VOD: V/H/S/Halloween (dirs: Bryan M. Ferguson, Casper Kelly, R.H.Norman, Alex Ross Perry, Micheline Pitt, Paco Plaza and Anna Zlokovic, 2025)

"Happy Halloween, kids!"

The V/H/S/ franchise, under the aegis of streamer Shudder, gets cranked up once again for another motley anthology of lo-fi tales, this time finally getting round to a collection based around the theme of Halloween.  Cue trick-or-treating going horribly wrong, deadly new soft-drink trials, a police procedural investigation of a murderous Halloween party seance, a very unusual bowl of  candy, a town suffering a spate of child murders and a neighbourhood House Of Horrors that turns all too real.  As is often the case with these packages, the short films vary from the silly/cheesy to the rather unpleasant, the relentless use of shaky-cam and The Blair Witch Project tropes are patience-testing and there is a lot of running around dark corridors screaming, but this is one of the more coherent, consistent and reasonably watchable collections in the V/H/S/ series.
 

VOD: Screamboat (dir: Steven LaMorte, 2025)

"Everything gets recycled, over and over again...to save money!"

New York's Staten Island Ferry provides the backdrop for this limp comedy-horror - part of the trend of scarifying newly-out-of-copyright children's  characters in cheap-as-chips horrors - in which a 'large killer mouse' takes the place of the standard masked killer and picks off crew and random night-travellers, including a group of obnoxious princesses celebrating a birthday night out amongst other broadly-drawn stereotypes.  Apart from some nice shots of the city at night, the film follows well-worn 1980s slasher conventions quite slavishly in a lethargic manner, right down to its simple gloopy physical effects and synth-orchestral soundtrack.  Indeed, the kills are basic, relying on copious blood-spatter for effect, although one bravura scene dispenses with most of the supporting cast in one fell swoop, and the attempts at comedy mostly fail to land.  Even with David Howard Thornton - Art The Clown himself - playing Screamboat Willie, the character/physical work is much less effective here than in his signature Terrifier role.  Whilst Screamboat is nowhere near as weak as Winnie-The-Pooh - Blood And Honey, it is still rather weak overall.
 

FILM: Tron Ares (dir: Joachim Roenning, 2025)

CELEBRATING 500,000 VISITS TO THIS WEBSITE!

"Maybe there is something wrong with me..."

"...or maybe there is something eight with you."

Some critics have decided to give this third cinematic entry in the Tron franchise a good kicking, but how you respond to the film will basically be determined by whether or not you are fan of the series and of sci-fi in general, as for fans there is much to enjoy.  Dispensing with the first two films with an opening breakneck-speed montage that also introduces two battling tech giants, Encom (working for humanitarian good) and Dillinger (militarising The Grid's supersoldiers, led by new Master Control security program Ares), with both seeking Flynn's Permanence Code that will enable anything brought from computer world into real world to last beyond twenty-nine minutes.  The film does have three basic issues: the script/dialogue is clunky; Jared Leto (as Ares) has little presence, with Greta Lee (as Head of Encom) faring little better; and the whole film feels emotionally flat and unengaging.  However, Evan Peters (as the determinedly ruthless Head of Dillinger) and Gillian Anderson (as his icy matriarch) are great, the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is absolutely glorious, there is lots and lots of world-of-Tron-styled digital eye-candy (with even a cheeky recreation of a famous Akira motorbike shot), and there are many pleasing fan-service moments and big lively set pieces (notably the whole of the third act).  The film is a fairly relentless assault on the senses, which non-fans will dismiss as noisy sci-fi nonsense, but Tron fans will have a very entertaining couple of hours,  (Note the brief scene that appears shortly into the end credits; let us hope that it does not take another fifteen years for the next sequel to appear).

 

VOD: Elio (dirs: Madelaine Sharafian and Domee Shi, 2025)

"It's happening!  It's really happening!"

Pixar brings this heartwarming and perhaps familiar tale of orphaned Elio, a small boy who dreams big about space travel  and unexpectedly has his wish come true when a quirky collection of aliens intercept the Voyager probe and - believing Elio is Earth's leader - take Elio on a grand adventure to the Communiverse (a child's-entry metaphor for the United Nations) - as his perky clone take his place back on Earth.  The film is an appealing mix of wry knockabout humour, melancholy, joy and wonder that encapsulates the titular young character wonderfully.  Inevitably this junior coming-of-age tale takes in a thematic tour of grief and acceptance, friendship and realisation of self-worth, as it breezes along and Elio takes on a 'big bad' (with a rather sudden ending), and whilst Elio may be fairly standard Pixar/junior animated-sci-fi fodder,  it is also busy, colourful and fun to watch.
 

VOD: Steve (dir: Tim Mielants, 2025)

"Full speed into the abyss..."

Set in 1996 - and all the more devastating for being still very relevant today - and following a "clusterf**k" twenty-fours, Steve (Cillian Murphy) is the beleaguered headteacher of crumbling Stanton Wood Manor, a last-chance residential intervention centre for a handful of troubled teenage boys, including the emotionally-intelligent but lost seventeen-year-old Shy (Jay Lycurgo).  Flitting between a largely kinetic fly-on-the-wall documentary style and an actual TV news crew filming an end-piece with interviews and a more detached viewpoint, the film pulls no punches in presenting its confrontational emotional raw honesty and the ever-present simmering and explosive tension.   It is bleak and crushingly sad but not without its moments of genuine humour, and the well-placed use of a Chekhov's Gun leads to a heartbreaking moment of realisation on the part of the viewer of an event that is about to happen at one point.  Cillian Murphy gives yet another of his incredibly immersive and impactful performances as the leader trying to carry everyone's demons as well as his own, ably backed up by Jay Lycurgo's control and range as Shy and Tracey Ullman 's poised counterpoint as Steve's deputy.  Steve is not an easy watch, but it is very rewarding and impressive indeed.
 

VOD: The Penguin Lessons (dir: Peter Cattaneo, 2025)

"Life changes you."

Inspired by a true story, this gentle and charming comedy-drama sees Steve Coogan play a disaffected English teacher arriving to tach at a private school in 1976 Argentina who, on a break to Uruguay, adopts - or is adopted by - a penguin which he rescues from an oil slick. The early lighter part of the film that follows Coogan reluctantly and hesitantly bonding with his new charge gives way to the real historical background of the military coup that provides the film with an increasingly sombre edge, but the film balances both strands very nicely in the second half as the penguin changes not only the teacher's life but those around him as well.  Steve Coogan's understated and sardonic is utterly delightful and at the centre of the film's success.  On paper it is the bizarre love-child of Dead Poets Society and Mr Popper's Penguins, but in actuality the script is warm and wry, the location work is attractive and both the chucklesome situations and the heartfelt dramatic thread work very well.  Also, it goes without saying: the penguin is the cutest creature imaginable! 

 

VOD: Marching Powder (dir: Nick Love, 2025)

"Why do I feel completely f**king irrelevant?"
"'Cos you are!"

Set in the 'world' of The Football Factory and very much reliant on the magnetic presence of Danny Dyer, Marching Powder focuses on hard-nut football fan Jack, approaching middle age (like T2: Trainspotting) and finding himself increasingly on the fringes of the culture and facing family pressures, with six weeks to prove to the court that he can turn his life around and avoid prison.  The film's self-awareness and fourth-wall-breaking moments give it more substance than the generically liberal use of fighting, swearing (notably the frequent c-bombs) and ever-present booze and drugs, with Danny Dyer mining his notable experience and skills to deliver both the dramatic and comedic elements to good effect (similar to his BAFTA-winning presence in TV's Mr. Bigstuff), and Stephanie Leonidas as his long-suffering wife provides an interestingly calm centre to the film, providing the rather touching love story at the unexpected heart of it all.  As much about the inability to change and to face up to reality as it is about toxic masculinity and violence culture, Marching Powder is a far more interesting film than its limitingly generic trailer suggests.
 

VOD: Lilo & Stitch (2025) (dir: Dean Fleischer Camp, 2025)

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG!

"Will you please stay still?"

Always a bit of an oddity in the Disney canon, this warped take on E.T. is Disney's latest live-action re-mounting of one of its popular animated movies.  It is a remarkably faithful recycling of the 2002 hit, re-telling the story of a young Hawaiian girl who 'adopts' a lively furry alien from the dog pound which - being designated a dangerous genetic experiment on its homeworld - is being pursued by its creator and a self-styled 'earth-expert' comic-relief duo in human form.  The film offers a sunny surfing/island vibe along with a cheerful modern-Disney-style singalong soundtrack and a few Elvis numbers for good measure.  With both the feisty young outsider Lilo and the mischievous Stitch providing identification points for the very-young target audience, the film offers a deft combination of gentle drama and rambunctious silliness that will appeal to the youngsters.  The CG elements and sequences blend effortlessly with the live action, with a nicely-judged performance from Sydney Agudong as Lilo's older sister trying to hold the family together in an expanded role here, and the film has a fun streak of daftness perhaps a little lacking in most recent Disney offerings.  The mayhem may get a little wearing over its unnecessarily-longer run-time, but the film has enough heart and chuckles to win through.
 

VOD: Presence (dir: Steven Soderbergh, 2025)

"I mean, it's life."
"Actually, it's death."

Written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh, this intriguing and uniquely unsettling mood piece sees an ordinary but fracturing family move into an ordinary suburban home, the USP here being that the whole story is shown through the fluidly floating POV of a trapped occupying spirit.  Th well-maintained central conceit creates an almost dream-like feel and allows for an intimate, almost intrusive exploration of the family's private life and in particular the teenage daughter's grief, being aware of the spirit's presence and believing it could be the spirit of her deceased best friend.  With its fan-bating elements of Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity, subdued lighting, realistic in-situ presentation of sound and the occasional appearance of the mournfully elegiac soundtrack, the collision of the disparate family dynamics and largely unsympathetic characters makes for interesting viewing, and its portrayal of nihilistic sadness is bleak.  It is hardly ground-breaking, but the different approach and style makes Presence an intriguing viewing experience, leading to a really well-executed ending.

 

VOD: Henry Danger The Movie (dir: Joe Menendez, 2025)

"Dude, watch your language - there's kids around!"

In this expansion of the popular stalwart Nickolodeon children's TV favourite, a young girl Kid Danger superfan steals a portal-opening dimension-hopping device that pulls a now more grown-up Henry into her various fan-fiction worlds, including an animated world, a future survivalist settlement and a lame nightclub/musical interlude, as our hero tries to get back home.  The film quickly reunites the now-notably-older main characters, led by the dashingly bland Jace Norman, with the dimension-hopping paving the way for a variety of alter-egos, bad wigs and silly costumes.  With production values clearly improved from the TV show in an effort to look more filmic, the sit-com stylings are largely dropped, leaving the movie somewhere between Power Rangers and Goosebumps in its attempt to be a little darker, but it is still rather slow, tame and low-key even for its very young target audience.  It fleetingly touches on child-friendly themes such as growing up, responsibility, independence and friendship, and the mini-episodic approach perhaps gives the film a little more narrative substance than most children's fare.  Nevertheless, the show's young fans will lap it up, and a last-gasp inevitable cameo suggests this might not be the last we see of Henry and his gang.