After bidding his young son and his nanny goodbye he journeys up to the small village of Crythin Gifford where it seems the locals are less than happy at his arrival.

Determined to press on with the task at hand he heads to the old building which sits abandoned and isolated from the mainland save the perilous causeway which at high tide completely disappears leaving his alone surrounded by the water outside and the sea of paperwork to get through.

But he is not alone because inside the Eel Marsh House resides the woman in black and her story which Kipps slowly uncovers is as alive and powerful as the terrible and terrifying fate that befalls the children of the village whenever she is seen a fate that Kipps realises may befall his own son unless he can stop her.

As mentioned The Woman in Black is famous due to its status as the second longest-running play in the history of the West End still shocking audiences today with its striped down production where the two man cast and minimal set manage to enrapture and petrify people for over 20 years.

Luckily it seems that scriptwriter Jane Goldman (the pen behind Stardust, Kick Ass and X-Men: First Class) has learnt from the theatrical adaptation keeping the central story and the atmosphere central to Hammer Films big budget transfer directed by James Watkins.

As Goldman’s script keeps character development key creating an emotional centre to the movie that grips you from the start, Watkins, heading up his second feature after debut Eden Lake, makes sure that atmosphere is everything slowly amping up the tension till it overflows on screen in some fantastically frightening set pieces that will have you on the edge of your seat and then hiding under it.

Make no mistake this is a horror film full of frights throwing everything at the audience from subtle creeping scares to great jumps to nerve shredding shocks (none of it thankfully in 3D as once was planned).

What sets it above the rest is that when it gets going it does not stop with the intensity of certain scenes taking you on a dark doom filled ride which seems unstoppable like a ghost train running of the rails.

And in the middle of all of this is Harry Potter himself Daniel Radcliffe giving a great performance and annihilating any idea of the niche many naysayers feel he would fall into. As the main focus of the film and appearing in almost every scene a lot of pressure sits on his shoulders to carry the movie and thankfully he triumphs.

His boyish looks and fresh face pale and bloodless his black ringed eyes betray the tragedy his character has been through at such a young age and Radcliffe perfectly embodies and inhabits the character of Kipps a man who is hollow and haunted even before his journey into hell commences.

In the same way the stage show employs every tactic available to scare its audience never losing sight of the sensational story it was based on the big screen version of The Woman in Black is a great ghost story, wonderfully adapted which will transport and terrify you at the same time.

Much like Arthur Kipps once you’ve seen The Woman and Black you will never forget the fear.

Movie Rating: ★★★★★ 

Trailer:

The Resident proves however that Hammer is not all about vampires, ghosts and pagan rituals giving the audience a stylish slice of contemporary horror. It creeps and crawls under your skin by showing us a very real story of stalking which is guaranteed to make you check under the bed next time your all alone at home.

The Resident tells the tale of Dr. Juliet Devereau (played with aplomb by Hilary Swank), a newly single surgeon who is desperate for a new apartment in New York after splitting from her long term boyfriend. After a day of searching to find only derelict shells and crack dens all out of her price range, she suddenly stumbles on an apartment in a period building which seems almost too perfect to be true.

Owned by handsome landlord Max (Watchman and Loser’s star Jeffrey Dean Morgan) it is beautiful building with huge rooms, low rent and a stunning view and the only other tenant is Max’s frail granddad August (living legend Christopher Lee).

Juliet doesn’t hesitate and moves in straight away, ready to start her new life in a new home perhaps with the possibility of a new romance between her and Max. All is not as its seems though and as shadows dart across the rooms and noises that can’t be explained wake her up at night, Juliet tries to ignore her instincts that something is wrong.

She feels as if she is not alone and that is because she isn’t. Someone is watching her sleep, someone is watching her get dressed, someone is watching her all the time and soon that someone will realise that just watching is not enough.

Written and directed by the relatively unknown Antti Jokinen, a Finish native who directed the opening section of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest after the heavy metal monster suited Lordi won it for Finland the year before, The Resident is slick and well made. Jokinen succeeds in creating tension and terror throughout, slowly building up the atmosphere and keeping the characters and the audience on edge.

Although the set up is obvious from the start a clever plot device 30 minutes in plays with the audiences expectations and turns this traditional thriller on its head for the second act which gives us a stalkers eye view returning for a full on climax in the final section which delivers a truly disturbing revelation and a violent confrontation which is exciting if slightly silly.

What really makes the movie is the excellent cast with Swank crafting a likable everywoman out of Juliet, who stumbles into a scary situation innocently in the same way any woman could. Jeffrey Dean Morgan an underrated actor proves yet again he can turn his hand to any genre and Christopher Lee is as disconcerting as ever if sadly underused in his return to the Hammer franchise after a 34 year absence.

The Resident is a well directed stalker thriller with a quality cast which offers an interesting twist on the genre. Solid horror with some scary scenes made more unsettling by what we don’t see, The Resident is one movie you defiantly don’t want to watch alone especially if you just moved into a new flat.

Movie Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Trailer:

It’s an entertaining read, but it could also come in quite useful if you’re stuck for horror movies to watch this year. Don’t just go out there and buy the first thing you see! Trust our recommendations!

Jack-O-Lantern’s Halloween Top 5

1) Halloween – John Carpenter.

A masterful piece of cinema and one of my all time favourite movies. Michael Meyers represents men and how mean they are to women, and the lady from Psycho‘s daughter is chaste and that‘s why she kills him with a giant, Freudian cock knife. At least that’s my reading.
Spawned a million copies but nothing gets close to the original. And what a soundtrack! “Evil, pure evil.”

2) The Exorcist – William Friedkin

I rewatched this recently at a special Halloween screening at my local cinema and my God is it a heck of film. Also, is it me or does the Catholic religion lend itself particularly well to horror movies? All that guilt and shame and blood and Hail Mary and blood and shame and body and blood and blood. “Your mother sucks cock in hell.”

3) Evil Dead 2 – Sam Raimi

Part film, part way of life. Evil Dead 2 is the ultimate “watch with your mates” movie. Particularly if your mates are anything like mine and know it word for word before staying up late and discussing how they too could make a movie as brilliant for less money than they are currently paying to study at film school. Quote: “Swallow this.”

4) The Shining – Stanley Kubrick

A particular Halloween fave after sticking it on in my first year at university on October 31st, I had one flatmate who told me the acting was bad and another who said the music sucked. Needless to say we are no longer in contact. Quote: “Danny isn’t here Mrs Torrence.”

5) Donnie Darko – Richard Kelly

Perhaps this one is a slightly peculiar choice as it borders several genres, horror just one of them. Also peculiar because Halloween is a time of fun and joviality (kind of) and this is a firm favourite for that particular breed of 14 -19 year old. You know the kind: warped sense of identity apparently derived from being a joyless, mawkish douche bag with a comprehensive knowledge of Joy Division demos and a pathological inability to talk to the opposite sex.

As such I understand the detractors of this movie, especially after Southland Tales, the filmic equivalent of a tail chasing, slipper humping, shite eating Jack Russel (that‘s to say it‘s pretty durn stooped). However look past the chemically straightened fringes of the fan boys and you find Donnie Darko to be a perfect Halloween movie – excellent soundtrack, some good old fashioned messed up rich kids and you can take a shot every time somebody says “time travel” in a faraway voice.
Furthermore that big rabbit thing is well scary and makes a better costume than the Crow for pubescent boys who hate their dad and love The Cure. Quote: “First of all, Papa Smurf didn’t create Smurfette. Gargamel did. She was sent in as Gargamel’s evil spy with the intention of destroying the Smurf village.”

MacReady’s Halloween Top 5

Surely there can be no better way to get things going on a Halloweeny afternoon than watching Cat People (1942).
If sultry Serbian Irena gives in to her emotions, will she really turn into a big, ferocious feline? Because isn’t that just what women do?! Well, no, but this film deserves a go anyway, even if it’s just for the amazing dream sequence.

Next up is a visit to Sleepy Hollow (1999), where an excellent cast ham it up in style, while Christopher Walken runs around with pointy teeth and big hair, shouting like a man possessed. Good clean fun, with a side order of decapitation.

As the All-Hallows-Evenin’ draws in, it’s time for little people in costume to come a-visiting. That’s right, Michael J Fox is havin’ it ‘medium’ in The Frighteners (1996). Oh for the days when Peter Jackson made films you could enjoy.

It’s got to be night time proper, so go get your Ouija Board and join in the fun, with the second best haunted house film of all time, The Amytyville Horror (1979). (Yes, I did say second best. The Haunting wins hands down, but this has a crazy man with a beard – you just can’t argue with that).

By this point in the program I’m normally pretty sleepy, so it’s time to smash the glass and press the ridiculous button. That’s right people, it’s the House of Wax (2005). Thrills, spills, and minor celebrities with poles through their faces. A fitting end to a lovely day.

The Baron’s Halloween Top 5

Welcome to my top five haunting and horrible Halloween films. I thought I would introduce myself
with the picture I recently sent to the London Dungeon appealing for a job where I could jump out at
pedestrians and launch into tirades of vile abuse. No news is good news! Right??

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre offers a relentlessly horrible final third that is truly exhausting to
watch. So. Much. Screaming.
Still, there is some fun to be had, particularly when the most annoying character meets his gruesome demise at the end of a chainsaw. You hope for this scene right from the start.

4. It’s always worth checking if your house was ever built over burial grounds.
Poltergeist is a great Halloween choice. Child eating cupboards! Malevolent trees! Zelda Rubinstein as the terrifically named Tangina Barrons. She means well, but what a horrible woman.

3. Combining gleeful humour with a nice touch of the macabre, An America Werewolf in London is well loved by me for bringing my attention to the wonderful Jenny Agutter. Ms. Agutter aside, and it’s a terrible shame to have to do so, this films delivers some great laughs, mainly from lead
character David’s undead friend, and some standout horror moments including the much lauded transformation and the terrifying stormtrooper wearwolf nightmare scene.

Bloody hell though, Jenny Agutter! Swit-swoo!

2. After watching The Ring I made sure that no TV in my house was near enough to the floor for someone to crawl out of without serious injury. This film has such a brilliant feeling of tension and menace throughout that it’s any wonder you get to the end. And good grief, when you do…

Simply and stupendously terrifying.

1. ‘I recommend AMPUTATION!!’.
And in one ludicrous, terrifically overblown line, Hellraiser II: Hellbound immediately leapfrogs every other horror film I’ve ever seen. This film simply has it all, better still, you didn’t even know you wanted it until you saw it! Skin peeling off! People wearing other people skin! Uncle Frank living and breathing with no skin! Mesmirisingly daft! Brilliant!

Deadite’s Halloween Top 5

5) The Strangers – A movie for when you’re home alone on Halloween, and want reassurances that the noises outside and the trick or treaters are just kids, not masked knife wielding maniacs…….

4) 28 Days Later – Danny Boyle’s ‘not the Z word’ film is a wonderful take on the genre, with enough suspense and scares to keep everyone happy.

3) Scream – Beyond the slasher tag this a scary movie for smart asses, gleefully acknowledging and playing with genre conventions. The film that inspired a million Halloween costumes.

2) The Evil Dead II – There is no introduction needed, it’s one of my favourites and was a real game changer. Stick this in your player and watch a horror/black comedy masterclass. Groovy!

1) Shaun of the Dead – Do you have a group of friends over? Is the beer flowing? This zom-rom-com strikes the perfect balance between zombie flick and comedy, perfect viewing for a group of you. See how many homages you can spot, horror fan.

Part of the problem is that when animated, Manga movies seem to have unlimited potential – amazing effects, unthinkable beings and unbelievable fight sequences. With these ‘cartoons’ the artist’s imagination is the only boundary.
Now, thankfully with the developments in CGI, it seems that at last we are able to see this sort of unrestricted, imaginative creativity expressed in live action.

That brings us nicely to Higanjima – Escape from Vampire Island, a conventional movie with real actors but that unmistakable Manga-ness.

It’s your usual set-up. A young handsome boy named Akira lives in a big Japanese city, struggling to live up to his parents expectations whilst keeping his family together. He spends a majority of his time hanging out with an odd bunch of friends and getting into scrapes with local bullies.

Things take a turn however when a mysterious woman takes Akira aside and says that she needs his help. She explains that she knows his older brother who mysteriously vanished without trace two years previously.
Akira and his friends soon discover that this woman is working for vampires, apparently involuntarily, to get mortals from the main land and ship them to a mysterious island called Higanjima. There these unsuspecting humans are used to feed the island’s vampire population.

Akira and his ill-prepared buddies vow to help the woman and find Akira’s brother and thus embark on an adventure involving lots of long pointy teeth and flashing blades.

Higanjima is a slow starter and to begin with it’s difficult to figure out what sort of movie it’s going to be. With the initial comedy elements, you could be fooled into thinking that it’s going to be a Lost Boys/Goonies style movie with a Japanese Manga twist. This isn’t really the case though as the mood gradually sobers and the film progresses.

Once on the island, the action seems to take an age to build. The young mortals are captured, escape, and are captured again and there is little fighting to speak of, which is a little frustrating.
There are some confusing elements too, such as a character called Pon who is part of the group of youths but seems to be randomly hated by all of them for no particular reason.

Other members in the group seem to have little purpose at all, such has the ‘fat kid’ character who doesn’t even really bring any comedy value to the film.
Worryingly the movie remains mildly entertaining way beyond the half way point, with only flashes of action and excitement to keep the viewer’s interest.

But when all seems lost, Higanjima recovers.

As soon as Akira and co meet with a band of rebel survivors, you can almost smell the impending action. And it’s worth the wait, with the effects and choreography really demonstrating that the imagination of the illustrated Manga films has finally been liberated by CGI.
It’s not ground-breakingly good, but conidering that this isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster, visually, this film really does impress. Blood, monsters, explosions all in good measure.

The end result, a vampire movie that is interesting and entertaining. At times it’s dangerously close to boring, but with the likelyhood of a sequel on the horizon, there is plenty of opportunity for Manga to make good this decent beginning.

Movie Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Trailer:

Some of you with either a good memory or a love for the oldies might also think of Piranha, the 1970′s classic about a shoal of killer nibblers. There’s no denying that Piranha are terrifying, so it was probably just a matter of time before they were given the super-size treatment – by none other than the same team behind Giant Shark Vs Mega Octopus.

When an unlikely looking American ambassador and one of his politician buddies are partying on a small boat on the amazon somewhere, they’re unfortunate to come across some large, mutated, super aggressive piranha. Flying out of the water and onto the boat, these killer fish finish off the passengers and even the boat, leaving the world on the brink of a political crisis.
Thinking that terrorists could be to blame and fearing a situation that could have global implications, the US government sends one man (yes, only one) to do a bit of underwater investigation.

This man, known as ‘Fitch’ arrives in South America and makes contact with a group of American scientists who think that the deaths may have been something to do with the genetic experiments that they have been doing – making piranha grow really big (not sure what the original goals were with that piece of research, but it was always going to turn sour). Although Fitch has loyalties to the native military, he soon realises that the scientists are right and teams up with them to put an end to the growth of the mutant piranha.

Jumping out of the water and into boats at just the right time isn’t the only thing that these fish can do though. They’re still growing, and super-fast. They’re also becoming more deadly and resilient to attack as they mutate. Fitch and the team don’t have long to put and end to this menace before they take over the whole world – well the bits very near water at least.

You can tell by the title that Mega Piranha was never intended to take itself too seriously. The over-played genetic mutation card (right up there with the radioactive mutation) is now only adopted by films that are having some fun.

Billed as a modern B-movie, Mega Piranha certainly has the important elements: silly, unlikely story; hammy acting; lead actor who is chosen for his looks rather than ability; and special effects that are at times laughable.
But haven’t things changed a little? B-movies are a thing of the past. Mainly made in the 70′s and 80′s, these were films that had tiny budgets and looked bad because they were never going to be able to find the resources needed to make a film that could be taken seriously. Bad actors weren’t chosen because they were bad, they were chosen because, well, no-one else wanted to be involved. Special effects were bad because you needed a hell of a lot money to make them convincing – if you wanted to show a car blowing up, you actually had to blow up a car.

Now these aren’t really issues, it leaves films such as Mega Piranha in an uncomfortable place. If the makers had the money and cast to make a film which isn’t bad, then why did they?
The cast certainly seem to be acting like they’re taking things seriously, and the budget certainly isn’t tiny. It’s highly likely that somewhere in the chain of command of directors and producers, someone wanted this to be taken mores seriously than it has been. And with the mixed agendas along the way, the end result feels a little muddled.

If the film was really intended to be a fun b-style movie, it really could have been more amusing. Instead, Mega Piranha does dry up at times, giving unnecessary details and straying too far from the action. If this film is meant to be fun, then give us some more fun!
At one point, Fitch has to fight off a dozen or so piranha with his feet, That’s the sort of craziness that this horror movie needed more of.

To some extent, the way that you feel about this movie could depend on the situation that you watch it in. The people promoting Mega Piranha in the UK held a big party at which the movie was screened and in this fun atmosphere the film went down really well. So perhaps it’s just not the sort of film that you sit down and watch quietly on your own.

So to summarise. Mega Piranha is a so-so movie with some crazy moments which has been let down by its lack of balance. If you want to watch a horror movie, this probably isn’t for you. If you want to watch a comedy horror, this probably isn’t for you. But if you and a bunch of friends want to watch a film that you can point and laugh at and one that needs little concentration then Mega Piranha could be just the ticket.

Movie Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

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Trailer:

Mega Piranha