Review Category: Movie

D’you like dogs? Lovers of man’s favourite four-legged friend (suck it, cats!) need not apply to this Fido-fearing crime thriller, which racks up quite the canine bodycount during its time. Those who aren’t so keen on dogs may want to swerve too, as this particular pooch is more Cujo than Marley & Me.

When three criminals lie low at an apparently abandoned warehouse, the last thing they expect is to be cornered by a slathering bloodthirsty hound, turning this low-budget genre flick into a literal take on Reservoir Dogs. But without the reservoir. There’s also only one dog.

The hoodlums aren’t the only one in for a surprise – who could have expected Adrien Brody, John Malkovich, Rory Culkin and Antonio Banderas from a low-rent killer dog movie? While none of the above are doing their best work here, just their mere presence makes up for the otherwise meagre action and cheap visuals. The story is never sure what it’s supposed to be, nor what tone it’s going for, but the mere presence of Malkovich classes the joint up, and he gets the film’s best moments, most notably during an extended anecdote in which, ironically, he doesn’t even appear.

The film’s more unusual touches impress far more than its perfunctory action beats and weirdly underused dog, only really coming to life during the dog flashbacks and when the criminals sit down and tell their stories. Sadly, there isn’t enough of either, and the film flip-flops between intense dog horror film and offbeat crime thriller. Of everyone, Brody tries hardest with what he’s given, but he’s still outshone by a slumming-it Malkovich and a half-assing it Banderas.

In spite of the promise it shows, Bullet Head comes up less than the sum of its parts, largely wasting great actors and a strong conceit on a muddled story and a threat that never feels real or urgent. It has its quality chunks, but it’s a bit of a dog’s dinner.

BULLET HEAD / CERT:  18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PAUL SOLET / STARRING: ADRIEN BRODY, ANTONIO BANDERAS, JOHN MALKOVICH, RORY CULKIN, ALEXANDRA DINU, ORI PFEFFER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Paco Plaza should be a bigger name in the world of demonic horror movies. After all, the man was half responsible for directing one of the greatest zombie movies of all time, then introducing the demonic element in its almost-as-great sequel. We don’t talk about the third [Rec] movie, but his returning to the fold with a full-on Ouija-gone-wrong film is something to celebrate. With Verónica, he shows those wannabes at Blumhouse how the game is really played.

After awakening demonic forces during a Ouija session with school friends, teenage Verónica is a girl under siege. Caring for her three younger siblings while mom’s at work, she now adds fending off demons to her never-ending chore list. Mom (when she’s around) won’t listen, most of her siblings are oblivious, and no-one but the scary blind nun at work will listen to her pleas for help. A big sister’s work is never done.

Horror fans will immediately recognise a number of the tropes at play; set in the 1990s, based on a true story, centred around a mishap with a Ouija board and with a large cast of children, this is only a Patrick Wilson away from being yet another sequel to Insidious or The Conjuring. For English and American viewers, the Spanish setting does give it a sense of ‘otherness’ to which the rest can’t compare, but there’s still no great originality here.

What there is, however, is a master at work. Verónica boasts an impressively oppressive atmosphere and a great set of performances from the film’s young cast. Eschewing traditional bait-and-switch jump scares, the film goes all-in on mood and atmosphere, with extended bodily contortions, creepy kids and truly troubling nightmare sequences. A cross between Ouija: Origin of Evil and The Witch, this is a case of a director playing in a familiar genre wheelhouse rather than building one of his own. And sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Brooding with class and style, it’s a cut above most of the movies it shares a story with, but certainly not an all-timer like [Rec]. Verónica is undeniably scary, but ‘scariest ever’, as the Netflix hive mind claims? Well, maybe the scariest thing on Netflix. Until they add [Rec], at least.

VERÓNICA / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: PACO PLAZA / SCREENPLAY: FERNANDO NAVARRO, PACO PLAZA / STARRING: SANDRA ESCACENA, BRUNA GONZALEZ, CLAUDIA PLACER, IVAN CHAVERO, ANA TORRENT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expecting Rating: 9 out of 10

The popular YouTube comedy troupe 5-Second Films make their move in to feature-length filmmaking. Despite surviving the first two massacres – the first carried out by serial killer Motherface and the second as vengeance by her daughter – frat boy Brock Chirino (Alec Owen) is murdered. His twin brother Brent (also Owen) decides to join the ranks of the fraternity in an attempt to track down the killer. But as events spiral, it seems another massacre is on its way.

5-Second Films is a very literal title, with the team having made comedy shorts of only five seconds long, five days a week for a number of years. Can they meet the demands of a feature 5,400 seconds long? Gladly, the answer is yes. Dude Bro Party Massacre III is a hugely entertaining and funny film throughout, full of the laughs and silliness that 5SF are known for. Their film is an overblown and silly parody of the teen slasher films and franchises that littered video rental shelves during the ‘80s, complete with its own montage with catchy song and character archetypes.

The love of the genre is evident here. For example, the film opens with a title card explaining this is a long-lost movie only available because someone taped it off TV back in the ‘80s and comes complete with snippets of fake commercials. The opening fifteen minutes has more killings and over the top deaths than the entire Friday the 13th franchise put together, and the story mashes together all the silly plot points that slasher franchises resorted to in an attempt to try and keep things fresh and interesting, like psychic links and long-lost relatives.

If you’re a 5SF fan you’ll be glad to see all the gang here, throwing themselves into the film and obviously having a good time doing it. There’s also a handful of pleasing cameos, including Larry King, Andrew W K and The Room’s Greg Sestero. You don’t have to be a 5SF fan to find the film enjoyable, but it might be of slightly limited interest to non-horror films fans. That having been said, it’s still packed front to back with gleeful silliness and laugh out loud jokes.

Dude Bro Party Massacre III is a hugely entertaining and funny film, showing 5SF have what it takes to make full feature films.

DUDE BRO PARTY MASSACRE III / CERT: N/A / DIRECTOR: TOMM JACOBSEN, MICHAEL ROUSSELET, JON SALMON / SCREENPLAY: ALEC OWEN / STARRING: ALEC OWEN, BEN GIGLI, OLIVIA TAYLOR DUDLEY, ERIK SANDOVAL, CHELSEA ST. JOHN, SKYLER ROUSSELET / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

What happens when a critically-acclaimed director and one of Hollywood’s most wild, unpredictable actors take on the plot of a Direct to DVD action movie? Joaquin Phoenix battles a child sex slavery ring with a hammer in this cross between a classy Taken and an even more intense Taxi Driver.

But just as director Lynne Ramsay’s now-timely high school shooting picture largely avoided its central act of violence, so You Were Never Really Here eschews the balls-to-the-wall action one might expect in favour of a moody, absurdist character piece. What drives a man to hit the streets, night after night, bludgeoning folk to death with a ball-peen hammer? Joe’s actions may be noble, but his motivations aren’t necessarily so, and Ramsay delves deep into the traumatised, hurting veteran’s psyche. It is not a pleasant place to be.

With his dirty Mel Gibson beard, soft Jack Black voice and a physique like a gigantic slab of beef, his eyes buzzing with pain, Phoenix delivers one of his most compelling performances. The film may be cool (that score!) but Ramsay goes to great lengths to show us that Joe isn’t; a strange, profoundly sad, desperately wounded soul who still lives with his mother, barely an ounce of the man is glamourised. The film presents his actions less as heroism than an outlet for his trauma, anger. And sexual hang-ups.

That said, we are talking about a paedophile ring here, so one can’t exactly begrudge Joe his head-smashing rampages. On the trail of a kidnapped senator’s daughter, Joe finds plenty of nuts to crack, this particular gang proving more resourceful than most. With Joe’s mental state rapidly circling the drain, it’s make or break time for the vigilante.

Given the subject matter, You Were Never Really Here was always going to be violent and intense. Ramsay, however, is steadfast in her refusal to glamourise. All we see is the aftermath or barely framed glimpses of Joe’s wrath. And yet, it’s beautiful in its own way, from the way it obscures Joe from the audience during his introduction to his re-enactment of the Shape of Water poster in a lake. The stylish visuals are backed up by a mesmerising score and cool soundtrack, layering warmth onto an otherwise hard-going story and Phoenix’s intensity.

He, too, is well backed up, by Ekaterina Samsonov, as the kidnapped girl, and Judith Roberts as his mother. While this sort of character study doesn’t leave much room for anyone else, these relationships are strongly written and truthful, and Phoenix shares an affecting chemistry with both. It’s one of the most poignant depictions of a mother and son since Ramsay’s own We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Such arthouse torment may not be everybody’s cup of tea though, and You Were Never Really Here is neither the action film nor super-violent thriller many will have taken it for. Those looking for a hit of cathartic violence would be best off sticking with Liam Neeson after all. This one is as challenging and unpredictable as its star. Unlike the vapid actioner it never really was going to be in the first place (not with that director and star) it’ll stick with you long after the credits roll.

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: LYNNE RAMSAY / STARRING: JOAQUIN PHOENIX, DANTE PEREIRA-OLSON, LARRY CANADY, VINICIUS DAMASCENO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 9 out of 10

The dearly beloved books by Beatrix Potter have been capturing reader’s imaginations, young and old, for many decades since its beginnings in 1902, and the concept of movie adaptation has long existed since 1936 when Walt Disney himself approached creator Beatrix Potter about adapting her books into an animated feature film. Without any hesitation, Potter said no, but regardless of what form Disney’s version would’ve turned out like, it sure as hell would’ve been a million times more rewarding than Sony’s latest attempt with the disgraceful mess that is Peter Rabbit.

Will Gluck, the director and co-writer of this ‘thing’, has had something of a bumpy filmography with the terrible Fired Up!, the excellent Easy A, the enjoyable Friends With Benefits, and the huge misfire that was the Annie remake, but to this reviewer, Peter Rabbit was the one that was the most hateful since it serves as the dictionary definition of how not to adapt a beloved book series to the screen. The ‘story’ is about Thomas McGregor, a snooty, uptight manager of the toy department at Harrods (expect a lot of product placement!), who has inherited the farm of his great-uncle, Mr. McGregor, who suffered a fatal heart attack. However, Thomas has also inherited his great-uncle’s disdain towards animals, and territorial warfare erupts between human and animals led by Peter Rabbit himself, who is also bitterly jealous of Thomas’ attraction to next-door neighbour and Peter’s mother figure Bea, who is meant to be a modernised personification of Beatrix herself (yeah, right!).

The signs of doom were already present in the ugly marketing campaign, which all proclaimed that were basically screaming, ‘this is a cool and hip Beatrix Potter movie with attitude!’, which gives off this smug, cynical quality that feels like such a huge misrepresentation of that book series and what makes it so beloved amongst audiences. It even has something of a dark undercurrent about it, which is established in the beginning when Peter literally pokes the eyeball of the deceased Mr. McGregor to make he was dead and then him and his friends celebrating his passing by throwing an Animal House-style party at the farm. Doesn’t that sound like the endearing, charming and funny Peter Rabbit that Beatrix Potter wrote? That jokey gross-out beginning sets the tone for what’s to come where you have both Thomas McGregor and the bunnies trying to murder each other with dynamite and electricity, with one already-controversial moment involving blackberries that the movie thinks is hilarious and clever when it is anything but. In fact, there was not a single laugh to be found in this movie, which is not surprising considering that this movie involves butt jokes, crotch shots and modern-slang speak, plus a good selection of pop songs just for good measure. Yay?

However, what’s the most problematic is the characterisation of the titular Peter Rabbit who is not the innocent yet rebellious little rabbit, but is instead a straight-up jerk. He’s constantly arrogant, brash, lying, smug, is mean and showing off towards his sweet cousin/partner in crime Benjamin Bunny, and takes his revenge against the McGregors way too far. Our hero everybody! Yes, the narrative tries to make us feel bad for him because of his tragic backstory and that he’s supposed to learn his lesson by the end, but it didn’t feel earned because of how obnoxious Peter is in this film. In regards to James Corden’s casting (or rather miscasting), well, let’s just say that if you thought him embracing Sean Spicer was a career-low, you’ve seen nothing yet.

If there are any positives to be found, the first of which is that, on a visual level, the movie looks gorgeous to behold, full of vibrancy and richness in texture that captures the visual aesthetic of Potter’s novels. There are two animated sequences that are highly reminiscent of both the books’ beautiful illustrations and the excellent TV series, even though that will only make you wish that you were watching that type of movie. The mixture of live-action and CGI is done remarkably well and hats off to the visual effects team for bringing the iconic animals to life with exceptional style. Finally, both Domhnall Gleeson and Rose Byrne are by far and away the best aspects about the movie as both give off humorously spirited performances, and it’s an absolute shame to see their talents go to waste here as both of them clearly belong in a better movie. Same can also be said for Sam Neill’s thankless cameo as Mr. McGregor, and by the end of this movie, you’ll have forgotten he was even in it, which is a sin frankly.

Peter Rabbit is not just one of the worst films to be released this year, but it’s also a gigantic missed opportunity. This had the opportunity to be something more, but by modernising the dialogue and adding pop songs every other 10 minutes only makes it more dated, and by changing the source material, it shows that the people who made this movie didn’t have that much respect for the source material, especially coming from a studio with a bad track record and clearly having so much Paddington envy. Sure, not everything Beatrix Potter wrote was an absolute masterpiece, but nevertheless, she still got it right, and it’s an absolute shame that the filmmakers involved didn’t understand what was so brilliant about her writing, about her stories and why they’re so timeless because they were more than simple children’s books. They’re cautionary tales that generations of people are still reading to this day, that we’ll still remember for many years to come, and there’s an obvious reason for that: they are stories that mould, shape and inspire our childhoods, all thanks to the thoughtful writing, the beautiful artwork and endearing morals, as opposed to this travesty of a movie that is not thoughtful, not endearing, and especially is not fun, and the fact that this shares the same name is all the more tragic. Hopefully, everyone will forget about this movie while the books will live on forever and remain timeless thanks to one Beatrix Potter, a woman who respected children, as well as adults.

PETER RABBIT / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: WILL GLUCK / SCREENPLAY: ROB LEIBER, WILL GLUCK / STARRING: JAMES CORDEN, FAYSSAL BAZZI, DOMHNALL GLEESON, SIA, COLIN MOODY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10

There are movies that you love and there are movies that you hate, but every once in a while, we have a movie that leave us thinking, “What the hell did I just watch?” The kind of movie that leaves us baffled and confused about whether we liked or not and Red Sparrow has definitely proved to be that polarising type of a film. This hard and gritty spy thriller sees star Jennifer Lawrence reunite with her Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, and this time, they are not aiming at the teenage demographic (run along kiddies, this one’s for the grown-ups!).

Based on the award-winning novel by former CIA operative Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow follows Dominika Egorova, as she faces a bleak future ahead of her following an injury that ends her career as a prima ballerina. Her shifty uncle enrols her at Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use both their minds and bodies as lethal weapons to lure and terminate their prey. Following her aggressive and sadistic training, Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow and is entrusted to make contact with a CIA agent who is protecting a mole within the Russian Embassy, but the further she delves into her mission, the line between enemy and ally become blurred.

Despite being based on a novel, this in some way is tipping its hat towards the old cold war thrillers while also having that updated gritty, unsettling tone that is reminiscent of some of David Fincher’s most acclaimed works like Seven and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There is absolutely no denying the fact that this is a nasty film where blood and flesh is on full display, and to this reviewer, it wasn’t used exploitatively in any way shape or matter, but instead is utilised as means of creating discomfort, and it’s admirable that everyone involved (especially Francis Lawrence and Jennifer Lawrence) chose not to shy away from that dark subject matter. Despite being rated 15 in the UK, this is definitely a high-end 15 rating! Composer James Newton Howard delivers a suspenseful score, while the cinematography by Jo Willems is stunning, however, the main driving crux of the movie is down to its performances, and for the most part, they are exceptional. Jennifer Lawrence is both stunning and raw, once again proving to be a fierce acting force of nature unafraid of taking risks, just like she did in last year’s controversial mother!

But equally as compelling is Joel Edgerton as the undercover agent who’s trapped within an enclosing web of deceit and lies, while Matthias Schoenaerts is exceptionally slimy and charismatic as the manipulative uncle. There are performers like Charlotte Rampling and Jeremy Irons who are having a blast, while Mary-Louise Parker looks as though she has wandered in from a completely different movie and seems very out of place as a result. This is a competently made movie with great production design, but the whole pacing of the movie feels very lumpen and sluggish. It’s understandable that the filmmakers intended for this to be a slow-burn thriller, but the film’s runtime feels dragged out with whole sequences that could’ve easily have been excised. Also, despite delving into some heated subject matter, the overall experience will probably leave viewers very cold as there is little emotional investment to latch onto to keep us engaged with the drama. We know very little about who Dominika is, where she came from before she’s thrust into this harrowing experience and whose side she’s really on, so it’s hard for us to get an understanding of her because of that.

No matter what you make of it, Red Sparrow is an odd, peculiar beast of a movie that, like its main protagonist, you don’t really know what to make of it. It’s nasty when it needs to be, tense when it is required to be, delivers mostly excellent performances, and has a superb musical score and solid cinematography. However, the pacing is incredibly sluggish, it’s alienating on an emotional level, and much like mother! it will certainly divide audiences over its dark subject matter as evident by its critical reception. But despite its shortcomings, you can’t help but admire the fact that both Francis Lawrence and Jennifer Lawrence wanted to make a film that wasn’t pandering to a mainstream audience, that didn’t appear to be tampered by the studio system, and wasn’t afraid to be nasty and uncomfortable and adult when it needed to, and in this current age of mostly mainstream cinema, that’s commendable. To quote Ian Holm’s Ash from Alien: “I admire its purity.“

RED SPARROW / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: FRANCIS LAWRENCE / SCREENPLAY: JUSTIN HAYTHE / STARRING: JENNIFER LAWRENCE, JOEL EDGERTON, MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Games Night Gone Wrong is not a new movie conceit. From Michael Douglas’s The Game to Cheap Thrills to newcomers like Nerve, gaming enthusiasts in TV and movies rarely have an easy time of it. Just ask anyone who ever used a Holodeck in Star Trek. At the same time, since The Hangover, R-rated comedies have been steadily raising the stakes, substituting harmless slapstick for bodily dismemberment and the frequent abuse of poor Ed Helms. It was only a matter of time before the two cinematic institutions collided, applying the shocks and violence of a Hangover sequel to the story of an adults’ games night gone wrong. Game on.

Three zany but boring couples meet at Jason Bateman’s house on a regular basis to play a series of games; charades, Scrabble, The Game of Life and pretty much anything else with a Hasbro label on it. The couples’ vanilla bliss is thrown into disarray when smarmy brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) joins in the party, bringing a game of his own to the table: gangster kidnap mystery. But, in news that will surprise nobody, the gangsters are real and so is the kidnapping… or is it? The race is on for the gamers to rescue Brooks and survive the night themselves.

Vacation directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have assembled a fine cast here, with Bateman and Rachel McAdams tying the whole thing together perfectly as the competitive husband and wife leading the gang. While the rest of the main cast aren’t as all-star as you might expect from a film of this calibre and budget, Sharon Horgan and Jesse Plemons hoard the monopoly of the laughs – the rest of which go to McAdams, who gets to have fun in a way most on-screen wives tend not to in this sort of thing. It’s Plemons who steals the show though, as the creepy, intense police neighbour Gary.

Largely, however, there aren’t that many laughs for anyone to steal or be stolen from. The comedy assumes that shocking violence and celebrity cameos are inherently funny, and the ‘laughs’ largely revolve around people being shot, punched or killed, either accidentally or on purpose. Thankfully, the action beats are to a higher standard than the writing, meaning that the film moves along at a healthy pace, even if it’s not being all that funny – or even as shocking as it thinks it is. It’s like a game of Cards Against Humanity in which everyone is playing with a far too sensible deck.

For all its bluster, Game Night isn’t really much of anything. It’s not particularly funny, not mean enough to work as a black comedy and not clever enough to be thrilling. Aside from McAdams, Plemons, and Horgan, the characters are as dull as the games they play (as though any self-respecting gang of board game enthusiasts would be playing Scrabble week in, week out) and the story barely makes sense, relying far too much on the old ‘it was all part of the game… or was it?!’ switcheroo that audiences will see coming from miles off. While it’s hard to begrudge Bateman and McAdams a vehicle for their charm, chemistry and charisma, this Game Night is a bit of a flop.

GAME NIGHT / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JOHN FRANCIS DALEY, JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN / SCREENPLAY: MARK PEREZ / STARRING: JASON BATEMAN, RACHEL MCADAMS, KYLE CHANDLER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie. It’s Die Hard 6.

Originally, this project was to star Sylvester Stallone, but he dropped out due to creative differences. This was smart on Stallone’s part because it would have echoed the Judge Dredd fiasco he starred in years ago.

This time, Paul Kersey is a mild-mannered Chicago doctor when home invaders kill his wife (Elizabeth Shue) and send his daughter into a coma. Detective Kevin Raines (Dean Norris) and his partner are inundated with a gigantic caseload of unsolved crimes and criminal activity as they try to quell Dr. Kersey’s helpless rage. Frustrated with the system. Kersey decides to take the law into his own hands with vigilante justice while searching for his family’s assailants.

There are some creative moments as Kersey deliciously dispenses his unique brand of vengeance while local Chicago disc jockeys like Man Cow Mueller dub him the ‘Grim Reaper’ with the citizens taking his side, but we’ve seen this all before and there is nothing new under the sun with this movie. It’s a paint-by-numbers remake directed by Eli Roth with an ample selection of sleazy bad guys to eliminate, though one feels it’s a made-for-cable TV movie rather than a feature film.

D’Onofrio, a great actor in his own right, stars as Kersey’s brother Frank, who draws suspicion as the avenging vigilante, but it’s a character that didn’t need to be in this film.

There’s an adequate enough action to satisfy, but overall it’s all been done before and better with Michael Winner’s 1974 Charles Bronson-starring film.

DEATH WISH / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: ELI ROTH / SCREENPLAY: JOE CARNAHAN / STARRING: BRUCE WILLIS, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO, DEAN NORRIS, ELIZABETH SHUE. / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 6TH

Expected Rating:  8 out of 10

Motherhood: undertake it at your peril. That’s the way genre cinema plays it and often with a devilishly crooked bat. From the diabolic wrath of Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen to the insane mutant tots of Eraserhead and It’s Alive via every connotation of parental nightmare on Earth and beyond, the perils of birth and babies have sent a generation of geeks screaming out of cinemas and straight to the sterilization clinic. So if you’re thinking about having kids and are still on the fence about it, it might not be so wise to see South African scare-fest Lullaby, lest it prove the final snip…

Director Darrell Roodt (Dracula 3000, City of Blood) wastes no time getting us up to speed with an introductory nightmare sequence set in 1901 featuring a screaming mother’s baby being ripped from her arms by evil cloaked bastards who snap the poor little blighter’s neck like a twig. Our heroine Chloe (Reine Swart) awakes screaming from this dreadful vison in the midst of giving birth to a baby boy. It’s fair to say mother and son don’t bond too well; he screams her to distraction, she’s tortured by her milk pump and only she knows the identity of the father (it’s probably Satan, though) and to cap it all, the poor woman from Chloe’s nightmare keeps popping up dressed like Stevie Nicks and jump-scaring her into next Thursday. No wonder her quavering mother (a pitch-perfect Thandi Puren) calls in Dr Reed (a growling Brandon Auret, seemingly channelling his character’s namesake Oliver Reed’s turn in The Brood). His advice to Chloe: “Let the visions consume you” (why doesn’t anyone ask these horror quacks for an updated CV with a least two recent references?)

Roodt confidently marks his territory with stylised nods to Polanski, Fincher and Aronofsky: artful compositions and innovative camerawork pop out at every turn; the main house set is a theatrically heighted den of spectral lighting and creaking doors; the soundtrack is a dark eddy of parched strings and eerie synths and the visual palate employs that leached pallor we’ve come to expect from modern digital horror in a way that just for once works a treat.  Story-wise, The Lullaby hardly breaks the mould, content instead to revel in the sandpit of its cinematic lineage from Repulsion through to The Babadook. Performances from the central trio are uniformly excellent with a special garland to Reine Swart as Chloe who starts off shrieking her lungs out and pretty much doesn’t stop thereafter. They compensate for the only two flies in the ointment: Chloe’s drippy boyfriend Adam (who seems to have parachuted in from a daytime soap opera) and a final twist that’s clearly telegraphed by the opening sequence, if you’ve been keeping your eyes peeled.

Steeped in horror tradition and drenched in the red stuff, The Lullaby is a fiendishly nasty bit of babysitting well worth staying in for.

THE LULLABY / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DARRELL ROODT / SCREENPLAY: TARRYN-TANILLE PRINSLOO / STARRING: REINE SWART, THANDI PUREN, BRANDON AURET, DEANRE REINERS, SAMUEL FRAUENSTEIN / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10