british horror movies – Horror Ghouls

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

In Hellbound: Hellraiser II, we shift our focus more on Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), the daughter we saw in the first film, after she’s been committed to a mental hospital because no one believes her story that her dad and stepmother were killed by a Pinhead and three S&M demons. Happy recovery. Yeah, you wish. Because her doctor, Dr. Channard, is a corrupt sadist (wow, what a shocker) who is interested in this mysterious puzzle box Kirsty is telling about. Warden takes one of the basement patients and places him on the bloody mattress where Julia died and gives him a razor so he can slice himself and the the maggots he sees crawling over his body. As he bleeds all over the mattress, Julia’s skinless body emerges, just like we saw with Frank in the first film, and kills the patient while the doctor is watching. She’s now reborn in full villain-mode. Congratulations.

Channard gets a mute girl, Tiffany, to solve the puzzle box, because she’s obsessed with puzzles. Pinhead and company show up, but instead of taking Tiffany, they take Channard, since he only used Tiffany to open the box for his own desires. Huh. Yes, there are rules here, but who would know. And since he’s already “corrupt” like a mofo, his suffering will be legendary, as Pinhead famously puts it.

Meanwhile, Kirsty sees a vision of a skinless ghoul with the text written in blood behind him on the wall: “please help me, I’m in Hell“. She believes that this is her dad, and when she gets the opportunity, she enters Hell to look for him and save his trapped soul, where she finds herself in an endless labyrinth. From here on, it’s mostly all about the nightmarish and surreal atmosphere that slides in a more what the fuck am I watching kind of movie. Kirsty goes from the one Hell scenario to the next, where she also stumbles upon Uncle Frank who lives through his own personal hell. And no, she never meets the Goblin King, unfortunately.

Hellraiser II is filled with cool ideas and some interesting concepts, such as seeing a quick backstory of Pinhead and how Cenobites are created. And like any birth, it sure looks painful. The one who gets a rebirth is the corrupt doctor, and his monster design is, well, something else. His fingers look like snakes/tentacles with razors and is a way more interesting villain than Uncle Frank ever was. The look of the Hell labyrinth was inspired by the Day and Night woodcut by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher and gives the film a bigger scope than the cramped attic we were stuck in the first film. The gore and prosthetic effects are both first-class and imaginative with even some use of stop-motion. Movie expert Roger Ebert was, of course, not impressed and called out the effect maker (Bob Keen) as a “perverted man“ while giving the film a half-star.

This sequel is not written nor directed by Clive Barker, but instead he worked as a producer and was heavily involved with the story and further concepts that he hadn’t the time or budget to expand in the first film. After Barker got burned-out, the direction job went to Tony Randel, who worked as an editor on the first film while the script was written by Peter Atkins (who later wrote the next two Hellraiser films and Wishmaster). Hellraiser II lands relatively successfully as a direct continuation with some inventive set-pieces, a dose of Lovecraftian, more lore, and of course, more gore.

Director: Tony Randel
Writer: Peter Atkins
Country & year: UK/USA, 1988
Actors: Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham, mogen Boorman, Sean Chapman, William Hope, Doug Bradley, Barbie Wilde, Simon Bamford, Nicholas Vince
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095294/

Hellraiser (1987)

Posted on October 1, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

I must say I felt a little ripped-off (no pun intended) after watching Hellraiser on VHS for the first time back in the ’90s. You have Pinhead on the cover, looking straight through your sorry soul while grinding his teeth, and he’s barely in the movie. Instead, we have Uncle Frank, a random slimeball who gets his flesh ripped apart with hooks and chains when he opens a mysterious puzzle box he bought at an antique shop in Marrocco — but will eventually return, with a boner, thanks to a cheating wife.

Everyone who solves the puzzle box opens a portal to Hell, of some sort, and out comes The Hell Priest himself, aka Pinhead (Doug Bradley) with his three Cenobites, Spencer, Chatter and Butterball, ready to fulfill your deepest desires. But the thing is, those who are “corrupt“ will die a gruesome, painful death (all politicians should be handed a puzzle box each, I would say). Then we have the husband/wife Larry and Julia who moves into the house Frank lived in, a shithole filled with cockroaches. But the worst thing is that Frank’s remains/corpse rots under the attic floor. After Larry cuts himself in a nasty way, his blood drips through the floor and onto the remains of Frank. He then reemerges as a skinless corpse, like a red skeleton from Castlevania.

And then it gets interesting: No, Pinhead doesn’t show up, but hear this — it appears that Julia and Frank had a wild affair (!) and was fucking like there was no tomorrow. The original cut of Hellraiser actually had so much fucking, or “erotism“ to put it in more polite English, that it got an X-rating. And Frank must really have a Master Cock from Fuck Forest and the erection like a grade A pornstar from Dimension XXX, because Julia will do everything to fix this boring loser, even if she has to walk over dead people. So if they’re ever gonna fuck again like they were teenagers, Julia has to lure men to the attic so Frank can feed on their flesh and blood. The poor individual who gets trapped in the crossfire is David’s teenage daughter Kirsty, who already has a strained relationship with her stepmother Julia. If Frank wasn’t already the villain, Julia is probably even worse, and the evil Disney stepmother-looks certainly suit her.

Trivia: Lance Henriksen was first offered to play the role of Frank, but turned it down. This was in his golden era when he still had the luxury to choose n’ pick roles. He later signed up for one of the shitty straight-to-DVD sequels, Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005). Isn’t that funny. Clare Higgings, who portrays the evil stepmother, has never seen the whole film since she hates horror movies, and already after the first ten minutes of its premiere she walked out. She still signed on to be in the sequel, which is way more gory.

Hellraiser is Clive Barker’s creation, from top to toe, his demon baby, based on his own novel The Hellbound Heart. And can you actually believe that the working title for the film was Sadomasochists from Beyond the Grave? Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. The unique look of Pinhead and the Cenobites was inspired by Punk fashion, Catholicism, African fetish sculptures, and by Barker’s visits to the S&M clubs in New York and Amsterdam (mixed by some drug-induced fewer nightmares, if I have to guess).

The limited budget really shows, especially with the animated lightening sparks, which was already dated back then. Clive Barker and some “Greek guy“ (according to Barker himself) made it by hand over a drunk weekend, and…well, that’s good to know. Then there’s the “engineer“ monster that could be something from Dead Space or the later Resident Evil games. And while it looks cool by design, they had no clue how to utilize it and clashes with the dead-serious tone.

Where the movie shines is the practical/gore-effects, and the attic resurrection scene of Frank is a classic moment by itself. The dusty isolated atmosphere in Frank’s house, where we spend most of our time, is filthy and grimy and reeks of bad vibes, cheap perfume and god knows what else. The prosthetic makeup-designs of especially the three Cenobites are flawless and they still look terrifying and intimidating which blends perfectly in with the atmosphere. The main plot itself, with the two sleazy lovebirds, is something I never cared much for. More Pinhead and Cenobites, please.

That said, Hellraiser is an entertaining ’80s gore film with a tasteful blend of horror, S&M and even some nasty torture porn that still manages to rip some new assholes. And it also made a completely unknown British actor, Doug Bradley, into a horror icon as Pinhead, for better and worse.

Writer and director: Clive Barker
Country & year: UK, 1987
Actors: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman, Oliver Smith, Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, Simon Bamford, Grace Kirby
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093177/

Mute Witness (1995)

Posted on September 4, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Billy Hughes is a special effects make-up artist who finds herself in Moscow after saying yes to work on a low-budget slasher film directed by the boyfriend of her elder sister. One night, Billy finds she must return to the studio where they’re shooting the film in order to get something for the next day’s shoot, and ends up getting herself locked inside. Oops. No problem, though, as she phones her elder sister Karen for help. Billy is a mute, by the way, but she’s communicating via morse code through the phone, and her sister is used to her ways of communication so she’ll easily figure it out. Unfortunately for Billy, something really, really shady is going at that studio…she gets interrupted and not able to complete her message through the phone, as she discovers that a small part of their film crew is inside and seemingly shooting some porn flick. Oh well…many folks have gotta do some side hustles every now and then, right? No biggie. Billy hides and watches, and ends up witnessing the actress suddenly getting stabbed to death. Looks like Billy just walked in on the filming of a snuff video. She manages to flee even though she was noticed by the director, some shady dude called Lyosha.

Billy, in shock over what she just witnessed, and with Karen’s help, she tries to convince the police that a murder just happened. The problem is: there’s no body, and the guy Billy saw stabbing the actress demonstrates to the police how a fake retracting knife streaming blood was used to create some elaborate special effects. Billy’s not a fool, though, she knows exactly what she witnessed. And even if no one believes her, at least not yet, she’s knows that she in danger for having seen something she wasn’t supposed to see…

Mute Witness is a horror thriller from 1995 that was written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller in his feature film debut. It’s a British-German-Russian co-production, and it premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. It received pretty good reviews from the critics, and was also nominated for Best Horror Film and Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards. It was shot on-location in Moscow, because Anthony Waller wanted to do it in Russia due to cheaper sets and labor. Well, well…that probably didn’t go as smoothly as he first thought it would. Filming was delayed several times, and the first delay was because of a diphtheria outbreak in Moscow (a serious, contagious bacterial infection). And then the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis happened, where President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament had a violent political standoff. Result: street fights and mayhem causing 147 killed and 437 wounded. Then, they had to pay off some customs official who had taken possession of their production gear, and to top it all Waller claimed that they also had to pay off some crime syndicates and corrupt officials, aka Russian mobsters, so the filming wouldn’t get any problems. Oh, the irony…

Marina Zudina, who plays the role of Billy, wasn’t the one who originally got cast for the role. Gina Bellman was the one who was first cast to play the lead role, but she dropped out due to illness and Marina was then brought into it all on a very short notice. Marina couldn’t speak English and Waller couldn’t speak Russian, so he had to direct through an interpreter, and I’m sure this wasn’t the easiest task. Still, Marina’s performance is strong and pretty much carries a lot of the film.

This is essentially a cat ‘n mouse thriller where we have a protagonist that must escape reckless mobsters while being in a foreign country and more isolated than most. Billy being mute does of course give her some challenges when she needs to communicate her worries and needs, which is very much the movie’s strength when it comes to added suspense in a situation like this. Sometimes she is communicating through a text-to-speech device (which sounds almost exactly like the voices you hear in the indie pixel horror game Faith: The Unholy Trinity).

The grimy and cheap locations also heightens the atmosphere of the movie, and there’s no doubt that Waller got what he wanted budget-wise. The locations were definitely on the cheaper end, but hey – the surely fit the movie’s premise!

Mute Witness is a ride filled with tension and suspense, some dashes of dark humour and a very strong performance by the lead actress. Overall a fun cat ‘n mouse thriller!

Writer and director: Anthony Waller
Country & year: UK/Russia/Germany, 1995
Actors: Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards, Oleg Yankovskiy, Igor Volkov, Sergei Karlenkov, Alec Guinness, Aleksandr Pyatkov, Nikolai Pastukhov, Aleksandr Bureyev, Stephen Bouser
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110604/

The Sonata (2018)

Posted on August 7, 2026August 11, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Rose is a young and very talented violinist, but she’s also a bit of a loner. Charles, her agent and manager, has been taking care of her and functioned more or less as a parental figure ever since Rose’s mother died when Rose was only sixteen. When it comes to her father, who is none other than world famous composer Richard Marlowe, she has never personally known him as he abandoned his family and became a recluse shortly after Rose was born. And now the guy is dead, which to the news Rose at first gives a “whatever, I’m busy“ attitude. Who can really blame her, though, the man was basically nothing but a stranger she never met. Rose has still inherited his mansion which is located in France, and she decides to go there in the small hopes of maybe finding out something about why he decided to leave his own family all those years ago.

Once there, in the gloomy and desolate mansion, she finds some sheet music for the sonata her father had been working on for the last twenty-or-so years. She sends a sample of it to Charles, who is immediately intrigued and sees potential for wealth and fortune. The final piece of a famous composer! Once he starts digging, he finds that Richard had been a member of some satanic cult who believed that music could be used for summoning the Antichrist himself. And Rose starts experiencing strange things around the mansion…

The Sonata is a supernatural horror thriller from 2018, directed by Andrew Desmond from a screenplay by Desmond and Arthur Morin. It also stars Rutger Hauer in a smaller role, and this was his final film before his death the following year. The film was shot almost entirely in Latvia, in the 19th century Cesvaine Palace.

This is one of those supernatural movies where you get a good amount of that misty, gothic atmosphere. It’s never really venturing into any real scares, but it’s always giving off that certain spooky vibe. The movie starts off from Richard Marlowe’s perspective (played by the late Rutger Hauer), filmed in a pretty interesting POV style where we witness an act of self-immolation. So, we already know that some weird, spooky shit is going on here. And yes, it does play out the rest of the film as a straight-forward supernatural mystery thriller, with a satanic cult, mysterious disappearances, and of course several paranormal incidents. Just like in The Ninth Gate, the mystery unfolds through cryptic esoteric symbols, hidden messages in artwork and the solving of puzzles in order to unlock some dark, demonic forces.

The music, of course, also plays a significant role here. The ficitional Op. 54 “Rose Sonata“ was composed, orchestrated and conducted by Alexis Maingaud, and performed by solo violinist Olivier Leclerc with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. With much of the movie’s concept relying on some unfinished evil sonata, it would be expected that the music here would add to the overall feeling of the film. And it certainly helps with providing the perfect setting for the story.

While never bringing much new do the table, The Sonata is a pretty fine gothic supernatural mystery thriller which delivers mostly on a spooky atmosphere, a nice location, and of course a lot of violin playing.

Director: Andrew Desmond
Writers: Andrew Desmond, Arthur Morin
Country & year: France/UK/Latvia, 2018
Actors: Freya Tingley, Simon Abkarian, James Faulkner, Rutger Hauer, Catherine Schaub-Abkarian, Matt Barber, Christopher Brand
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7149066/

Let Us Prey (2014)

Posted on July 10, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in a small town in Scotland, where rookie police constable Rachel Heggie is on patrol. Suddenly she witnesses a car strike some mysterious man in a trenchcoat, who seemingly disappears after getting hit. The driver of the car, Francis “Caesar“ Sargison, is a familiar face to the police so Heggie is quick to arrest him. After she brings him into the police station, Sgt Jim Macready charges Caesar for reckless driving. So in a cell he goes, where there’s already another guy who is in for beating his wife. Now, the only thing Heggie needs to do, is finding the mystery man wearing a trenchcoat (and no, it’s not Castiel, but this could have easily belonged somewhere in the Supernatural universe) and she radios two other police officers for the task. It appears his disappearing act wasn’t too solid, as they quickly locate him and brings him in for questioning. He’s covered in scratches, goes by the name “Six“, and carries a notebook with a list of names. Soon, it becomes apparent that this mysterious dude is on a mission, and the names in his notebook are from people who have committed horrible acts and not done anything to atone for them. And it is also soon revealed that nearly everyone in the police station have dark secrets of their own…it’s not only the ones behind bars that are the bad guys…

Let Us Prey is a supernatural horror film from 2014, directed by Brian O’Malley (who also directed The Lodgers from 2017) and co-written with Fiona Watson and David Cairns. And if you’re in for something fun, gory and supernatural this might just be right up your alley! While you become aware very early in the movie that you’re watching one of those “pray for your sins“ kind of story, it does so with a bit of almost cartoonish glee by giving us a bunch of characters that truly deserves it. The characters are all interesting enough, where he have the protagonist Heggie who is struggling with something from her past, and is pretty much the only likable character among the bunch, except from perhaps Six himself. The others are…mostly a bunch of horrible a-holes. They’re all having a history of violence and wrongdoings, and we’re certainly looking forward to see them finally pay for their misdeeds.

The movie is mostly very fast-paced with few dull moments, with a fitting John Carpenter-esque synth score by Steve Lynch. It also becomes bloody and gory at times, where especially towards the end we get full-on mayhem where one of the bad guys covers himself in barbed wire and tries to become Rambo and blast everything to pieces. Crazy and fun! And since the majority of the characters here are deliberately unlikable, it goes a long way to have a devilish “antagonist“ who isn’t really the bad guy here.

Let Us Prey is one of those popcorn movies that is simply a good time, with lots of violence and fun and a finale that goes wild!

Director: Brian O’Malley
Writers: Fiona Watson, David Cairns, Brian O’Malley
Country & year: UK/Ireland, 2014
Actors: Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin, Hanna Stanbridge, Douglas Russell, Niall Greig Fulton, Jonathan Watson, Brian Vernel, James McCreadie, Sophie Stephanie Farmer
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3148348/

Communion (1989)

Posted on May 22, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

I am you. And you are me. And we are here Yo. I am the dreamer and you are the dream. Deez nuts.

Whitley Strieber woke up on a December night in 1985 in a little room surrounded by what he calls “nightmare creatures“. A needle was put into the side of his head and he was raped by a machine. He then woke up, again, this time in his bed, as if he just had a wild fewer dream after eating too many mushrooms. Happens to us all. Although Strieber had already, at the time, reached success as a horror writer with The Wolfen and The Hunger (both made into films), his nonfiction Communion: A True Story, based on his bizarre abduction experience, would be the bestseller. The book was released in 1987 and was adapted two years later to the silver screen by schlock filmmaker Philippe Mora from a script by Whitley Strieber himself. Christopher Walken was cast to play Strieber. What could go wrong?

Well, from the get-go, Strieber already acts like an eccentric and unpredictable goofball, and maybe the last person you’d believe was kidnapped by aliens in track pants. No I’m not kidding. Strieber lives in a New York apartment with his wife and son where he writes his books while wearing a wolf mask and cowboy boots with no pants, like the best writers do. Where he hides the cocaine is no one’s business. Whitley’s nightmares starts during a weekend at a remote cabin far in the woods where a bright light shines over the area. No one can explain what happens, and after they head back to New York, Whitley acts more strange and erratic, as if he wasn’t already. After he sees visions and snaps at a Halloween party, Whitley’s wife, Anne, is concerned about his mental state and their marriage, and sends him to a psychiatrist to do some hypnotic regression therapy. And, well, get ready for something really special, where we get to see funny-looking aliens and creatures that could be from the puppet warehouse of Charles Band.

Yes, this is what you could call a weird-ass movie. Whitley Strieber had a friendship with Philippe Mora that went way back to the 1960s, but it would soon be clear that they weren’t much on the same page after all. Mora focused way more on Strieber’s mental collapse, as if he was just gone ko-ko while he tried to balance a normal family life as a frustrated writer. And he didn’t like that, and was not a fan of how Christopher Walken portrayed him. Can’t really blame him, even though Christopher Walken is the highlight here. The film plays more as a humiliation ritual for Strieber, if not a parody of American UFOlogy, where he only comes across like a super pretentious nutcase where even Fox Mulder would roll his eyes. Or maybe that’s just the price for having the director of Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf to make your biopic about getting ass played by aliens.

Christopher Walken got complete freedom to do whatever he wanted with the role and improvise whenever he felt like it. And his performance here can be described as schizophrenic at best. He shows his real reaction by laughing because of how funny the aliens looked. Director Mora kept it in the film as he thought it made it more disturbing. And we laugh as much with him as at him. The scenes with the aliens are pure comedy and bizarro hour where you have the classic cinematic moment of close encounters of the fourth kind, which on paper should be terrifying, traumatic and disturbing but, well…not here. Christopher Walken doesn’t even try to look scared, even when he’s about to get analprobed where he randomly says It looks like you’re gonna sing White Christmas. Yeah, sure. Bruh. Whatever. And if dancing with aliens wasn’t enough, he also sees himself cosplaying as Gomez Addams. Weird, Weird, to quote R. Zegler. Communion is open to endless interpretations, if you even manage to take this seriously.

Director: Philippe Mora
Writer: Whitley Strieber
Country & year: UK/Australia/USA, 1989
Actors: Christopher Walken, Lindsay Crouse, Frances Sternhagen, Andreas Katsulas, Terri Hanauer, Joel Carlson, John Dennis Johnston, DeeDee Rescher, Aileen Fitzpatrick, R.J. Miller
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097100/

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

Posted on January 27, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re off to Emerald City, I mean the Bone Temple, to meet the Great Wizard, I mean Old Nick, the Great Satan of Oz, I mean UK. Oh, well …

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a direct continuation of the previous one, where Spike (Alfie Williams) has now been captured by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connel) and his small cute gang of Teletubbies, or chavs, for a better term. Welcom’ to Brittn, ya fockin’ cont! As we got more of the impression that Spike got saved by these bizarre individuals, in a quick scene that broke the internet six months ago, we learn that this Jimmy lad recruits young stray broken teens to join his cult-mission to torture and kill people in the name of Old Nick (Satan). Because, like Jimmy says:

— Old Nick released his demons onto the world of man.
And the world of man failed before the demons. —

Jimmy has created his own demented theology to excuse his extreme sociopathic way of life, but to put it plain and simple: his inverted cross that he got from his crazy-priest/preacher dad right before he was killed 28 years ago is not just an innocent rebellious statement. He’s evil through and through and the classic Charles Manson/dictator-type that gleefully watches his members doing the torture and killing work. The Jimmy Saville-looking wigs they wear as a form of a badge, which also matches the hairstyle of their cult-leader, only puts the rotten cherry on top. Yes, his hair is actually not a wig (!)

Against Spike’s will, he has to prove himself to Lord Jimmy in the old British way by a knife-fighting death-combat, against one of the Jimmys. And watching this scene without context, one would assume that this was just some regular youth activities somewhere in Glasgow on a Tuesday evening. Americans have their guns, but you should never, ever underestimate a chav with a sharp knife. Spike hits an artillery that causes a gory mess. Lord Jimmy laughs and grins ear-to-ear. Spike is now a part of the Jimmys and, of course, very reluctant and terrified joins their murderous coming-of-rage odyssey around rural Britain as they invade homes and skin people alive in barns. How they can just walk and dance around like they owned the world while others still walk on minefields, is a fair question to ask. Alfie bonds with one of the two girls in the gang, Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), the only one who has developed empathy and isn’t completely brainwashed.

Then we have our mysterious Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who lives peacefully alone in his small underground bunker next to his impressive lifeswork, the Bone Temple memorial. Approx 5,500 fake skulls and 150,000 bones were made to construct it. It would be just way too easy to just CGI the whole thing, but big kudos for making it the old school way. Dr. Kelson is still picking up fresh bodies to add to his temple, and has a side-project by observing an alpha zombie which he calls Samson. He’s a giant who rips people’s heads off, Predator-style, and eats brains straight from the skull. Hardcore. Dr. Kelson spits morphine darts to drug him out so he can dig into his subconsciousness and maybe see if there still is any humanity left in him. And good luck with that. Jimmy Crystal spots Kelson at a perfect timing, where he’s all smeared in red’ish lodine as he always is, and having a close interaction with the alpha by the Bone Temple. Because he believes he’s finally found his big idol and his father, Old Nick, and, well…haha, this should be interesting.

I’m not familiar with Nia DaCosta’s directing work prior to this, and I had no idea what to expect from her passing the torch after Danny Boyle. DaCosta does some really heavy lifting here, where it was pretty much already clear by judging the awesome trailers that they didn’t just choose some random work-for-hire director. Her directing approach is more traditional than the experimental style we saw in the previous where we have more dialogue-driven scenes than action. And although I —personally— enjoyed 28 Years Later a bit more, this is a rock-solid entry in the expanding and eccentric world building of the franchise that still keeps its feet on a grounded level. But calling this torture porn is a far stretch. It’s not even close. Yes, there are some gruesome moments here, but the film doesn’t show too much. Thus, I was a little disappointed by the “I don’t have a ticket“-scene, which felt a bit rushed. The effects are all practical though, as far as I noticed, and it’s nice to see stunt actors in real flames, which is a rare sight nowadays. That said, the action is very minimal. The zombies/infected are barely on screen, where the focus primarily lies on the psychological aspects between Jimmy and Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson. It’s still the good vs evil where the humans are the real monsters. This is more of an intense thriller/drama with some exploitation-elements.

What makes this franchise still feel fresh in the year of 2026 is much thanks to the unpredictable writing of Alex Garland, and how he explores our primitive instincts. While the action has taken a morphine pill, the tension is stronger than ever. We have a very simple scene where Jimmy meets Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson, for the first time, sits and has a chat about life, death, religion and whatnot. It seems harmonic and peaceful at the surface while the sky is almost blue, yet you can feel the electricity where one never knows when all hell will blow up. And then we have the uncanny parallels to The Wizard of Oz, which turns up the smoke and mirrors all up to eleven in a scene that was certainly not on my bingo card. Pure post-apocalyptic Mad Max-level insanity. It’s pretty amazing how this particular scene just perfectly fits right in when on paper it shouldn’t. But there you have the genius writing of Garland. Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connel are the stars here, and they’re both intimidating in their own ways. While Fiennes is the veteran he is, who can just speak with body language and facial expressions, I hope O’Connel gets more great villain roles. We saw him last year as the Irish lead vampire in Sinners, and also as one of the sadistic kids in Eden Lake way back in 2008.

While the film in isolation has been a flop, the previous have earned well over its budget for both. And this being a middle-chapter of a trilogy, I surely hope we get the final piece as we still have the incomplete arc of Spike to fill. What happened to Spike’s dad is also an open question. Is he out in the wild and searching for him? What’s next for Samson? Are 28 Weeks Later (2007) completely retcon? Will Brittan ever be Great again? Who knows.

Until next time: Memento Mori.

Director: Nia DaCosta
Writer: Alex Garland
Country & year: UK/USA/Canada, 2026
Actors: Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes Connor Newall, Erin Kellyman, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Robert Rhodes, Emma Laird, Sam Locke, Gareth Locke, Chi Lewis-Parry
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32141377/

Prequels:
– 28 Years Later (2025)
– 28 Weeks Later (2007)
– 28 Days Later (2002)

Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

Posted on October 22, 2025October 22, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Dr. Henry Jekyll is a man who has decided to dedicate his life to curing all illnesses, but he’s about to lose a bit of his determination after his a-hole friend, Professor Robertson, remarks that his experiments are taking such a long time that he will end up dead before he manages to achieve anything of importance. Ouch. Thanks for the encouragement, buddy. Jekyll lets this remark get to his head, and he starts to obsess over the thought of some kind of elixir of life. He ends up using female hormones which he takes from fresh cadavers supplied to him by the duo Burke and Hare (obviously not caring too much about how they got their hands on these corpses in the first place). He reasons that since women, at least traditionally, lives longer than men, this will help him prolong his own life.

Above his apartment, there lives a family consisting of an elderly mother, her son Howard and daughter Susan. And Susan is head over heels attracted to Jekyll, who returns her affections in somewhat awkward ways. Too bad he’s so obsessed with work that there’s no time for romance…he’s too busy making his life-extending serum, and once he’s ready to take a sip and test it, he finds that it’s got a peculiar side effect: it changes him into a woman. And he seems to become quite fond of his female alter ego, which he calls Mrs. Edwina Hyde and claims she is his sister. While Jekyll is getting more and more in touch with his feminine side (literally), Susan becomes jealous of the mysterious woman in Jekyll’s apartment (at least until learning that she’s his “sister“), and Howard starts lusting after her. And there’s a big problem for Jekyll: in order to keep making more of the serum, he needs a steady supply of female hormones…and when his suppliers Burke and Hare are lynched by a mob once people find out what they’ve been doing, Jekyll must take matters in his own hands…with the help of Sister Hyde, who is taking over both his body and mind gradually.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a British Hammer horror film from 1971, directed by Roy Ward Baker and based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s notable for having a female version of Hyde, and also for implementing several historical incidents like Jack the Ripper and the Burke and Hare cases. There have been numerous adaptions of the well-known novella, including the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And while both the original novella and many of its adaptation are often allegories for alcoholism/drug dependency, this is the only one I’ve seen thus far that gives it a gender-bending theme.

Through modern eyes I guess it’s easy to see it as an allegory for being trans. In the first transformation scene, where Jekyll (Ralph Bates) transforms into Hyde (Martine Beswick), the reaction is one of near euphoria where the initial moment of surprise quickly transcends into one of pure joy and relief, where she touches herself and examines her new body. The Hyde persona easily becomes the most dominant, where they both try to fight for control. Just like in the original story, where Dr. Jekyll could have just stopped taking the serum and be rid of Hyde, he becomes dependent on it and just can’t stop. Martine Beswick, who earlier played a role in two James Bond movies (From Russia With Love from 1963 and Thunderball from 1965) first laughed at the premise of the film when being offered the role, but after thinking it over a bit she found the idea of a male/female inside the same person as an interesting theme to explore.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a stylish Hammer horror film, where the scenery and sets create a convincing Victorian London era, with a misty, gloomy and gothic atmosphere. Totally Hammer-style, for sure, with it’s blood and boobs formula which where their forte at the time.

In 1995, a remake of the film was released under the title Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, which received a Razzie Award for Worst Remake/Rip-Off. And the trailer for that one pretty much speaks for itself.

Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Brian Clemens
Country & year: UK, 1971
Actors: Ralph Bates, Martine Beswick, Gerald Sim, Lewis Fiander, Dorothy Alison, Neil Wilson, Ivor Dean, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Philip Madoc, Tony Calvin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068502/

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Posted on October 19, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

If there is a beast inside every man, he meets his match in the beast inside of every woman.

Rosaleen is a young girl who, in her bed wearing her big sister’s makeup (used without permission, of course) dreams that she lives in an 18th century fairytale world. There, her sister Alice is killed, and while her parents are struggling with their grief, Rosaleen is sent to stay with her grandmother (played by Angela Lansbury). She kits a red shawl for her granddaughter, and tells her a tale in order to warn her to never stray from the path and never trust a man with eyebrows that meet. Can’t have been fun to have a unibrow in that village…oh, and if you haven’t taken the hint already: this is of course a Little Red Riding Hood inspired story. Rosaleen returns to her little village, where one of the boys is constantly trying to get her interest. The village’s cattle have also been attacked by what appears to be a wolf, and the village men set out to hunt it down. They manage to kill it, but right before their eyes the wolf’s corpse transforms into a man. Later, when Rosaleen is going to visit her Grandmother, she encounters a handsome huntsman in the forest…one with eyebrows that meet…

The Company of Wolves is a Gothic fantasy horror film from 1984, directed by Neil Jordan with screenplay by Jordan and Angela Carter, adapted from her short story of the same name from 1979, which had earlier been adapted into a radio dramatization in 1980. It was filmed in Shepperton Studios in England.

Already from the start you know that you’re not in for an ordinary story here. The movie is told in a narrative that consists of one main story, with embedded tales that ties in with the overall plot of the film, which is a coming of age story where female sexuality is the dominant theme, presenting it in an adult Little Red Riding Hood version. The stories blend in with Lil’ Red’s life, or Rosaleen as she’s called here, except granny’s warnings seem to evoke more curiosity in her than scaring her. She’s one of those! A female embracing her own sexuality without shaming herself and everyone else over it! Oh goodness me. Maybe it’s really the wolf who should be afraid.

The movie’s strongest asset is how it looks, as it lays it all heavily down on the dreamy visuals and slightly surreal fairytale landscape with its giant mushrooms and crooked trees. The sets are really visually enchanting, perfectly belonging in a dreamy fairytale setting. Jordan said he tried to eroticize the forest, and you won’t really have to put too much effort into seeing some obvious phallus-like symbols in all the mushrooms…

The Company of Wolves is not a gory film, but it does actually have some scenes with true body-horror werewolf transformations, and there’s also a chopped off head and a severed arm. The werewolf effects themselves are actually really good, with transformations shown in full practical glory! Ah, the 80’s. There are also a lot of wolves in the film, so the title surely fits. Most of them are not actually wolves of course, both because of the low budget but also due to cast safety. Most of them are in fact Belgian Sheperd Dogs with dyed fur. Note I said “most of them“, though…because there were indeed some real wolves here, in which Jordan was impressed over young Sarah Patterson (who plays Rosaleen) when she was acting amongst the genuine ones and didn’t fear them. I guess there really might have been a bit of Lil’ Red in her.

The Company of Wolves is a horror fairytale with very obvious erotic undertones. It’s an adult and dreamlike version of Little Red Riding Hood, playing into the obvious terms of a woman’s sexual awakening, the loss of so-called “innocence“ while embracing one’s true self.

Director: Neil Jordan
Writers: Angela Carter, Neil Jordan
Country & year: UK, 1984
Actors: Angela Lansbury, Sarah Patterson, David Warner, Graham Crowden, Brian Glover, Kathryn Pogson, Stephen Rea, Tusse Silberg, Micha Bergese, Georgia Slowe
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087075/

The Woman in Black (2012)

Posted on October 7, 2025October 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1889, and we’re in the village of Cryhin Gifford. Three little girls are playing in their nursery at the top floor of the house, when they suddenly notice a sinister presence in the room. Instead of running out in fear while screaming for their parents (as would be a normal reaction), the girls seem to come under the presence’s influence. They get up, walk towards the window, and jump to their deaths. Several years later, in 1906, we’re in London where the lawyer Arthur Kipps is waiting anxiously while his wife is giving labor. His son, Joseph, is born, but his wife Stella dies during childbirth. From one tragedy to another, just to make us aware pretty early on that this is a bleak and depressing story. Four years later, Arthur is still grieving and struggling, where his boss one day instructs him to visit Crythin Gifford in order to retrieve documents from the late Alice Drablow, who owned the infamous Eel Marsh House. Somewhat reluctantly, he travels there to find himself in a village where everyone is unwelcoming and suspicious of him, with the exception of the wealthy landowner Samuel Daily. The Eel Marsh House is located in a desolate marshland, where the pathway up to the place is sometimes inaccessible due to the high tides. Arthur also starts seeing glimpses of a mysterious woman in black, and each time he sees her, something terrible happens to one of the few remaining children in town. The townspeople blame Arthur, while Samuel tries to convince him not to fall into the superstitions of the villagers. But there are secrets at the Eel Marsh House that will reveal what really happened there, long ago…and it’s up to Arthur to make those secrets become unveiled.

The Woman in Black is a supernatural horror film from 2012, directed by James Watkins with screenplay by Jane Goldman. It is the second adaption of the 1983 Susan Hill novel of the same name, where the first adaption was made in 1989. This 2012 version stars the well known Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in the leading role as Arthur Kipps (which makes for a very special fun fact: in the first adaptation Arthur Kipps is played by Adrian Rawlings, the actor who played Harry Potter’s dad). The movie was produced by Hammer Film Productions, Alliance Films, Cross Creek Pictures and the UK Film Council. It did pretty well at the box office, grossing $129 million worldwide against a budget of $15-$17 million.

While there are tons of movies about haunted houses and vengeful spooks out there, there’s not all too many that really carries that dark, brooding, classic ghost story vibe. You know the type: the ones with large Victorian mansions, dark hallways, sinister secrets, and so on. This, however, is one of those movies. Danielle Radcliffe, most known for his role as Harry Potter of course, is doing a great job playing a tormented and grieving lawyer who gets tangled up in a dark and dangerous mystery. With the perfect brooding locations, using Cotterstock Hall near Oundle in central England for exterior shots of the “Eel Marsh House“, Osea Island in Essex for the fictional “Nine Lives Causeway“ which leads up to the house, and the village scenes filmed in Halton Gill. It’s a beautiful looking film, drenched in gothic, gloomy atmosphere.

While this one and the first movie adaption from 1989 are very similar, they both have a few changes from each other and also compared to the book. And while this 2012 version has a lot more of the moody, dark and gothic atmosphere lingering throughout the entire movie, there were actually some scenes in the first movie that I honestly found creepier, especially the scene during the fog, which I found to be a lot more effective in its subtleness. Still, this one is focusing a lot more on the goth doom ‘n gloom vibe, which suits the film well being a Hammer production. After all, Hammer were pioneers in the gothic horror department.

The Woman in Black is a creepy, atmospheric and delightful ghost horror movie with a sinister vengeful spirit, an old village with unfriendly inhabitants carrying a secret, an old decrepit Victorian house as isolated as can possibly be, and so many other great ingredients for the perfect spooky haunting.

A sequel called The Woman in Black: Angel of Death was released in 2015.

Director: James Watkins
Writer: Jane Goldman
Country & year: UK, 2012
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Sophie Stuckey, Misha Handley, Jessica Raine, Roger Allam, Lucy May Barker, Alisa Khazanova, Ashley Foster
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596365/

Original: The Woman in Black (1989)