City of the Living Dead (1980)

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2015-07-10

He's going to have a stonking headache in the morning. — He’s going to have a stonking headache in the morning.

Twitter Plot Summary: Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci presents a film that features lots of gore, a dead priest and a man with a beard.

There’s a certain joy to watching any film by Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. To be honest you would never describe his films as masterpieces, but they have an unusual quality that makes them stand out from American horror directors of the era, and even stands apart from Dario Argento – although that is mostly to do with the absence of red and blue gels covering the lights. City of the Living Dead is

Fulci’s work takes great delight in dramatic, lingering close-ups on decayed flesh or someone’s body organs being forced out of their mouth, or even people being skewered or impaled,very slowly, on sharp objects. City of the Living Dead doesn’t disappoint on any of these points, and you can even throw in an Ennio Morricone style soundtrack from Fabio Frizzi, the chap who gave us the score for Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Then there are the staples of the Italian horror genre, crash zooms and close-ups on people’s eyes abound, and are used with such abandon that it almost becomes a joke within the first half an hour. Other moments such as the dithering journalist Peter Bell (Christopher George) are supposed to incite tension but instead leave you close to a fit of giggling. Similarly, in Fulci’s world everyone in America honks their horn every three seconds whilst driving, either that or our journalist hero is too busy staring at his co-stars assets rather than focusing on the road.

The man who tries and almost succeeds to be the great Christopher Lee.

Central to this is Peter Bell and the dead but then not dead psychic Mary (Catriona MacColl) who join forces after a priest commits suicide, his death opening a portal that allows dead to be resurrected on All Saints Day, which as luck would have it is a mere few days away. This is, of course, a Bad Thing. Absolutely no pressure at all then.

What is so enjoyable about Italian horror, and from this era in particular, is its complete disregard for good taste and decency. They’re horror films after all, they’re not supposed to be cuddly. That is where much of the enjoyment is to be had in these films, the over the top and needlessly gruesome death scenes. For someone like me who is a zombie movie fanatic, it doesn’t fire on all cylinders. In fact you could argue that much of the story is a confused mess, but as most people are here to see characters bumped off left, right and centre you can see past any inconsistencies in the narrative. What little zombie action we do get looks the part, the undead here are decayed and gnarly in their appearance and are an ever present and forever creepy threat – even if their main reason for existence is to just groan and stand near people and squeeze their skulls a bit rather than eat them. For all its faults, City of the Living Dead proves to be a hugely enjoyable horror romp, even if the titular city is nothing more than a slightly blue cave.

Score: 3/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPOI89uhei4

Dead Snow 2: Red VS Dead (2014)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-09

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Somehow I don't think standing there will do much good. — Somehow I don’t think standing there will do much good.

Twitter Plot Summary: Those Nazi zombies are still on the loose, and the only way to stop them is to resurrect an army of Russian zombies!

As if you needed any indication about the tone Dead Snow 2 would take, within the first five minutes there is relentless levels of gore and a joke about the awful Ding Dong Song by Gunther. In the real world it may have been five years since the first Dead Snow movie helped kick off the Nazi Zombie sub-genre (along with 2007’s Outpost), but in story terms we pick up immediately from the end of that first film. The Nazis have followed Martin (Vegar Hoel) down from the mountain and into the local Norwegian towns where their rampage of blood and guts may continue unabated.

If things weren’t puzzling enough, there’s a whole subplot about Martin and the leader of the Nazi Zombies, Colonel Herzog, swapping arms after their respective limbs are removed. Martin has to try and contain the inherently evil actions of his Nazi arm, while the Nazi commander has to deal with the exact opposite. Eventually it’s decided that the only way to stop the undead Nazi onslaught is by resurrecting a conveniently buried group of Russian soldiers. In other words, quite a similar idea to Outpost 3: Rise of the Spetznas. The difference being that that film was average, whereas Dead Snow 2 is a blast from start to finish.

In an understandable but slightly disappointing move, the native subtitled Norwegian dialogue of the original has been replaced with English – although as it appears that the film was shot in Norwegian and English versions I should probably keep my mouth shut. Releasing an English language version might be of benefit for selling the film to a larger audience, but it loses some of the charm of the first.

Ohhhh, who'd be a zombie?! — Ohhhh, who’d be a zombie?!

On face value it feels like the original concept, a fun little zombie film set in Scandinavia, has sold out its principles in favour of making a big dumb action horror film. Thankfully it’s something that works quite well, even if you’re left with the lingering thought that they should have stuck with a Norwegian-only version.

It seems the makers of Dead Snow 2 were keen to throw in everything that worked the first time round, and they do so with an almost gleeful sense of abandon. There is gore and violence aplenty, combined with frequent laugh out loud gallows humour. There’s clear signs that Tommy Wirkelow has learned a lot in the director’s chair between the Dead Snow films. This sequel feels much more competent, frequent directorial flourishes mixed with a greater sense of how to tell a story effectively. Wirkelow has had a bit of time to home his craft, clearly, as is evidenced by the number of future “iconic” shots he manages to squeeze into the film.

The script is not against the idea of being a little bit self-referential either. Characters joke about creating an entire new genre of zombie film (debatable), and twists off in a few different directions than might be expected – in particular the final scene which is… comically unsettling. Either way, Dead Snow 2 is just as good as the original, but doesn’t do what bad sequels do and repeat that story.

Score: 3/5

Chrysalis (2014)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-08

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The Saturday night TV options in a post-apocalypse zombie wasteland often caused tears.

Twitter Plot Summary: A couple try and survive in the remnants of a city some years after a zombie apocalypse strikes. They join a fellow survivor seeking safety.

Chrysalis is a zombie film where the script was specifically built around the rundown location found by the production team, and an effective location it is too. Old and decrepit, it looks precisely like a city which has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect, and just what would happen to a heaving metropolis following an outbreak of the undead. That is however the only aspect of the production that works really well. It may have a perfect setting and look the part, but the story isn’t all that much and the pace is often painfully slow. A brief time away from the old buildings would have also helped as sticking so closely to them results in each subsequent scene looking like the last one.

At the core of Chrysalis is the love story between Penelope (Sarah Gorsky) and Joshua (Cole Simon), two survivors trying to eke out an existence and find enough food to sustain themselves in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. Their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of Abira (Tanya Thai McBride), who persuades them that there is a safe haven awaiting them not far away. Sensibly/foolishly they decide to go with her. If you are familiar with the genre then you know that this will likely go one of two ways – death or glory.

"That'll be something nice for supper." — “That’ll be something nice for supper.”

When the zombie attacks happen, they’re claustrophobic and tense affairs thanks to the tight, dimly lit corridors in which they take place, however this often feels like it’s almost as much about necessity than it is about a directorial choice. Dispatching the zombies with a pickaxe blow to the noggin and other sharp or blunt instruments that happen to be lying around, the violence is often visceral and realistic. Often it’s like you’re the zombie and you’re the one being stabbed in the head.

But then these moments are poorly balanced against the vast number of scenes where little of interest happens. Perhaps dictated by budget, there is a lot of talking without necessarily developing the characters or the situation. The zombies are kept frustratingly out of sight and you get the impression that more may have been done with them had there been more money or available zombie extras to play with. Social and relationship commentaries are often relevant in zombie cinema, but their success depends on how you tackle it. There’s none of the subtlety of a Romero script to Chrysalis’ subtext.

With that said, the core theme of finding what it means to live in such an environment, and the possibility of raising a child in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, is an interesting one. You do get a genuine feel for the longstanding relationship between Penelope and Joshua, and this proves to be the strongest aspect of the film besides the setting. It would have been better perhaps to stretch out Abira’s role to make her more antagonistic and to more clearly bounce off Penelope and Joshua, but its her role to get those two away from their established pattern of survival and to move towards something more like living.

Score: 2.5/5

Zombie Wars (2007)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-07

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Twitter Plot Summary: Thinking zombies kidnap the living and farming them for food.

It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and again my surname shows up in a film in some capacity. The biggest profile use of Prior lately has been in the Divergent series, but you do on occasion get real life Prior’s who are in the movie business making films. But then when they make dross like Zombie Wars, aka War of the Living Dead (both awful titles), then it doesn’t give you much hope. It would be easy to spend the entirety of this review complaining about the dodgy performances, the noisy curtain wipes that transition between the scenes, or the awkward special effects, but these would be more forgivable if the story had a proper structure and the voiceover narrative had a point.

Kicking off with an opening action sequence that sees zombies somehow appearing and catching our heroes by surprise – in some cases literally appearing out of nowhere when it’s clear they couldn’t have made such a stealthy approach. This whole sequence is to show the heroic actions of two brothers as they try to rescue a group of attractive ladies who have been imprisoned by thinking zombies. The sexism in this sequence alone is rife, but there is at least one female character in the overall story who is in a position of power. This is quickly diminished as one of the brothers takes a liking to one of the rescued slave girls, despite the fact she can’t speak. Their relationship forms one aspect of the narrative, often being a horribly cringeworthy sequence of events as she says things like “Kissing… good!”

Did they not think that perhaps a wall or something would stop the zombies attacking?

As far as the zombie playbook is concerned, every possible cliche is used. On a more positive note, the gore is occasionally impressive and the squibs used to depict heads being popped do their job, even if they are overused within the opening 20 minutes and, indeed throughout. Otherwise you get exactly what you expect – some dubious special effects (surely when a head is decapitated it doesn’t just fall straight to the floor like a stone each and every time?), some equally dubious zombie makeup, and an almost ridiculous use of a narrative voiceover to make up for the lack of clarity in the action being shown. This is the key problem though – the narration doesn’t make any sense and tonally it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a cheeky comedy? A commentary on military power and mindless killing machines? Is it a Planet of the Apes knockoff, but with zombies instead of apes? Who knows.

It’s ultimately a mess, a mix of whimsical humour, cheesy library quality music and a plot that doesn’t offer much in entertainment value. Given that this has a total run time of 80 minutes, it’s surprising how little actually happens in that time. Almost every aspect of it suggests that those responsible have no concept of story structure or what makes a good movie. And to be honest that’s a shame, because in better hands there’s a really good story lurking somewhere in here.

Score: 1.5/5

Apocalypse of the Dead (2010)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-06

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Fans of Dawn of the Living Dead were quite keen to lick Ken Foree's head. — Fans of Dawn of the Living Dead were quite keen to lick Ken Foree’s head.

Twitter Plot Summary: The undead are back again, this time in Eastern Europe… because it’s cheaper to film there.

One thing the zombie genre is very good at is reusing famous faces in roles that you would assume are beneath them. It happened with Ving Rhames in the Dawn of the Dead reboot and the totally unconnected remake of Day of the Dead. In this case the famous face is Ken Foree, most well known in horror circles for starring in George Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead. What’s he been up to lately? Not much, it seems. The zombie stigma is apparently one that’s difficult to get over.

Set in Eastern Europe – and no doubt filmed there because it’s very cheap to do so – the rather generic title of Apocalypse of the Dead (or the equally generic Zone of the Dead in other circles), a zombie virus is accidentally released into the local area and it’s down to some Interpol agents escorting a prisoner to find their way out of the area before the living dead chomp them down into little bits. It’s your usual zombie nonsense, no two ways about it. It’s heightened a little by the police procedural element, the agents forced to work in tandem with the man they are transporting. When you also find out that Foree’s character isn’t too far away from retirement and has only ever had to use his gun twice, you know full well that he may die before the credits roll, and you can guarantee he’ll be firing his gun over and over again without being seen to reload. Just to add an extra layer of weird, there’s also a chap who quotes biblical scripture as he lays waste to the zombie hordes, but as he’s not developed beyond this one trait he’s almost superfluous to the story.

The carnage on Black Friday required a very particular set of skills.

When watching zombie films there is a certain expectation for particular conventions to be name checked. Apocalypse of the Dead tries to do something a little different with that formula but never succeeds in being anything more than your standard zombie film with a couple of half decent but underdeveloped ideas marking it out from the pack. The zombies are controlled by a screaming HazMat zombie, and the cop/prisoner dynamic is certainly interesting, but then you have the bad acting, vaguely competent special effects and a script that doesn’t go to any effort to make us care for these people. Let them die, why not?

Apocalypse of the Dead isn’t a badly made film, even if it has all the hallmarks of yet another low budget Eastern European production. The performances are, on the whole, terrible. Even Ken Foree looks like he’s only here for the money, which let’s face it is probably true. The washed out and generally dark colour palette makes it look like the zombie equivalent of Highlander: The Source, which can never be considered a recommendation. There’s also the small issue of badly dubbed characters and zombies that only occasionally look impressive. You can only go so far with good direction when the rest of the production is so poor in almost every detail.

Score: 2/5

Poseidon (2006)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-04

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"We have to save the guy who was in Jaws!" — “We have to save the guy who was in Jaws!”

Twitter Plot Summary: The expensive cruise ship disaster movie gets a remake, this time with added Kurt Russell.

What’s the one thing we were all crying out for in 2006? Apparently, it was a remake of 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure, shortened here to simply Poseidon because people these days have the attention span of a gnat. That aside, you can’t go wrong with a half decent disaster movie now and again. That may be where Poseidon falls flat (rather than upside down) because it never feels like anything more than a standard remake, a story that has been told before and, arguably, told better.

Much like the original, the audience is required to suspend their disbelief to near impossible levels in order to accept the possibility of a cruise ship being tipped over in such a manner. A freak wave hits the cruise liner Poseidon, tipping it upside down. The captain wants to keep everyone in one room – one with glass windows that you know aren’t going to hold for long. Meanwhile a smaller group of survivors, Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh Lucas and Emmy Rossum amongst them, decide to ignore the captain and head off into the ship, where danger and CGI effects await.

Wolfgang Petersen is probably the best person to tackle this project given his previous affiliation with water-based movies (you know, that one about the German U-Boat and The Perfect Storm). He’s also a dab hand at big budget affairs too, having tackled the likes of The Neverending Story, Troy and Air Force One in his all too brief stint of directing Hollywood movies.

Time to play a game of "guess who's going to die." — Time to play a game of “guess who’s going to die.”

While Poseidon has its budget and named actors going for it, there are still concerns about the plot itself. We’re barely given 10 minutes to be introduced to all of the characters before the wave hits,but at least the action rarely lets up from that point forwards, a constantly increasing escalation of events as that small group of survivors try to reach the new top of the boat and escape to safety. All the while they have to contend with the fact the water is constantly nipping at their heels and there’s no guarantee that they’ll survive.

Of course, if you’re going to remake a disaster film from the 1970s, it might help if you did things a little differently with the story. It’s almost a beat for beat remake, but with enhanced special effects and a more modern look to it. Because let’s face it, The Poseidon Adventure looks a bit dated these days. At least in this respect Poseidon does an admirable job. The visual effects are impressive, although a few moments including an oil spill and the ship’s MASSIVE propellers look slightly suspect.

It struggles further in defining the character relationships, although this may have been a result of cuts in the editing suite rather than anything that was left out of the shooting script. As it is, it runs at a lean 95 minutes and doesn’t outstay its welcome. Suffice to say, if you enjoy the thought of Kurt Russell berating his young daughter for wearing tops that are too low and not doing much else, you’ll be in your element.

Score: 3/5

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-03

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Bet he's got a few flies stuck between his teeth. — Bet he’s got a few flies stuck between his teeth.

Twitter Plot Summary: Max Rockatansky is back at last, assisting Imperator Furiosa and the Brides escape from Immortan Joe’s clutches.

When a project has spent as long in development hell as this much delayed fourth entry in the Mad Max franchise, it’s natural to assume the worst about the final product. The fact this manages to be not only an excellent film and potentially the best of the series to date, but also one of the best action films in the last decade (or even two decades if you’re feeling adventurous) is a testament to the vision of George Miller in bringing the Fury Road story to the screen.

Tom Hardy steps into Mel Gibson’s boots as Max Rockatansky, a man who has lost everything yet doggedly refuses to give up on life and subsequently finds himself dragged into various insane situations.

There have been some calls that Fury Road is a sexist and male-centred film, mostly because the Wives are dressed scantily and are all attractive women. I’d say this is nonsense. For a start the central character is Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa rather than Max, a strong female presence who is not defined by the men who surround her. Second, the Wives may be dressed in very little, but they are not filmed in an entirely exploitative manner, nor are they solely there to act as titillation for the audience. Their presence does serve a point to the story, and you could argue that they are stronger personalities than any of the male characters, Max included.

Best character in the film. A total boss.

There isn’t much in terms of story, but there doesn’t need to be. Dialogue is limited in true Mad Max tradition, but this is not a limitation in any great sense. Actions often speak louder than words, and in all honesty Tom Hardy’s accent wobbles so substantially that it’s for the best that he has less than 20 lines in total.

No, the focus here is on the action and the insanity of this world. Imperator Furiosa has decided to take the Wives away from Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, returning to the franchise after playing Toecutter in the first Mad Max) and trek across the country to the Green Place, a haven many miles away. Naturally Immortan Joe take umbrage at this and sets off in pursuit with his War Boys, one of whom (a barely recognisable Nicholas Hoult) is hooked up to a captured Max who is acting as a universal donor blood bank.

The rest of the film is taken up by one insane action sequence after another, all using practical effects (except for that sandstorm, obviously) and introducing us to the various denizens of this Australian wasteland. A highlight has to be the guitarist strapped to the top of one of the War Rigs, churning out chunky heavy metal guitar riffs through the epic amp stack that sits behind him. The final battle is a sequence you just have to see to believe, an epic combination of violence and non-verbal storytelling that is a breathless joy to behold. Thankfully Miller’s direction never gets boring, always finding new and interesting ways to depict what is nothing more than a truck being chased across the desert.

What a day. What a lovely day indeed.

Score: 5/5

Humans VS Zombies (2011)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-02

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It was the only way to deal with door to door salesmen.

Twitter Plot Summary: Fans of live action game Humans VS Zombies get more than they bargained for when a genuine zombie uprising takes place.

Now this is an interesting one: a film that is entirely spun out from a live action game played on college campuses across the United States, where students designated as humans must survive a zombie onslaught. The twist is that a genuine zombie outbreak occurs while a small group of college teens are partaking in their own version of the Humans VS Zombies game, and they have to work out how to survive. In theory they, or at least, the game’s moderator, should have a good chance of making it through to the end seeing as they know all the rules of zombie films.

There are good moments, such as when the camera takes a Google Earth-style overview of the local area, but goes to the effort of adding clouds and effects to make it more realistic. The gore effects too are occasionally solid, although the zombies leave a little to be desired. This may be a deliberate effort to make the undead look like the people playing the game, but it’s a missed opportunity in that they could have really pushed the boat out and made the actual zombies look more plausible.

There is yet more that doesn’t work – director Brian T Jaynes has an eye for a good shot here and there, but lacks the nuance to generate emotional weight where the script intended. The tone jumps unpleasantly between knowing campy humour and overwrought drama, helped none by the overly keen score and the low budget acting skills on offer. Low budget doesn’t necessarily mean bad, however. With a couple of exceptions the performances are generally solid, even if the material they’re provided with is less then stellar.

Statistically, they're probably all going to die. — Statistically, they’re probably all going to die.

What starts out as a potentially clever twist on the established zombie film structure soon devolves into cliche storytelling that has its own fair share of logical inconsistencies. The survivors decide to take shelter in a building that is essentially a showroom, complete with huge glass windows – not very secure and it’s hard to explain their thinking for choosing this particular safe house. The ending also seems to be in too much of a rush to get to the end credits without resolving anything in a satisfactory manner. The final scene is one that had the potential to be powerful but some character’s fates remain uncertain and it just doesn’t go anywhere. Those tonal problems come to the fore again in the second half of the film, this time between overwrought drama and zombie horror tropes – in this case they’re like oil and water, never to mix.

It’s a shame when films get close to the point of almost being worthwhile seeing, yet never quite manage to push beyond their limitations. Such is the case with Humans VS Zombies – there are some good ideas at work but all of its individual elements fail to coalesce and it seems that the production team, much like a zombie attacking a very angry and obese man, have bitten off more than they can chew.

Score: 2/5

Darkman (1990)

By

Simon Prior

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2015-07-01

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darkman1 — Darkman: cobbled together from the parts of other screen villains.

Twitter Plot Summary: A scientist who has created synthetic skin seeks revenge on mobsters who tried to kill him.

Before his varying success with three Spider-Man movies (the less said about Spider-Man 3 the better), Sam Raimi took on a comic book style hero in the form of Darkman. Liam Neeson plays Dr Peyton Westlake, an expert in synthetic skin that can be used to hide physical deformities – no doubt that will come in handy later. He’s hit a snag in that the synthetic/plastic skin only retains its shape for 100 minutes before dissolving, so that could prove to be a bit of a pickle for him.

The creation of Darkman is, quite frankly, a ludicrous one, but not outside the realms of possibility for the superhero genre. A scientist notable for the use of his hands finds both hands burned beyond recognition and the rest of his body blown up (literally) after a notorious bad guy destroys his lab with him inside it. Following the incident, he uses his research into plastic skin to make him look normal again, albeit temporarily, and to seek revenge on the mobsters that tried to kill him.

Sam Raimi brings all of his trademark directorial flair to the production, the horror influences apparent in almost every frame. There’s even the odd moment of Three Stooges inspired tomfoolery for good measure, and a welcome appearance from Ted Raimi as one of the goons. Raimi is an interesting director in that he has a good eye for an interesting shot and frequently does exactly the opposite of what you may expect.

"How many Taken films will I make?!" — “How many Taken films will I make?!”

Neeson meanwhile, decades before his career reboot as an action star, revels in the silliness of the role. Never quite jumping into full-on parody territory, he’s just a step or two down on that particular ladder and subsequently finds the perfect level for Darkman’s anger, psychological problems and conflicted thoughts. Larry Drake is our villain, Robert G Durant, and while he has the right face for a sinister businessman he never fully convinces. Other than one fun scene at the beginning which indicates the true depths of his depravity and his quiet demeanour, there’s not much else going for him. A shame, as a more-rounded bad guy would have spiced things up considerably.

Unlike everybody else, Frances McDormand treats her role as Westlake’s girlfriend Julie with utter seriousness and subsequently manages to find an emotional link to the character that resonates. Her reaction to the situation is entirely believable and makes her not just an essential character to the plot, but more than the character appears to be on the page – the stereotypical female love interest who would otherwise contribute nothing than setting some elements of the story in motion.

Of course the problem with Darkman is that despite its visual style and competent direction, it doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the whole comic book hero thing. It’s perfectly competent and tells an entertaining story, but for the most part it’s one that you could just as easily see elsewhere. With that said, it still remains an enjoyable story precisely because it’s solidly directed and performed.

Score: 3.5/5

Blog Update – The Future Is Bright

By

Simon Prior

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2015-06-19

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For anyone who wasn’t aware, I’m currently in the process of writing my first novel. As a result, I’ve not had opportunity to maintain my blog updates on this website. In hindsight I would have preferred to maintain regular updates over the weeks just to keep things ticking over, but sadly that’s not been possible. In any case, apologies to anyone who has been a regular visitor to this website over the last couple of years, time has just got away from me.

While I have been pressing forward with the novel (30,000 words at the time of writing), I have also been writing about the films I’ve been watching recently, and I have a backlog of film reviews to upload from 12 May 2015 onwards. I’ll be making a few changes to my upload schedule to accomodate the reviews and my novel work. What this means in real terms is that from 01 July 2015 the film blogs will resume but will be posted once a day on weekdays only. This will reduce the already ridiculous level of pressure I put on myself to maintain a seven day posting schedule, despite the evidence pointing out that I clearly don’t have the time to do everything on my Big List of Things.

The face of a man genuinely sorry for not writing more blog posts lately.

Ironically enough, despite already having a lot on my plate I’m planning a podcast about the process of writing my novel and how I deal with the various challenges that frequently occur. And believe me, there are a lot of them. Hey, nobody said writing a novel was easy! Nor is making a podcast about it, either. This is despite my previous podcasting experience between 2009 and 2012. I’m working this one out as I go along, but with any luck it will be a useful resource for one or two of you.

I am considering branching out into doing something on YouTube as well, but what format that would take – and more importantly, how much of my time that would use up – are all under consideration at the moment. For now though I’ll stick with the podcast and, hopefully, some novel related updates to keep things ticking over until my film reviews resume on 01 July. The podcast will likely go live either this weekend or at some point in the week – future episodes will be once a fortnight at least, maybe sooner. All this quiet time without updates to the main website hasn’t been wasted!

On that note, while I do blog about every one of the films I see, I am happy to accept feedback on the blog and the sort of films I cover on here. While I will always be updating the website about every film I’ve seen, would people prefer to see me focus on specific genres? I’m a big fan of horror, science fiction and fantasy, so I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this point. It doesn’t hurt that most of my “to watch” pile fits into one of those three categories, so it won’t be a massive stretch.

And of course, I’ll be trying to post a bit more about the novel as time goes on. This will include sample chapters, character bios and anything else I can think of in the interim. It’s still a work in progress so I don’t want to throw this material out into the wider world until it’s ready, but I’ll do what I can to feed information to you all.

That’s me just about done. Feel free to get in touch if you have any comments – my contact details are all here.

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