Review Category: Movie

THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS

When their father sold their souls to the Devil before they were born, Ish, Enoch, and Abe (Brendan Bradley, Nican Robinson, and Jordon Bolden) were saddled with a debt they couldn’t hope to settle. Their only chance at avoiding eternal damnation is to find their estranged parent in the hope he will recant. A relatively straightforward, relatively familiar premise, you might think, but this is no ordinary movie. This is a genre-defying, wild ride of a movie with choreographed musical numbers peppered with bloody, unflinching violence. It is brazenly original and demands you just go along with it.

Until it doesn’t, when everything slows down into an extended finale, which doesn’t quite work.

Any attempt to define The Devil and the Daylong Brothers feels like an exercise in futility, but if one were to try, this is a Southern Gothic, religiously inspired Western musical horror. And the musical part turns out to be the most interesting element. Characters bursting into well-written, catchy show-tune-style numbers amidst shootouts or while carving each other up strangely works, and enormous credit must go to Nicholas Kirk (who produced the music and co-wrote the film) and director Brandon McCormick. And the cast delivers exactly what is expected, with over-the-top performances that match and enhance the bizarre visual style of the movie. Think AMC’s Preacher, but with songs.

However, as mentioned, the finale is somewhat of an issue with things being tied up a little too neatly for a potential follow-up. But embrace the craziness, gorge on the graphic novel-style violence, and sing along with the power anthems, and you may not even notice!

THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS is out now on digital platforms in the US and coming soon to the UK.

INVADER

Catching the late bus into town, a young woman (Vero Maynez) finds herself stranded in suburban Chicago when the family she’s supposed to be staying with all abruptly disappear. Trudging to her cousin’s home, she is perturbed to find no answer at the door and the phone ringing out. Is anybody home?

Written and directed by Mickey Keating (Offseason, Carnage Park, Psychopaths), Invader is a lean and nasty version of the home invasion movie, embodied by producer and antagonist Joe Swanberg. Ironically, the film is at its most tense before its heroine ever gets indoors – expertly capturing the terror of being a woman walking home alone late at night. But it never really lets up, from loud beginning to frantic end. There are elements of The Collector and Hate Crime to its cruel and violent action, but what Invader best captures is a sense of escalating madness and anxiety that’s rare outside of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre itself.

If the colonialism allegory is clear enough, the way it leans into other(ing) tropes for a cheap thrill will leave a sour taste in the mouth for some, as will its chaotic, motion sickness-inducing final act. Running at a brisk 70 minutes, Invader burns hot and fast, staying just long enough to kick the doors in and trash the joint.

INVADER is in select US cinemas from February 21st

COMPANION

First-time director/writer Drew Hancock delivers an impressive and thrilling calling card with Companion, a film that superficially treads familiar ground in its AI-centred subject matter yet delivers a story that’s full of twists and surprises alongside some proper belly laughs. We’re only in February but Companion is a film that’s likely to be on many people’s ‘films of the year’ list come December.

Companion opens with the first meeting between dreamy Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and clumsy Josh (Jack Quaid) in a supermarket. The attraction between the two is instant. A few months later, they’re a couple and driving into the countryside to spend some time with their friends. Kat (Megan Suri) is distant and detached and clearly doesn’t like Iris for… well, reasons. Sergey (Rupert Friend) is Kat’s slightly sleazy -and extremely rich – new boyfriend. Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage) are completely loved up and barely have eyes for anyone else. But there’s an odd and uncomfortable atmosphere amongst the group, and an incident occurs that changes the dynamic altogether as we discover that secrets and lies lurk around every corner…

Obviously, we’re going no deeper into the plot – if you’ve seen the trailer but not yet seen the film, then you already have a fair idea of where Companion is going. What you won’t suspect, though, are the glorious and deftly constructed turns of a plot that pivots effortlessly from broadly funny to shocking and startling and then back again. It’s a film you really won’t be able to second-guess because as soon as you think you’ve got a handle on it, something new and unexpected (and, to be honest, a little unlikely even within the confines of a horror/sci-fi hybrid) comes along to completely wrongfoot you. Hancock’s smart direction really puts the meagre budget (just $10 million) on the screen (most of the film takes place in one location), and Quaid and, especially, Sophie Thatcher (seen recently in the excellent Heretic) are terrific, but there are no weak links in the film’s small cast and despite some big ideas and huge narrative swings that the film takes, Hancock’s nimble, knowing script makes it all feel quite intimate and personal and we can’t help investing in this bunch of characters even if none of them are really very nice people.

Companion is an unexpected delight in a post-Christmas season that often throws out cheap and cheerful but ultimately forgettable and unimaginative low-budget horror fare. Companion is a breath of fresh air in a genre that can often feel stale, stifling and mundane. Don’t take our word for it – just go and see it. Take a friend.

COMPANION is in UK and US cinemas now

A SAMURAI IN TIME

Kosaka Shinzaemon of the Aizu clan (Makiya Yamaguchi) is a proud samurai fixed on a deadly mission of revenge when, mid duel to the death, he is struck by lightning and hurled 150 years into the future… onto the set of a samurai TV show.

In this familiar screwball ‘man out of time’ set-up (see also Les Visiteur, Austin Powers, California/Encino Man…) with the innocent and unworldly Kosaka encountering 21st-century Japan, Samurai in Time plays only gently and briefly for laughs before settling itself into a deeply earnest paean to the genre of jidaigeki (samurai period drama). Surrounded by kind, helpful and encouraging strangers who either dismiss or are charmed by his unworldliness, Kosaka uses his archaic swordfighting skills to become a jidaigeki stuntman (or ‘kirareyaku’, if you want to get technical), getting ‘killed’ by several different heroes a week.

In the lead role, Yamaguchi is genuinely excellent, nuanced and heartbreakingly earnest (in keeping with the tone of the film). And, he’s supported by a similarly dignified foil in Norimasa Fuke. Sadly, in the rest of the cast, the acting can be broad and stagey, especially from several key supporting characters, meaning the acting in the films within the film often seems more real than the reactions of those ‘filming’ them.

In spite of the time-travel set up, A Samurai in Time is a tribute to the kirareyaku and to the jidaigeki genre. As such, it is somewhat hampered by its sci-fi/fantasy element, as Yamaguchi’s utter earnestness is diluted in playing a double game of both a samurai committed to an ancient code of honour and a stuntman loyal to a dying genre. In this way, writer-director Jun’ichi Yasuda posits the idea that to be a star of jidaigeki is to be a man out of time all too successfully. The idea of the protagonist being a literal late-shogunate-era samurai becomes something of a hat on a hat, a distraction from the true beating heart of the film, which itself is a beautiful and valid thing – the honour and dignity to be found in dramatically pretending to die on camera at the point of a bamboo katana.

A Samurai in Time is touring UK cinemas in February and March 2025 as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.

RUNNING ON KARMA (2003)

Running on Karma encapsulates what is so appealing about Hong Kong cinema, full of ideas, visual treats and funny moments. For exponents of western cinema, it might appear jarring, but it’s this willingness to blend genres that makes the film mad but magical.

The tenth film to be co-directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai – the duo later became famous in Europe for the award-winning Mad Detective (2007) – it stars industry legend Andy Lau as Big, a bodybuilder (complete with muscle suit), former Buddhist monk, and martial arts expert who can ‘see’ people’s karma. This is manifested as projected images of past lives and can indicate if that person will die soon.

After helping with a murder case, Big decides to save the soul of rookie detective Lee Fung-yee (Cecilia Cheung). As mentioned, the film jams in so many ideas, from tracking down an Indian fakir, a hilarious scene with Big attempting and failing to ride a moped, and the nature of past lives. Both of the leads are fantastic and manage to create good chemistry among the madness.

The presentation of the film on the new Blu-ray release from Eureka looks great. As well as commentary by Frank Djeng and F.J. Desanto, the disc features an interesting interview with Gary Bettinson from Asian Cinema Journal, who puts the film into context and provides some interesting background. There is also an archival making-of feature, which provides some insight from the talent involved.

The mash-up of genres won’t be for everyone, but if you are looking for something truly unique, Running on Karma provides this in abundance. Perhaps you are destined to watch it…

TOUCH ME (Sundance 2025)

Addison Heimann’s Touch Me opens with Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) recounting a vivid story to her therapist, Kelly (Ashley Lauren Nedd), about meeting an alien who wants to save the world. This is all part of an ‘immersion therapy’ used to treat OCD and PTSD. It’s a single-shot monologue that’s incredibly engrossing and immediately draws us into Joey’s world. She living with her friend, Craig (Jordan Gavaris), who’s depressed, panicky, and living off his family’s money (which he spends more than he gets). The pair take up an invitation from Brian, the alien (Lou Taylor Pucci), to stay with him at his remote and enormous house, which is serendipitous since their shower is filling with faeces (forcing them to use ‘Silence of the Lambs cream’). At Brian’s house, they experience various different ‘therapies’ from the enigmatic Christ-like entity, the daily routine akin to a health camp and evenings often spent in carnal cross-species, tentacled intercourse. Brian’s assistant, an older woman named Laura (Marlene Forte), provides aid and resentment towards Joey. As the pair open up to their host, things become even more intense.

Touch Me provokes reactions similar to those in Heimann’s previous film, Hypochondriac (2022) – the wolf mask even makes a hilarious appearance – and also has illness at its heart. Everyone in Brian’s orbit has suffered troubled childhoods, something he appears to feed upon as much as he does with the sex sessions. Mixing off-the-wall humour and a striking visual style that owes much to the Japanese ‘Pink’ films, Touch Me goes to some incredibly dark places but does so in a captivating and evocative way. The themes of abuse and addiction can be uncomfortable, but the sharp dialogue and keen performances keep it from being too morose. It also works as a bizarre satire of ‘wellness’ retreats, invasive therapy sessions, the pursuit of happiness, and unhealthy co-dependent relationships.

As nightmarish as it is emotional and funny as it outlandish, Touch Me deserves to be on the radar of any cult movie fan who can handle the triggers.

PENALTY LOOP

With a trailer that sets the film up as a blood-thumping, pulse-pounding Groundhog Day loop of bloody revenge, Penalty Loop does indeed fulfil the bare bones of this premise, with protagonist Jun (Ryuya Wakaba) trapped in a cycle of repeatedly killing the murderer of his beloved, but while simultaneously subverting every other expectation that this conceit (and the trailer) would have you assume.

Writer and director Shinji Araki handles the violence deftly, gruesomely and with frequent humour, but the killings are brief punctuation points in a glacially slow-paced film more interested in the process of grief than the nature of revenge. Araki makes acute use of stillness and negative space, often composing shots that have you checking the film isn’t paused, which allow time both to reflect on Jun’s isolation and impotent frustration and to leave the viewer as trapped in space and time as he is. Wakaba is more than capable of holding these still moments with his quietly expressive gentle demeanour; as he increasingly engages with the murderer (Yusuke Iseya), a striking and complex chemistry emerges between the two.

[Spoiler Alert!] There are no great reveals or twists to Penalty Loop, but through a lean and surprisingly straightforward story (considering its time loop premise), Araki creates a film that is funny, tender and merciful in all the ways that life often isn’t. In a film that is set up to be about revenge, the central characters and audience alike learn more about forgiveness and surrender. The story refuses to give up every secret or to make everything right, through vengeance or any other act, when being okay with things being wrong may be the only possible outcome.

MOTHER FATHER SISTER BROTHER FRANK

Every family has that one relative that they would prefer wouldn’t call around. And there’s nothing worse than them arriving when you’re having a Sunday family dinner. Especially if that person is out to take everything from them. Writer/director Caden Douglas takes the simple concept and ratchets the familial horrors to an absurd degree.

Overbearing mother of the Jennings family, Joy (Mindy Cohn), and father, Jerry (Enrico Colantoni), are having their weekly dinner with their son, Jim (Iain Stewart), and daughter, Jolene (Melanie Leishman). Things are strained as it is, but when Jerry’s brother Frank (Juan Chioran) turns up and reveals a secret, the parents keep putting the night into deadly turmoil.

Surprises and murder are the order of the day as the evening swings from an unbearably awkward family dinner to a farce level (a pie to the face has never worked so perfectly). Familiar family relationship behaviours (if overly exaggerated) come under the spotlight in this funny, gory romp. Each member has something to hide, and the razor-sharp dialogue keeps things zipping along, and the unorthodox method of bonding might be messy but seems to do the job. The cast is superb, and they are aided by cameos from Mean Girl’s Sharron Mathews, whose lost dog causes more trouble for the Jennings, Jim’s husband Pete (Izad Etemadi), and a police officer (Matthew G. Brown). Naturally, they all add an extra strain to the unfortunate predicament.

Special mention must go to the often discordant score by Adrian Ellis and Walker Grimshaw. It adds another level of anxiety to the beautifully shot visuals. However dysfunctional, the family at the heart of Caden Douglas’s movie come together through honesty and real love. A lesson to us all… just without the murder.

MOTHER FATHER SISTER BROTHER FRANK is available to rent and buy digitally now.

BLACKWATER LANE

Adapted from BA Paris’s 2017 novel The Breakdown, this less-than-thrilling psychological mystery has the unthreatening ambience of a made-for-TV movie. Blackwater Lane lacks tension or much in the way of genuine surprises, but before it fritters the effort away, it does start to build a sense of disquiet and dissociation.

Forty-something secondary school teacher Cass (Minka Kelly) enjoys a comfortable life as the owner of the impressive country estate she shares with her husband Matthew (Dermot Mulroney). Driving home from end-of-term staff drinks one night, she takes a shortcut through the woods. She passes a parked car in which a woman is slumped motionless in the driver’s seat but leaves without investigating. When she learns the next morning that a dead body was found on the spot, she becomes a ‘person of interest’ in police enquiries. But as alarming incidents begin to disrupt home life, her memory appears to fail. Despite the help of best friend Rachel (Lost’s Maggie Grace), she starts to doubt her sanity, fearing that some ghostly entity is now seeking vengeance for her culpability.

Unfortunately, despite the potential of the premise, there’s little in Blackwater Lane to get the blood pumping. Characterisation remains superficial, so it’s hard to invest in anyone’s fate. The ‘home alone’ scenes, during which Cass is menaced by unseen forces and unsettled by memory lapses, lack impact. Any unease surrounding the creeping supernatural threat evaporates in an unexpected turn of events late in Act Three. Its conclusion – complete with flashback do-overs – draws heavily on the Scooby-Doo school of criminal deduction and is woefully implausible. Director Jeff Celentano and his team tick all the contractual boxes, but it’s clear that everyone involved is capable of far better work.

BLACKWATER LANE is available now on digital platforms.

STREAM

Boasting plenty of the behind-the-scenes crew from the Terrifier movies, Steam has enough pedigree to make it a must-see for gore fans.

Forcefully taking over a remote hotel, ringleader Mr Lockwood (an always brilliant Jeffrey Combs) organises an online game in which the guests are the prey for four masked killers. The winner is the one who slays in the most creative way while viewers on the dark web place their bets.

The premise of Stream might be very familiar, there’s still plenty to recommend. The kills are nastily inventive and executed well, which is what we could expect with Damien Leone as FX supervisor. Art the Clown himself, David Howard Thornton, embodies Player 2 as lithely as he does the Terrifier killer, which is a little too on-point, highlighting the crossover of talent with the popular indie franchise. The main victims are a family (headed by Charles Edwin Powell and new wife Danielle Harris, her wayward daughter Sydney Malakey and young son Wesley Holloway) who are likeable enough to root for, while the other guests don’t get enough screen time to register before their inevitable slaughter. The use of streaming, which has come a long way since the Hostel days, gives the youngster a way to become a saviour rather than mere axe fodder (early on, we see him being interrupted while streaming his gameplay). Ultimately, the visceral thrills make us feel as guilty as the killers on screen and gamblers watching – and that is the point of the satire.

Like the Terrifier sequels, Stream runs a little long, but there’s always something going on. Combs delivers his own brand of scene-stealing weasel-ness perfectly, and some of the other cameos thankfully serve more than fan service (it’s now poignant to see Tony Todd, his unmistakable voice resonating wonderfully). While we’re not sure it deserves to become a franchise, Stream is an entertaining diversion.