Barry Forshaw

MEGAN 2.0, Gerard Johnstone, director/UNIVERSAL

To say that the first film in the Megan franchise hit the ground running would be something of an understatement – the beguiling killer android immediately became a firm genre favourite. Almost inevitably, follow-ups to considerable successes such as this latest iteration burn at a lower flame — but that is very much not the case with this latest entry. Megan 2.0, while adding new frissons, cleverly balances elements of humour and horror. And speaking of the horror, this new Blu-ray from Universal (which arrives in an eye-poppingly spruce edition) also includes the unrated version of the film for those with a taste for the macabre at its most untrammelled – certainly what we get here. There are also along with the gruesome thrills and examination of the direction which AI is travelling – and the human characters, so often the neglected element in modern horror films – are strongly developed. A winner from Universal.

DANS MA PEAU/IN MY SKIN, Marina de Van, director/Radiance

David Cronenberg has been invoked as the yardstick for this one, and the deeply unsettling tone achieved by Marina de Van is in Croneneberg-like vein. Self-mutilation and a dark sexual quest are at the heart of this uncompromising and unflinching movie, with a striking and brave performance by de Van herself.

POSEIDON 4K, Wolfgang Petersen, director/Arrow

The 1970s disaster movie wave may have passed into history (or at least been subsumed into contemporary mainstream cinema), but older audiences remember these often absurd but highly entertaining spectacles with affection. One of the very first was The Poseidon Adventure, and it takes a certain amount of cheek to take on that now celebrated title and do something different with it – but that is precisely what Das Boot director Wolfgang Petersen has done here. The result is markedly different from the original, but it’s a spectacular diversion, with exhilarating stunts.

TALK TO ME, Danny & Michael Philippou, directors/Second Sight Films

This is genuinely unsettling fare, directed by Danny & Michael Philippou and acted with a rigour and forcefulness which is rarely seen in the genre. This debut effort for the two directors landed securely, quickly establishing a reputation. The plot involves a group of teenage friends who unwisely adopt a bizarre new party craze that utilises an embalmed hand to open the door to the spirit world. Needless to say, the results are inevitably lethal. The authoritative directing duo have at their disposal a particularly adroit cast well in tune with their macabre vision.

SUNSET WARRIORS, John Woo, director/88 Films

Director John Woo’s energetic channelling of film technique burst upon the scene with what can only be described as a detonation, and even before his sojourn in Hollywood, viewers had become familiar with his notably kinetic oeuvre. Sunset Warriors already has all of his familiar trademarks, such as bursts of action that are both highly improbable and highly exhilarating. As usual with 88 Films, the transfer here is impeccable.

OBJECT Z, Daphne Shadwell, director/BFI

How many modern viewers of a certain age will remember this intriguing curiosity? While other television science fiction of the era is fondly remembered and celebrated (notably Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass series), Object Z is known only by reputation. It is a six-part serial composed of half-hour episodes shown in the timeslot traditionally aimed at children, teatime, on Rediffusion TV. In fact the scriptwriter, Christopher McMaster, cleverly pitched his scenario in such a fashion that it might appeal to a youthful and mature audience – as indeed it did. A strange object is heading towards the earth, threatening the destruction of all life on the planet (in not-dissimilar fashion to George Pall’s film When Worlds Collide). What follows is — despite the limitations of the technology of the day – a serious attempt to convey a growing sense of disaster with some strong and authoritative performances. Outrageous plot twists keep the level of interest high and this is a welcome issue from the BFI.

PERPETRATOR, Jennifer Reeder, director/Arrow

Aficionados of the horror genre are becoming harder and harder to please, and it takes a director sporting both traditional inventiveness and a fresh eye to invigorate their entries and lift them above the rut. Jennifer Reeder is such a filmmaker, and Perpetrator is the perfect shop window for her wares. This is an accomplished piece of work, and resounding proof that Reeder is a director to be watched – even by male viewers, though the ethos here is firmly feminist and directed against male predators. The narrative is in the form of a coming-of-age drama with elements of the serial killer and supernatural fantasy fields. In terms of the film’s colour palette, comparisons have already been drawn to the surrealist colour schemes of the great Italian director Mario Bava, strikingly realised here by director of photography Sevdije Kastrati.

THE CONJURING, James Wan, director/Warners 4K

The remarkable success of The Conjuring franchise no doubt owed a lot to its initial impetus, launching one of the highest grossing horror franchises to date under the skilful direction of James Wan. In this first outing, a family with multiple daughters is menaced by an eldritch force. The director’s manipulation of tension and shock is assured, and the homages to earlier classic examples of supernatural terror are well integrated. Sceptics will not be persuaded by the fact that the film is supposedly ‘drawn from the (real life) case files of married demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren’. But that hardly matters – in the same way the fact that the film of The Amityville Horror claimed to be from an actual case was speedily forgotten as the franchise proceeded. Those of us who love supernatural chills don’t really need to believe in them – except for the duration of the film. The Conjuring stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the Warrens, and Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as Roger and Carolyn Perron, residents of the cursed house.

PREY, Norman J Warren director/88 Films

Here’s a film for which I provided a booklet essay. In the glory days of British horror movies of the 1970s, the late Norman J. Warren’s maverick endeavours were an unsung asset of the field, and only the afterlife of such grisly gems as Satan’s Slave, Terror and Prey have given him the reputation he deserves as one of the most hardworking and energetic directors this country has produced, however haphazard he frequently is. Prey is an intriguing riff on another popular film — the source here is DH Lawrence’s The Fox: we have the warring lesbian couple, their union disrupted by predatory mail interloper, and Warren even has a fox in his Prey scenario. The interloper here, however, is an alien – who, as Norman J Warren himself rightly points out, looks more like a werewolf than a visitor from another planet. (Solid performances here, and if the budget doesn’t run to a single special effect shot of the alien’s interstellar craft, there is still a nicely-tuned sense of strangeness..

RED PLANET, Antony Hoffman, director/Arrow

The title Red Planet may suggest a rabidly anti-Communist film of the 1950s, the sort that is now seen as a notorious example of the ‘Red Scare’ phenomenon. But this more recent science fiction outing directed by Antony Hoffman is a very different kettle of fish, and belongs in what might now be seen as the Gravity school of filmmaking in which the variety of menaces encountered by adventurous astronauts on alien worlds is more science-based, avoiding the more outrageous elements of the SF genre. The conflict between beleaguered spaceship captain Carrie-Ann Moss (most celebrated for her memorable apearances in the Matrix franchise) and her uppity crew is handled with confidence, and overfamiliar elements are suitably spruced up (the meteor shower that invariably besets space travellers and throws everything into chaos is here replaced by solar flares, producing exactly the same problems). Special effects are not quite up to the seamless quality of more recent movies, but still have a genuine sense of awe.

MARTYRS, Pascal Laugier, director/Eureka

Aficionados of more extreme horror films realised that they might truly test their mettle with the rigorous endurance test that was Pascal Laugier’s remarkable Martyrs, a film made with devastating command of the medium which many more squeamish viewers admitted they couldn’t get through. The subsequent Incident in a Ghostland was less gruelling, but showed that the director had not lost an iota of his authority when it comes to stretching the nerves of the viewer. Martyrs, needless to say, is not for the faint-of-heart.

THE BETRAYAL,Tokuzo Tanaka, director/Radiance

In Tokuzo Tanaka’s remarkable drama, a samurai who is trying to live according to the ideals he is devoted to finds himself estranged form his colleagues and, accordingly, vulnerable. Taking on his own shoulders the negative behaviour of others, he is exiled for a year before he may be brought back into his clan’s embrace, but as the title suggests, betrayal is the name of the game, and he is soon a hunted quarry. This is a mesmerising piece with performances that are more understated than is customary for the genre. Visuals, too, come up stunningly, and are outstandingly realised..

THE SHADOW ZONE, J.S. Cardone, director/88 Films

As a group of NASA hypersleep researchers undergo tests in an secluded underground facility in the Nevada desert, one participant dies during the experiment. NASA assigns Captain Hickock (David Beecroft) to look into the death, and what he discovers leads to a series of horrifying events The scientists, under the control of Dr. Erhart (played by a mature Louise Fletcher, so memorably sinister in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest as Nurse Ratched) has breached the boundaries of dream-state sleep and opened the door into a parallel dimension with grim and surreal results. this is unusual fare; a film accomplishes its modern modest aims with some style.

LOST IN SPACE, Stephen Hopkins, director/Arrow

Big budget remakes of television successes are often a mixed bag, but while this lavish SF attempt met with a mixed response, it certainly delivers the goods in terms of its science fiction effects. it’s hard to remember a time when aficionados of the genre had to be content with SF items appearing at staggered intervals – although there was one era rather similar to our own: the late 1950s and early 60s, when the SF genre was highly popular, and audiences flocked to see both high and low budget movies. As this latest Lost in Space proves, special effects nowadays have moved on by a quantum leap.

WHO? Jack Gold, director/88 Films

And another intriguing film for which Kim Newman and I furnished a commentary. Jack Gold’s Who? is an accomplished science fiction entry based on a cult novel by Algis Budrys and concerns an American scientist returning from a car crash in Russia with what appears to be a metal head and a serious doubt as to his identity. Elliot Gould and Joseph Bova work together well as an intelligence man and the mysterious scientist, but as so often, it is the ever reliable Trevor Howard who walks away with the acting honours.

Coming from Hammer: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN 4K, Terence Fisher, director