Film Review Club

When a group of friends discover how to connect with dead spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the thrill and high stakes party game. That’s until it goes to far and one of them unleashed a terrifying supernatural force. It’s hard to believe this movie was made on a $4.5m budget because it can compete with all of the top horror movies of the last two decades. It has that shock factor combined with some pretty well thought out character exploration, which allows the movie to transcend beyond the usual basic horror tropes, to stand out in a pretty crowded market. The direction is really strong, even more impressive considering it’s the Phillipous brothers first time directing, utilising the amazing performances from the entire cast, partnering that with free flowing camera work that provides a natural feel to the movie. Horror is my least favourite genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one! Overall (8/10) Thanks for reading. Callan

A shy, nervous young man accidentally resurrects a corpse when he’s practicing his wedding vowels near her grave. His life spirals when she believes the two are married. Corpse Bride is a pretty solid Halloween movie, with a stacked cast and a simple yet effective storyline. It’s a far less ‘strange’ movie than the likes of Nightmare Before Christmas, yet still holds the same impressive animation and catchy soundtrack. I do believe that it’s far easier to enjoy as a child but there’s still plenty to like as an adult too. The twist is pretty predictable and you’re more than likely to spot it early on but Burton still executes the finale in great fashion, delivering on that heartfelt reunion of the deceased spirits reuniting with their living relatives.  All ends well and it’s a nice happy ending for all to enjoy, making this another safe pick for all of your spooky season watchlists. (6.8/10) Thanks for reading. Callan

Halloweentown resident, Jack Skellington, stumbles across Christmas town and is instantly enchanted. But love soon turns to obsession as Santa is abducted and brought back to the land of all things scary. Nightmare Before Christmas is an iconic instalment into the Halloween movie must watch list but unfortunately I felt like it didn’t hold up too well upon a rewatch as an adult. The animation style is unique and its trade mark Tim Burton but the story falls a little short and the entire thing is a little too weird for my liking. It’s certainly nightmare inducing, who said you need R rated horror to haunt your dreams when you have these freaky designs plaguing the screen! The songs are catchy I’ll give it that, plenty to fill your Halloween playlists but it’s still not enough to redeem a decent rating from me. Overall (4.5/10) Thanks for reading. Callan

In the 1920’s members of the Osage Native American tribe fall victim to predators looking to have a piece of their oil money. However money lust soon turns to murder as Osage begin to die at a worrying rate.  Killers of The Flower Moon is an incredibly captivating film that explores a time period and an injustice that I was completely unaware of. I was of course aware of the treatment Native Americans received over the years but this particular period was new territory for me. The emotional narrative is supported by an array of brilliant performances, with Lily Gladstone leading the pack with an absolutely chilling display. There is one particular scene where she receives the news of yet another death and the way she executed that reaction was heartbreaking to watch. I hope we see more of the actress because she deserves a big run in Hollywood! Of course we also had the acting titans scattered throughout the film, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro headlining the movie. Both were

John Kramer, searching for a miracle cure for his tumour travels to Mexico in one last hope. However when things aren’t as they seemed, Kramer finds a new purpose and new victims. I found myself enjoying Saw X much more than I thought I would, enjoying the morality dilemma, that is of course layered throughout the franchise, but this one in particular played on my mind a lot more. Scammers targeting the terminally ill in the hope to steal the last thing the victims have left… their money. That’s a sickening act and Kramer presents the audience with a deep test of morality, do these people deserve his wrath? His wrath is clearly to the absolute extreme so I’d hope most audiences would conclude that they didn’t deserve what happened to them. But I appreciated how each victim’s involvement and reasoning for their crimes varied, which meant we would have to evaluate each of them and through that process, our sympathy would vary with each character. That sort of deep level thinking is somet

After the fall of the galactic empire, former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano investigates a troubling threat to an already vulnerable galaxy.  After a pretty slow start to the show I was left hopeful but depleted, wondering if my high hopes were just silly to begin with. Ahsoka soon turned it around and within a couple more episodes, I realised I should have never doubted Filoni’s vision for the franchise. Finally we see the real mystical elements of Star Wars brought to live action and it was done beautifully, with the cinematography working wonderfully with those themes. The world between worlds, the Clone Wars flashbacks, the lightsaber duels, it all was all a sight to behold. Not quite the spectacle of peak Hayden Christensen in Revenge of the Sith but having so many force sensitive characters in one place again was great.  I’ve mentioned my love for the prequels many of times on the page and in previous Star Wars reviews, so as you can imagine seeing Hayden back as the mighty Anakin Skyw

As a future war between America and the worlds Artificial Intelligence rages on, the machines create a power that could end the conflict. It’s down to ex military man, Joshua, to locate and destroy AI’s last hope. In a year full of amazing movies, The Creator stands out above the rest, a perfect futuristic action sci-fi that blends humanity and reality with the ever present topic of artificial intelligence. From the premise you might just see this as yet another man versus AI action feature but it offers so much more than that! At the heart of this film is humanity and ironically it’s not humans displaying it. It shows the dangers of western tyranny and that plot point plays on the audiences heart strings as they reel you in to this emotional rollercoaster. There is multiple points throughout that will have you in tears and the chemistry between John David Washington and the young but brilliant Madeline Yuna Voyles is out of this world. I think it’s clear why Gareth Edwards set most of