The type of person Andy is, becomes clear very quickly; he is a dick. He is jealous and bitter towards his childhood friend, rude and ungrateful to his crew and really just focussed on himself. In most films of this type, Andy would be on a journey to learn the error of his ways and reflect on his life. He would learn to love himself and, as a consequence, those around him. In many ways he does, but Mean-Spirited takes Andy in a slightly different direction than you might think and, as a result, is a nice change from what I was expecting. Obviously, I am pushing the boundaries of how much I can say without giving the ending away but, Mean-Spirited managed a mild rug-pull!
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Andy being a massive dick, may make the ending harder for many to stomach, but the message is fairly clear and Mean Spirited points a fairly barbed finger at the image-obsessed internet generation who will do anything for fame, fortune and clicks. I am not suggesting that any of the current crop of influencers have sold their souls to a demon, but I do wonder if Mean-Spirited won’t give them ideas…
As a comedy, Mean-Spirited has some amusing moments. I won’t say I ever laughed out loud at any of them, but it made me smile in places. It utilises a good cast of characters to allow for plenty of conflict and comedy. The cast are all great and work well together, offering a good range of ‘stock’ characters for a film this type; there is a virgin, a geek, an alpha male, a jock, and a fool. No one feels ‘tacked-on’ or unnecessary and they all have a part to play. The fact that Andy is such a dick around them, does mean the viewer loses some empathy with him but, ultimately, this works to heighten your investment in whether or not Andy can save his friends from the darkness lurking around Bryce and his home as you are pushed into caring more about them than Andy himself.

As a horror, Mean Spirited isn’t particularly scary or bloody, but it does have its moments and the odd jump scare to keep you alert. Out of the three found-footage adjacent films I have recently reviewed for Ginger Nuts, Mean Spirited is the one I enjoyed the most. While it won’t hold many surprises for fans of the genre who will recognise many of the tropes employed, it does take things in a slightly different direction than you might think.


I want to talk more about redemption arcs, the ending of the film and the messages it sends the audience, but it is impossible to do so without giving away too much. Suffice to say, it wasn’t quite what I expected, but it stays true to the underlying themes of the movie. Just make sure you watch into the credits.

Ultimately, I had fun with Mean Spirited. It has the perfect run time of just over 90 minutes and, as Halloween approaches, it would make a great partner in a found-footage comedy double-bill with Deadstream, the second film in my recent trilogy of found-footage reviews for Ginger Nuts of Horror.

Whether you like or loathe Shawn is a minor issue though and I suspect it was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers; we probably aren’t supposed to like Shawn all that much and that is reflected in some of the comments that flash up on screen from his livestream followers; some people just want to watch someone suffer and are we complicit voyeurs in that as we watch Shawn from the safety of our living rooms?

Despite some small niggles, I had a laugh with Deadstream. It’s a fun film that doesn’t take itself seriously and is just out to entertain.


As I said early, the effects in Deadstream are obviously low budget, but they very well done and, even when they boil down to a latex head on a stick, they don’t detract from the film and are in-keeping with the tone and style of movie. To have spent thousands on realistic effects would have lessened the impact and joy of what we do get.

We don’t get a wide cast of characters for the most part. Shawn and Chrissy are the main characters and cross paths with a number of spirits who pop in and out of shot but don’t hang around for long. In addition we get to explore the history of the house through videos Shawn plays on his livestream where previous paranormal investigators experience weird shit going down in Mildred’s house.
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As Halloween approaches, Deadstream would make a great second half to a double-bill with The Blair Witch Project, a light-hearted palette-cleanser after the darkness of the former. Or perhaps the jam in a triple bill with Mean-Spirited the third found-footage horror I recently reviewed for Ginger Nuts.

However, "Ride Ride" is a prime example of where this show goes wrong. A spooky tale of a ghostly traveller, it squanders any of the story's positives for a pointless ending that leaves far too many questions unanswered. And this is not a case of a vague ending to leave you wondering what the truth of the story is, and it actually feels as though someone accidentally dropped a couple of pages of the script in the bin. It's frustrating to point out that if I hadn't had to watch the whole series for review, I would have stopped watching at this point.  
"Ride Ride" is the worst case of this in the whole series, and while a lot of these stories don't hold up to a second watch, Tales of Unease is still an important entry in British TV history; while it never reaches heady heights of its contemporary shows, there is still value in it, especially for the completist nostalgic collectors

Something in the Dirt 

When neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could inject some fame and fortune into their wasted lives.

Release date: 4 November 2022 (United Kingdom)
Directors: Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson
Distributed by: XYZ Films

A Horror Movie Review by David Court 

2012’s “Resolution” marked writer/directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as talents to watch – it was a visually distinctive high concept low budget science fiction piece that appeared out of nowhere. Striking a similar chord to other smart and thought-provoking pieces of science fiction such as “Primer”, “Pi” and the hidden gem of Geoff Murphy’s 1985 slow-burner “The Quiet Earth” – it tells the tale of two friends in a remote cabin in the boondocks of San Diego. With one friend there to help the other to confront and beat his addiction, they soon both begin to experience unexplainable phenomena which are more than just the effects of going cold turkey. “Resolution” was a critical success, and paved the next for their next more ambitious work, “The Endless”.
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Taking place in the same reality as “Resolution” and even including the characters from that film), “The Endless” expanded on that universe with a sprawling tale of UFO cults, unusual spectacles and survivors guilt. This was not only written and directed by Benson and Moorhead, but also featured them as the stars – marking them, rather annoyingly, as true talents who can genuinely turn their hands succesfully to anything.

2022 sees the release of “Something In The Dirt”, a more intimate film featuring Benson and Moorhead as the lead protagonists again, but set in Los Angeles. Despite the apparent smaller scale – due to restrictions enforced by the Pandemic – it’s a much larger piece in scope, encompassing some vast concepts in its nearly two-hour running time.

Frightfest 2022 hosted the UK premiere of the movie, and Ginger Nuts of Horror were lucky enough to get to chat to Moorhead, Benson and Producer Dave in an interview due to be put out there nearer to the UK Cinema release date in November.
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Levi (Justin Benson) has just moved into his new apartment and a chance encounter in the communal courtyard sees him meet neighbour John (Aaron Moorhead). The two of them witness a prenatural occurrence in Levi’s apartment, and their subsequent investigations - and attempt to document the phonomena – drag them into a rabbit hole of confusing and contrary conspiracy theories. What at first begins as a yearning for fame and wealth, begins to overtake both of their every waking moments. Their obsessive efforts to explain the unexplainable lead them into conflict with their own sanity, each other – and will ultimately end in tragedy. These are both damaged personalities, in their own way, and the worst possible thing they could ever have done was encounter each other.

There’s a fine line to tread when introducing unreliable narrators into a character-driven piece, and “Something in the Dirt” has two such narrators. Levi, at first, comes across as the more conpisracy prone of the two – all new-age sensibilities with coloured hair and shorts and t-shirts, but it’s John who eventually emerges as the more obsessive and dedicated. The problem with unreliable narrators is that they run the risk of the audience questioning why they’re watching – if nothing can be guaranteed to be real, there’s a genuine danger of alienating the viewer.

However, I’m relieved to say that “Something in the Dirt” executes this narrative trick with aplomb. It performs the masterful trick of unravelling their narration, letting the audience in on the trick in an audacious move that even Moorhead and Benson revealed that they thought might have been a step too far – but turned out to be anything but, being the most pivotal and important trick of the movie.
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With a running time of nearly two hours, you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s a lot of time to spend in the company of the two characters – but their journey is one that’s as entertaining as it is jaw-dropping in its relevations. Despite the small cast (and the fact that it’s an exploration of parts of a city as opposed to the sprawling desert vistas of “Resolution” or “The Endless”), it feels huge in scope – with Levi and John seemingly constantly on the verge of a great discovery, before it becomes derailed and replaced with whatever new piece of confirmation bias they’re working to.

There are a couple of neat narrative tricks at work here; seeding the audience with visual clues before the characters themselves find them, and some interesting character depth that’s carefully drip-fed in to the narrative.

I’ll be sure in that I wasn’t sure what to expect – I was confident that it’d be good, being a big fan of the guys’ previous work, but a review of it claiming that it was a stoner comedy filled me with a certain amount of trepidation. I needn’t have worried – there are jokes (and drug use) but it’s anything but that.  It’s worthy of note that it’s quite a timely movie, and one that could only really exist now. Timely because it’s a genuinely terrifying period of time where there are many, many people like Levi and John out there – flat-earthers, climate crisis deniers and hordes of internet users who believe in a cabal of satanic paedophilic cannibals lurking at the highest echelons of power. “Something in the Dirt” shows the cost of belief, and the cognitive dissonance involved in reinforcing those beliefs, even to detriment of reality itself.
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“Something in the Dirt” is perhaps Moorhead and Bensons best work yet – an intringuing sci-fi premise that firmly places it in their cinematic universe, but smart enough to take those concepts further than ever before. Despite the apparent small scale, it’s a movie of big concepts, and – despite the fact that certain story hooks don’t progress as far as you’d like – it’s one of the most interesting movies I’ve seen this year. Highly recommended.

“What’s crazier – believing every single coincidence you see, or just ignoring them all?” - John

David Court is a short story author and novelist, whose works have appeared in over a dozen venues including Tales to Terrify, StarShipSofa, Visions from the Void, Fear’s Accomplice and The Voices Within. Whilst primarily a horror writer, he also writes science fiction, poetry, and satire. He’s also a freelance writer for Slash Film, and has a weekly Film radio show on Noisebox Radio – Court on Film - about Film Soundtracks.

His last collection, “Contents May Unsettle,” was released in 2021. As well as writing, David works as a Software Developer and lives in Coventry with his wife, Aslan the cat and an ever-growing beard. David’s wife once asked him if he’d write about how great she was. David replied that he would because he specialized in short fiction. Despite that, they are still married.

Dark Glasses

Diana, a prostitute who was blinded by a serial killer in a botched attack, takes in a young Chinese boy named Chin, abruptly altering both of their lives forever.

Director: Dario Argento
Music composed by: Arnaud Rebotini
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli

A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

Giallo is the soap opera of horror, and you have to embrace that to appreciate it. Emotion and drama, tension, fear and sexuality are amped up to a ludicrous degree, with sense and sensibility tossed out the window.

Few have ever done this as well as Dario Argento. I’d argue Mario Bava, but many consider Argento the king of giallo, and with good reason – his landmark 1977 film Suspiria may be the high-water mark for the entire genre. After a decade away from filmmaking in general and longer still since his last giallo, Argento returns to form with Dark Glasses.

Passions run high and bad decisions are rampant as Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) attempts to evade a serial killer. But wait, it’s more complicated than that! You see, she’s also blind and has sort of kidnapped this kid. It’s better if you don’t ask.

Though the score is not from Goblin, composer Arnaud Rebotini’s electronic soundtrack conjures classic giallo. Indeed, between those recognizable chimes and an early throat severing, you’d think you were watching Argento of old. But the filmmaker does have a couple new ideas in store, and marginally less misogyny onscreen.

Diana’s a harder-edged protagonist than what you find in other films from the Italian maestro. A high-end sex worker, she’s nonplussed about her line of work and disinterested in anyone else’s opinion of it. She’s a peculiar central character and Argento, who co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Franco Ferrini (Opera, Phenomena), gives her more to do than elude victimization. She develops skills and bonds in the second act that feel reasonable and realistic, sometimes even tender. It helps ground the film in character before those characters step into a den of watersnakes and remind you that you are essentially watching a soap opera.

There are some inventive kills, gore aplenty, and loads of reminders of why Argento has developed such a boisterous following. This is by no means his best film, but it’s by no means his worst, either.
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Everyone yells when they shouldn’t yell, everyone pauses when they shouldn’t pause, everyone talks when they shouldn’t talk, but who cares when the blood is this red and free-flowing?

​Hounded joins the pantheon of “hunted humans” films out there, choosing the often used, but perfectly fitting, exploration of the class difference between the hunted and the hunters. Although many such films use class as the divide, Hounded is a fairly timely addition to the genre considering the current political climate in the UK and the seemingly bulletproof status of the upper-classes – this might as well have had Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg hunting benefit claimants on Hampstead Heath.

Chaz (Malachi Pullar-Latchman) Vix (Hannah Traylen), Leon (Nobuse Jnr) and Tod (Ross Coles) are criminals, lovable rogues, ripping off the wealthy to help pay for Leon’s younger brother, Chaz to go to University; modern day Robin Hoods. They dare to dream of a better life even just for one of them, for the chance to break free from the cycle of poverty they have been born into. They steal valuable antiques and heirlooms from fancy houses and sell them through antique dealer and fence, Gregory (Larry Lamb). Their latest heist nets them a lot of cash, possibly enough for Chaz’s chance to escape, but group leader Leon is talked into the proverbial ‘one last job’ by his crew, who see a real chance to escape their lot in life.

And Hounded does make you care for the gang as they are chased across the English countryside, while also making you hate the hunters. They really are despicable, played with gleeful delight by a solid collection of English actors, led by Samantha Bond. She plays Katherine, the Matriarch and leader of the group, corralling her eccentric family including old hat, Remington (James Faulkner), dandyish brother, Hugo (James Lance) and eager nephew, Miles (Louis Walwyn) on his first hunt. They are all ably backed up by irascible groundsman Mallory (Nick Moran) and a collection of either incredibly sycophantic or oblivious staff.

But who wins out overall? Well, I’m not going to give the game away but Hounded was, in equal amounts, predictable, but also surprising, and it may not all go quite as you expect. I didn’t quite predict the ending but found it believable and satisfying.

Hounded is not an out and out comedy, but it does have comedic moments. The humour is nicely balanced by some tense set-pieces and chases through the estate. There are plenty of tropes you will recognise if you have watched any similar films, but they didn’t feel lazy or repetitious.
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It isn’t all successful, however. There were a couple of moments that felt a little less tense or dramatic than they were meant to be. For example, early on, there is a chase and an escape up a wall as the hounds chase our burglars across the estate. The filmmakers try to build tension and panic as the group attempt to scale the wall but have a lot of trouble getting up what seems to be the least imposing wall I have ever seen. Even as a sixteen stone, middle-aged soft boy I could have got up that wall and the suspense was lost in my frustration at seeing four fit kids struggle to get up it.

It’s a minor thing, but it did bring me out of the film a little.

The cast is great. The estate kids are played well and mostly avoid obvious stereotyping that would have made them one-dimensional and unbelievable. They are playing a dangerous game for ‘admirable’ reasons and play that part well. On the other side of the hunt, the actors are having a ball; dramatic and silly, but not pushed too far as to make them laughable caricatures. They are just the right side of “I could imagine people like this actually exist.”

Hounded suffered very slightly for me in that I watched it a couple of days after watching Get Duked!, which follows a similar pattern of “bad kids” hunted by the upper-classes, and explored similar themes. I really enjoyed Get Duked!, which is more of a direct comedy, and maybe the timing wasn’t quite right watching Hounded so soon after? I still enjoyed Hounded, just not quite as much, but they would make a really fun double-bill!
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Hounded is a fun film, not to be taken too seriously, but it is hard not to when the undercurrent theme and storyline could well be used as a training manual for the Tory Party. It’s not the best of the genre of ‘hunted humans’ but it is definitely worth a watch if you enjoy this kind of film.
Signature Entertainment presents Hounded on Digital Platforms 31st October

She Will

An ageing film star retreats to the Scottish countryside with her nurse to recover from surgery. While there, mysterious forces of revenge emerge from the land where witches were burned.

Release date: 22 July 2022 
Director: Charlotte Colbert
Cinematography: Jamie Ramsay
Awards: Swatch First Feature Award
Distributed by: Vertigo Films

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A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

There is nothing quite like an excellent set of cheekbones.

The effortlessly elegant and formidable Alice Krige and her fine cheekbones deliver another quietly powerful performance in director Charlotte Colbert’s bewitching horror, She Will.

Krige is Veronica, an actress seeking some time away from prying eyes. She and healthcare aid Desi (Kota Eberhardt) will seclude themselves in the Scottish Highlands so Veronica can convalesce from a double mastectomy. She’ll also be able to escape the media frenzy around a proposed remake of the controversial film that made her a star back when she was only 14.

It’s hard to say which of the two traumas haunts her more.

The traveling pair find, thanks to a self-help guru (Rupert Everett) leading his own little squad of guests, that the rustic getaway inhabits a spot used to burn witches in older, more barbaric times. Witty feminism doesn’t overwhelm but enlightens a tale with vengeance on its mind.

Colbert, who co-wrote the script with Kitty Percy, crafts a moody shapeshifter of a film, allowing atmosphere and images to drive the narrative. The result is hypnotic. Clint Mansell’s transfixing score spills into Jamie Ramsay’s dreamy cinematography and suddenly you can’t tell whether you’re in the woods or in Veronica’s headspace or neither or both.

Eberhardt’s thoughtful turn creates a lovely opposite to the brittle Veronica, their growth offering an enduring image of the strength in companionship and sisterhood.

Colbert peppers the film with unexpected humor that serves it well. She seamlessly blends styles and ideas into a singular vision – no minor feat for a first-time director.
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On top of the controversy surrounding the Hocus Pocus sequel, it is nice to be reminded, however artfully, of the legacy of witchcraft: the powerful tormenting and in many cases torching the powerless. Colbert shows us how lovely revenge can look when those women have a little power.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

It is incredible to think that even after 50 years, the central themes of this adaptation are still being talked about, from the class divide to the divide between the English and the Welsh. The Owl Service feels just as fresh now as it did then  


Much like the previously reviewed The Intruder, The Owl Service is reluctant to provide all of the answers as to what you have just watched. In fact, it is even more secretive than The Intruder. It may require a rewatch or two to understand everything that happened, or it might just be the perfect example of ambiguous storytelling.  


A show of this calibre demands a great set of extras. Network hasn't skimped on these either; this new release features two beautiful interviews with Alan Garner from 1968 and 1980, along with a couple of fun commentaries with writer/broadcaster Tim Worthington. There is also an image gallery and a limited edition booklet written by Stephen McKay, Chris Lynch and master critic Kim Newman.  ​

I’ve always enjoyed a found footage film. Although it didn’t invent the genre, it was probably the classic Blair Witch that turned me onto them, and I have seen a fair few since. In fact this is one of 3 I have recently watched for Ginger Nuts! They live or die on how well the found footage is implemented and draws you into the story. Blair Witch works so well because it is portrayed so effectively as a collation of ‘realistic’ found footage. I have seen other movies that fail because they don’t play by the rules and some of the footage feels staged or because characters continue to record in situations where no sane human being would. If the footage doesn’t feel like it was filmed by one of our protagonists, then that can also take you out of the film and ruin the feel and atmosphere.
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We are never really sure whether Iris and Lucas are in any real danger, or if they are pranking each other. With an ending that suggests, maybe, the whole thing was one big prank, maybe we, the audience, have been punked? It felt like that to me and, in the end, He’s Watching just didn’t hold my interest enough to care whether that was the case.


And that is a shame in many respects and makes it really difficult to write this review.


One the one hand, He’s Watching is a bravura, tour de force of low budget, ‘spit and sawdust’ filmmaking with two leads who do an amazing job to hold the whole thing together but, on the other, it feels like a mess of ideas, thrown together and trying too hard to be clever or weird.