Articles by Alix Turner
Blinders review – technology and making friends too easily combine to make a thriller that creeps up on you
Blinders is about Andy (Vincent Van Horn), a likeable guy who moves to Los Angeles looking for a fresh start. He finds a decent apartment,...
Av: The Hunt review – excellent survival thriller from Turkey
Av: The Hunt was like many films I’ve seen before, and it was also unique: excellent. It is about Ayse (Billur Melis Koç), a young...
Aquaslash review – watch something else
Great, I thought: after reviewing a few artsy or heavy films lately, I get the chance to see some airhead teens in bikinis being killed...
Hall review – timely and creepily effective, but not enough plot
Hall must surely be the bleakest and most creepily effective film of this year’s FrightFest so far. I’m afraid I was quite nauseous by the...
Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business review – a blend of case-study, advice and insight
Justin McConnell is a modest, often self-deprecating, indie filmmaker from Canada. He has experience, but has spells of despair about how to progress in his...
They’re Outside review – patchy but mostly successful low budget British horror
They’re Outside is about Sarah (Chrissy Randall), who hasn’t been outside for several years; and about the YouTube pop psychologist Max Spencer (Tom Wheatley) who...
Blind review – alternates between dull and infuriating
I was really looking forward to Blind, when I saw it listed for this year’s Virtual FrightFest: the trailer was dramatic, and the description read...
Playhouse review – Scottish brothers’ debut about history invading the present
Playhouse is a film about a cursed castle in the Scottish Highlands: brilliant! Scotland is full of both castles and ghost stories, but I don’t...
Triggered review – entertaining survival horror with explosives
Triggered is going to be one of those rare films which don’t require many words to tell you I liked it a great deal. It...
I Am Lisa review – undemanding fun horror with fangs
I Am Lisa is a film about small-town bullies and a victim who pushes back… after being bitten by a wolf. Lisa (Kristen Vaganos) is...
There’s No Such Thing As Vampires review – adventure horror with a sense of fun
How would you feel if you were carjacked late at night, and the (good looking) guy who gets in insists he’s being chased by a...
The Columnist aka De Kuthoer review – Danish black comedy thriller that entertains while it has plenty to say
The Columnist (or De Kuthoer) is the story of Femke, who woke up one morning and realized she’d had enough. I couldn’t help echoing the...
Sky Sharks review – ludicrously amazing
I’m going to keep this one brief: Sky Sharks is remarkable. After a brief introduction to the passengers of a classy jet, zombies cut their...
Tenet review – has Nolan already made his best film, or is it yet to come?
I was very wary going in to see Tenet this evening: was I going to be seduced by the hype? Was I going to love...
Hail to the Deadites review – affectionate documentary about the love fans have for the Evil Dead trilogy
If you have any awareness of key horror films from the last fifty years, especially from the United States, you will probably have seen at...
The Honeymoon Phase review – intriguing sci-fi thriller but ultimately unsatisfying
The Honeymoon Phase… where to begin? I could tell you about the story, the style, the themes, or what I think the filmmaker is “trying...
The Crimes That Bind (Crímenes de familia) review – impressive Argentinian drama about parenthood and justice
The Crimes That Bind (originally called Crímenes de familia) has left me a little shaken: what would I do? How would I expect those around...
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula review – rein in your expectations
Peninsula (marketed in the USA as Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula) is a two-hour-long action romp through (one area of) South Korea which has been...
The Pale Door review – combines Western tropes with horror, blood and tension
Horror overlaps with other genres all the time, but the horror Western is one genre mash-up we don’t see too often. A shame, really: I’m...
An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile) review – laid back, sunny and shallow, like the Riviera life
A summer in Cannes. Most of us only know a town like that in the context of film festivals and similar events, while a few...