Birth/Rebirth

Lila the undead

James Whale would probably approve of Birth/Rebirth, a new take on the Frankenstein story which, like Whale’s 1931 movie, is creepy, dark and yet shot through with a touching humanity. Until it isn’t. It’s a female take, with the focus largely on women, plus a female director, who also co-wrote, and the cinematographer, composer, editors, production designers and so on are mostly women too. Plus two stars in Marin Ireland and Judy Reyes who play either side of a familiar stereotype. On one side the monstrous feminine of Rose Casper (Ireland), an emotionless pathologist in a hospital morgue who is secretly collecting genetic material to further experiments into the reanimation of dead people. … Read more

The Dark and the Wicked

Marin Ireland

Some horror directors favour the balls-out approach of a high concept, others go down the skill route. Call it art v craft or wit v cunning. Then you get directors who manage both – Sam Raimi went down the the first path with Evil Dead and down the second with Drag Me to Hell. The Dark and the Wicked is writer/director Bryan Bertino’s fourth horror movie after The Strangers, Mockingbird and The Monsters. And if none of the others set people alight, they did at least give Bertino the space to make some mistakes and learn how to make a horror movie properly. That all comes good here, with a film that’s not … Read more