHAEL IRONSIDE, ROSIE DAY, HANNAH ARTERTON / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: TBC

In Dario Argento’s horror classic Suspiria (1977), the colour is often described as “another character” of the film. In Owen Long’s Seeds, it is not the colours but the sound design that becomes its own intrusive force. The film is eerily quiet in regards to dialogue, which only emphasises the sheer bombast of the music.

The film opens with an image of virtuous innocence: a young girl running through a field, singing a song to herself. This undercurrent is cut right through, and instantly subverted with a scene of depravity. What appears to be the same girl, except in a mask straight out of Eyes Wide Shut, half nude, while one man imbibes drugs of some sort and another watches from the corner, appearing to be some sort of Tyler Durden-esque apparition for our protagonist to project his deepest darkest desires onto.

Like this year’s Possum, Seeds appears to be about the lasting effects of abuse, and the magnitude of havoc those secrets can wreak within a family. However, Seeds wants to explore the damaged psyche not of the victim but the perpetrator. Instead of an examination of the effect of an older uncle engaging in sexual abuse with his underage niece, the film posits her as a willing (even seductive) Lolita type, not only completely unharmed by events (if it did indeed happen in the opening, and was not the result of a drug-induced dream/fantasy) but the initiator of them.

Uncle Marcus (Trevor Long) is the long-suffering character, a man harbouring a secret beneath leering eyes and a predatory smile. He takes in his nephew Spencer (Garr Long) and niece, Lily (Andrea Chen) who also happens to be the object of his fantasies, as a supposed favour to his brother, Michael (Chris McGarry). Michael exists only as the antithesis to Marcus – he is the man that Marcus “should” be like.

At night, he is visited by the literal monster that lives inside of him, the obvious manifestation of his guilty conscience. What is real and what is a psychic manifestation of his guilt, however, is unclear. Despite this, Long’s acting does not reach enough depth or true reflection to warrant any shred of empathy or even curiosity. We have no indication of his state of mind, outside of fantasising about his teenage niece in the bath, and the film is too eager to hammer home the human monster metaphor.

It is difficult to go down the avenues that Seeds sets out to travail – it is not a shocking film, nor a particularly immoral one. It is just, sadly, a boring one.

SEEDS / DIRECTOR: OWEN LONG / SCREENPLAY: STEVE WEISMAN / STARRING: TREVOR LONG, ANDREA CHEN, GARR LONG / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: TBC