Spirits, monsters, madness, graves, creeps and the dead.

Film, Horror,

On Halloween, six strangers gather to share stories of terrifying things they saw, things that they can never forget!

monsters2
At their Halloween Party, Mostly Film contributors discuss today’s piece.

Hello brave souls! This Halloween on Ghostly Film, we are looking at portmanteau horror. You know the kind of thing? A handful of scary stories gathered together into one film. For those awful moments when you can’t decide whether you want to see a film about zombies, werewolves, witches, curses or killer plants. Why not watch a film that contains a story about each?

Since many anthology films had different directors make each sequence, we have used the talents of six different writers. Each in turn will tell you about a segment from a horror anthology, a tale that what was, for them, so strange it has seared itself into their memory forever…

Continue reading Spirits, monsters, madness, graves, creeps and the dead. →

Boyz N The Hood

Classic Films, Film, ,

Jesse Bernard casts a modern eye back at early 90s Compton

In 2012 a young rapper from Compton released his inimitable debut studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city,  a coming-of-age story centred on the lives of a group of young black men navigating teenagehood. The eternal evasion of gang culture, peer pressure, poor social conditions appear to be a common rite of passage for African-Americans from low-income areas. In 1991, it would’ve been difficult to imagine that Kendrick Lamar would address the same issues John Singleton critically addressed in cult classic film, Boyz n the Hood. Particularly in a country that posits itself as one of the most socially advanced nations in the world. On it’s 25th anniversary, the themes explored in Boyz n the Hood are particularly pertinent in today’s sociopolitical climate. In addition, Boyz n the Hood’s understated success sparked a wave of black coming-of-age films.

Continue reading Boyz N The Hood →

Cat People DVD release

Here, Puss Puss Puss…

Blu-ray, Film, Horror, New Releases, , , ,

Matthew Carter squares up to ailurophobia

When RKO Radio Pictures were feeling the pinch from the excesses of Citizen Kane, a directive for a meat and potatoes B-movie landed on Val Lewton’s lap. Jacques Tourneur stepped up as director and DeWitt Bodeen produced the screenplay. Using sets from Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, Tourneur and Lewton created an entirely new genre: noir-horror-sex-thriller. Continue reading Here, Puss Puss Puss… →

Certain Women BFI London Film Festival 2016 award winner

London Film Festival 2016 Round-Up

London Film Festival 2016, ,
Ron Swanson

Farewell, then, to an all-time great edition of the London Film Festival. In the 13 years I’ve been attending the festival, this is by far the best programme of films selected, and given the festival’s innovative changes to the screening schedule (such as building an entirely new venue), there were opportunities to get tickets to most of the big items, especially for members. Continue reading London Film Festival 2016 Round-Up →

Tickling Giants Bassem Youseff Lomdon Film Festival 2016

London Film Festival 2016 Days 8 to 9

Film, London Film Festival 2016, , , , , , , ,

Tickling Giants (dir-scr Sara Taksler)

During the Egyptian revolution 2011 Bassem Youseff, cardiologist by day, satirist by night, starting making five minute shows for his Youtube channel. Within three months they had had five million views. Youseff finds himself the golden boy of Egyptian comedy, and has a networked TV show, Al Bernameg (The Show) by the end of that year. Continue reading London Film Festival 2016 Days 8 to 9 →

The Revolution Won't Be Televised London Film Festival 2016

Whose Story Is It Anyway? London Film Festival Days 5 to 7

Film, London Film Festival 2016, , , ,
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised (dir Rama Thiaw)
An Insignificant Man (dir Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla)
Layla M (dir Mijke de Jong, scr Jan Eilander, Mijke de Jong)

Contains spoilers for Layla M.

The stand out point about The Revolution Won’t Be Televised and An Insignificant Man is that they were made by a Senegalese woman and a pair of young Indian filmmakers in their own countries about things that they know about. The stand out point about Layla M is that it was not directed nor written by Dutch Moroccans, and it shows. Continue reading Whose Story Is It Anyway? London Film Festival Days 5 to 7 →