Dark Star

DARK STAR
Director ~ John Carpenter
Writers ~ John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon
1974, US
Stars ~ Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brian Narelle

Blue collar slackers in space on a shoestring budget makes for a all-round amusing entertainment. The crew barely come out of their beards to express more than bored competence with their job, bickering and making daft and dangerous distractions for themselves while they look for new planets to blow up, just to meet quota and kill time. Famously, a student film expanded to full length and sporting a slightly amusing/ridiculous beach-ball alien, there is plenty of agenda and Carpenter director’s flare to make this a credible peer to other Seventies sci-fi favourites. It may not present his excellent trademark widescreen shots, but there’s a lot of canny framing with the claustrophobia and the basic effects having a charm of their own.

The crew act like burnouts that sort-of know each other after decades in space; indeed, they may be suffering the numbing mental repercussions of such employment. Sci-fi antecedents may have leaned on a shinier future, and ‘Star Wars’ may have looked lived in, but ‘Dark Star’ looked worked in, perhaps suffering from cut-backs, a detail capitalised on by writer/actor Dan O’Bannon for his following seminal credit, ‘Alien’. (‘Silent Running’ (1972) does this, and ‘Blade Runner’ (1982) arguably merges both for an urban retro-futurism.)

The lack of resources is easily mocked, but the indie stoner sensibility hasn’t dated, and the wit, writing, promise, limited production design and overall conception is more than competent, even if the pacing is a little stretched. There’s a real sense of artists really going for it despite limitations. It works as a satire on the pretensions of science-fiction by saying, yeh, but what if you had to work there? It has a smart counter-culture sensibility, affectionately satirising prestige genre fare.Variations on ‘2001: a space odyssey’s (1968) HAL, becoming one with the universe and cribbing the ending of Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘Kaleidoscope’ (1949) make for a strong conclusion, giving this enough dark humour and ludicrous detail for its solid reputation. A minor delight.

Minions & Monsters

Minions & Monsters

Director ~ Pierre Coffin

Writers ~ Pierre Coffin, Brian Lynch

2026, USA

Stars ~ Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Allison Janney

Well, from the start this isn’t what you might expect implied by that title – that’s “&”, not “versus”. Rather, it is a paean to movies and filmmaking with a host of in-jokes from the silent era through to Kaiju, ‘The Mummy’, and ‘The Blob’. There’s Harold Lloyd; ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’; Cthulhu; ‘Citizen Kane’ is amusing (the minions can’t quite the transition to talkies). But it is not one of those films that is for kids with a few in-joke bones thrown to the accompanying parents: it doesn’t expect the youngsters to recognise silent film references but just to enjoy the slapstick and the giggling stupidity of the minions. And, having taken its time setting things in place, it becomes about the minions trying to make a monster movie (and sowing the seeds for the next generation of filmmakers?). 

Perhaps the Dort (Jesse Eisenberg) storyline doesn’t offer much more than time-filling and diversion, but the whole is fast, frenzied, mildly anarchic and amusing, colourful, and often surprising in its insistence in being cine-literate. The minions have emerged as a superlative comic invention from their ‘Despicable Me’ origins, and certainly a franchise film at this stage (it’s their seventh appearance) is surprising in its validity for existing rather than just cashing-in.

Pierre Coffin, one of the original creators and their continued voice, is reported to have been averse to making another minions movie until he heard the premise. It is stuffed full of gags and detail in the contemporary rapid-fire style that (in this case) rewards repeat viewings. Celebrating friendships and collaboration as much as giggly chaos, and the triumph and joy of creativity against the shortsighted cultish need to find a Big Boss. It is a kids’ film with oodles of wider appeal for cineasts. And like any bunch of gigglers, it’s immune to churlish criticism.

FrightFest Halloween 2025

FrightFest Halloween 2024

 

Primate

Director ~ Johannes Roberts

Writers ~ Ernest Riera, Johannes Roberts

2025, USA

Stars ~ Johnny Sequoyah, Troy Kotsur, Jessica Alexander

 

Rabid simian versus privileged/uninteresting/obnoxious pretty young things. Fearing the audience isn’t one for a build-up, it starts by skipping ahead to its first kill, which is admittedly a good one for grabbing the attention. From there, we’re in a super-deluxe picturesque house on a cliff edge (why do they call for help? Who do they think will hear?) where the family keep a chimpanzee as a pet: unfortunately, sweet Ben gets rabies (the film even notes that Hawaii isn’t an area that gets rabies?) and goes on the rampage. It’s as if someone saw the more disturbing chimp sections in ‘NOPE’ and went, “oh! I have an idea!” (although there is a history of killer chimps from ‘Phenomena’ to ‘Link’). Good kills, nicely filmed and staged but distinctly standard fare. Its most impressive aspect is the performance of Miguel Torres Umba as Ben.

 

 

Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon

Writer + Director ~ Jason Howden

2025, New Zealand

Stars ~ Milo Cawthorne, Kimberley Crossman, James Joshua Blake

 

Crowd-funded and shot in Canada, this is the sequel to the 2015 original, which I remembered liking as being a sort of ‘Bill & Ted’ metal-horror funny crowd pleaser full of affectionate fun-making of the scene. This sequel is rude crude gory silly, occasionally amusing in its excess (the glory hole episode will likely be your test) but overlong, sometimes simply crass and more hit-and-miss.

Every Heavy Thing

Writer + Director ~ Mickey Reece

2025, USA

Stars ~ Josh Fadem, James Urbaniak, Barbara Crampton

 

Although opening with its weakest scene – bare breasts and vocal fry – there’s increasing intrigue, jazzed up with video effects and dream sequences that are integral. There’s a pleasing retro-futurist tone to these interjections. Josh Faden impresses as the “almost cool” Joe, an underachiever finding himself embroiled with serial killers and tech bro obsessions. There are women disappearing without a trace (even if there’s blood spray left behind?) and Joe isn’t feeling too good. The vibe is everyday living, which works well with the hint of Philip K. Dick-like “Failing Reality” and being caught up with another’s sociopathy, but there’s also a closing scattering of “that’ll do” that undermines any conclusion. A fascinating and ambitious near miss.

 

Dolly

Director ~ Rod Blackhurst

Writers ~ Rod Blackhurst, Brandon Weavil

2015, USA

Stars ~ Fabianne Therese, Russ Tiller, Michalina Scorzelli

 

Hitting that 16mm ‘70s Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven vibe hard, Blackhurst’s Don’t Go Off the Trail public service announcement is ugly and derivative in all the right places, making this a solid homage to those bareknuckle disturbing trendsetters. It introduces a formidable porcelain baby-faced monster, lots of ikkiness to do with her obsession with making a kidnapped woman her baby and some shock-gore that delivers exactly what it sets out to do. Fabianne Therese also makes for a better-than-average victim that must kick in her brutal survivalist mode to get out, as well as confront fears of monstrous motherhood.

 

Affection

Writer + Director ~ BT Meza

2025, USA

Stars ~ Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne

 

The emotional and physical range of Jessica Rothe truly elevates what could have been a fun enough Who Am I? sci-fi thriller. She is scary in her confused state as well as warm and maternal as things evolve. Julianna Layne’s child performance is also above par, and Joseph Cross never gives up on the emotional motivations of his character. As a chamber piece of unravelling identities and revelations, the themes of gaslighting, mistrust, insurmountable grief and choosing what to care about again show that science-fiction can get to those nooks and crannies of the human condition that other genres can’t quite reach. It not adverse to plot holes and the other weaknesses, but it is fun, ambitious and full-blooded.

 

Posthouse

Director ~ Nikolas Red

Writers ~ Nikolas Red, Jericho Aguado, Kenneth Dagatan

2025, Philippines

Stars ~ Sid Lucero, Bea Binene, Andrea Del Rosario

 

The search to complete the first Filipino silent horror film and – of course – inadvertently unearth an ancient monster in the setting of an abandoned editing suite are winners, setting up strongly for the supernatural. Sid Lucero gives a fully rounded performance, torn between completing and owning his father’s legacy or his own future with editing commercials.  The supporting cast is mostly rudimentary, which leaves this chamber piece somewhat floundering. Despite its fascinating historical grounding, moments of creepiness and themes of an unshakable past (can you guess what the true ancient emerging monster is?), there is the sense of lost momentum and confused focus that leaves this an underachiever.

 

 

The Turkish Coffee Table

Director ~ Can Evrenol

2025, Turkey

Stars ~ Alper Kul, Algi, EkeÖzgür, Emre Yildirim

 

Remake of Caye Cassas’ dark farce original – one that goes into the “steel yourself!” pile when thinking of a rewatch – hitting most of the key beats of the original and therefore retains its shock, providing the darkest twist on cringe comedy. It was Turkish comedian Alper Kul that was integral to this being made. It is a little more blatant and changes the emphasis of the conclusion but nevertheless stands as a solid tracing.

 

 

Coyotes

Director ~ Colin Minihan

Writers ~ Tad Daggerhart, Daniel Meers and Nick Simon

2025, US

Stars ~ Justin Long, Mila Harris, Brittany Allen

 

Obnoxious, privileged characters must battle to survive attacks from bad weather, CGI coyotes and obnoxious direction. Despite Justin Long and Kate Bosworth knowing what they’re doing, plus a couple of genuinely amusing gags, there’s a lot of insufferable affectations and annoyance to get through, not least the most aggravating of teen daughter characters. Although the film drops cartoon character name cards (e.g. obnoxious direction) signalling we shouldn’t take it seriously, there’s also very little here to care about. Except maybe how CG the coyotes look. And yeah, it’s all about family, as if that’s justification.

 

 

Mag Mag

Director ~ Yuriyan Retriever

Writer ~ Eisuke Naitô

2025, Japan

Stars ~ Mai Fukagawa, Ôshirô Ma, Sara Minami

 

The opening of the first victim being killed by the ghost whilst pissing all over his friends should have been a clue. Then what follows is the pleasant comfort of J-horror tropes, looking like it will be a series of ‘The Grudge’ style vignettes (there’s even a knowing cameo by ‘Grudge’ director Takeshi Shimizu), and perhaps you are wondering how it will fill out its runtime this way; but then it takes a somewhat leftfield turn into hysteria, perhaps parody (the exorcism), heads off in its merry whim, skipping ahead of the audience, but ends up knowing exactly what it is doing. A revenge curse ghost – Mag Mag herself is pleasingly creepy – turns into a deeper tale of weaponizing various iterations of “love”, from obsessive crushes, abusive, to an innocent child. The chapter narrative means you never quite know where it will be heading and just when you think you do, it ups the stakes. Quite the rollercoaster oddity that delivers the long-haired ghost goods whilst also shaking up the genre to see what else is possible: art love, musical numbers, surrealism, body horror, a note on the corrosive power of loneliness, etc.