A Horror Film Blog

I am going to be controversial and say this revered film is only so-so. Yeah, I know, a real hot take on a film released 17 years ago. This is Pan.  He has a labyrinth. In a nutshell, for the three people who don't know nothin' about this film.  It is set in Spain during the Civil War.  A young girl, Ofelia, and her mother travel to a large house commandeered by fascist troops.  One of them their fascists - the commanding officer - is Ofelia's step-father and the father-to-be of the child Ofelia's mother is carrying. Ofelia soon discovers there is a whole whacky world of fantastic beasts living in the ancient labyrinth behind the house (rumours Jack Nicholson can be seen in a photograph on the wall can not be confirmed at this time.) One of these kooky characters is a faun who tells her to do a lot of stuff because she's actually a princess and if she does them she'll get her magic kingdom back.  So she does.  Meanwhile some plucky partisans are scrapping with t

A family shelter in an isolated cabin.  A hostile group of relentless marauders lay siege to them.  This is the stuff of many films, and it is also the stuff of 2017 Jackals .  A film about which the best thing you can say is it does what it sets out to do pretty well, and the worst thing you can say about it is it could have been a much better film. "Daddy, we will have a lot of things to talk through once this is over." The idea underpinning the narrative - a family attempts to 'deprogram' their son, the brainwashed member of a cult - was interesting and could have been developed a lot more. There was scope for an intriguing cat-and-mouse battle between the family and their ex-army deprogrammer, and the swivel eyed son; and the belief system of the cult could have been explored.  Instead, the intervention aspect is really just a MacGuffin, used to set up the plot of the film, because it requires these people to be in an isolated area so they can be assailed by the c

A young couple decide to have a weekend away at his daddy's beach house in a town perched on the edge of the ocean.  Damned if they don't choose the weekend of some terrifying ecological catastrophe for it. Emily and Randall smooch.  We don't get many essentially nice people smooching in horror films, so let's celebrate them. I enjoyed the first two acts of this of this film a lot. And they are distinct acts - the initial establishment and location of character, then confusion and mounting horror, followed by an action-orientated climax. I particularly appreciated the director's willingness to take things slowly and let unease and uncertainty build up. For the first half hour everything seems normal and mundane.  Our characters - Emily and Randall - arrive at the beach house.  They meet an older couple who are also planning on staying there.  Delightfully, and so unusually for films, no-one is unpleasant or acts like a total dick. Misunderstandings smoothed over and