Slapface wears its heart on its sleeve.

Or its poster.

The tagline, “Where do Monsters come from?” nicely sums up the premise of the film.

Brothers Lucas (August Maturo) and Tom (Mike Manning) struggle to come to terms with life after surviving the car crash that killed their parents. They both deal with the grief and guilt in different ways. Tom is now the parent, trying to do his best for Lucas while drinking and seemingly indifferent to the world around him and Lucas is going off the rails. In an early scene, Tom collects his brother from the police station after an undisclosed incident which doesn’t sound like it’s the first, and the cops are starting to lose their patience.

There is also the suggestion that their father may have been a violent man and this is reflected in both Tom and Lucas’ behaviour. For Tom it is seen in his relationship with new girlfriend Anna (Libe Barer) which quickly dissolves into conflict as she tries to help Tom figure out what is going on with Lucas. For both brothers, the potential violence of the past is also reflected in the titular game that Lucas and Tom play – SLAPFACE. Here, they take turns slapping each other in the face, harder and harder. It plays out as a form of punishment and catharsis as they slap the bad out of themselves. It’s a clear representation of their immaturity in many ways; they are still just kids and struggling to understand the new world around them. It’s a way to resolve their issues without actually confronting them.

Things for Lucas are complicated further through his difficult friendship with local girl, Moriah (Mirabelle Lee) who may or may not be his girlfriend. This is compounded by Moriah’s desire to fit in with Donna and Rose, local twins (played by Bianca and Chiara D’Ambrosio) who also happen to be bullies focussed on Lucas as their target. This drives a wedge between Lucas and Moriah as he tries to win the twins’ favour and Moriah pretends she doesn’t like him when they are around.

Overall, Lucas is having a pretty tough time of it, even before the Virago Witch is thrown into the mix! As part of an “initiation dare,” Lucas is goaded into exploring an old, abandoned building connected to the legends of the Virago Witch who has a reputation for doing nasty things to children. Once inside, Lucas comes face to face with a mysterious and scary figure. Screaming, he runs from the building, but Moriah and the Twins are long gone.

He then wakes up on the forest floor with Moriah, who came back for him, but we have no idea how she found him or how he ended up unconscious (more about that later) but this is the start of a dangerous relationship that Lucas develops with the mysterious woman.

At first things are ‘okay’, Lucas spends time with the woman (the character looks very much like a stereotypical witch) forming an almost mother/child relationship with her. However, the Witch is possessive and when a dog chases Lucas, she protects him in a very violent way.

I will leave the plot there as I don’t want to spoil anything further (most of this is covered early in the film or hinted at in the trailer) but the story plays out as the relationship between Lucas and the Witch becomes more sinister and increasingly violent, leaving a trail of destruction behind that we are not entirely sure was wrought by the Witch or by Lucas.

Slapface is an exploration of trauma, grief and bullying and the psychological effects they have on their victims. Lucas clearly forms a bond with the mysterious Witch as a surrogate for the mother he has lost and her actions and behaviour, while a bit over the top, appear borne out of a perverse kind of love – although maybe more of the “if I can’t have him, no one can” variety. But is the Witch real or imagined? Is she a physical manifestation of Lucas’ grief writ large from his anger? There are moments in the film where you may think it is the former, and others where you are convinced it is the latter, but the film never quite answers that question for you. The fact that Lucas simply wakes up in the woods after his first encounter with the Witch presents a multitude of questions. Did he die in the building? Is he dreaming? Is what we see real or has his fragile mind broken, his body still back with the Witch? In many ways, Lucas becomes an unreliable narrator, and we are never quite sure what is real or not.

That doesn’t mean the film lacks an “ending” It just doesn’t tidy everything up for you and leaves you with some questions. While many films don’t do this very well and leave you feeling cheated, I don’t think Slapface does that and, in many ways, it doesn’t need to tie everything up in a bow. Its ambiguity is its strength.

Slapface ends with a figurative slap in the face for the audience and drives home the impact that trauma, grief, and bullying can have on people. And this isn’t a film where the bullies get their comeuppance in front of the school or the town. That may well come at a later date, but Slapface’s story and ending are about the impacts these things have on the innocent victims and, regardless of whether a bully gets their comeuppance, the damage is often already done. Playing Slapface draws a line under things, but doesn’t resolve them so Lucas, and those around him, never stand a chance.

A lot of people will probably hate it for its ambiguity, but I didn’t. I have said before that I don’t have a problem with open-ended films, as long as they leave enough breadcrumbs for you to follow and form opinions/theories as to how things have played out. Obfuscation for the sake of it is annoying. Slapface does a good enough job of leaving a trail and not leaving you completely adrift. There are still things I am not sure about, but nothing that leaves me feeling cheated. I am still thinking about Slapface a few days after watching it and not just because I am writing a review, but because I am intrigued by the way everything has played out. I am thinking about the message and, while it is not necessarily subtle, it is an important one.

I’ve also seen some reviewers comment about the relationships and characters portrayed in Slapface being poorly developed and unrealistic but, again, I did not have an issue with them. The big concern surrounds Lucas’ relationship with Moriah and the twins; why was he so desperate to be friends with people who were so clearly arseholes? But things aren’t always that clear cut, are they? Lucas has suffered a lot and lost a lot so is just looking for any kind of acceptance from a town that is losing its patience with his behaviour. He needs somewhere to belong. It is no less likely that he would try and get the Twins onside as it is that he would form a relationship with the Virago Witch.

Performance-wise the film is okay. Some of the acting is a little shaky, but nothing that would detract from the film as a whole; August Maturo does a great job in his role. It looks good as well, lots of muted colours and drab backgrounds which work well with the tone of the film. It is quite dark in places, but never so dark that you can’t see what is going on. I was a little disappointed with the design of the Witch as it essentially boiled down to a classic hook nose and big chin look, but that may just be me? Who is to say that a young boy, his imagination gone wild, isn’t going to imagine a witch exactly as he would have seen in films or storybooks as a kid?

This isn’t a film for those looking for lots of gory kills. The film leans more into the psychological side of things, focusing on the uneasy relationship between Lucas and his new friend. Where there is violence, much of it plays out offscreen, leaving the audience to witness the aftermath, further playing into the puzzle of whether the Witch is doing this or whether it is Lucas.

Slapface put me in mind of Mama which dealt with similar issues around trauma, but also doesn’t focus on gore or violence. There were also elements that made me think about Antlers and The Babadook and while, for me, Slapface didn’t quite work as well as those films, it wasn’t a long way behind. It’s not an overly scary film, but a lot of the emphasis is on unease and fear of what could happen, rather than being out and out scary. There are a few reviews on IMDB from people who clearly didn’t like the film and that drags its overall score down. It currently sits at 5.2 on IMDB, but I think I would push it closer to 6.

If you want gore and intense, scary scenes then this isn’t for you, but if you fancy something a little more psychological, which doesn’t hold your hand through all the plot turns, then I think you will enjoy Slapface. The plot is not overly original and, while you can see most of the twists and turns coming, the set-ups and ending still leave you with some questions about what was real and what might just be supernatural.
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Slapface is currently streaming on Shudder and, if you have a subscription, then what have you got to lose?

Enter a dark realm of ancient monsters in Miles Doleac’s chilling folk horror Demigod, starring Rachel Nichols (Titans, The Man in the High Castle).

Upon the sudden death of her estranged huntsman grandfather and the news that he’s left her all his worldly possessions, Robin (Rachel Nichols) and her husband travel back to her birthplace in Germany's foreboding Black Forest. Already plagued by terrifying visions of childhood memories she can’t quite make sense of, Robin nevertheless remembers fondly her grandfather Karl’s (Jeremy London, Mallrats) deep connection to the natural world, the animals, and even the ‘spirits’ of the ancient forest.

Soon after arriving at her grandfather’s secluded cabin, however, Robin realises that the inheritance left her is far more macabre than she had bargained for. Stalked by a trio of witches, she finds herself entrenched in an ancient hunting ritual that will force her to reckon with her family's past and her own will to overcome the monstrous obstacles in her path.

Demigod is available to rent or own on digital HD from Bulldog Film Distribution on 21 February 2022

Cert: TBC
Runtime: 95 mins approx
#DemigodMovie @Bulldog_Film

On their first getaway as a couple, a woman's boyfriend becomes a conduit for God and warns her that she will die and go to hell unless she repents and worships him.
Directors: Jared Jay Mason, Clark Runciman
Editor: Spence Nicholson
Cast: Swayde McCoy, Jordan Ashley Grier

The Dare (2019)
Written by Giles Alderson and Jonny Grant
Directed by Giles Alderson

​A rare family night for Jay takes a brutal twist when he awakens in a basement with three other prisoners. As their vengeful captor runs riot, Jay engages in a twisted battle to solve the puzzle to his past and save his family's future.

Review by: Mark Walker

Warning – there may be a couple of minor spoilers for The Dare in this review


The Dare sees Jay’s pleasant evening at home with his family descend into terror as he is knocked unconscious and kidnapped. He wakes up in a room chained to wall, alongside three other prisoners, one of whom is covered in open wounds and has his lips sewn shut. I’ve had some pretty shitty mornings in my younger life but waking up in this Saw-like situation is never going to be good.

As the film progresses, we are introduced to their captor, Dominic and, via a series of flashbacks, we slowly learn what links them all and why our masked, muscular madman is doing what he’s doing.

Admittedly, it is not the most complex of stories but, to be fair, a film like this doesn’t need to be complex, it just needs to put characters you care for in terrible situations and make you empathise with them; it just needs to make you uncomfortable. Uncomfortable at the thought of what is being done and uncomfortable in the realisation that you are, in effect, a voyeur! The Dare wants you to share the experience of being locked up for unknown reasons and the fear of being terrorised by an unknown (at first) nut job. It’s about the sins of the past coming back to haunt you and the ramifications of thoughtless actions. But ultimately, it is about pain and suffering, both mentally and physically. While many would see this as ‘torture porn,’ I feel it has a bit more going for it with justification for Dominic’s, actions. It is gruesome in places, but not just for the sake of it.

The problem I had with The Dare was the sympathy element. Again, for reasons I won’t go into, the trapped characters aren’t necessarily the most sympathetic. They are not out and out evil and the events that eventually lead up to their imprisonment happen years before when they were just kids. As such, you do kind of feel a bit sorry for the poor guy who was “left behind” and ended up twisted by circumstance into a man-child killer hell-bent on revenge. It is very similar to my thoughts on The Burning which I reviewed very briefly on my on website recently, where I couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Cropsy. He was set on fire by a bunch of dick-kids for no real reason before going on his rampage, so what do you expect!? There are similar elements here and, once you learn what happened to Dominic all those years ago, you’ll see there is a very good argument for nurture over nature influencing his actions as an adult. Now I am not saying that anyone deserves what happens to them, but our Bogeyman, Dominic, is given a tragic enough backstory to make it easier to understand why he is doing what he is doing. While all the characters are interesting, Dominic is the one that is the most complex, his captives largely 2-dimensional torture fodder. I never really cared about the four prisoners, so the jeopardy and panic around whether they escape, or die wasn’t quite there for me. Even giving Jay an opening that showcases his family doesn’t really make you care for him. (Spoiler Alert – even one of his kids turns out to be a bit of a dick!)

They are also given several opportunities to fight back – Dominic literally hands them a weapon on more than one occasion – but they don’t take them and would seemingly rather use the weapon on each other to appease Dominic, than to try to escape; so perhaps they don’t deserve to survive!?

Anyway, that’s probably looking into things a bit too deeply! We didn’t come here to psychoanalyse a killer; we came here to be thrilled! And what we get is a solid thrill ride of a horror film with plenty of unpleasantness to keep everyone happy. Lots of stabbing and cutting for starters and then one particularly unpleasant bit with an eye. Eyes always make me squirm and the filmmakers did an excellent job on that front. The Dare is not a scary film, it relies more on the stomach-churning fear of what torture is going to come next. It is not a film for lovers of creepy ghost stories or haunted houses, this is one for the gore hounds and fans of Saw or Hostel. Having said that, although there are a couple of unpleasant scenes, it doesn’t feel overly gratuitous – there is definitely method in Dominic’s madness – again, the influence of nurture over nature. This just isn’t a film to come to for complex, layered storytelling, it is designed to shock and disturb, and it does a decent job at both.  
 
Acting is solid and the effects are good. There were a couple of CGI effects that weren’t so great, but they were brief enough not to detract too much and, in a couple of cases, I can see how hard it would have been to do it practically! The cast is good and, to be fair, anything with Richard Brake is going to be worth a watch. The guy is great at creating unpleasant characters and Credence is no exception, with an undercurrent of anger and violence just waiting to burst forth and ruin someone’s day. Anyone with a “father” like Credence is going to struggle in life and Dominic is no exception; see, there is definitely a nature/nurture theme coming through here!
​
The Dare is currently on IMDB sitting at a 5.1 and I think that is kind of okay. It’s a decent score, especially for a horror, although I might go to a 5.5/6 as it is a solidly made film. It’s a shame as such a score may put a lot of people off. But don’t be. While The Dare doesn’t offer anything drastically new, it is a great effort and, if you enjoy this type of horror the it’s worth a watch in my eyes… actually, no, leave my eyes out of this…

Ankle Biters
Four adorable little girls plot to murder a hockey player after they mistake an act of lovemaking as an attack on their mom.

Director
Bennet De Brabandere
Writers
Bennet De Brabandere(screenplay)Zion Forrest Lee(story by)
Stars
Colin MochrieHeidi von PalleskeMatia Jackett​
​A film review by Sam Kurd 

Ankle Biters is a Canadian horror-comedy from writer-director Bennet De Brabandere, story by Zion Forrest Lee.


Sean Chase (Zion Forrest Lee) is an ex-hockey star who’s planning to propose to his girlfriend Laura (Marianthi Evans). There’s just one problem-- well, four problems: Laura’s daughters Lily, Rosalee, Dahlia and Violet (Lily, Rosalee, Dahlia and Violet Reid). As much as Sean feels he’s ready to take on the responsibilities of a step-dad, he’s severely underestimated how much these girls dislike him, and when they mistake the couple’s rough kinky sex for Sean abusing their mother, they start to plot and scheme and plan how to get rid of him.


Will Sean survive their increasingly dangerous shenanigans? Well, the film literally opens with his ashes being presented to his parents before skipping back in time, so I guess asking the question’s a bit pointless.


I just don’t understand that choice at all. There was no need to open with him already dead; it sucks all the tension right out of the story. It highlights the biggest problem the film has: its tone. It’s not that it’s tonally inconsistent; for most of the film the tone is pretty steady. Unfortunately, that tone is ‘flat’.


It’s not funny enough for a dark comedy, not tense enough for a thriller, not scary enough for a horror, not engaging enough for a drama. Instead it just kind of sits there. There’s the occasional very gruesome moment, but they’re limited to a fun eye-gouging right in the opening minutes after the funeral and the murderous climax, with so few similar moments in between that these bits just feel jarring. And the climax itself appears to be aiming for wackiness, which is completely at odds with the rest of the film. It just doesn’t work.

​Bloodthirsty 

​Grey is an indie singer who is having visions that she is a wolf. When she gets an invitation to work with notorious music producer Vaughn Daniels at his remote studio in the woods she begins to find out who she really is.

Director: Amelia Moses
Writers: Wendy Hill-Tout and Lowell
Starring: Lauren Beatty, Greg Bryk, Katharine King So, Michael Ironside

Bloodhound Pix is made up of: Craig Draheim, Josh Lee, and Kyle Hintz
​

In the near future, a group of disparate individuals contemplates the meaning of life as deadly asteroids hurtle toward Earth.

Initial release: 22 October 2021
Director: Agata Alexander
Cinematography: Jakub Kijowski
Music composed by: Gregory Tripi
Screenplay: Agata Alexander, Jason Kaye
Producers: Stanislaw Dziedzic, Cybill Lui Eppich, Cybill Lui
Cast: Alex Pettyfer as Liam
Alice Eve as Claire
Annabelle Wallis as Nina
Benedict Samuel as Vincent
Charlotte Le Bon as Charlotte
Thomas Jane as David
Patrick Schwarzenegger as Ben
Rupert Everett as Charlie

​Director Agata Alexander developed WARNING as a result of her own existential crisis, waking up repeatedly at 4am wondering how everything was going to end. Worried that no-one else was panicking in the same way, she questioned what they had figured out about their lives and their existence that allowed them to be so calm? WARNING is the culmination of those late night/early morning ponderings on the meaning of life, what it is to be human, to love and, at the very end of it all, does any of it even matter?

WARNING opens with Thomas Jane’s astronaut/repair man, David, cast adrift in space after an accident untethers him from the satellite he is fixing. Drifting alone in space, staring down at Earth, he too contemplates his existence and the meaning of it all. I was immediately drawn into this opening with shades of Gravity (2013), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Love (2011), (three great films) and I was ready for another mind-boggling and confusing meditation on what it means to be human and alive.

But I didn’t quite get that.

(Just for the record, I didn’t find Gravity mind-boggling and confusing!)

As the film leaves David drifting, we are introduced to a number of different characters back down on earth, all struggling with their own existence. They face questions about relationships, their identities, love and life, all against the backdrop of news reports on Jane’s astronaut, strange storms, and an approaching asteroid.
​
Charlie is a robot programmed to help and care for people, but he is ageing and outdated. Brian has responsibility for Charlie and other robots like him and is determined to find a new home for the very much alive and almost sentient Charlie. When Charlie is rejected by yet another family, Brian and Charlie’s relationship is tested as difficult decisions need to be made and Brian is forced to play God.

​Claire is a neurotic young woman whose life revolves around the omnipresent GOD device (think Alexa with serious control issues) which records sins and hears your prayers. When the device crashes and is replaced by the new and improved GOD 2.0 she starts to question her reliance on the all-seeing device and takes drastic action to remove its insidious influence on her life.

​Ben and Anna have what appears to be the perfect relationship, but Anna is plagued by glimpses and visions of a mysterious, hooded stalker. Their relationship breaks down when Anna discovers her stalker was actually Ben who has been using sinister technology (think a VR Facebook that lets you stalk people in memories – you know, what they’ve just announced they are developing this week) to follow and spy on her. Ben can’t handle the break-up and his life is in ruins without Anna.

​Liam takes his new girlfriend, Nina home to meet his family who also happen to be immortal. Nina is not, and the class difference plays out over dinner before Liam’s mother takes drastic action to stop her son ruining his life with a mortal girl.

​Magda needs money to escape her trailer park life and alcoholic mother. For a big pay out, she allows middle-aged Pavel to inhabit her body using a technology known as “Second Skin” so he can experience life as a young girl. Things don’t go according to plan and the naïve Pavel soon discovers what life can be like for women, with very unpleasant consequences.

​In between chapters, we return to David floating in space, slowly losing his mind and coming to terms with his fate. A late image of David staring down at the Earth hints at the final images of 2001, as Dave (I see what they did there) Bowman, now the Star Child, surveys his dominion.


WARNING is full of great ideas that explore the film’s themes and, as another review I read suggests, are worthy of Black Mirror episodes, exploring people’s reliance on social media, the potential impacts of near future technology and the break-down of community/society. It is, very clearly, a warning.

The film is also nicely shot, looks good and has some great performances from a decent cast. Thomas Jane is suitably gruff as David and Rupert Everett does a fantastic job of making Charlie ‘human’ but also slightly ‘off.’ Alice Eve presents Claire in a way that probably reflects a lot of people reliant on social media for validation and Garance Marillier puts in a great performance as Magda/Pavel convincingly portraying Pavel as more naïve than the young woman he is inhabiting.

However, the number of stories we see, and the short running time mean that there is limited time to explore them in detail and many viewers may feel a bit short-changed as not all sections are tied up in nice little bows. Claire abandons her reliance on GOD 2.0, but at what cost? Liam’s family dynamic has a strong potential to explore issues of race and class, but this section is over before you know it, the implications of his mother’s actions largely ignored. David talks to the abyss of space about this daughter, but we get very little time with her to see things from her perspective. Personally, I am here for films that ask questions and encourage the audience to answer them (2001 is my favourite film of all time) but not everyone is going to be as happy, and I suspect this might be where some of the poorer review scores come from; some of the stories just needed a little more time to further explore the film’s themes. While I am happy to have questions posed, it felt as though the film itself didn’t quite know where some of the stories were going and some viewers just won’t have the desire to do the heavy lifting for the film.

My biggest issue was, however, the ending.


***FAIR WARNING – THE NEXT COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS CONTAIN SERIOUS SPOILERS***


As David watches the asteroid hit Earth’s atmosphere, breaking up and pummelling the planet with numerous, civilisation-ending meteors, he is left as the last man in existence. This conjures up feelings and emotions that will make you consider your own life and future and asks the question of how you would react in that situation; what is the meaning of your life? Imagining yourself, drifting alone in space while looking down at everything you ever knew or loved burning is going to make you think.

But then… the punchline.

The film ends in a way that I am not sure whether it is David’s fragile sanity finally snapping, or an attempt at a joke. Either way, it really damaged the ending for me, and the philosophical questions that had been asked up to that point were lost in a clunky one-liner.

We went from 2001 to The Simpsons and, while I have no issue with either, the switch was jarring and out of place. It is funny, but the rest of the film is not played for laughs, so it just didn’t quite land for me.


***YOU CAN COME BACK NOW***


I really wanted to love this film, it sounded right up my street, but I was left a little disappointed immediately after watching WARNING. However, the following day I found it was still stuck in my head and, despite what I said about the various sections feeling ‘incomplete’ I did find myself thinking through the stories, what they all mean and how they reflect issues and questions we are all facing. Four or five days later, although I appreciate I was writing this review, my mind kept coming back to WARNING and its tales of, well, warning.

A few days after watching I would give WARNING a 7/10 but the very final lines of dialogue with David grated on me and felt wildly at odds with the rest of the movie, so WARNING loses a point for that, but gets a still respectable 6.

There are some very low scores on IMDB which I think are grossly unfair and do not really reflect the attempt made by the writers and director. WARNING sets itself up as an existential examination of the human condition and the meaning of life which isn’t always successful, but there is much to like and worth your time if you like smart science-fiction.

The film is not perfect, and some people will still find the lack of resolutions problematic. However, at only 85 minutes, you won’t get bored but, if you want a film that answers more questions than it poses, then perhaps WARNING is not for you.
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WARNING is a film with lofty ambitions which, for me, didn’t quite hit the mark, although I did enjoy it. Ultimately, it cuts itself off from the greatness of the films it pays tribute to by presenting stories that won’t feel fully formed to many and by adding a coda which I am still not sure if it is meant to be funny or not, but which undermines everything that has come before.

The Old Ways

Deep in the Veracruz jungles, Mexican American journalist Cristina Lopez is held captive by a mysterious bruja, or witch doctor who is convinced she's possessed by a demon. Ultimately her fight for survival becomes one for her soul.

Initial release: October 2020
Director: Christopher Alender
Languages: English; Spanish
Written by: Marcos Gabriel
Produced by: Christa Boarini; T. Justin Ross; David Grove Churchill Viste
A horror film review by Sam Kurd 

You know those films where a group of (mostly white) people wander into the jungle and fall foul of the native tribes there, who kidnap and torture them while we the audience are meant to thank goodness we’re safely in ‘civilisation’ and far from such ‘barbaric’ people?


Well despite initial appearances, this is definitely not one of those films.


The Old Ways is the second feature from director Christopher Alender and screenwriter Marcos Gabriel, who previously collaborated on Memorial Day and… er… Muppets Now. Though this is something of a special effects extravaganza, there are certainly no felt monsters with ping pong ball eyes on display here (though that would be pretty hilarious).


Brigitte Kali Canales (Fear the Walking Dead) is Cristina, an investigative reporter who has returned from the States to Veracruz, where she lived as a child, in order to investigate an ancient site called La Boca, rumoured to be cursed. Unfortunately for her she is abducted and held against her will.


She’s defiant at first, raging against her captors, pleading for release. Despite her heritage, she doesn’t speak any Spanish – but her cousin Miranda (Andrea Cortés) is there to explain  – it seems Cristina may be possessed by an evil spirit, and an exorcism is required to save her soul, whether she wants it or not. Cue a procession of rituals held by a wise woman (Julie Vera), a bruja, attempting to draw out the demon. Cristina starts to see and hear terrible things, but between whatever her captors have given her and the heroin withdrawal she goes through, could all this be pure hallucination? Or is she indeed possessed by a terrible evil?


It’s so refreshing to see an exorcism film through a new cultural lens like this. No ‘power of Christ compels you’, no pea soup and sad priests struggling with their faith. Instead we have a woman who has absolute conviction in her faith, practising an art that was handed down to her through the generations since ancient times. And we have a possessee whose broken past and broken connection to her cultural roots left her wide open to desecration by the demon Postekhi, the “death god of broken things”. Perhaps the film doesn’t revolutionise the exorcism subgenre, but it’s a rich tapestry and backdrop to set it against.


The acting is mostly great – Canales gets a little wobbly at times during the more introspective parts of her journey, but for the most part she really sells the peril and gives a great physical performance during the rituals. Julie Vera as Luz the Bruja is at once mysterious and aloof but surprisingly tender; you can tell that she feels for the suffering of those she has to help. She and Canales play off each other very well.


It’s a tense rollercoaster of a film, swiftly going from toe-curling suspense (the sequence with the snakes had my heart firmly lodged in my mouth!) to spooling out just enough of Cristina’s back story to make us go ‘ok, I see…’ before dropping us into another bout of terror.  It looks gorgeous, never drags and even though the ending isn’t exactly unpredictable it’s definitely more than satisfying  Oh, and the soundtrack by Lovett is bloody brilliant, I’m listening to it as I write.


Ultimately it’s a film about cultural disconnection and alienation, with a lovely dollop of gore and creeptastic creature effects thrown in.


If you liked Drag Me to Hell but want to see something a little bit less goofy and a lot less racist (let’s be real, I love me some Drag Me to Hell but it is kind of hella racist), this is the one to go for!