INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY

Starring: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Director: Adam Robitel

When Elise Rainier (Shaye) receives a call from someone in New Mexico regarding the supernatural events going on in his home, she is forced to confront the demons of her past - literally - as the property happens to be the house in which she grew up.


The fourth outing in the Insidious series (which is actually the second one chronologically) is something of a frustrating one in that there are some great moments and ideas which are ultimately sunk in the swamp of a so-so horror outing which has a distinctly ghoulish premise but would generally rather startle you with SUDDEN VERY LOUD NOISES.

This is particularly disappointing because the prologue, set in 1953 and featuring a young Elise dealing with demons both in this world and beyond, delivers on the suspense and the intrigue despite the fact even so early in the piece it can't resist that whole quiet-quiet-quiet-BANG shtick. These first fifteen minutes promise much so it's annoying that the remaining eighty-odd don't measure up.

Again, it's wonderful to Lin Shaye front and centre once more and as usual she's the most interesting and entertaining thing in as Insidious flick. She doesn't get to kick quite as much phantom arse as in the previous outing but she's still a shrewd, able heroine who can show her much younger colleagues a thing or two. Also, as the custodian of the film's single f-bomb, she drops that with relish.

On the subject of her much younger colleagues, Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson return as Specs and Tucker respectively. As before, they're on hand to carry the equipment, watch Elise on video as she wanders around darkened, spirit-filled rooms and to swap awkward banter. Regrettably, the numerous attempts at lightening the proceedings with humour land only sporadically, with one running gag about the attractiveness of Elise's nieces proving more unpleasant and creepy than some of the ghosts on display.

The story switches between the present day and historical action efficiently enough and provides yet more pleasing backstory for Elise but as far as the scares go this seems to be going through the motions for much of its running time and waiting for the next apparition to lunge into the frame eventually begins to grate.

Thankfully, this approach is ditched for the final battle with the big bad although this also doesn't thrill as it should. The evil in this tale - referred to as KeyFace in the imdb character details - is a reasonably menacing presence and there's an excellent sequence where it crawls from the shadows towards a stricken victim. However, there's something oddly unscary about the creature when it's unveiled in all of its detail and the ultimate face-off degenerates into a slightly silly spectral smackdown rather than a battle of wills and wits.

Insidious: The Last Key shows all too often that it's the latest movie in a franchise and although it closes with a decent nod to the first Insidious outing (which is actually the third one chronologically) it brings very little to the poltergeist-shifted table that's new. Lin Shaye deserves better and you do too.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
Writer: Martin McDonagh
Director: Martin McDonagh

With no headway being made on the investigation of her daughter's murder, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) decides to re-ignite local interest in the case by means of posting messages on three billboards on what was once a main road leading into her home town. This puts her on a confrontational collision course with Ebbing's police department, notably Chief Willoughby (Harrelson) and his infantile, thuggish second-in-command Officer Dixon (Rockwell)...

If you've seen some of Martin McDonagh's previous work then you'll probably know what to expect here: profane, soulful dialogue; pitch-black humour; bursts of brutal, shocking violence; a beating heart underneath it all. These elements are all present and correct in Three Billboards and I'm delighted to say that they work together more brilliantly than ever.

A lot has been made of the performances (don't worry, I'm going to make more of those shortly) but let's not forget that without a script of this quality McDormand, Harrelson et al would not be able to make the lasting impact they do. The writing is beautiful, it's exquisitely judged and paints a group of characters who don't necessarily conform to the normal good/bad guy tropes. These are people who are all capable of doing the right or the very wrong thing. You'll laugh with them, you'll cry with them, you'll fear for them.

Thankfully the superior screenplay is given vivid, memorable humanity by a choice cast. Frances McDormand commands the screen as Mildred, a formidable figure who will not be intimidated and who will stop at nothing to see justice served. She isn't there to be liked and some of her choices will certainly test the audience's loyalty towards her but they stand as particularly fine examples of how the story and its players are all differing shades of grey.

Take Woody Harrelson as the police chief, for instance. Initially it would be natural to assume that he cares little for the case of Angela Hayes as he presides over what would appear to be a brutish, inept bunch of cops. As the film progresses, our expectations of Willoughby are confounded as the tale takes a heartbreaking turn and his actions loom large over the second half of the piece.

Performance of the film for me, somehow eclipsing McDormand's exceptional lead role, comes from Sam Rockwell. With a character arc unlike most others in recent memory, we are introduced to Dixon as a prejudiced, drunken mother's boy with an attitude problem and a penchant for violence but the Hayes case will change him in ways that he would never have seen coming. It's all the more realistic in that he doesn't experience the epiphany and personality switch that would be so unlikely, instead his gradual realisation that he can be a better person (and that others see this too) is more subtle and convincing.

In fact there's not a single weak link when it comes to the players and even the smaller roles are wonderfully accomplished. Lucas Hedges, as Mildred's son Robbie, is excellent as someone having to deal with the trauma of his sister's death and the ramifications of his mother's actions which stir up the townsfolk (and hence his high-school classmates). Peter Dinklage scores as sympathetic car dealer James, John Hawkes is deeply unnerving as Mildred's abusive ex-husband and Darrell Britt-Gibson impresses as billboard poster Jerome.

It's very early in the year to be predicting what will be in my Top Ten for 2018 but Three Billboards is certainly a strong contender to be there come December. Hilarious, heartfelt, horrific - often within the same scene - it's a great way to start the year.

HOSTILES

Starring: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi

Writer: Scott Cooper (from a manuscript by Donald E. Stewart)

Director: Scott Cooper

In the 1890s grizzled, veteran Army Captain Joseph Blocker (Bale) is given an assignment to escort dying Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Studi) back to his homelands in Montana. The two men have previously lost friends at the hands of each other in many bloody battles but that chequered history could turn out to be the least of their problems in a journey fraught with danger, which is further complicated when their travelling party encounters a widow (Pike) in the wilderness...

If you saw the trailer for Hostiles and thought it was an action movie let me stop you right there, pardner. Yes, there is action, but those sequences are few and far between. This is a film about conflict but the verbal and the internal varieties are given as much, if not more, precedence than the scalpings and the flying bullets.

Oh yes, if you were expecting line 'em up, shoot 'em down sequences then let me stop you right there, pardner - if you hadn't already stopped from when I said you should stop right there the previous time. The bursts of violence here are grim, up close, personal, down and dirty affairs in which the you feel the pain of its victims. Flashy, glamorous gunfights are not the order of the day.

Hostiles takes its time in putting its characters through the wringer and its slow pace may mean that some won't stay the course, especially when it's piling on the misery (which it does almost relentlessly). However, for those willing to stick with it there are rewards to be found, mostly in the excellent performances.

Bale is never less than convincing as Blocker, worn down by a career drenched with the blood of others and wondering if he's truly beyond salvation. Studi is terrific, bringing an air of quiet authority and wisdom but also weighed down by the violence of his past. Then there's Pike, whose portrayal of grief is so strong that it's almost unbearable to watch in places.

The script doesn't quite fulfil its promise, its meditations on who exactly the bad guys are being a touch heavy-handed in places - tagline: We are all hostiles - and the denouement can't resist trowelling on even more bleakness, double-underlining a point that had already been made earlier. It then gives way to a final scene which arguably ties things up somewhat too neatly but, given what's gone before, at least sends you out of the cinema clinging to some form of hope.

A modern Western which utilises the classic template of that genre while trying to portray that period of history from a different viewpoint, Hostiles doesn't quite get the balance right and it isn't the revisionist masterpiece it so diligently strives to be. That doesn't stop it from being a damn good drama though and it's well worth watching for the work of its exemplary cast.

MY TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2017

Hi folks! Hope the holiday season was full of cheer and you all have my best wishes for a great 2018.

So here we are at the end of 2017. It seems like just a year ago that I was talking on this blog about my favourite movies of 2016, because it was. Now it's time for me to reveal my ten favourite films of this year, plus ten more which just missed that particular cut but are still well worth your time.

As usual, there will be great movies I didn't get to see this year and that's why they didn't make the list. As usual, I can't rank them from 1 to 10 (or 10 to 1), it was difficult enough to narrow the list down without trying to decide which one I liked the most. And, as usual, it's fine if you don't like my list. However, it's my list and I'm standing by it.

Some of the following may have played festivals or could have even been released last year but I saw them in 2017 and that is purely the criterion I'm applying.

So, rambling over. In purely alphabetical order, here goes...


BABY DRIVER

Edgar Wright's effervescent car-chase/heist/romance thrill ride was something that I went back to see again and enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than I did on the first viewing. Baby (Ansel Elgort) is the best getaway driver around but he's trying to get out of the business, doubly so when he sees the possibility of a new life with waitress Debora (Lily James). And of course he's pressured into doing one last job...

I know some people complained about the plausibility of this one and I get that but sometimes cinema is all about escapism and Baby Driver presents a marvellously skewed reality, one in which a simple walk to and a from a coffee shop is choreographed to a cracking track from Bob & Earl.

Elgort and James make for a cute couple, the dialogue fizzes, the ancillary roles are all nicely-written and acted (Jon Hamm looks like he had a blast making this), the action sequences get the adrenaline pumping, the jokes land and the romantic interludes are sweet. And now I want to watch it again.


CREEP 2

The first Creep movie, for me at least, came pretty much out of nowhere and I was thoroughly impressed at not only its mixture of chills and chuckles but also with how it took the building blocks of the "found footage" genre to construct something very different.

Again, Duplass' serial killer - now calling himself Aaron - advertises for a videographer to document his life and web series maker Sara (Desiree Akhavan) shows up but from then on all bets are off as this superior sequel heads off in a number of unexpected directions. Bringing the fear and the funny in equal measure, this risks a lot by playing almost the entire proceedings as a two-hander between Aaron and Sara but this pays off handsomely because Duplass and Akhavan spark off each other outstandingly.

I saw this at Celluloid Screams in October where it went down a storm. Mark Duplass is once again both hilarious and deeply unnerving and Akhavan kicks arse in both performance and plot. I was more than sufficiently Creep-ed out (yeah yeah, I'm using that one again) to want a third one.


COLOSSAL

Nacho Vigalondo's magnificent mash-up of monster movie and indie dramedy sees the somewhat flaky Gloria (Anne Hathaway) have her life in New York fall to pieces and head back to her hometown where old acquaintance Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) offers her a job in his bar. Meanwhile, a giant creature is attacking Seoul and Gloria is struck by the possibility that she may be connected to this strange phenomenon.

It's a brilliant concept and Vigalondo runs with it, giving us the classic city in peril sequences we'd expect but never allowing these to undercut the smaller moments as Hathaway tries to get herself together. In fact, the smaller moments end up becoming the bigger moments as...but I'm giving too much away.

As always, Hathaway is first-rate and makes for an affectingly flawed heroine but it's Jason Sudeikis who is the real surprise here. Yes, his comedic turns have always been impressive but here he turns in a multi-layered and, quite frankly, amazing performance. As for the movie, it's winningly weird and I loved it.


THE ENDLESS

After Resolution and Spring, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead make it three unmissable films out of three with this genre-hopping, mind-melting tale of Justin (Benson) and Aaron (Moorhead) who return to the "UFO death cult" from which they escaped years previously.

Resolutely refusing to stick to any kind of template, The Endless constantly leaves the viewer genuinely unsure of exactly where the story is going and what the hell is going to happen next. It also avoids going down the usual route of having cult members behaving like lunatics within nanoseconds of being introduced to them. In fact, they actually seem like reasonable people with a purpose. Or is that what the movie wants you to think?

Taking the lead roles in their own film is something of a risk but Benson and Moorhead carry the film very well, helped by a fine supporting cast. With a beautifully executed, satisfying callback to their previous work which explains some of the head-spinning plot developments this rewards patience and attention. You may leave the cinema with your mind blown but trust me, you'll feel better for it.


THE FLORIDA PROJECT

On the fringe of Disneyworld the fringes of society live in motel complexes, facing a daily struggle to just exist. In one such place, six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) goes off on various adventures with her equally free-spirited playmates while rebellious mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) tries to keep a roof over their heads.

There's no doubting that Sean Baker's film tackles a tough subject and there are some utterly heartbreaking moments along the way but there's also a whole lot of joy to be found as the piece captures precisely what it's like to be a kid. The young members of the cast are amazingly naturalistic and the adults are none too bad either. Bria Vinaite's debut is flawless and Willem Dafoe, as sympathetic motel manager Bobby, demonstrates once again what an exceedingly fine actor he is.

The end of The Florida Project seems to have proven somewhat divisive. I thought it was totally in keeping with the rest of the film, a mixture of heart-rending sadness and unbridled delight. 


GET OUT

Is a horror movie? Is it a thriller? Is it a social satire? Whatever the label, Jordan's Peele film is excellent from start to finish. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) takes a trip with girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her ultra-liberal parents for the first time and from the get-go something doesn't seem quite right.

Get Out doesn't play its hand too early, building the tension - and eliciting plenty of nervous laughs - via a series of increasingly weird and unsettling events before tipping into full-on horror in its final stretch. As well as being thoroughly entertaining, this also makes salient points about racism but not in a preachy way. It asks us to take a look at how we behave without having to hammer the message home.

The denouement is deliciously twisted, the clash of cultures is dealt with in a smart, amusing way, any movie that has Catherine Keener in it gets my vote and can we please have a spin off which focuses on Chris's best friend Rod? For me, Rod is the supporting character of the year and Lil Rel Howery is ace as the TSA employee with a nose for suspicious goings-on. Rod is the guy we'd all like as our best friend.


LADY MACBETH

Rural England, 1865, and the young Katherine (Florence Pugh) is sold into marriage to a man twice her age. As her husband spends more and more time away from home, Katherine enters into a reckless romance with a stable worker on the estate. Needless to say, things don't go well...

William's Oldroyd's strikingly shot drama is intense, passionate and gripping, with Florence Pugh absolutely magnetic in the central role. Sure, it's on the bleak side but it's beautifully made, dripping with atmosphere and its climax seems to have upset a few people judging but some of the things I've read about their reaction to it.

My view is: surely they should be upset in some way at how things end here. It's also a testament to the conviction of those who made this that they don't try to pull out an upbeat ending from nowhere, the piece naturally moves inexorably towards its grim and tragic conclusion and that's how it should be. 


LOGAN

At long last, the Wolverine movie that I (and possibly many others) had been waiting for, Logan is grungy, sweary, and very, very violent. It's also full of unexpectedly warm - if somewhat dark - humour with Hugh Jackman's titular hero and Patrick Stewart's Professor X as aged, bickering companions in an increasingly emotional road movie as they attempt to keep mutant kid Laura (Dafne Keen) out of the hands of some very bad guys.

F-words and severed limbs are liberally scattered throughout. Innocent people die up close in brutal and shocking ways. It's the antithesis of all those summer superhero blockbusters and is so much better for it. If this wasn't enough, the final moments deliver an emotional gut punch that will make you hope there's no post-credit sequence so you can get out of the cinema for air.

Definitely my favourite Marvel movie so far and if this is Messrs Stewart and Jackman's final appearance as X and Wolvie then they'll have bowed out in superb style.


MAB

As with 2016's Top Ten another short movie finds itself on the list. Last year it was Katie Bonham's wonderful Mindless and this year it's Katie Bonham's even more wonderful Mab. Rosie delivers packages on a regular basis to the mysterious title character but a late arrival to her destination one day gives her a glimpse into a strange and terrifying world.

Once again, as with Mindless, social commentary mixes with the supernatural to produce something truly distinctive. Without so much as a drop of gore, the revelation of the fate of one particular character is devastatingly, horribly realised and it's moments like this which confirm you're in the hands of a skilled film-maker.

Everything about this short is infused with quality. The production design is fabulous, the score is sublime and the performances are accomplished, especially newcomer Maria-Theresa as Rosie who's expressive and sympathetic without ever overplaying it.

Deservedly winning the Melies D'Argent (and the Audience Award) at this year's Abertoir Festival, this expertly fuses the everyday and the extraordinary. Is another Katie Bonham film going to be on the 2018 Top Ten? On the basis of Mab, don't bet against it.


PREVENGE

After the death of her partner, Ruth (Alice Lowe) starts to hear messages from her unborn child. These messages tell her to take revenge on the people responsible for covering up the tragedy as an accident, sending the mum-to-be on a homicidal rampage.

If the above paragraph sounds like a terribly depressing night at the cinema, it's actually quite the opposite. Prevenge serves up its murders and mayhem with a deliciously dark streak of humour and having many of its scenes play longer than we're used to gives us much more of an insight into the story's potential victims which means that, rather cleverly, we're never exactly sure who to side with.

Has Ruth truly been wronged or is she experiencing a psychotic episode following the death of a loved one? Indeed, is any of this actually happening? Prevenge lets you decide the answers to these questions for yourself. Writer/director/star Alice Lowe takes on that most tricky of beasts, the horror/comedy, and delivers both the shocks and the sniggers with surety.  


Honorable mentions go to the following (again in alphabetical order):

The Big Sick - Smartly scripted by Kumail Nanjiani, this takes his own real-life tale and spins it into a subversive rom-com. Full of heart and hilarity, this is a massive, welcoming hug of a movie and it has Holly Hunter being awesome. What more could you want?

Blade Runner 2049 - Making a sequel to Ridley Scott's classic original takes a lot of guts and I'm delighted to say that Denis Villeneuve's follow-up is very good indeed. Visually, this redefines the word "stunning" but there's also an intriguing continuation of the story in which to become involved. Ryan Gosling is first class as top blade runner J but it's Harrison Ford's return as Deckard which really elevates the proceedings. How great is Harrison Ford in this? I'll answer that one for you. He's bloody brilliant.

Brawl In Cell Block 99 - S. Craig Zahler follows up the excellent Bone Tomahawk with this tale of drug runner Vince Vaughn landing in the clink and trying to save his pregnant wife on the outside. Builds brilliantly to an astonishingly violent payoff, Vaughn is on career-best form here and sterling support is provided by Udo Kier and Don Johnson.

Canaries - Belying its £29,000 budget, Peter Stray's beguiling mix of sci-fi, horror and comedy reaches for the stars while still keeping its feet firmly on the ground as bantering, bickering mates try to survive an alien invasion in the Welsh Valleys. With a surprisingly detailed mythology to give the backstory some real heft, this hits all of the right notes regardless of which genre it's stepped into.

Diani & Devine Meet The Apocalypse - Comedy duo Etta Devine and Gabriel Diani suddenly find themselves in a situation where there's no power, communcations are down and society is collapsing. What follows next is an unexpectedly sweet and consistently funny series of adventures as our heroes try to survive. Track this down before the world ends.

The Disaster Artist - James Franco directs and stars in this take on the making of Tommy Wiseau's now infamous movie The Room. The chaotic environment of the film set makes for some big laughs along the way but this is also a spirited celebration of someone following their dream, however crazy that dream may be.

I Remember You - A confidently-made slow-burner based on Yrsa Sigurðardóttir's novel, this weaves seemingly unconnected elements (a woman found hanged in a church, a missing child, a project to renovate a run-down house) into a coherent and ultimately satisfying whole. Beautiful Icelandic locations abound and it's creepy as hell, too.

M.F.A. - After a year in which new allegations of sexual misconduct surface pretty much every day, Natalia Leite's exploration of what happens to art student Noelle after a horrific incident could not be more timely. Uncompromising but unwaveringly unexploitative, this benefits further from an excellent, provocative screenplay by Leah McKendrick (who's also effective in a pivotal supporting role) and a terrific performance from Francesca Eastwood as Noelle.

My Life As A Courgette - Short (66 minutes) and very sweet animation centred on a young boy sent to a foster home following a tragedy at home. Confronting difficult subject matter with straightforwardness and great skill, this never descends into sentimentality and it's rather wonderful. You may have to pretend you have something in your eye come the end of this one.

Wonder Woman - After Logan, another much needed shot in the arm for the superhero movie as Amazonian warrior Diana (Gal Gadot in a piece of perfect casting) joins the fight in World War One. A wonder-fully (oh, I'm so sorry for that) entertaining mix of great action sequences, amusing fish-out-of-water comedy and spot-on emotional beats, this destroys the ridiculous argument that this sort of movie - any sort of movie, to be honest - is "a guy's thing".

MAB

Starring: Maria-Teresa, Carolyn Saint-Pé, Lucy Clements
Writer: Katie Bonham
Director: Katie Bonham

Mab tells the story of Rosie (Maria-Teresa) and her mother, Kris (Lucy Clements), who struggle to make ends meet. Their only source of income comes from the daily delivery Rosie makes to the mysterious Mab, but what are these deliveries and what impact will this have on their lives of those around them?

You may remember how much I enjoyed Katie Bonham's previous short film Mindless, a terrific, emotionally resonant piece of work that ended up in my Top Ten films of 2016 so it was with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation that I approached Mab. I needn't have been concerned because Mab is even more accomplished than its predecessor.

Much like Mindless the plot’s focus is on the real, desperate, domestic struggles of the type of characters who are seldom given prominence in the horror genre and gives them a deft, otherworldly spin. The magical elements of the story never overwhelm the surprisingly gritty social commentary, instead the supernatural weaves its way in and out of the tale in creepy, strange and ultimately startling fashion.

The performances are top-notch, especially newcomer Maria-Teresa who is truly outstanding as Rosie. Surrounded by people who range from uncaring to genuinely horrendous, we are further drawn into the struggles of her character thanks to an adept, sympathetic performance. We don't learn too much about the other characters along the way (other than the fact they're generally awful) but that isn't an issue as this is Rosie's story and Maria-Teresa's expressive yet delicate work takes centre stage as it should.

As for the production design it’s consistently excellent, Mab’s place in particular being beautifully realised, a weird, wonderful collection of mystic artefacts which provides the ideal enchanted counterpoint to the drab dwelling inhabited by Rosie and her mum. I also loved the train which took Rosie to Mab’s each day, a familiar mode of transport given an unusual makeover and providing the perfect connection between the everyday and the extraordinary.

In some short films, the score sometimes goes by the wayside for any number of different reasons but here it’s yet another example of how Mab delivers. Patrick Fagan’s sublime musical accompaniments are never nudging nor do they overpower the on-screen action but add another pleasing layer of eerie depth to the movie. 

This doesn't deploy gallons of gore to keep its viewers watching and if you’re waiting for heads exploding or sprays of arterial claret then you’re going to have to rein in that bloodlust of yours. This rewards patience and imagination, proving that it’s what you create in your own head that’s far more devastating and terrifying than explicit grue. The fate of one character is all the more chilling simply because it resists cashing in with a spectacular, OTT demise. It’s all too real, it's genuinely horrible and it's something to which we can easily relate.

Mab is neither a movie which joins the dots for you in clunky fashion nor is it one so frustratingly enigmatic that you’ll wander out of the cinema wondering what the hell it was all about. Put your phone away for fifteen minutes and be swept up in this brilliant, original tale. The pace is perfect, the plot unfolds with great care and the climactic reveal is quietly yet profoundly disturbing. It’ll stay with you a whole lot longer than a shrieking chord of strings, a jump scare and a splash of red.

I may be starting to sound like a broken record when it comes to Katie Bonham's work but, as with the magnificent Mindless, this demands to be seen. Mab is an unmissable chiller from a skilled director growing in confidence and scope with each new project and I'm very much looking forward to finding out exactly where she's going to take us next.

CANARIES

Starring: Sheena Bhatessa, Craig Russell, Richard Mylan
Writer: Peter Stray
Director: Peter Stray

Radio DJ Steve (Russell) returns home to Wales to play the tunes at a mate's New Year's Eve party and to pitch a business proposition to one of the guests. Across the Atlantic a shadowy department of the US Government is watching the area with great interest, predicting that the next in an ongoing series of extra-terrestrial events is about to happen in Lower Cwmtwrch (not to be confused with Upper Cwmtwrch, let's get the facts straight here). Soon enough, Steve's money-making scheme is the last thing on his mind as he and his friends fight to survive against a lethal, otherworldly menace...

Made for just £29,000, Peter Stray's sci-fi/horror/action/comedy hybrid somehow takes its minuscule budget and throws in exciting, well-choreographed fight sequences, striking visual effects, generous globs of gore and a globe-trotting plot that takes in locations such as Martha's Vineyard, Washington D.C. and Vietnam as well as the Valleys. And it makes a bloody good job of it all too.

It would be easy to focus solely on the admittedly impressive technical achievement of producing such a well shot, feature-length movie when the available funds would only cover half of the coffee budget of a recent outing for a well-known British secret agent but what's even more pleasing here is the fact that just as much effort has been put into making the story smart, involving and a whole lot of fun.

The initial mystery is developed nicely and the steady series of reveals which allow the audience to piece together what's going on is both well-timed and confidently handled. Even so, this wouldn't work nearly as well as it does if we weren't experiencing it all with such a well-drawn, diverse set of characters who are appealingly flawed and real.

Nothing feels crowbarred into the proceedings here: for instance, two of the male characters are gay but whereas many films would totally overplay this aspect of the tale it's dealt with in a beautifully naturalistic, matter-of-fact way here. No attention is brought to it whatsoever beyond the fact that their relationship is actually quite sweet and makes for some amusing dialogue between the pair.

Elsewhere, the females are strong, intelligent and well-defined, particularly Bhatessa's "travel agent" Sunita who consistently proves more resourceful than the often bumbling blokes around her. She's generally called upon to make sense of the unfolding plot but again this doesn't feel forced and the exposition isn't clunky. It's a role that isn't overwritten and avoids turning her into a superhuman, ass-kicking babe, instead she's a thoroughly credible and capable heroine.

Which brings me to the fellas of the piece in all of their awkward, sweary, banter-heavy glory. Russell is engaging as Steve, winging it on a dodgy current of bravado and movie quotes as he tries to dazzle those around him, succeeding almost never. Steve Meo is hilarious as the ever-more-sozzled Huw (at one point asking someone to step outside when they're already outside), Richard Mylan totally nails the serious, over-protective nature of Sunita's brother Nav and Aled Pugh is first-rate as Ryan, a guy with relationship issues and some wicked Wing Chung skills.

The chemistry between all of these is plain to see and you do really do feel that these people have known each other for years. The quips are convincingly clunky, often childish, almost always raising a laugh. For anyone who's concerned that the humour may be too Welsh, firstly I'm not quite sure what "too Welsh" is (suggestions in the comments please), secondly I found it extremely warm and relatable. I'm not Welsh, by the way.

It's great to see home-grown movies with such ambition and scope. Canaries belies its budget time and again, proving that ingenuity and imagination can produce something more involving and entertaining than many a big studio blockbuster. This was made with a real love of its various genres, inhabiting the same space as the very best of The X-Files with its mix of chills, chuckles and detailed mythology but also possessing a distinctive, confident voice of its own. All involved should be extremely proud and the possibility of further adventures in the Canaries universe is an enticing prospect.

Also, if you don't know how to pronounce Cwmtwrch you will after you've seen this.

CELLULOID SCREAMS 2017: DAY THREE

Day Two of Celluloid Screams 2017 took us on a whistle-stop terror tour of Iceland, the UK, the US and Germany. Where would we find ourselves on Day Three? Read on...

WARNING: There's some discussion of the subject matter of M.F.A. below. It isn't particularly explicit but if you feel it's going to upset you then I wholeheartedly support your decision not to read on.

TAG

Schoolgirl Mitsuko is on a coach trip with her classmates when something very strange (not to mention very gory) happens, leaving her to escape to another area where she finds another school and a totally different set of classmates, all of whom know who she is. So what's going on? Something that I would never be able to sum up in a paragraph, that's what.

As far as Japanese horror goes I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan but Tag was a unexpected delight, constantly re-inventing itself in a series of increasingly batshit insane sequences. If you're not willing to go with it, I can see how it would be a frustrating experience. However, I'm here to tell you that Tag is worth sticking with, primarily because it's terrifically inventive and entertaining but also because it achieves two particular objectives which other J-Horrors don't or (as is probably more common) won't.

One - it actually explains what the hell's going on. Not only that, the explanation is canny and taps into a specific cultural phenomenon. Yes, for 70 minutes you're probably going to sit there with a bewildered look on your face but Tag eventually lets you in on why all of the crazy stuff's been happening.

Two - it ends. It doesn't stop dead just as something apocalyptic is about to happen, it doesn't reveal that the movie you just watched is just the set-up for another movie, it actually ends. That's not to say there couldn't be a continuation of the action here but the story concludes in a rather affecting and satisfying way.

MAYHEM

Blamed for a corporate screw-up which is none of his doing, attorney Derek Saunders (Steven Yeun) is fired. Aftering clearing his desk, he heads for the lobby but before he can make it out of the building the place is quarantined due to an infection being discovered. This infection causes the affected to lose their inhibitions which leads to them acting on their most outrageous impulses - some violent, some just plain bonkers.

With the office on lockdown for the next eight hours, Derek sees a chance to clear his name and be re-instated but he must work his way up to the top in order to confront the highest levels of management, aided by Melanie Cross (Samara Weaving), a civilian with a particular axe to grind - or, in Melanie's case, nailgun to shoot - where this organisation is concerned.

Sharing some DNA with the recent office-block shocker The Belko Experiment but throwing a virus into the mix rather than a Battle Royale-style contest, Mayhem is a bloody, amusing slice of office politics pushed to the extreme. Ruthless corporate types turn out to be just as cold and murderous as you think they're going to be and it's easy to side with Derek in his quest to literally stick it to The Man.

Most, if not at all, of the corporate stereotypes are deployed here, whether it's the procedure-obsessed guy from Human Resources, the downtrodden personal assistant or the geeky IT dude in the basement. It's meant to be fun and it certainly is. Arguably it may take one too many detours between its claret-splattered scraps and you may not enjoy the discussion about 90s bands as much as I did. Even so, Mayhem is an engaging, lively lark which delivers the gory goods. 

M.F.A.

When art student Noelle (Francesca Eastwood) is raped at a college party she vows not to become a victim. Not only does she channel the experience into her creative projects but also becomes an avenger for other college girls in similar situations who have been failed by the justice system.

Natalia Leita's film is uncompromising and difficult to watch in places (as it should be) but the issues raised here are handled with skill and sensitivity, resulting in a piece of cinema which is bold, thought-provoking yet resolutely unexploitative.

Francesca Eastwood's performance is astonishing and she's ably supported by a superb cast, most notably the excellent Leah McKendrick as Noelle's neighbour Skye. McKendrick also wrote the screenplay which makes salient points about how survivors of sexual assault are treated, also raising pertinent, vital questions about how society creates an environment which enables these horrendous crimes to take place, moving on to deal with the concept of second chances for the perpetrators.

This film deserves as wide an audience as possible and, as new allegations of sexual abuse and harassment committed by those in positions of power surface almost daily, M.F.A. is a timely, important statement on a subject which we must all confront. It's a courageous movie which needs to be seen.

HELLRAISER (30TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)

Yeah, okay, I'll admit that at this point in the festival I ducked out to take a strategic break, having seen Hellraiser just a couple of weeks before. And yeah, okay, I'll admit that "strategic break" meant me having a couple of beers in the bar and talking about the previous movies with anyone who'd listen.


Still, on the strength of my recent viewing I can say that on the whole it hasn't aged too badly over its three decades. In an age of CGI, the practical effects in this are terrifically icky and the hammers to the head and hooks to the flesh may be even more effective now when set against animated dismemberings and rivers of digitally-created blood.

Effects aside, there's so much in Hellraiser which is impressive. It's the ice-cold brilliance of Claire Higgins as Julia. It's the genius of casting Andrew Robinson in a role where you're expecting him to channel Scorpio from Dirty Harry and go full-on psycho and there's a wonderful background game going on as you wait to see when - or if - it will happen. It's the Cenobites themselves, four wonderfully realised creations which have cemented themselves into horror folklore. It's Clive Barker's sly, twisted, fantastic story. It's all these and so much more besides but I'll never finish this blog if I carry on waxing lyrical about it.

Thirty years on, Hellraiser still stands (pin)head and shoulders above most films in the genre. As someone who saw it on its original cinema release (good grief, I'm old) it's an enduring classic. Also, the Celluloid Screams audience was treated to a Q&A with special effects supervisor Geoff Portass and the "Chatterer" Cenobite himself, the genial and unrelentingly smashing Nicholas Vince (was absolutely lovely to chat to him at various points across the weekend).

CREEP 2

And so it's on to my favourite of the festival, which picks up after the events of Creep and finds Mark Duplass' serial killer still living out in the wilderness but now going by the name of Aaron and once more advertising for videographers to document his life. Enter Sara (Desiree Akhavan), considering whether to change career after becoming disillusioned with her unsuccessful web series but agreeing to meet with Aaron, who tells her the two of them will make a great piece of art...

Normally the prospect of a sequel would hardly fill me with joy but in this case I'd enjoyed the first Creep film so much that I thought a second helping would stand a reasonable chance of being half-decent. It's much more than that, it's a follow-up that delivers, taking everything that made its predecessor such a grimly comic surprise and sending it off in a number of directions I really didn't expect.

Again, Mark Duplass is astounding, giving us a well-rounded character who's disturbingly real with all of his tics and tantrums. He's so much fun, not to mention unnerving, to watch as you never know quite what he's going to do or say next. Huge credit must also go to Desiree Akhavan who is a match for Duplass in both performance and plot.

Considering the bulk of Creep 2 is a two-hander between Aaron and Sara the potential was there for certain longueurs in the story to pad out the running time but there's nothing of that ilk here. The plot twists and turns agreeably and the battle of wits is thrilling, unpredictable and very, very funny. It's that most uncommon of horror beasts, the flick that I could have watched again the moment it finished.

Thank you to Messrs Duplass and Brice, I was left thoroughly entertained and Creep-ed out (okay, I apologise for that). Its 78 minutes went by in a blink and if there's a Creep 3 on the horizon you can definitely count me in.

BETTER WATCH OUT

The 2017 festival ended with a movie which can be described as Home Alone put through a Michael Haneke mini-juicer. When Babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) is left in charge of twelve-year-old Luke (Levi Miller), the house comes under attack and she must use all of her wits to deal with the situation. However, things take a strange and even deadlier turn...

How much you enjoy this movie more or less hinges or how you react to the twist which is thrown in quite early on. For some, this will be a real showstopper and the sheer enjoyment of seeing the plot shift into unexpected territory will lift Chris Peckover's flick way out of the norm.

Me? Okay, so the twist is a very good one, no doubt about that, but it immediately causes a number of problems, most notably that the mystery is resolved and any suspense has to be generated in a completely different way. It's a brave move but unfortunately it's here that the plot is less sure-footed and although there are a couple of unnerving moments I couldn't shake the feeling that the biggest villain of the piece wasn't so much scary as just plain annoying.

The issues continue into the last half hour, where one particularly stupid character goes nuclear in terms of idiocy (even by genre standards) and it all runs the risk of becoming faintly ridiculous. It also has the problem of being distasteful but not distasteful enough. Having set up a pretty creepy premise, the script pulls back at times and I never felt as uncomfortable as I should have been considering the possible ramifications of the sharp turn the plot takes. Oddly, it's a little too mannered to succeed.

However, there's still much to give Christmas cheer. A number of the performances are hugely enjoyable - DeJonge is a smart, amiable heroine and Luke's parents, played by Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warburton, are wonderfully droll, providing the ho-ho-ho's with some nicely-timed zingers. As the denouement is unwrapped, there's a cracking little gift inside too.

Better Watch Out is a movie which I think will prove particularly divisive and I can't predict on which side of the love/hate field you'll end up. Or you could sit with me on the "unsure" bench.




As is customary, no Celluloid Screams Day Three review would be complete without thanking the people behind the festival, without whom I would not be delighting in (or, very occasionally, ranting about) such a diverse selection of horror movies.

To the festival director Rob Nevitt - you did it again. Every year I wonder how you're going to pull together such a marvellous selection of films and every year I'm blown away with what I see. Celluloid Screams sets the bar incredibly high in terms of content and this year's crop of movies didn't disappoint. I will keep buying that weekend pass as soon as it's available.

Thanks also to festival programmers Polly and Lucy and to the rest of the Celluloid Screams team. I know a huge amount of work goes into making the event what it is but trust me, it's appreciated by all of us. It's always a highlight of the year which we'll talk about for weeks before and afterwards.

Finally, a big shout out must to go to the "horror family", that dedicated band who comes together to sit in a darkened room for two and a half days - and loves it. To everyone I met for the first time at this year's festival, it was a pleasure to chat to you and proves that horror fans are the nicest, friendliest people you'll ever meet. To those I already know, you guys know you're the best. To those of you there who haven't experienced Celluloid Screams - COME TO SHEFFIELD! YOU'LL LOVE IT!