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PODCAST: FrightFest 2019 Round-Up and London Film Festival 2019 Preview [Electric Shadows]

Episode 68 of The Electric Shadows Podcast sees Robs Daniel & Wallis look back at the Arrow Video FrightFest’s twentieth anniversary festival and run-down their top 10 films. Gems such as Rabid, The Dark Red, Ready or Not and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark all get warm words.…

REVIEW: FrightFest 2019 – Day 3 (August 24th)

Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary

After a supposed possession in a local school, four online paranormal investigators are brought into perform a sham exorcism to dispel the spirit.

But, Jack (Danilo Gentili), Fred (Leo Lins), Tulio (Murilo Cuoto) and Caroline (Dani Calabresa) are in for a night full of surprises.…

REVIEW: FrightFest 2019 – Day 2 (August 23rd)

Dark Encounter

By Mike Jefferson

Dark Encounter is a sci-fi horror with all the alien menace you could ask for, but not much actual drama.

A year on from the disappearance of eight-year-old Maisie, her family gather in commemoration at the house of her parents Ray (Mel Radio) and Olivia (Laura Fraser).…

REVIEW: FrightFest 2019 – Day 1 (August 22nd)

Come To Daddy

You might expect a film with a title like Come To Daddy to be fraught with a certain amount of Freudian psychodrama.

You might not be prepared, though, for one of the oddest, bloodiest, and most strangely poignant horror-comedies you’re likely to see all year.…

REVIEW: Pain & Glory

In Pain & Glory, Pedro Almodóvar strips away the kitsch and melodrama for an understated study of what can happen when pain interferes with passion.

Even if you have only a passing knowledge of Almodóvar’s work – mine is pretty much limited to his greatest hits – or his upbringing, Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas, in their eighth collaboration) is in inescapably his proxy.…

PODCAST: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood [Electric Shadows]

Once upon a time in Middlesex, Robs Daniel and Wallis took a good, long look at Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

And what better way to tackle an expansive, rambling tapestry of a movie than by having a rambling, discursive chat of their own (written view available here).…

REVIEW: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

POSSIBLE SPOILERS THROUGH IMPLICATION

Quentin Tarantino has, perhaps, the most iconic voice in all of modern cinema – literally so.

His dialogue is slangy and irreverent, immediately quotable; loaded with pop culture references and yet oddly timeless for it. Part of that is Tarantino’s range of influences: Pulp Fiction, for instance, borrows from both the Golden Age of Hollywood – as with the briefcase inspired by Kiss Me Deadly – and the French New Wave, Mia’s “comfortable silences” bit being directly lifted wholesale from Vivre Sa Vie.…

PODCAST: Spider-Man: Far From Home & Midsommar [Electric Shadows]

Episode 66 of The Electric Shadows Podcast tackles two different films indeed.

First up we have Spider-Man: Far From Home. Can the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe swing as high as Spider-Man: Homecoming or Avengers: Endgame? Or Into the Spider-Verse for that matter?…

PODCAST: Godzilla: King of the Monsters [Electric Shadows]

In episode 65, we welcome a special guest to The Electric Shadows Podcast.

Regular listeners will know that frequent ESP contributor Ian Bird knows his movies. What you may not be aware of is Ian’s 10-year-old son Ronan is also something of a film authority, particularly when it comes to monster flicks.…

PODCAST: X-Men: Dark Phoenix [Electric Shadows]

In episode 64 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel and Wallis show remarkable restraint in largely eschewing X-related puns as they discuss Dark Phoenix.

But, they do talk about the long, windy road of this 19-year-old franchise, why in some ways it is superior to the MCU, where it has stumbled, and what they think of the latest instalment.…