by Robbie Jones

Marketing is key factor in releasing a film. Film companies need to know what they’re film is, who it’s for, and how they sell it to said audience. In most cases, films are marketed fairly well, and generally hit the right notes. Other times, a film comes off as something it’s not, and it’s quite a surprise to see the real thing. Magic Mike is one of those films, but it’s brilliant nonetheless.

by Kerri Anne McNally 

Since its Sundance Festival premiere in 2014, It Follows has been gaining critic praise left, right and centre. And deservedly so! With its release out this week, we can’t help but urge you to watch this modern horror flick.

Director David Robert Mitchell’s piece is brilliantly original.  After 19 year old Jay’s date goes wrong, she discovers that a mysterious curse has been passed on to her. She begins to experience visions and the feeling that she is being followed wherever she goes.  But only she can see these deadly pursuers.  No other horror film has taken that twist on the classic teen slasher flick before.

by Cookie N Screen

A Japanese Horror Zombie Musical by Takeshi Miike. 

That is literally all you need to put on the DVD to warn people about how batshit insane this film is. Of course, it has become a bit of a racial stereotype that Japan is lumped in with the “crazy country” description. Japan has supplied us with game shows, music and fashion that have exceeded the sane quota so much so that we are speak about Japan in that tongue in cheek judging way, “only in Japan.” Negating the fact that economically, Japan is raking it in and has also developed some evocative art and mentality that continues to see its success whilst it honours its traditions too.

But no, regardless of all this, Miike’s Happiness of the Katakuris is still the craziest thing you’ll ever watch. 

by Cookie N Screen

When Quentin Tarantino bestows his opinion on your film, it feels like a blessing. You could have come before him or be doing something completely different to his genre tastes but it is solidifying when one of the most acclaimed directors options your movie as one of the best. So despite happening years before Tarantino made his mark with Reservoir Dogs, the lesser known Milano Calibro. 9 shocked, thrilled and enveloped action so poignantly that the Pulp Fiction director heralds it as the greatest Italian film ever made. 

And By Jove, he was absolutely correct. 

by Cookie N Screen

There are some directors out there who have become this adjective in cinema. There are thrillers out there under the tagline of Hitchcockian, where the use of visuals, imagery and tension build up are alluded to the Psycho director. Cronenberg is another one whose body horror escapades are paralleled when someone extrapolates the human spirit with bucket loads of blood and special effects. 

Then whenever you have a sniff of a quirky romantic comedy that has some black vein within it, you are almost always going to be associated with Woody Allen.

 It’s a terrible comment to aim for, too, and almost always, you can tell that’s the bar they were setting themselves. Which, unfortunately, is the case for Vincent Lannoo’s Les Ames De Papier, otherwise known as Paper Souls.

by Cookie N Screen

Imagine this scene – a white sheriff on top of a powerful steed cracking a whip on the back ofa black woman, child or man because someone dared to challenge equality. Your mind would probably be immediately taken back to slavery; brutal owners treating ethnicity like it is property and if you aren’t a racist cunt, then you’ll be shocked at our 1800 arseholes who scooped up bodies from different countries in order to control them but think, “well, the past sucked, glad that’s over.” But what if I told you these are actually scenes from a mere 50 years ago? And before you say “racist grandparents…” this kind of behaviour is still burning around the world today.

So it’s one of the reasons why Selma is not just a brilliant film – but one of the most vital ones.

by Sean Narborough 

The release of Jurassic World not only welcomes a new chapter to the Jurassic Park franchise but it also introduces a new director to the public. Colin Trevorrow is a relatively new director who’s only made shorts and documentaries before, until 2012 when he made his first feature Safety Not Guaranteed. This is the film that got him the Jurassic World gig but is it any good, should you hit play? Very simply, hell freaking yeah.

Safety Not Guaranteed is an offbeat comedy about a magazine writer, Jeff (Jake Johnson) and his two interns, Darius (Audrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni) who travel to a seaside town near Seattle to investigate a newspaper ad that reads “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.” But when the team reach the town and meet the guy who posted it, Kenneth (Mark Duplass), you begin to realise everything is not what it seems. 

by Kerri Anne McNally 

Coming from Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, and similarly based on a graphic novel, Kingsman: The Secret Service follows the story of Eggsy, a young lad who has fallen on the wrong side of the tracks of late. When he is approached by Harry Hart, a suave secret agent nicked named Galahad, he is indicted into the trainee league of spies.

As he learns a lot of lessons for the works of espionage and gentlemanliness, a villain named Valentine has a fiendish plot for world domination that has Harry and the rest of the Kingsmen trying to stop him. Can they work together before the fireworks begin? 

If you didn't manage to catch Matthew Vaughan's latest piece of chaos at the cinema, you should definitely buy the DVD. And here's why:

by Cookie N Screen

Thomas Hardy novels have been the source of cinematic goodness since the invention of moving pictures. As it stands, there are roughly four different adaptations of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, one on The Claim, Under the Greenwood Tree and Jude as well as 2013’s under-seen movie triumph What Maisie Knew (which I urge you all now to go see, it will pull your heart down through your ass).

Anyway, another maddening (or maddinging if you’re a pun obsessive) prolific one, alongside Tess, is Far from the Madding Crowd which, since this year's version, will have four adaptations.

But the best version is the incredible John Schlesinger 1967 romp starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp. A film that also, inexplicably, was critically and commercially panned on first release. 

by Aly Lalji 


The so called ‘Video Nasties’ was certainly a time of history, controversy and hype. Video stores were hungry for any video they could get their hands on, even if it meant not knowing anything about the film. Censorship was weak and once in order, over two hundred horror films were taken off the shelves through police raids and all these videos became incinerated, increasing curiosity for the public to see what the fuss was about. Popular films like Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave and Cannibal Ferox are to name but a few. They all received modern remakes as there is some merit in these films. However, Island of Death, does not carry the strong reputation like its predecessors. Although it’s intriguing to watch one of the most underrated video nasties and still carries a strong cult status.