Old

Made me think several times “how is this going to end?” Not because I was intrigued by the characters or curious as to how things could be explained but more because I was concerned that it wouldn’t and the twist would be that I had to watch this shit for eternity.

Ring

Not the first long haired ghost of vengeance portrayed in cinema by a long, long way but easily the best and most effective.

Seven Deaths In The Cat’s Eyes [La morte negli occhi del gatto]

Features some of the best cat acting I’ve ever seen, shame about the rest of the film.

The Psychic [Sette note in nero/ Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes]

Doesn’t really work as a film due to the remarkable level of coincidence required for the plot, the weird illogical leaps made by the script or the total lack of self awareness from any of the characters. But then by the same argument this does work as a fantastic Giallo.

Censor

Starts strong, ends weak.

Sympathy For Lady Vengeance [Fade To White Version] [Chinjeolhan geumjassi]

Very different from the other two. A lot more absurdist humour, a lot more surrealist fantasy moments and a lot more flashy editing tricks mean it feels less like it’s rounding out a revenge trilogy and more like it’s setting up the style of the rest of Chan Wook Park’s filmography.

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance [Boksuneun naui geot]

Revenge stripped of catharsis leaving bleak reflection in its place.

Digging Up The Marrow

Presented as a fake documentary on the subject of director Adam Green’s massive ego in an attempt to distract from the fact that this is just a shitty found footage version of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed.

Black Widow

Whilst the cosmic side of Marvel continues to happily romp off to the point where it can do whatever the fuck it wants, the more down to earth stuff is having to get sillier and sillier in order to keep up. Still plenty of fun though.

A Dark Song

Excellent little gem about two people dabbling in some very dark arts that swerves usual cliches and successfully unsettles.

Viva

An exact replica of cheesy seventies exploitation movies replete with stilted wooden acting, massive amounts of nudity, woefully simplistic dialogue, garish oversaturated colour and many, many wardrobes worth of hideous fashion choices.

In fact the only thing missing is a reason as to why anyone would want to do this.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen

Like the first one, but shitter.

The Dark And The Wicked

Begins as a sequence of impeccably executed and fairly inventive jump scares with hints of a larger story and ends as an overly long and drawn out sequence of jump scares with a complete absence of story because absolutely fuck all happens in the middle.