SOCIETY (full article at The Guardian Australia)

The Substance, Together, Titane, Sick of Myself: body horror is having a bit of a resurgence lately. So what better time to revisit Brian Yuzna’s slimy obscenity Society? It’s a movie that definitely thinks we should be taxing billionaires, and to make its point, Society throws an ending at you that you will never – ever – forget.

Society’s entire reputation rests upon this finale and there is no discussion to be had without addressing the queasy and lurid final act. So please take this as both spoiler and content warning, and don’t blame me if you feel like your eyeballs need cleaning after seeing it.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/24/eat-the-rich-before-they-eat-you-in-praise-of-body-horror-classic-society

IMDB: Society

THE FLY (full article at The Guardian Australia)

Throw a rock at David Cronenberg’s back catalogue and you’re going to hit something dark, nauseating and probably a bit deviant. His latest movie, Crimes of the Future, is just the same, arriving in Australian cinemas almost exactly 36 years after the release of his icky body horror classic The Fly.

Proving itself an exception to the commonly held belief that all remakes are inferior, The Fly is a tight 96 minutes of vomit-soaked bedlam, as Jeff Goldblum inadvertently mutates himself into an ill-tempered insect. On its deeper level, you might want to ponder The Fly as a disease allegory, or perhaps a stern warning against scientific hubris – or maybe you’re just a sick puppy who wants to see a bloke’s hand dissolve in acidic fly puke. They’re all fine reasons to revisit the film which, for my money, is Cronenberg’s best.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/31/the-fly-96-minutes-of-grotesque-vomit-soaked-bedlam-and-david-cronenbergs-best-film

IMDB: The Fly

TITANE (full review at Screen Realm)

Titane is the second film from Julia Ducournau and the follow up to the acclaimed 2016 cannibal movie Raw.

As a child, Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) is in a serious car crash and has a metal plate fitted inside her head. Bearing a striking scar from the incident we meet her again as an adult, working as a dancer and living at home with her parents. She has an uncomfortably terse relationship with her father, who was driving the car at the time of the accident. 

Events take a turn when Alexia murders a fan who is harassing her. It’s not her first homicide, it transpires, and Titane takes a step into some truly wild territory when, having had sex with a car (!), Alexia discovers she is pregnant and her body is producing a jet black motor oil. If all this sounds a little weird, rest assured… it is! But Ducournau skilfully offsets the oddity with some ferocious and bloody violence, so the film remains resolutely a horror movie and never laughable, despite how it might sound on paper.

As the police close in, Alexia goes on the run, assuming the identity of a missing person, Adrien. She goes to live with the boy’s father Vincent (Vincent Lindon), at a fire station, pretending to be his son and hiding her pregnancy from everyone.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:

https://www.screenrealm.com/you-cannot-kill-david-arquette-movie-documentary-review/

IMDB: Titane

THE BEACH HOUSE (full review at Screen Realm)

The Beach House is the debut feature from Jeffrey A Brown and is a subtle, slow building horror movie taking in elements of body horror, contagion panic and HP Lovecraft. It’s streaming on Shudder from 9 July 2020.

Emily (Liana Liberato) and Randall (Noah Le Gros) arrive at Randall’s family holiday home for a weekend away, in which they hope to reconnect in their relationship. As it is the off-season, the neighbourhood is almost entirely deserted, so it is with considerable surprise that they meet Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryann Nagel), friends of Randall’s father who chose the same weekend to stay in the house, each couple believing it would be unoccupied. Rather than find a hotel, they all agree to remain in the house and have dinner together, discovering that they get along famously.

During the course of a heavy night a strange, phosphorescent mist drifts in from the sea and they go outside to investigate. The following morning, Emily and Randall start to notice things around them are not quite right… without being able pinpoint the reason. Despite the beautiful, shimmering ocean, they become aware there is menace in the brine.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-beach-house-movie-review-horror/

IMDB:The Beach House

COLOR OUT OF SPACE (full review at Screen Realm)

Color Out Of Space is the new film from Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C Waller’s production house, Spectra Vision, which has previously brought us the likes of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, The Greasy Strangler and last year’s feral rage monster, Mandy. Adapted from a short story of the same name, the apparent personal favourite of legendary horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Color Out Of Space sees the eccentric cult director Richard Stanley team up with a resurgent Nicolas Cage to deliver their take on H.P.’s famous tale of cosmic horror.

Nathan (Nicolas Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson) are living the dream. Having escaped the pressures of city life, they have retreated to their new country pile to enjoy the simple things in life. Together with their children, Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) and Benny (Brendan Meyer), and hippie squatter Ezra (Tommy Chong) who lives at the bottom of their garden, their lifestyle is more-or-less idyllic. Nathan farms alpacas, Theresa conducts her financial business from her office and the kids want to live somewhere less boring.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/color-out-of-space-movie-review-nicolas-cage/

IMDB: Color Out Of Space

GUZOO: THE THING FORSAKEN BY GOD - PART1 (aka Guzoo: Kami ni misuterareshi mono - Part I)

This was a tricky one to learn about and I expected that trying to find it would involve a lot more work. Fortunately Guzoo's minimal search results yielded a YouTube upload, and while that's not the ideal screening option it does stand as your best (only?) chance of seeing Kazuo Komizu's splatter obscurity.

Trying to learn more about this film ended up being very similar to investigating Japanese punk records - when you arm yourself with an overwhelming curiosity and zero language ability. A chance encounter with a screenshot on Tumblr led me down a rabbit hole where, beyond what's here on Letterboxd, the only thing I've been able to establish is that Part 2 does not exist.

On to the film itself then, and if you're not consumed by waves of intrigue at the title Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part 1, then perhaps this is a good place to take your leave. The plot is not a million miles away from Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu as four schoolgirls go to visit a family friend in a country house and after a bunch of innocent wholesome fun, get terrorised by something sinister- in this instance, a lumpen, tentacled monstrosity from the basement. The creature is an amorphous mound of blubber that really looks a hell of a lot like a Shoggoth from Lovecraftian lore. John Carpenter's influence can also be felt in the Prince of Darkness vibe and similarities to The Thing in some of the effects. Stuart Gordon's body horror masterpiece From Beyond emerged the same year and Guzoo feels a bit like its demented sibling.

But the main issue with Guzoo is that at a brisk 40 minutes it feels more like the IDEA of a movie than a fully fledged story. Guzoo could have been something spectacular if they'd just (pardon the pun) fleshed it out a bit more.

IMDB: Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part 1

This review was also posted to Letterboxd

REPLACE (full review at The Reel Word)

Replace, from writer-director Norbert Keil and co-writer Richard Stanley (Hardware), is a decent attempt at body horror/sci-fi cross-pollination, with a surprising reveal and a strange, almost ethereal style to it.

After a night out, Kira (Rebecca Forsythe) starts to suffer confusion and memory loss. At the same time she notices a patch of dry, eczema-like skin on her finger. In the hallway of her building she meets her neighbour, Sophia (Lucie Aron), and the two begin a relationship. After suffering a blackout, and with her hand getting worse, Kira visits Dr. Crober (Barbara Crampton) for treatment. Crober prescribes medication, but as Kira soon discovers: her skin can improve if she replaces it with fresh tissue from a living person. In desperation, Kira’s need for transplant flesh pushes her to murder and Replace starts to go a bit Frankenstein, as new parts replace old. Except here, it’s more a case of pre-emptive graverobbing.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/replace-movie-review-horror-2017/

IMDB: Replace

LA NOCHE DEL VIRGEN (THE NIGHT OF THE VIRGIN) (full review at The Reel Word)

On New Year’s Eve 2015, the perpetually unlucky and titular virgin, Nico (Javier Bolando), is seduced by older woman Medea (Miriam Martin) and invited back to her apartment. When Nico arrives Medea reveals an educated side to herself, interested in eastern philosophy and an obscure Nepalese religion. Conversely, her home is a grimy, cockroach infested hovel. Driven by his rampaging hormones, Nico ignores this and spends the night anyway. In the morning Nico and Medea find themselves barricaded within the apartment by Medea’s angry and jealous ex-boyfriend Spider (Victor Amilibia).

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
http://www.thereelword.net/night-of-the-virgin-movie-review/

IMDB: La Noche del Virgen (The Night of The Virgin)