Review Category: Movie

A haunted journalist, traumatised by a particularly harrowing recent experience, learns that he may be a reincarnated serial killer when he encounters a celebrity hypnotherapist. Guided by slick Bevan (Jeremy Piven), Jason (Aneurin Barnard) attempts to unlock the mystery by stepping into the shoes (and black leather gloves) of his past self. Forced to bear witness as he slaughters a number of women in the 1980s, disgusted Jason is determined to make his past self answer for these awful crimes. But how sure can he be of what he’s experiencing? And what have Jason and Bevan wrought by dredging up the grisly past?

Directed by Simeon Halligan (creator of Grimmfest and director of 2014’s White Settlers), Past Life utilises the filmmaker’s beloved Manchester, setting the stage for a modern Giallo. It’s an unexpected but welcome genre riff, and although it doesn’t have the visuals nor the verve to pull off its Hitchcock or De Palma aspirations, there is a sense of atmosphere there which makes good use of its setting.

What Past Life also boasts is a strong cast, including Nicholas Farrell, Tim McInnery and Pixie Lott (yes, that Pixie Lott) in small but effective roles. The pop star is particularly charming as Jason’s pregnant partner Claira, overcoming some goofy dialogue and flimsy characterisation to deliver the film’s meatiest performance. She’s doing quite a bit of heavy lifting here, between Barnard’s unconvincing lead and a distracting Piven – who flits in and out of the narrative when it suits – but it all comes together as past and present converge in a tense finale.

Written by Halligan along with screenwriters Ray Bogdanovich and Dean Lines, Past Life is an engaging mystery, and one which does a good job of keeping the audience on its toes. There’s a sense of Déjà Vu to some of its twists toward the end, but it’s an enjoyably grimy British Giallo with a cool cast and original setting.

PAST LIFE is out now in UK cinemas.

2019’s Ready Or Not was an unexpected delight. It transformed the then-mildly-famous Samara Weaving (at the time best known for Netflix’s teen-centric horror The Babysitter… and Home and Away) into an instant horror icon, and propelled directors Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) onto the horror A-list, with two Scream entries and the wildly entertaining Abigail following.

The ironic part of this is that, for the most part, the movie is more of a black comedy than a horror. The ‘hide and seek in a creepy old house with a Satan worshipping cult’ is ripe with scary potential, but it’s played largely for laughs, albeit with copious amounts of blood and a few gnarly moments. Scares were few and far between, but the movie was so much fun that you instantly forgave it.

Following the original’s popularity, a sequel was inevitable, and the awkwardly titled Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come sticks largely to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ formula, pitting Weaving’s Grace against a new group of ultra-rich devil worshippers.

The story picks up immediately after the first movie, as Grace awakens in hospital where – unusually for a horror – the police have a couple of questions about her recent killing spree. That’s interrupted by the arrivals first of Grace’s estranged sister Faith (an excellent Kathryn Newton) and then another of those lovely devil worshippers. Within minutes, Grace is back in her bloodstained wedding dress and covered with a copious amount of fresh gore. We’re back.

It turns out that the Le Domases from the original weren’t the only rich family who’d made a literal deal with the Devil, and Grace’s defeat of them has triggered a power play for control of the world. Whoever kills her in a new game gains ultimate power, along with a natty ring symbolising it (current owner, one David Cronenberg, obviously). Overseeing this game to determine who controls this all-powerful ring – and the world – is the Devil’s lawyer, played by Elijah Wood (we see what they did there) who sets out some ground rules, throws Faith into the game for LOLs, and does an impressive job of remaining blood-free whenever someone explodes in his vicinity.

Cue another deadly game of hide and seek. As per the rules of sequels, everything’s a bit bigger. The original creepy house is here upgraded to a golfing resort (in what we’d like to think is a subtle jibe at a certain US president), and the number of adversaries is increased. In a neat twist, only one member from each family is permitted to hunt at once, with the rest watching on CCTV, bickering and occasionally exploding when rules are breached. Oh, did we mention that the new additions include the long-overdue proper big screen return of a certain Sarah Michelle Geller as one of the potential heirs to ultimate power? The erstwhile (*sob*) Buffy Summers is a brilliant addition to the cast – and yes, she does indeed wield a (metal) stake at one point.

Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have cited Aliens and Terminator 2 as their inspirations for expanding their world in the sequel, and they do a good job of growing the mythology. Unlike those films though – which essentially transplanted the original concept into a new genre – this hews fairly close to the original. When the idea’s as entertaining as Ready or Not that’s no bad thing, but anyone expecting an expanding of the mythology on a par with Cameron’s masterpieces (back when he made good sequels) may be left wanting.

While we’re nitpicking, there’s also a couple of male-on-female violence moments that are a bit too realistic and verge on crossing the line into bad taste. And in a post-Epstein/Trump world where we’re regularly exposed to the actual crimes of those who do wield power, a Satan-worshipping cult controlling the world seems quaint, if not actually preferable. However, the movie isn’t really interested in exploring the satire its concept presents, which is somewhat of a shame.

Still, Weaving’s Grace is a true modern horror (and/or black comedy) icon, and her pairing with Newton is inspired. Two bickering sisters mending their relationship while dispatching bad guys (and girls) in various bloody ways makes for very entertaining cinema. There are some great set pieces (one which we’ll call ‘Battle of the Brides’ is hilarious), some neat gnarly kills, and – if possible – even more blood than the original. What more could you ask?

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME is in cinemas now. 

The beloved horror sequel The Bride of Frankenstein recently celebrated its 90th anniversary (an occasion marked on the cover of STARBURST issue 492), but as iconic as she’s become, Elsa Lanchester’s title character only appears on screen in that movie for just over two minutes.

Now, writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal has set out to redress that balance with The Bride!, a bold reimagining of the tale. Her radically feminist approach is evident from the opening scene, in which the spirit of Mary Shelley (newly Oscar-winning Jessie Buckley) addresses the camera to tell us that her story as we’ve previously been told it was incomplete, and we’re about to witness the missing chapter.

That chapter takes place in 1930s Chicago, and follows Ida (also Buckley, because why not?) and Frank (Christian Bale), aka Frankenstein’s monster. Looking for companionship, Frank enlists the aid of Doctor Euphronius (Annette Bening), and together they bring back Doctor F’s old methods and resurrect a dead woman – Ida, who’s recently had a fatal fall.

The two former corpses set off on a journey across America, but everywhere they go, they discover that being a monster isn’t easy, and for Ida, being both a monster and a woman doubly so. The film doesn’t shy away from showing the dangers they face, or from the violent methods Frank uses to protect Ida. What begins as an optimistic quest to meet Frank’s favourite silent movie actor Ronnie Reed (Maggie’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal) turns into a brutal bloodbath and a Bonnie and Clyde-esque crime spree – with a dance number in the middle. And the choice of song for that number is one so associated with a different Frankenstein-related movie that you can’t quite believe Gyllenhaal would dare go there, but she does, and through strength of convictions, and having a very different angle on it, it works.

That’s a common strand throughout The Bride! – it’s a maximalist approach to the subject which takes everything it has, every possible idea Gyllenhaal must have thought of, and chucks it forcefully at the screen. A lot of it works, joyfully rattling ahead alongside the soundtrack by Hildur Guðnadóttir and original songs by Swedish electropop musician Fever Ray.

Some of it doesn’t work – Ida’s ‘possession’ by Shelley’s spirit is laboured and unexplained, and a climactic piece of dialogue hammers in the film’s message in a painfully unsubtle manner. But the film moves along with such pace, energy and conviction that it hardly matters. If Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein was too by-the-book for your tastes, you couldn’t get a more alternative take than this fabulously punk update.

THE BRIDE! is in UK cinemas now.

No film has made this writer feel so anxious and tense quite like this one did. Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is an absolute masterpiece in exploring the struggles of a working mother who has the whole world against her. It’s strongly focused on mental health and the difficulty of balancing all your responsibilities, while also being a psychological horror relating to the sheer pressure mothers are put through from start to finish.

From the get go, the film sucks the viewer into its world of stress and exhaustion. Psychotherapist and mother Linda (Rose Byrne) has everything against her – a medically complex child who is just not getting any better, a husband who’s away for work, nightmare clients, a destroyed home, and personal trauma that is eating away at her; even just one of these things would drive anyone up the wall.

The exhaustion that Linda is experiencing is palpable, and you have no idea when she’s going to snap. Bronstein’s visual direction drags the viewer into this nightmare and amps up the anxiety – though absolutely stunning, it’s so nerve-wracking at the same time.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You does a momentous job of exploring the struggles a mother, who is spread so thin, can go through when all she wants is a break or some help – because god forbid a woman enjoys a glass of wine and a cigarette after a long stressful day. This film deserves all the time in the world and is a shining entry in the feminist horror catalogue.

IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU is in UK cinemas now.

Clocking in at around an hour, Dariuss is another assault on the senses from Guerilla Metropolitana (who brought us the similarly shattering The Benefactress). It’s a blending of found footage, surrealism, and avant-garde filmmaking in an equally uncompromising way.

The story, set in rural Essex, follows a family destroyed by the disappearance and presumed death of a young girl. The family’s seemingly idyllic middle-class existence in the English countryside descends into violence, pain, and bloodshed as each family member struggles to deal with their loss. It’s not exactly an original premise for a psychological horror film, but rather than telling this story in a linear fashion, Dariuss fractures it into disjointed, often disturbing vignettes that depict grief in its most grotesque and psychologically unhinged forms. The result is a viewing experience that feels intentionally disorientating, forcing the audience to piece together meaning from fragments of imagery, sound, and symbolic violence.

Like The Benefactress, Dariuss is not a film for everyone. Its explicit imagery and confrontational themes have been seen by some as signs of a bold work of underground art. Others dismiss it as excessive and impenetrable. Guerilla Metropolitana employs degraded film textures, strobe effects, and layered sound design to create a nightmarish atmosphere that feels both intimate and alienating.

Dariuss is less about narrative satisfaction and more about immersion in a director’s uncompromising vision. It’s a film that challenges, disturbs, and lingers. Whether you view it as a daring artistic statement or an exercise in extremity will depend entirely on your tolerance for experimental cinema.

DARIUSS is available on Blu-ray from Srs Cinema.

The Romero family has shaken up the zombie genre again, with Tina Romero taking her father’s original and groundbreaking Night Of The Living Dead and giving it a fresh, unique twist in Queens of the Dead. Bathed in queer culture and camp goodness, Tina has maintained the Romero brand by commenting on oppression in her father’s films, but pivots the focus to something modern.

Tina takes the beloved Romero zombie and revitalises it, making these zombies serve full glam before going in for the kill. The Romero zombie has always represented the effect of brainwashed masses and what the outcome of that can be; the same is reflected here: LGBTQ issues and toxic social media/influencer culture are explored. You find influencers using queer people to bolster their social media presence, as well as issues with homo- and transphobia. You also see zombies on the attack be snapped back to their phones when their favourite creator livestreams – completely subdued from their desire to kill and instead go to the next hip social event. It’s an incredibly interesting glimpse into the issues currently being experienced in both the queer community and the wider world of social media presence.

Queens of the Dead boasts some great performances, and gives the stage to queer actors like Katy O’Brian and Jaquel Spivey. Though we believe they could’ve gone a bit further with it, it showcases some great kills and gore. If you’re a Romero fan, you will spot all of the carefully thought-out Easter eggs, cameos, and quotes that we all know and love. Tina Romero has hit all of the marks with this debut, it’s fresh and campy as hell. Ultimately, a great entry into the zombie genre.

QUEENS OF THE DEAD screened as part of The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2026.