About Unworldly Views | Unworldly Views

Caged Women: Hounds of Love, Berlin Syndrome, The Beguiled

by Martin | September 16, 2017 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

HOUNDS OF LOVE In 1987 sullen Australian teenager Vicki (Ashleigh Cummings) seethes with resentment at her mum, who has chosen to split with surgeon dad, necessitating a move to a seedier part of town – still, things could be worse, as she soon discovers when...

Strait Jacket (1964) / Lizzie

by Martin | December 1, 2018 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

STRAIT JACKET Winding up the Joan Crawford season at the BFI was this William Castle production from the trashier end of her spectrum, though compared to Trog (1970) it's a masterpiece. The audience have come over-determined to giggle at a camp classic, and to be fair...

Frightfest Halloween 2018

by Martin | February 24, 2019 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

Yes I know, we are already well into 2019 but let me take you back, BACK to when the self-service checkouts in Poundland were still speaking in the voice of Bela Lugosi ('Have a spooooky day!') In truth I wasn't all that inspired by the films on offer at Frightfest...

Frightfest 2018 Part Two: Awks

by Martin | October 15, 2018 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

KILLING GOD In this Spanish offering from directors Caye Casas and Albert Pintó, various members of a family gather in an old dark house for New Year's Eve, only to be joined by a dwarf who emerges from the toilet (the room, not the bowl – at least as far as we can...

Censor / Surge

by Martin | October 10, 2021 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

CENSOR Prano Bailey-Bond's Censor makes a link between censorship and (emotional, psychological) repression that's pretty obvious, but the film has a knack of making the obvious work – which has the additional virtue of being thematically appropriate. After all, the...

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

by Martin | March 1, 2015 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

An Iranian vampire Western? Is this what the world really needs? On the evidence presented here – yes. Not that this is really Iranian, since it is shot in America and is set in a fictional (Iranian) place called ‘Bad City’. Not that it’s really a Western either,...

Frightfest 2017: Evil Twins

by Martin | October 1, 2017 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

FASHIONISTA As regular readers would know (if they existed), Frightfest usually marks the one time in the calendar year where I don't go to the cinema alone: Dave comes along. Or at least he does for part of the time before he has to duck out due to work commitments...

Rabid (1977) / Black Magic 2 (1976)

by Martin | June 10, 2020 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

RABID (1977) I watched this (on Arrow Video Blu-Ray) quite early on in lockdown, before the later symptoms of COVID-19 like frothing at the mouth with blue foam and biting people in the neck appeared. Oh no wait, that hasn't happened yet has it? Nevertheless this is...

The Brand New Testament (BFI London Film Festival 2015)

by Martin | November 14, 2015 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

Jaco Van Dormael's film might end up being remembered as the one where Catherine Deneuve sleeps with a gorilla, but that's the least of it. Benoît Poolvoorde is God, a middle-aged slob who never leaves his apartment and spends most of his time on his computer,...

Frightfest 2017: The Glass Coffin

by Martin | September 23, 2017 | movies, reviews | 0 Comments

Some kind of religious revival seems to be going on outside Frightfest's new (old) home, the Cineworld (formerly Empire) Leicester Square. A sign saying 'Repent or Perish' has been held aloft. I wonder if this is particularly aimed at the Frightfest crowd. Maybe it's...