Author: Joel Fisher

Monica (Stephanie Leet) and Andre Duvalier (Neil Green) are a couple with a less than perfect relationship. They decide to move to the country, a chance to get away and start over, however there are things about their relationship that they bring with them.

Andre isn’t exactly the most supportive husband, always telling Monica that he knows best and basically making her feel less than worthless and their break isn’t helping. Little do they know though, but there’s a vengeful spiritual presence in the house which wants to put things right.

Insidious Inferno is a supernatural horror written and directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy which has all the trappings of a typical horror of its type. Perhaps taking some influences from Hereditary, it shows how the curiosity of its female lead can put her in trouble.

The problem is though, that like Hereditary, it does feel like Insidious Inferno may have a pacing issue. That’s because despite its running time of just over ninety minutes, it feels much longer. Whereas horror movies may move along slowly to build the tension, it feels like Insidious Inferno is stringing out its story because it hasn’t got far to go.

In fact, it takes a while for anything remotely insidious to happen, besides talk of ghosts and murders that happened off screen. The issue of having to stretch the story is particularly evident as when Andre sees a ghostly blind woman out in the open, it takes him a while to even address the issue with somebody.

There’s also the problem of having a male protagonist in a horror movie. Whereas it does subvert expectations as men are rarely the victims in horror, it does run the risk of making the audience sympathise with Andre despite his abhorrent behaviour.

Insidious Inferno does indeed have a unique story and it shows its influences from other movies, perhaps even other franchises to give the audience an idea of what to expect. However, the story isn’t strong enough to sustain the its length and despite some interesting visuals, it may bore the audience waiting for the inevitable bloodbath of a final act.

Arguably one of the greatest directors in film history, there are few things that are in the public consciousness about Orson Welles. Firstly, that he directed Citizen Kane, a feature that’s still as critically acclaimed today as it was when it was released. Secondly, that he made a radio play of War of The Worlds that was so frightening that many people believed it was real.

However, there’s a lot of things that get pushed by the wayside and brushed over when it comes to Welles’ life. American: An Odyssey to 1947 is a documentary that attempts to redress that balance by talking about Welles’ life from his early career in the theatre, right up until his self-sanctioned exile from America in 1947.

Directed and written by Danny Wu, the documentary uses unseen footage, voice recordings and interviews with experts on his life such as Simon Callow and the relatives of Isaac Woodard to tell Welles’ story. The latter which could be the subject of a documentary all on its own, only tells a small part of the story of Orson Welles’ career and it becomes all the better for it.

Those expecting a straight forward story about a man’s rise to fame and glory in the eyes of his peers may be a little surprised though. Because American: An Odyssey to 1947 seeks to interweave Welles’ story with that of a tumultuous time in America and indeed world history.

Depicted as something of a rebel, right from the word go Orson Welles was thinking outside the box. From directing his first play to great success, an adaptation of Macbeth with an entirely African American cast, fans of Welles should know that the legendary director was set for great things.

However, that’s not all as the documentary also talks about his involvement with the McCarthy trials and even the beginnings of the civil rights movement.

These moments in time are not exaggerated in order to elevate the subject of the documentary, but like all good biopics, they only exist to flesh out a person whose greatest achievements were presumably on the big screen. American: An Odyssey to 1947 may bring in cinephiles, but will leave them with a greater understanding of what Orson Welles did for America.

Dr. Lily Khan (Tal Hymans) is on the verge of getting everything she ever wanted. Despite her self-doubts, she has a thriving medical career ahead of her and a wonderful boyfriend, Kit (Alec Snow) who wants her to meet his family.

However, when they get there, Lily meets Kit’s sister, Rachael (Tara Jay) and immediately senses tension. Doing what she can to get along, Lily and her new family head of to a house for the weekend to get to know each other. Unfortunately, there are stories of where a woman was hung for being a witch circling the area and it’s said that her vengeful spirit still haunts their destination.

The Hanged Girl is a supernatural Australian horror movie written and directed by Jon Cohen. A story which has all the usual trappings, although with some characters that are more fleshed out to make them more grounded.

However, this may very well be the best thing that could be said about the movie, because horror fans may be waiting a good while for any scares. This is particularly evident as it seems the filmmakers are more interested in the family drama than the supernatural element.

This means that for a lot of the movie, the story comes across as more of a melodrama than a horror. None of it rings true besides tensions between Rachael and Lily either, which may make the audience think they’re watching a bad soap opera rather than a horror movie.

This particularly becomes the case when questions about Lily’s past are raised and the audience may start to believe that Rachael has good reason to suspect. However, it turns out that the secret is rather tame and quickly forgotten.

Finally, The Hanged Girl does get to the point of its supposed genre, but by the final act it seems like director Cohen just wants to tie things up as quickly as possible. This unfortunately means a lot of contrivances, another ridiculous plot twist and a blood bath of a finale which would only ensure that horror fans won’t ask for their money back. A missed opportunity to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, The Hanged Girl isn’t worth hanging around for.

A group of people all with their own mental health issues come to The Vance Institute in order to be rid of their problems for good. Promising new and effective techniques, the institute run by Elizabeth (Hannah New) and its founder, Tobin Vance (Tom Malloy) treats everybody as equals whilst putting them through the ringer in order to rid them of their problems.

Everybody has their own issues as well such as Lily (Courtney Warner) who has an eating disorder and Jesse (Gordon Holliday) who is suffering from anxiety and depression. What leads them there is the desperation that their emotions are going out of control and despite the hyperbole of what’s promised, it’s an opportunity they can’t pass up. The problem is that The Vance Institute uses some sinister and highly unethical techniques to help its patients, and it’s just a question of how far they’re willing to go.

Trauma Therapy: Psychosis is the sequel to 2019’s Trauma Therapy. An intriguing premise that puts a set of victims in an unusual but recognisable setting. Although it feels like it wants to appeal to the horror crowd who want their torture porn fix.

Although promising a strong horror vibe for an audience willing to go to extreme lengths, it feels like the movie suffers from a budgetary issue. This means that a lot of the time when one of the volunteers for the Vance Institute is made to do something, the true horror is moved off screen.

However, there’s something to be said for a horror movie that does this kind of thing, although it feels like the movie wanted to do more than it was allowed.

There’s also the bizarre choice of having a fictional podcast fronted by Tom Sizemore to comment on the events of the movie. Something which wasn’t present in the first movie and only serves to slow down the pace.

Trauma Therapy: Psychosis does something different with the trope of mental health and brings up thought provoking issues, although maybe only in the name of shock value. Unfortunately, despite its original premise, it doesn’t really have a solid direction for the plot and doesn’t show audiences anything they haven’t seen before.

Chad (Spencer Harrison Levin) has a big following on social media and his pranks are legendary. He gets hundreds of thousands of views on each of his videos and the things that he livestreams are more outrageous every time.

Hearing about a place called Devil’s Manor where a satanic cult was meant to have stayed, Chad gathers his friends; Steve (Michael Bonini), Jennifer (Taneisha Figueroa) and Spencer (Cameron Vitosh) to investigate and hopefully get the biggest audience of their lives. However, somebody else is watching them and one by one they get picked off until Chad has to decide whether his life or his platform is more important.

#ChadGetsTheAxe is a horror comedy directed by Travis Bible and co-written by Kemerton Hargrove. Like other social media horror movies such as Spree and Friend Request, #ChadGetsTheAxe shows that there’s still something to say about the media format in the horror genre.

Starting out as horror movies often do, gathering a group of people in a house where something sinister may have happened is always a good albeit cliched premise. It also feels like the found footage genre has been done to death by now.

However, #ChadGetsTheAxe is helped along in its knowing set up by the constant stream of comments from the people watching the video. Something that may have been a little distracting becomes part of the narrative as the audience watching at home can laugh along just as horror audiences usually do, while the comments reflect what they’re all thinking.

Chad is also arguably the most annoying member of the gang, however thanks to Levin’s performance, the audience may start to feel for him as they realise that his need for social media attention has left him very much alone. It would have been an easy thing to set up a group of self-absorbed social media stars only to watch them die, but the film’s commentary on the nature of social media, horror movies and even found footage is well done.

#ChadGetsTheAxe may feel like a generic slasher on the surface, but the more savvy members of the audience will get something more thought provoking than they’d first considered.