As the bloody and brilliant Grimm Up North horror film festival gets ever nearer we managed to get hold of Steve Balshaw the festival programmer.

Horror Channel will be adding a touch of Gallic spice to its schedules in September with the premieres of three of the most important French genre releases of recent years.

Saw, in all its iterations, is shallower than a pygmy’s grave. Its cartoon implementation of violence is a one note, pornographic system that thinly veils its indulgent nature behind a feeble discussion of animal survival and ‘the evils of modern living’.