Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat - Blu-ray Review

 

My main familiarity with the work of Anne Rice growing up was the Interview with the Vampire film, reading the book once, and the film version of Queen of the Damned. I was familiar with the characters that she had created, but wasn't really grabbed by them. This changed, however, with the AMC Interview with the Vampire series. I was quickly hooked from the very first episode, and it soon became one of my favourite shows thanks to it's strong writing, beautiful music, and amazing performances. I knew that the series was changing things and doing it's own version of the source material, and loved the changes they made, and was excited to see where things would go once that first book was fully adapted. The Vampire Lestat is that continuation, both a third season of of the show and it's own stand alone piece, that follows the titular Lestat as he deals with the publication of his sordid history in a way that only Lestat would, by becoming a rockstar.

Following the publication of Louis' (Jacob Anderson) interview about his life as a vampire, the public has become somewhat aware of the existence of vampires. The author of the book, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), who is now a vampire himself, keeps insisting to the public that the book is real, but there are many who doubt it's honesty. Louis' sometime lover and maker, Lestat (Sam Reid) learns of the book and spends an unhealthy amount of time pouring over everything he disagrees about in it, and eventually decides that he's going to set the record straight by starting a band, and getting Daniel Molloy to make a documentary about him.

Over the course of the season we learn a great deal more about Lestat's past, from his life as a human to his becoming a vampire, and some of the more unusual relationships that he had over the years; such as the vampire Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle). We also learn what has happened to characters such as Loius, who has met a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to his lost daughter Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Armand (Assad Zaman) who appears to be trying to make amends for the things that he has done to Louis and Lestat in his past. All the while we get to watch Lestat's rise to stardom, and try to piece together the mystery of how his music will eventually lead to the end of the world.

Despite having a new name, The Vampire Lestat feels no different to the series that has come before it, and jumping into this show as a fan feels like returning to a world you've come to love. There are some big differences to the way that the series is structured this time around though. Gone is the interview framing, and whilst there is a bit of time jumping at the beginning and end of the season to tease where the story is going (The Queen of the Damned series has been confirmed!) it for the most part plays through honestly, without the filter of Louis as an unreliable narrator. This was something that was an important question in the first two seasons, 'how much can we trust?', and we see here that even the small things that Louis presented are a little different. For example, Lestat who was shown to be beautiful and flawless during Louis' recounting is now revealed to have several scars on his chest that were there the whole time.

There are some moments that do feel reminiscent of the first two seasons, with the inclusion of Daniel Molloy as he attempts to create a film around Lestat, but these elements are mush less important, and is by no means the focus. Molloy is not the centre of attention this time round, he's not getting his questions answered, and he's barely respected at times, and the conflict that arises from this pushes the character into some interesting new directions. You get the sense that Lestat wanted his movie as a way of competing with Louis, but as the season goes on he begins to care about it less and less, and it kind of dwindles into the background of the story; which isn't a bad thing by any means. The real focus isn't the fake story that Lestat is trying to make to score points, a story so fake he's even hired a body double of himself, it's his music and the journey that this takes him on.

I have to be honest, hearing the pitch for the narrative of 'Lestat becomes a rockstar' feels incredibly hokey. It's kind of silly when you hear it, and whilst the show doesn't take itself completely sensibly and has some fantastic humour, as the series progresses we see that music is actually the perfect vehicle for Lestat to deal with his issues and learn more about himself. The series has created a number of original songs, all of which have Sam Reid performing in them, and they help to tell an important story. The ones we hear at the start of the season, where Lestat is still kind of throwing a tantrum over the book's publication feel like they're meant to stir up attention, to get him noticed. However, there comes a turning point in the season where Lestat realises that his music can actually matter. He creates a song for Claudia in a moment of grief, one that lets him deal with the guilt, shame, and loss that he's been carrying for almost a hundred years and make something beautiful and meaningful with it. It's the moment he understands that his music can be something more, something that speaks to other vampires who understand that kind of grief over the course of a long life, and he sets out to make music that speaks to that kind of existence instead. It's also an incredibly moving and beautiful scene, and one that as a fan of the show absolutely hits hard.

As already mentioned, the show is going somewhere though, and the very first scene of the season makes this clear with a glimpse into a future that teases Lestat's involvement with something awful, and characters that we know in various states of injury. Yes, The Vamoire Lestat is doing it's own thing, but it's also building towards The Queen of the Damned, the third book in Anne Rice's vampire series. My only knowledge of it comes from the bad film adaptation, but thankfully the series doesn't need you to have any extra knowledge and instead spends some time slowly adding to the lore and building the dread around Akasha (Sheila Atim), the fabled mother of vampires who Lestat has a connection with. Akasha is present in a few scenes, mostly as an immobile, statue-like form, but in one scene where Atim gets to actually cut loose and show us what we can expect from Akasha it turns the season from a fun story about Lestat into a series of build-up that you can't help but get excited for.

I wasn't sure how The Vampire Lestat was going to continue this story and make it feel as impactful as the first two seasons, whether it was going to manage to have the same kind of weight and emotions, the same character driven narrative. Whilst it is different in how it goes about doing these things it not only did all of these things, but felt like the only way that the story could have continued. The shift from Louis to Lestat as the focus feels right, and Sam Reid is absolutely perfect in this role that he may have ruined it for anyone else who ever tries to play him. He captures the characters dark, cruel side, he feels genuine and loving at times, he's so over-the-top and ridiculously self centred that he's like a child, and he can sing really well too. Every new aspect of Lestat we see is played to perfection by Reid, and I honestly can't wait to get more of him.

Alongside the episodes the Blu-ray comes with a host of extra features, including The Vampire Lestat: After Dark series where cast and crew sit down to discuss each episode of the show, music and karaoke videos for the songs in the series, behind the scenes features, a Comic-Con panel, and highlights from The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only Live performance in New York's Beacon Theatre where Sam Reid performed for fans.

In an age where streaming services and remove shows at any point, and companies are arguing that buying digitally doesn't actually mean you get to own your media, physical media is becoming more and more important to seek out. If you like this series and these characters then you definitely need to invest in the physical releases. Not only does it secure your ability to watch them whenever you want, but the extras and special features only enhance your enjoyment.

The Vampire Lestat is available on Blu-ray now from Acorn Media for £34.99.

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My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon, I'm Out for Revenge! - Season One Blu-ray Review

 

Sharp, catchy titles are a must to make your art easy to stick in people's minds, especially if they evoke the themes of the story well. Things like Jaws and Alien do this perfectly, one word titles that capture the important details. My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon, I'm Out for Revenge! is not a title that does this, and whilst it does convey what the show is about it does it in a completely opposite way. Despite the ridiculous title, My Gift Lvl 9999 (I'm not writing the whole thing every time), manages to be a fairly entertaining fantasy anime.

Set in a fictional world that's home to several fantasy races, we're quickly introduced to Light (Shannon Emerick), a young human who dreams of making a life for himself as an adventurer. Unfortunately, this isn't going to be easy for Light, as not only are humans one of the weakest races in terms of their abilities and power levels, but they're the most abused by the other races, looked down on as inferior by the others. Light hopes that his gift, an unlimited gacha that allows him to summon all kinds of items at random, will allow him to do so; but his gift proves to be mostly useless.

Things begin to look like they're turning around for Light, however, when he's found by an adventuring party called the 'Assembly of Races', made up of members of every other race. The group, who are in need of a human, invite Light to join them so that they can show the world that cooperation and working together is the path to a brighter future. However, afer travelling with the group for several weeks, barely being more than the caretaker for them, Light finds himself in the depths of a terrifying dungeon with his team when things take a frightening turn.

The other adventurers turn on light, attacking him, abusing him, and telling him that they're going to kill him. It turns out that their kindness has been a ploy the entire time, and that they were always planning on turning on Light. Fortunately, Light is able to escape certain death when he accidentally sets off a teleportation trap that send him into the deepest, most dangerous level of the dungeon. It's here, however, that his gacha gift proves most useful, summoning him a level 9999 warrior to protect him. It turns out that his magic is at its most powerful in the depths of the dungeon, and Light can summon anything he needs. And so Light spends the next three years in the dungeon, summoning more followers, building a kingdom for himself, and training to reach god-like levels of power so that he can return to the surface and take revenge on his former team.

Despite the darker themes presented in the first episode, of humans being a lower class race, and Light being betrayed by his team, My Gift Lvl 9999 is a fairly light feeling show to begin with. The fantasy races have some big, bold designs, such as the variety of dog people walking around, or the way that the dragonborn style characters are drawn. This feeling only intensifies when we meet some of the warriors that Light ends up summoning into his service, such as Nazuna (Chaney Moore) a fierce soldier and knight who has the voice of a California valley girl and a manic personality, or Aoyuki (Annie Wild) a beast tamer who wears a huge cat hoodie and spends most of her time meowing even though she can speak.

The show has a delightful sense of whimsy and weirdness, especially thanks to this unusual cast of characters that join Light on his mission. However, it's as Light embarks on his quest for revenge that we begin to see the cracks in this veneer and get a glimpse of the darkness that was hiding just out of sight. As Light and his companions return to the surface we see that the discrimination against humans is more than we were first led to believe, and that some races fully enslave humans, forcing them to work to death, sometimes torturing and mutilating them just for fun, and making sex slaves of others. 

My Gift Lvl 9999 kind of manages to bury the lede on just how dark a series it has the potential to be. And this darkness is a huge part of who Light has become over the course of his three years in exile. There are a number of times when Light's justified desire to get even starts to feel like someone going too far. Even his desire to free all humans takes a sinister turn when he starts to sound genocidal in his methods. Over the course of the season I went from doubting if Light could stay a good, kind hearted person, or if this was going to become an origin story for a villain.

Sadly, with this just being the first season these questions are left unanswered, and it means that fans will be waiting on a second season to find out just how far down this dark path Light is going to walk. And whilst there doesn't seem to have been an official confirmation of a second season I can only hope that this will come in time; and that perhaps the blu-ray release will allow the show to find more fans to push for its continuation. 

Visually, My Gift Lvl 9999 is a pretty show, with bold and colourful character designs that are leaning more into the more fantastical than what would be realistic in this world; and some of the people Light summons with his gift feel like they've crossed over from another franchise. The characters are all distinct and colourful, and most of them have their own ways of fighting that makes each one unique and interesting during action scenes. The animation also looks great during these moments, delivering a smooth, visually pleasing experience. The voice cast are also decently picked, and whilst there are some choices that at first feel a little unusual, such as the forementioned valley girl knight, it quickly becomes apparent that these choices actually fit the characters well and deliver some genuinely funny moments of comedy throughout.

I wasn't sure what to make of My Gift Lvl 9999 to begin with based off the ridiculously long title and a brief description of the series, but I had a genuinely fun time when watching it. I began to become invested in Light's quest, especially when I saw how inhumanly the human population of the world was treated. I like that despite having weird characters and silly humour at times the show wasn't scared to include subjects such as racial abuse or sexual assault, and for the most part these elements were handled pretty well as they were never glorified or lingered on too long.  

Whether you're already a fan of My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon, I'm Out for Revenge! or coming to it new, this new blu-ray release is a decent way to experience it, and whilst it's light on extra features, with only a clean version of the opening and closing, it's still a good way to support the series and show an interest that will hopefully lead to a second season and a continuation of Light's journey.

My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon, I'm Out for Revenge! Season One is available now on Blu-ray from Acorn Media for £22.99

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Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter by J.S. Barnes - Book Review

 

'Seven years have passed since the events of A Christmas Carol, seven years since the night when Ebenezer Scrooge took to a life of philanthropy and kindness. But there is another side to Scrooge. Those afflicted by spirits and hauntings know of him as a man who can help rid them of the unquiet dead. Alongside his trusted companion and friend, Captain Ambrose, Scrooge faces off against malevolent poltergeists and supernatural wickedness.

'So when Louisa Fell invites him to investigate her family home in the east of England, he is more than happy to oblige. But the mysteries at the Fell house are deep and terrifying, and the more Scrooge uncovers, the more he risks awakening the ghosts of his past, his present, and things yet to come.'

I have to make an embarrassing confession, despite A Christmas Carol being one of my favourite Christmas stories, I've never read the original story all the way through. Instead, my love of the story comes from all of the various adaptations and stories that borrow inspiration from it that have been made over the years; with the Muppet version honestly being the one that I think is the best. 

Despite that failure on my part, when I saw that a new book was being released that would show us that in the years since he was visited by ghosts and changed into a better man Ebenezer Scrooge has been hunting unruly and cruel ghosts in order to help other I was instantly hooked by the prospect. Thankfully, the broad cultural knowledge of the story of Ebenezer Scrooge seems to be all that someone would need in order to jump into this delightful ghost story, making it a must read for anyone who's ever loved the story however you've experienced it.

Set several years after the events of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge has spent the intervening years helping the people of London as best he can, trying to make up for the terrible things that he's done in the past. Part of this has been the establishment of The Club of Decent-Hearted Gentlemen, a place where people can come to request aid from Scrooge and others like him who are tying to do better. It's here that Scrooge is approached by a young, pregnant widow named Louisa Fell, who needs help with a frightening issue.

It transpires that Louisa has recently been left an old house by her uncle, who has passed away. The house, in a small Northfolk coastal town, has a reputation for being haunted, and Louisa's own experiences there as a child have chilled her to this day. It also seems that her uncle has some very strange stipulations in his will, ones that seem strangely engineered to make it so that Louisa has to move into the house or face destitution. Having heard that Scrooge has experiences with the supernatural, and the desire to help those in need, she begs him to take the case. Whilst Scrooge believes this will likely just be another usual haunting, he soon discovers that there are dark, powerful forces as work; forces with their eyes set on Louisa Fell.

As someone with a soft spot for Victorian era fiction, particularly horror and dark fantasy, I knew from the outset that I was likely going to really enjoy Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter; just the title alone was enough to put the book on my 'must read' list. Thankfully, J.S. Barnes brings enough of the dark and gothic atmosphere of the era and injects it into the narrative to create something that at time feels very grounded and normal, but can take a sudden turn into the frightening without warning, delivering a chilling narrative that you can't help but get swept up in.

One of the main reasons for this is the mystery that's established early in the book. Louisa Fell isn't just coming to Scrooge because she's got a ghost in her house, but because She has no other choice but to move into this incredibly haunted building as life seems to have given her nothing but bad luck, taking away everyone that she loves and cares about, leading to her facing the choice between a house that terrifies her or the workhouses. Along with a string of deaths and terrible circumstances that have plagued Louisa is the unusual fact that her uncles will is incredibly specific, stating that the recipient of his estate must be in desperate financial straits, they must have a child or be pregnant, and that they must stay in the house for at least five years. With mysterious deaths and the oddly specific will it's hard to not want to know more, and Barnes manages to hook you despite the book holding back most of the horror until at least half way through.

Barnes also fills the book with some great new supporting cast to both assist and hinder Scrooge in his mission. Due to his age, Scrooge seems to have been given a younger, more action oriented assistant named Captain Ambrose, a former soldier who is indebted to Scrooge. This is a fantastic addition, as Scrooge was already in his late fifties in the original book, putting him in his sixties here. Whilst this isn't hugely old, nor does it stop him from doing everything, it makes sense to have a much younger person aiding him, one capable of handling danger, chasing down villains, and protecting Scrooge if needs be. There's something of a Holmes and Watson feel to their relationship; which isn't a complaint.

Alongside our protagonists are an ensemble of mysterious, and sometimes creepy characters who are out to make things difficult. There's a celebrated psychic medium who at first seems to warn Scrooge not to travel to the house to help Louisa, and soon becomes a more sinister presence in the book, there's the older woman who's been taking care of the haunted house in the years since Louisa's uncle passed who has vague warnings and ill omens to share; and then there's also Louisa's uncle himself, who may be trying to manipulate events from beyond the grave.

Whilst the book is something of a slow burn in the sense that we don't actually go the the haunted house and experience the dark things there until later sections, the book never feels like it's missing out on anything. There's always something happening across it's multiple narratives to keep you engaged, with new scenes either servicing the story or helping to shape and inform the characters. Barnes does a fantastic job at using every page well, not wasting a single moment.

Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter is delightfully crafted, creating an engaging mystery, interesting characters, and a continuation of Scrooge's story that I really hope to see more of. I didn't know that the ideal follow-up to A Christmas Carol was Ebenezer Scrooge fighting ghosts, monsters, and the forces of hell, but now it's all I want to see with the character.

Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter is available now from Titan Books for 18.99

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Monstera by Delilah S. Dawson - Book Review

 

'When Lucy McClintock moves into a dreamy Victorian in downtown Savannah after years of suffering under the rule of her overbearing grandfather, she feels like she’s won the lottery—well, outside of the creepy landlord. She soon notices a glorious green haven in the backyard and meets her downstairs neighbor, Saskia, a weightlifter who lives in a magical apartment overflowing with plant life and beautiful artwork. Naïve and lonely Lucy is drawn to strong and secretive Saskia, and as the two women grow closer, they discover they share more than just an apartment building…'

I've read a few of Delilah S. Dawson's book by now, and am always excited whenever I have a book with her name on it come across my desk. The description of Monstera was one that definitely interested me, as I've found that more nature focused horror has been having some fantastic work made recently, and I am always happy when a book of any genre has a more queer focus. However, I was quite surprised by what I actually found in Monstera.

When Lucy moves into a new home she feels like shes getting something of a new lease on life, the opportunity to finally spread her wings and become herself, having finally broken away from an overbearing family. Things aren't perfect by any means, as she has to deal with a landlord who oozes with casual misogyny and homophobia, but for the most part Lucy remains positive; especially when she meets one of her neighbours, Saskia.

Much of the book is given over to the relationship that forms between Lucy and Saskia, the slow burn romance that builds. t's somewhat delightful to see Lucy, a young woman whos' still somewhat sheltered and naïve in the real world, fall into a situation where she's having to deal with it all for the first time and falling in love whilst she does so. That sense of being mostly overwhelmed, but drawn to this other person so fully that they're all you can think about is one that I'm sure a lot of us will be familiar with; especially if you're queer.

Monstera is mostly this cosy sapphic romance, and that's not a criticism at all. The relationship between our two leads is a delightful one, and I very quickly found myself invested in the two of them getting together and finding love. Where my criticism comes in is that I almost forgot that this was also a horror story. The horror elements are pretty lacking throughout the majority of the book, and only really rear their head in the last handful of chapters. Whilst this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it did end up with the book feeling somewhat disjointed, almost like Dawson spent so long making this lovely cosy queer romance story and suddenly remembered that it was also supposed to be a horror and threw some things in at the end. I'm sure that's not how things happened, but because it felt like there wasn't a strong horror presence throughout it had that feel to it.

Cosy horror is definitely a thing, and I've seen it presented in video games more than anywhere else, where spooky elements can be blended together with relaxing gameplay quite well. I think that this is perhaps the first time I've come across it in a book, and it was an unusual experience for sure. I don't know if Dawson managed to blend these two genres well as I've not got a huge amount of experience with it, but I'd describe Monstera as an enjoyable if somewhat unusual read. Monstera is a pretty quick read, and has a lot of really enjoyable elements to it, so I'd definitely recommend picking it up and giving it a try yourself.

Monstera is available now from Titan Books for £14.99.

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Incarnate by Alma Katsu - Book Review

 

'Beauty doesn’t fade. It feeds. Dorothy Wagner has spent her whole life wanting nothing more than to be seen. But after failing to make her mark (any mark, really) as an influencer, she takes a job at a company focused on cutting-edge deepfake technology. And there, in secret, she creates her salvation. 

'Isabella: an impossibly gorgeous girl who takes social media by storm. Dorothy’s code is brilliant, and Isabella seems real, so real that she garners millions of followers. Brands beg to partner with her. Everyone wants to meet her IRL. The adoration—and the cash—flows in. Dorothy is finally happy. She’s getting all the attention she ever wanted—isn’t she? 

'Then the cracks begin to show. Dorothy can barely stay ahead of the partnership requests, and love letters and the rabid fans filling her DMs trying to track Isabella down. All this time working in secret with all this pressure is getting to Dorothy—she can’t tell where she ends, and her creation begins. And when someone gets a little too close to her secret, a violent confrontation sends Dorothy on the run, forcing her to confront what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her secrets.'

If you spend any time on social media it's impossible for you not to be aware of 'influencers', people who have small celebrity followings seemingly for no reason. These influencers don't tend to create anything but a brand centred on themselves. They're the kind of celebrity where no one can actually tell you what they're a celebrity for, they just are. They flood their platforms with photos and videos sharing their opinions, of their heavily curated depiction of a daily life, and it nets them sponsorships and fans offering them money. It's a community that millions aspire to break into, yet almost all will fail at.

This is the life that Alma Katsu takes a look at in her latest book, Incarnate, which follows Dorothy Wagner, a young woman who's become used to being ignored, overlooked, and even the focus of bullying throughout her life. She wants more for herself, but doesn't have the confidence or self worth to really push for it. When Dorothy comes to work for a for a company with cutting edge deep-fake and effects technology that allows them to create digital doubles of people Dorothy decides to use the tech to create Isabella, a fake avatar for her to use to finally get what she wants.

Thanks to her ability to make Isabella whatever she wants, Dorothy is soon able to make her into the most popular new internet celebrity influencer. She's getting dozens of sponsorship offers, and more fan mail than she can keep up with, but she's loving the ability to finally live out her fantasy life; even if it is through a fake avatar. However, as things continue the line between her and Isabella begin to blur with horrifying results.

The internet is a wonderful vehicle to explore themes of horror, especially ones that connect to deeply personal themes such as identity, and desire, and Katsu uses it wonderfully in Incarnate. Those familiar with The Portrait of Dorian Grey will likely see some similarities here, and that's definitely not a bad thing, and if anything I'd say that Katsu has done a wonderful job at creating a more modern, updated spin on the story that will appeal to younger readers especially.

Incarnate is able to wonderfully pair together psychological horror, exploring themes of loneliness, self esteem, the desire to be popular, with body horror, with neither one of them taking full centre stage but instead working in tandem to create a narrative where you never feel fully comfortable or safe. Some of this discomfort also comes from how well Katsu is able to portray social media and just how insidious it can be. This is unsurprising considering Katsu's former role as a Social Media Researcher for the US government, and makes you come away questioning just what disturbing things she might have learned about social media's affects on people.

I dare say how you experience social media, your exposure to it, and your own views will likely shape just how much you enjoy Incarnate, and how much the horrors of the book will hit home for you. As someone who uses it very little, but has seen some of the worst sides of it, I feel that Katsu has done a great job at translating these horrors well, and created a truly twisted tale.

Incarnate is available now from Titan Books for £9.99

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Heresy - Film Review

 

Ever since men figured out that women didn't magically create life inside themselves and it required a man's semen to make a baby women have been reduced from being worshipped as life givers to being seen as walking baby makers; often seen as little more than a breeding machine whose sole purpose it is to make babies. We've seen it throughout history, and are seeing these views re-emerge in the modern world with the the rise of fascistic politics and Christian nationalist views that put women in a confining role as baby makers and servants. Even in places with more progressive societies women will still be bombarded with questions about when they'll be having children as soon as they marry or settle down with a long term partner. 

Heresy, also titled Witte Wieven, tells the story of Frieda (Anneke Sluiters), a woman living in a remote Dutch village in the middle ages. Frieda is desperate to give her husband a child, to fulfil her good Christian womanly duties to bear the next generation. Unfortunately for her, a series of miscarriages has led to her questioning if she will even be able to have a child, and that if she has somehow been cursed. Frieda is mocked by the village butcher Gelo (Léon van Waas), and treated coldly by her husband Hikko (Len Leo Vincent), the only person who seems to care about her is her friend Sasha (Nola Elvis Kemper).

When Freida tries to perform a ritual to see if God has cursed her to a baren womb, she's chased into the dark woods that surround the remote village by Gelo, who intends to rape her. As she's being attacked, something tears Gelo off of her and drags him into the woods. Freida begins to have strange dreams about ethereal women who live within the woods, believing that they saved her from her assault. However, as the search for Gelo leads to a grizzly, unnatural discovery, the villagers start to believe that Frieda has made a deal with the dark forces that lurk there. Now Frieda must decide if she wishes to continue to live under the oppressive, patriarcal rule of her village, or if she wants to embrace the frightening freedom and power offered by the forest dwellers.

Heresy is a short film, having originally been produced for Dutch television as part of an anthology series, and as such doesn't have a whole lot of time to really delve into details or flesh out its narrative. Despite that, Heresy manages to accomplish more in just sixty minutes than some films do with twice the time. It manages to play wonderfully in the realms of folk horror, creates a story that feels like it's got enough time to breathe and really sink it's claws into you, and manages to develop it's lead character enough that you feel like you can understand her.

It's also impressive what the filmmakers were able to do with a relatively small budget. The sets and locations used for the film feel incredibly lived in and realistic. A big part of this is down to the fact that the production used a historic open air museum that had recreated a medieval village. Because of this the sets look fantastic, having aged and become more part of the environment around it. The location doesn't have that freshly built look to it, nor has it obviously been dressed by a set decorator; instead the moss growing across the stones, the peeling bark on the houses, and the thick thatched rooves are exactly what you're seeing. It not only looks fantastic on screen, but helps to ground these scenes in reality, meaning that when things eventually take a twisted turn into the supernatural it feels incredibly wrong.

The money saved on having to build an entire medieval village is definitely put to better use on the effects for the supernatural elements, and Heresy has some beautiful creature effects. The forest spirits that come for Frieda's aid are both monstrous and beautiful, and whilst the film makes the smart choice to never give the audience a clear look at them, what we do see, shrouded in darkness and wrapped in fog, looks incredible, managing to be both beautiful and frightening at the same moment. It's easy to see how these creatures begin to get under Freida's skin, their strange beauty and their apparent desire to both protect her and give her what she wants is incredibly seductive.

And this is ultimately a big theme in Heresy, much as it is in many folk horror stories; seduction. In this case it's an abused and downtrodden woman being seduced with the promise of more, of having the power to shape her own future, to live as she wants to, and to never feel the threat of a man looming over her life, whether that's her husband, the village priest, or a rapist. I think because of these themes there will be some people who'd probably have some degree of trouble with Heresy, and will come away from it with the conclusion that Freida has 'turned evil' or given into the dark forces within the woods. Whilst there's not really any right or wrong way of viewing art, I think that the fairer conclusion to draw is that Freida is being given the chance at freedom, and that sometimes that means breaking the shackles that are holding you prisoner and engaging in violence.

Heresy is a horror story about monsters living in the woods, threatening the peace of a 'good Christian community', but it's also a horror story about the brutality that women have to face because of men, and because of Christianity. Who exactly the monsters are in the film, the forest spirits or the men, is down to your interpretation, and I think that these themes are likely to lead to some division amongst viewers, as I've already seen in some reviews and comments made about the film in online spaces. But I encourage you to go into the film open to the story, willing to come to your own conclusions.

With a rise in popularity of folk horror in recent years I think Heresy, despite it's short length, can easily be counted amongst the best on offer right now. First time director Didier Konings does a fantastic job with the constraints of a television production, so well that the film is now being released on its own. Whilst there is a part of me that wishes the film could have had another half hour or more to really spend the time getting to know Frieda more, maybe fleshing out some of the other characters, and showing more of the strange creatures in the forest, Heresy still manages to deliver a fantastic piece of art in just sixty minutes.

Heresy is available on UK digital services from 28th September 2026.

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Lenore - Film Review

 

Before the age of YouTube and social media it was rare that you'd hear stories about people becoming obsessed with television or film personalities. There was a certain level of disconnect between them and the general public that wasn't impossible to cross, but at least seemed more difficult. However, as the Internet began to become a part of everyday lives people began to share more about themselves; and once capitalism invaded these spaces and people realised they could make money off of making their identity a brand this line between fan and obsessive became much thinner. 

Parasocialism is at the core of the new film Lenore, Directed by David Ward, and co-written by Ward and Josie Hess. Lenore drops us into a world that could very well be our own, one where a young woman who's built an online personality named Lenore (Ruby Duncan) has gone from everyday vlogger to media sensation, surrealist artist, and musician, making herself a brand. This will be familiar with anyone who spends any real time on social media, or who watches YouTube, as it's something that can be seen over and over again.

Much like with real life, something happens to Lenore that brings her entire persona, career, and life crashing down around her. One of her videos, in which she miscarries in a bath, is somehow aired on actual television during a children's show. Lenore is vilified, blamed for the event as people assume it's some shock value art statement, and everything she's been creating comes crashing down. Whilst I'm not aware of something as shocking happening in real life, an internet personality making a mistake, or deliberate choice, that ends up in the public turning against them and them seemingly losing everything is something that is all too common. I can think of several names off the top of my head, and I'm not even that plugged into 'internet culture'.

As happens in such situations, Lenore vanishes, choosing to leave online spaces to avoid the fallout from the event. However, as time passes, no apology video gets released, no statement, no sightings of her. She very literally disappears. This is where the film begins, with Lenore missing, and a young filmmaker, Max (Nicholas Jaquinot) wanting to make a documentary piece on what happened to her. However, it soon becomes apparent that Max is less of an impartial investigator, and more of an obsessed fan.

Lenore is an unsettling movie, but I think that how much the film is going to effect you will depend on who you are as much as what the film does. One of things that women and femme people will understand where men, particularly cis men, won't is that the Internet is not a good place. It's somewhere where you cannot exist without some form of harassment and sexualisation, just like the real world. Women and femme people will be harassed for posting a photo, told that we're ugly or fat, or perhaps the gross sexual things a complete stranger wants to do to our bodies. If we share our opinions on things our expertise, credentials, and intelligence will be questioned, or just outright denied. The anonymity of online spaces emboldens some of the worst desires and impulses in men towards women and femme people, and almost all of us will have stories of abuse, unwanted sexualisation, harassment, doxing, receiving explicit images without consent, or being on the receiving end of AI generated or photoshopped pornography of ourselves. 

If you've been through this, Lenore is going to hit you somewhat different. You're going to feel a deeper connection to the titular character, you're going to understand what it's like to be harassed, to have a man obsess over you. I think that depending on your gendered experience of the internet you're probably going to immediately see Max very differently too, and he's either going to be a somewhat sympatric and awkward man, or an immediate red flag. I've not had anywhere near as bad experiences as a lot of women, and have been mostly inactive in these spaces for years now, but I was very quickly put into a more uneasy mindset watching Lenore as it just reminded me of those times where I was sexualised, insulted, attacked, and send awful images and messages.

This oppressive, uncomfortable atmosphere is only enhanced by the films visual presentation. Max is a skinny, pale guy, wearing messy clothes, spending almost all of his time in the awful basement space of his house, with a grotty stained mattress on the floor. He eats plain bread out of the bag, or blows of cereal as he sits and watches videos of Lenore over and over, trying to figure out how to create his film. There's very little illumination other than the light cast by the collection of screens and monitors that Max has assembled into what resembles a monument, and what light it does provide does little to help with the dark shadows, pervasive greys, and impression of filth that fills the space. Max is presented as living in what everyone will picture when they hear the term 'basement dweller'.

Jaquinot does an excellent job at walking the fine line between presenting Max as unnerving and pitiable, and there are time when I almost began to forget my initial feelings about him, seeing the sad, broken, and lonely man beneath the obsessive personality that had taken over. It's a fantastic performance, one that at times feels almost manic and crazed before shifting to become a man who seems so tired and weighed down, barely able to keep going. He also has a sense of despair to him, driven mostly by the fact that he seems to be haunted by the spectre of Lenore, seeing things that aren't real, his grip on reality fraying as he experiences more and more disturbing events. Whether or not this is some kind of supernatural force such as a haunting, his own mind fracturing, or a combination of the two is something that the film leaves to you to decide, but the fact that all of these feel like plausible explanations for what we see speaks to the strength of his portrayal.

Despite having much less screen time, his titular co-star Ruby Duncan is by no means any less important, and the spectre of Lenore looms larger across the entire film. We get to know Lenore through tiny snippets of her videos, seeing both the personal that she carefully crafted as well as the person behind it all. It feels like Duncan really gets the chance to play a lot with Lenore, being presented in dozens of different costumes and make-up looks thanks to the character's vivid and varied art styles, and whilst it's hard to initially pin down who this character is, it's through some important scenes that Duncan is able to inject a huge amount of humanity into her, turning her from an internet persona into a real person; which is I think one of the core messages of the film, that online personalities often aren't real.

Fans of surreal horror will also find a lot to enjoy throughout Lenore, as the film plays with both expectations and perceptions. You're never one hundred percent sure what you're seeing, and if anything is even true. There are some things that happen in the film that feel perfectly normal and mundane, but later information makes you realise that you've been following an unreliable narrator, and that you should have been questioning everything from the very beginning. Lenore is one of those films that almost demands at least a second viewing, and I found myself wanting to go back to it to see if I'd end up going on a different journey with it the second time.

Small budget independent horror is a very mixed bag, it's a side of cinema where you're probably going to find something pretty bad, and if you're lucky you might come out the other side going 'it had it's good moments'; but every once in a while you stumble across a movie that exceeds your expectations and makes you realise that you really shouldn't judge a film based on its budget, how quickly you recognise the cast, or if the director has done much before. I honestly didn't expect much from  first time director, a films with a handful of actors, and one location, but in the end Lenore didn't just use it's limitations, it exceeded them. I know this film isn't going to be for everyone, but for those that it clicks with, I think it's going to be something that really wows you.

Lenore is available on UK digital from 21st September 2026.

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The Hammer Story: Revised and Expanded Edition by Marcus Hearne & Alan Barnes - Book Review

 

'Established in 1934, Hammer Films is one of the most renowned and prolific independent production companies in the world. Hammer’s productions encompass almost every genre, but it remains best known for the ground breaking reinvention of cinematic horror that was a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1950s. The unique formula that became known as Hammer Horror was perfected in such classics as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959). Over the next 20 years numerous sequels and similarly acclaimed films such as The Devil Rides Out (1968) made Hammer one of the most recognisable filmmaking brands in the world.

'The Hammer Story is the only authorised history of the company and was compiled with unlimited access to its archive. The book is lavishly illustrated with rare promotional material and previously unpublished photographs. Now with an additional 32 pages continuing the story of Hammer as it came back from the dead in 2007 and began producing new horror films for a modern audience'

I'm not old enough to have experienced the heyday of Hammer Horror, though I was aware of it growing up thanks in large part to my mother and grandmother having watched numerous Hammer films together on a Friday night whilst alone in the house; stories they'd tell that would end out with the power going out at a frightening moment that made them scream, or one of my uncles suddenly appearing at a window with fake fangs, or shoving a hand through a window to grab them whilst wearing a monster glove. Honestly, with those stories I think part of why I never sought them out before I did was because it seemed like watching a Hammer Horror came with some kind of frightening event.

Despite this, my first experience with Hammer Horror was in 2012 with the release of The Woman in Black. Being a fan of horror in general, and gothic Victorian horror in particular, I could tell that it was going to be a movie that ticked a lot of my boxes. And it ended up being the scariest film I watched that year. I'd still say that it's probably one of my favourites. My housemate at the time, who I watched the film with, suggested we try out some other Hammer movies, and from there I've now seen a decent number of them (though by no means the entire catalogue).

Thanks to my interest in Hammer, when I saw that Titan Books was bringing out a revised edition of The Hammer Story, I knew that I'd want to read it. Covering every film that Hammer has ever made, in chronological order, the book charts the legacy of one of the most respected horror film production companies there has ever been; now fully up to date to include several films from the revival era of Hammer Horror, including the already mentioned The Woman in Black, and Let Me In, a remake of the Swedish Let The Right One In.

With the US dominating most of movie culture in the Western world, it's sometimes easy to overlook British cinema, but if there's one thing that The Hammer Story really puts into perspective is that whilst the studio didn't always produce amazing movies it certainly helped to shape what modern horror is, and is perhaps one of the most important forces in horror. Thanks to the book going in chronological order readers get to see this happen as you move from film to film, witnessing the increased budget, creativity, and star power that the studio attains as it goes from success to success.

Of course, anyone who knows about Hammer will say that some of this is largely down to two names in particular, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing; both of whom would star in multiple films, both alone and together, and would become the iconic faces of Count Dracula and Victor Frankenstein respectively, with several films in each character's series. It's no surprise then that the two of them share the cover of the book together, as these characters, as well as being the only two people given their own chapters in the book; the other chapters being dedicated to eras of the studio.

As the book progresses through each film we get behind the scenes accounts of the production, from how the films were pitched and written, to stories from the set, and looks at how they were marketed and received by the public. These accounts are accompanied by production stills, promotional artwork featuring some amazing painted posters, as well as documents that were never released to the public, creating a surprisingly detailed account of each film over a handful of pages.

This new Revised and Expanded Edition has an additional thirty pages since the last printing of the book; the previous release being 2007. These new pages include the modern Hammer films, Wake Wood, The Resident, Let Me In, The Woman in Black, The Quiet Ones, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, The Lodge, and Doctor Jekyll. It's interesting to see that these modern movies don't quite go into as much detail as the older films, perhaps with so much of the behind the scenes stuff being covered by home release extras, online videos, and Internet articles that there's not a whole lot that can be said here that isn't easy to find elsewhere. It could also be that despite the age of the older movies there's just more documentation from the productions that made it to the archive, more internal memos and letters that are now just emails sitting in the cloud somewhere on a modern production. 

It's also very striking how Hammer has operated at different points when everything is laid out as it is here in the book, especially in regards to the modern movies. Despite a couple of decent successes, the modern Hammer movies just didn't quite land the same way that they did back in the day, and even attempts to recapture some of that magic, such as having Christopher Lee appear in The Resident, or making movies that tap into the Gothic horror era via The Woman in Black or their new take on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Hammer just never managed to become the powerhouse that it once was.

As someone who loves the stuff around movies, who'd watch through the making-of documentaries more times than the film, and would listen to audio-commentary tracks whilst working on some hobby or the other, I love these kinds of books. To be able to sit down and just go through the history of an entire production company, or to be able to go to specific movies as and when the urge takes me to read about them again or see the extra documents and artwork included is such a joy. Reading through this book, along with Titan's other recent Hammer release, The Hammer Horror Omnibus, has resulted in me wanting to go through a great deal of the Hammer movies for the first time.

Whether you're a lifelong fan of the franchise, or someone like myself who has a passing interest and wants to learn more, The Hammer Story: Revised and Expanded Edition makes for the perfect book to add to your shelves, no matter if it's joining your collection of Hammer memorabilia, or your gateway into a whole new world of cinema. This lavishly produced and gorgeous coffee table book is well worth the price of admission at a frankly bargain price.

The Hammer Story: Revised and Expanded Edition is available now from Titan Books for £29.99.

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The Stranger - Film Review

 

The Stranger opens on two scenes that both immediately raise interest. The first sees a man sitting in a car at night on the phone to someone, saying that his partner has been killed, that people are after him, and that he has nowhere he can go to be safe. The next scenes introduce us to a fairly regular couple, Amanda (Jennifer K. Preston) and Greg (Jake Francis), showing us their normal, loving life before it's all torn away from them when an intruder murders Greg in their home during a burglary. The film is trying to draw you in in two distinct ways, one with a grim, frightening mystery, and the other by trying to very quickly get us to care for one of our lead characters via a tragedy.

From here we're introduced to Amanda's teenage daughter Karli (Isabella Percival) some amount of time later. It's not clear how soon after Greg's death this is, but it's been long enough that Amanda has developed a drinking problem, and for her to make the choice to sell her home and make a fresh start for herself and her daughter in a remote countryside guesthouse. As Amanda and Karli move into their new home we see the cracks in their relationship, with Karli resenting her mother for both her drinking and for dragging her away from her life and plans for the future.

As the two of them try to work out their issues and find a way to settle into their new normal a man, Kyle (Damien Ashley) turns up on their doorstep in the night, wanting to rent a room despite the business not being running yet. Agreeing to let him stay, Kyle's behaviour is soon obviously strange, telling Amanda and Karli conflicting stories that seem to turn the two of them against each other, and blocking off the window in the room he's staying in. 

A few nights after checking in Kyle takes the two of them hostage, telling them that he cannot leave until morning, and if they try to escape they'll be killed. Kyle tells them that he and his wife let someone into their home one night, someone in need. This person was being chased by something, a strange group of people who wanted to kill him, and that they may be more than human. They followed the man to Kyle's home, broke inside, killed him and Kyle's wife, and have been chasing Kyle ever since. They'll soon be arriving at the guesthouse looking for him, and so the three of them will have to work together to make it through the night alive.

There's a pretty good premise at the foundation of The Stranger, a combination of It Follows mixed with a home invasion story. I like the concept, and think that it could have a lot of promise. Unfortunately, The Stranger never really does much with this concept, and despite only being an hour and nineteen minutes long it manages to drag on a lot longer than you'd expect as the film doesn't really do anything.

My biggest criticism of the movie is that the characters feel quite odd, and half the time their motivations make little sense. There's a whole sub-plot about Karli resenting her mother for not letting her go to university as planned, having to hold off for a year so that she can help her mother set up her new guesthouse. However, there's also a ton of animosity between them because Karli has been dragged away from her girlfriend, a relationship that Amanda knows nothing about. There are scenes of Karli talking to her girlfriend over the phone and trying to make it work between them, and mention of her having to tell her mum that she's gay and her 'friend' is more than just a friend. But this conversation never happens. There's no scene that addresses this, and this lack of any real resolution to things almost makes these earlier scenes feel somewhat pointless because they intentionally feel like they're building up to this coming out moment that never comes.

I also don't really understand Kyle's motivations a huge amount. Kyle tells us that he never stays in any one place more than three nights because the people chasing him will find him. But he intentionally stays where he is for three nights, almost like he's waiting for these people to catch-up to him. He keeps talking about how he can move on if they make it to morning, but the question remains of why did he not just move on after the first night. He doesn't say surviving for three nights will stop them, or that there's any reason why he didn't keep running. It feels like he allowed the gap to close between him and his hunters, and I don't know why. There's also no real explanation as for why he keeps trying to set Amanda and Karli against each other, twisting events to make Karlie seem like a thief and a liar, especially as he then wants them to help him survive.

This lack of any real explanation could work if it only applied to the people following Kyle, we don't get told why the rules around them apply for example, as leaving some mystery around the supernatural elements of the film is a fairly standard thing; but for most of the human interactions to also leave you scratching your head makes me lean more towards a general issue with the story and writing. It's a shame, as I think the movie could be done incredibly well if given a bit more thought and care. As it is, it feels kind of rushed, half baked, and as if it's the result of different versions of the script being tossed together so that explanations are lost, character motivations are changed, and plotlines simply vanish partway through.

There are some decent elements, such as the lead creature/person that's chasing Kyle presenting itself as an old woman. I liked that she knocks on the door and asks for permission to come in, that she talks to Amanda as if she's there to help her, as it gives the creatures a sense of intelligence, like they're capable of planning even if they are bound by some set of unseen rules. The rest, however, lack any real visual punch, and feel almost hastily thrown together. When seen as just silhouettes waiting in the dark they make for a good image, but when you see that they're a bunch of men in masks and boilersuits it takes away the sense of the supernatural that was being built up, almost grounding them in reality too much. There is a moment when one of their masks comes off and it reveals something very non-human beneath, and I think that perhaps showing this up front may have been better than a bunch of people in cheap masks; but then that could have been a budget restriction.

The Stranger had a good amount of promise to the concept, but I can't help but feel that a lot of it ended up wasted. The script is filled with holes, the main cast try their best to give decent performances but end up let down by shifting and incomprehensible motivations, and things kind of fall apart towards the end. There's a possibility that you could really enjoy The Stranger, but I can't help but feel it was a bit of a waste of a concept.

The Stranger is available now on UK digital from Trinity Content Partners.

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The Spirit Lock - Film Review

 

Parents doing whatever it takes to protect their child, especially against supernatural forces that they can't contend with has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. Most parents love their children more than anything in the world, more than they even love themselves, and as such they'll be willing to face down the most unimaginable odds to save them; but what happens when one parent of a disturbed child is convinced that their son is possessed, whilst the other just wants to get them professional help? 

This is where we find parents Karl (Joe Anderson) and Vanessa (Yasmin Al-Khudairi), a young couple whose son, Kit (Stefanos Parakevopoulos) has been taken out of school for hurting another child, and is isolated, alone, and lashing out. Whilst Vanessa thinks that medical and psychological help is the best course of action Karl has become convinced that Kit has been possessed, that some kind of demon is inside him. To be fair, we get to see Kit torturing and killing captured birds in the attic, and he's not afraid to start snarling whilst his eyes start glowing red, so maybe Karl has something of a point.

In order to try and help his son Karl has tracked down an object that will cast the demon out of Kit, a wooden box called the Spirit Lock. When their local priest, Father Bailey (Tim Downie), refuses to help, Karl starts the ritual needed to activate the Spirit Lock, trapping his family inside their home until the ritual is complete and the demon has been banished to hell.

The Spirit Lock will feel vaguely familiar to people who've watched a few possessed child movies. Kit is relegated to being tied up in bed for most of the film, the only occassions that he really gets to get up and do anything are the times he's running around the house growling and attacking his dad. Where The Spirit Box Starts to do things a little differently, however, is that this time there's no heroic priest coming to save the day, and it's the father rather than the mother who's seen as the hysterical one making up stories; something of a refreshing take.

There's a nugget of a pretty decent idea at the heart of The Spirit Lock, but it unfortunately doesn't do much with it. The film is very light on details and explanations. For example, the very first scene of the movie is Karl going to a bar and meeting a strange man who gives him the Spirit Lock, a man who gives dire warnings, cryptic instructions, then simply vanishes into nothingness. Who is this man, how did Karl learn about the Spirit Lock and know to be there to get it, and how the heck did he remember the weird mystical words he was given are all questions the movie doesn't cover. Instead, we kind of have to just go along with things and accept that at some point off screen before the film even began Karl went 'my son has a demon inside him, maybe I should Google how to get strange artefacts to exorcise them' or some such thing.

In a way, the audience is put more into the position of Vanessa, who's a very grounded and normal person being told that Kit is possessed and that she simply needs to go along with it. She's left with questions that need answering, just as we do, and receives very little actual explanation for Karl, as we do. Perhaps this is an intentional choice on the part of Director Steven Fierberg and Writers Justin Stanley and Mark Jonathan Stanley, but it could also be that the people making the movie never thought to give us this information as they were more focused on what happens once the Spirit Lock comes into play. I think it's likely more the latter as the film seems to be more told from Karl's point of view, and I would expect us to follow Vanessa if the film was trying to put us into her shoes.

Once things begin to happen around the house and we get to see the stuff that has convinced Karl that his son is possessed I found that the film still, sadly, lacked any real identity of it's own. It kind of felt like it was more going through the motions than trying to make it's own identity or try anything new. It was during this part of the film that I kept finding my mind wandering away from the plot to consider what the film would be like if it went in a different direction, one that would probably be more interesting than what we were being given; then the film did it, it suddenly changed gears and went against expectations and gave me my idea, and it still didn't really excite me. I don't know what it is about The Spirit Lock, but when it was being a possessed child movie I didn't really gel with it well, and then when it went against expectations and became the film I wanted instead it still failed to grab me.

I think it is perhaps just because the film never really felt like it was trying anything new or original. The movie trod familiar ground, it did things that I'd already seen before, and whilst the acting was decent enough for the most part, especially from the two leads, I felt like they were perhaps let down by a script that never really gave them anything to sink their teeth into, and the times where things did start to get interesting the movie never really focused on it for long. Some of the editing choices also disrupted these moments, moving on a bit too quick and not allowing the scene to linger for a moment so that the viewer could spend some more time with it before the next thing happened. There's also an almost bizarre sound effect choice in one scene where an apparently possessed Vanessa is attacking Karl, and the screeching scream she makes is clearly not her, and even happens when her mouth is closed at one point. It made what should have been a frightening or tense scene feel kind of silly, and it broke my immersion completely.

The Spirit Lock feels somewhat like a film that was made when the script could probably have gone through a couple more revisions. Like I said, there are some decent ideas here, and with a slightly different focus, some stronger moments, and some better pacing, it could have ended up as a pretty good possession movie. As it is, however, The Spirit Lock is one of those short horror films that somehow manages to feel like it's going on a little too long, and that you'll end up forgetting about very soon after it's done.

The Spirit Lock is available now on UK digital from Seven Tales.

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