M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller The Happening was released into cinemas worldwide in 2008. It came as another step in a decade-long journey of diminishing returns: The Sixth Sense (1999) had been a global sensation, Unbreakable (2000) slightly less so, and then audience response seem to … Continue reading REVIEW: The Happening (2008)
The Intrigue, a 1916 silent feature directed by Frank Lloyd, has its problems but it also offers a chance to see a very early example of the espionage thriller. 106 years from release, however, and it is definitely of greater … Continue reading REVIEW: The Intrigue (1916)
“Russell Crowe is Unhinged” went the marketing copy, and I would not be surprised to discover that was the premise that sold Solstice Studios on this mercifully brief and vaguely unpleasant road rage thriller. The cast – including Crowe – do … Continue reading REVIEW: Unhinged (2020)
Before hitting the big time with his Monkey King trilogy, Soi Cheang was the director of a number of excellent Hong Kong thrillers. Motorway (2012) was one; before that he helmed Accident (2009), a remarkable exercise in style, tension, and growing paranoia. The … Continue reading REVIEW: Accident (2009)
By 1971 Clint Eastwood was a major international star thanks not only to his eight-season run on television series Rawhide but also his three popular Italian westerns – culminating in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) – and a string of … Continue reading REVIEW: Play Misty for Me (1971)
It’s the late 1960s and the Japanese film industry is in serious trouble. Audiences are drifting away en masse, tempted by the booming television industry or by American imports, and leaving Japanese film studios rapidly running out of income. One … Continue reading REVIEW: Orgies of Edo (1969)
Businessman Han Sang-soon (Lee Sung-min) comes home late from a workplace party to witness a brutal murder from his apartment window – and for the murderer to see him doing so. Keeping quiet to avoid becoming a target himself, he … Continue reading REVIEW: The Witness (2018)
Maude (Adelaide Clemens) is an Australian medical student living in Germany. A year ago her twin sister Cleo disappeared from her home in Adelaide. While their family has moved on – even holding a funeral with an empty casket – … Continue reading REVIEW: Rabbit (2017)
The rape-revenge thriller gets a deliberately thorny and unpredictable remix in this exceptional film written and directed by Emerald Fennell. It bursts with originality and dares to present a fierce feminist statement via the blackest of comedy. It marks Fennell’s … Continue reading REVIEW: Promising Young Woman (2020)
On 14 January 1987, student activist Park Jong-chul dies in police custody after being tortured over his suspected anti-government links. His murder sets off a chain of events involving a conscientious prison guard, a young first-year student, an alcoholic court … Continue reading REVIEW: 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
FictionMachine 