Author: Joel Fisher

Jay Jackson (Bart Edwards) is a workaholic who lives with his wife and two daughters and despite his need to get out of the house to provide for his family, he seemingly lives the perfect life. That is until one night when his house gets invaded by a serial killer who drags him away.

Jay wakes up in an empty room that with no clue of where he is and he soon realises that he shares it with three other people who are all in different states of anguish. However, as soon as the group all realise why they are there and what connects them, they think that the key to their escape may be in their grasp.

The Dare is directed by Giles Alderson who co-wrote the script with Jonny Grant and for those horror fans who took notice of a particular horror film that turned into a franchise in the early 2000’s then they may know exactly what to expect.

Taking its inspiration quite clearly from Saw, The Dare attempts to recreate that sense of terror and mix it with an (un)healthy dose of torture porn. As soon as Jay wakes up in an abandoned building with his leg chained to the wall, the audience can see what’s coming even if the story does try to be a little bit different.

As the story goes on, there are flashbacks to a little boy’s past and his relationship with his abusive father which is difficult to watch, but for those paying attention (even a little) then the identity of the little boy may become clear.

It’s unfortunate then that once the identity of the killer is revealed and therefore so is the connection between his victims, the audience may stop caring about their survival entirely.

One of the guilty pleasures of watching a movie such as this is that the audience gets to indulge in watching people getting brutally tortured.

The audience know it isn’t real, but if the effect of what is done on screen is done well and seems realistic it can make the audience squirm and has the desired effect.

This can be said for The Dare, but with so little characterisation and no story arc for any of the characters (including the killer), all is left is the gruesome knifing and gouging.

Sarah Dekker (Courtney McKeon) lives with her parents. She has a wonderful boyfriend, Shane (Fiach Kunz) who she adores and despite her religious mother’s disapproval, she indulges in frequent and passionate sex.

Then one day Sarah feels sick, she goes to the doctor and her worst fear is confirmed – she’s pregnant. Scared for her future and after her mother (Noelle Clarke) finds out and her boyfriend dumps her, Sarah turns to her best friend, Davet (Paul Fitzgerald) so they can go to England and she can have an abortion.

However, while recovering and dealing with the trauma of the abortion, Sarah starts having hallucinations that make her realise that the loss of a baby is not the only thing that’s haunting her.

The Perished is a slow burn horror movie inspired by real life events, written and directed by Paddy Murphy. An opening passage informs the audience of a time in Ireland where pregnant women were denied the right to choose what they did with their bodies, and that many turned to extreme measures, which led to a mass grave of unborn children uncovered outside a refuge for pregnant women.

The Perished attempts to tell the story of one such woman who is forced to make a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

Guiding the audience through the film slowly, it soon becomes apparent that Sarah is experiencing things that may just be a figment of her imagination. However, the audience may think they are experiencing it too as there are small, scary noises and fleeting glances at what lies in the corner of Sarah’s mind to tell the audience that something’s coming.

It’s only until about halfway through when the full horror of her nightmare comes to light and the audience may suspect something far more supernatural is happening.

The script is very well written and the cast do a great job of connecting with the audience and with each other as they talk about their experiences, with the script even managing to put an even-handed discussion about abortion and its consequences amongst the scenes of horror.

However, by the finale, when the true villain is revealed, The Perished goes full on horror undermining the previous discussions.

Perhaps early on there should have been a decision to either make the movie a kitchen sink drama or a horror, because by the end the horror inflected drama doesn’t work as well as the filmmakers may have liked.

Hunter (Haley Bennett) and Richie (Austin Stowell) are newlyweds. Hunter has married into a rich family and although she can’t quite put her finger on it, Richie’s parents, Katherine (Elizabeth Marvel) and Michael (David Rasche) have a certain way of using microaggressions to make her feel unwelcome and that their son could have done better.

On top of that Richie doesn’t seem to notice or maybe doesn’t even care about how they treat her and even he has ways to make Hunter feel unappreciated. Overall, her new family have many subtle ways to make Hunter feel worthless when all she wants to do is to make them happy. Then one day Hunter has a sudden urge to swallow a marble, just to see what happens and this makes her feel powerful, so she decides to keep going.

Swallow is a psychological horror and solo directorial debut of writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis and despite its initial premise which some audiences may think is put there for shock value, Mirabella-Davis’ film has a lot more to say.

As Hunter feels a release at finally being able to do something on her own terms and to have the consequences of her actions be something she can control – she becomes pregnant. However, her addiction is slowly taking hold and although she has to think about what may happen for her future and her baby, the pressure from her in-laws and her husband is greater than ever.

Bennett’s portrayal of a housewife who’s feeling the stranglehold of family life is quietly nuanced and enthralling to watch as the audience can sense the bubbling rage under her demure persona as she desperately tries to make other people happy.

The need for Hunter to break out and find herself when her life is quite literally choking her is captivating, heart-breaking and at times difficult to watch as the audience wills Hunter to escape her impossible situation. Yet Bennett still manages to keep the composure of somebody who has always felt a little damaged and whose life is at breaking point even if she doesn’t realise it herself.

Swallow talks about so many different things that it’s hard to unpack here, but there are themes of mental health, pregnancy and the pressures of what are put upon women by society to keep calm and carry on when all they want to do is scream.

Swallow is indeed a terrifying horror movie, but one that says more about everyday life reminding the audience that the scariest things can be in our own minds.

Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack) is bored with his job. He works in I.T. and feels underappreciated and the enforced fun at work is driving him insane. Life at home isn’t much better as his wife has seemed to have lost interest in him and he’s starting to feel like he has nothing to look forward to anymore.

Then one day during a rectal examination, Chip gets a feeling like nothing else he has ever felt before and it changes him inside. He asks his wife to do the things that he’s developed a kink for but she refuses and so with Chip feeling that his life is completely unsatisfied, he turns to alcohol.

Nine years later and Chip’s kink has turned into an obsession and his drinking has turned into an addiction so he decides to go an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where he is partnered up with Detective Russel Fox (Tyler Rice) as his sponsor. Detective Fox has too turned to alcohol after his son went missing not so long ago and as he’s never solved the case, he blames himself.

However, as Chip and Russel start to get to know each other, the detective starts to realise that his sponsor may be responsible as he starts to speculate that he took his son and hid him in a very deep, dark and cavernous orifice. The only problem is that Detective Fox has to prove it first.

Butt Boy is written, directed by and stars Tyler Cornack, co-written by Tyler Rice and adapted from their comedy sketch performed in their comedy series Tiny Cinema. Playing the premise of the sketch in as serious a tone as possible, Cornack’s unusual indie comedy turns into a cat and mouse thriller and plays out pretty much as anyone would expect who has seen a few detective thrillers before.

The problem is that once the premise has been introduced then the filmmakers go all the way in and by the end it starts to become uncomfortable.

If Butt Boy has been played entirely seriously and the premise had been changed (and the title) then it would have been an enjoyable albeit cliched detective story that gives its audience just enough tension to keep them interested.

However, Butt Boy’s premise spreads itself too wide and to the point where it’s not funny anymore and the audience may just want to pull out before it’s over.

Ronnie (Zachary Ray Sherman) lives with his mother. He’s racist, homophobic, misogynist and subscribes to an alt-right channel where his idol, Chance Dalmain (Travis Hammer) preaches to his viewers about the ‘real America’. Ronnie is also lonely.

He thinks he’s a nice guy and all he wants is to find a woman who understands him so that she can be the one that looks up to him when everybody else is looking down.

Then one day Ronnie meets Candy (Monique Parent) and he instantly takes an interest in her and while he’s doing his usual internet search for ‘viewing material’ he sees Candy on a website offering her services. So, Ronnie finds her address and goes to see if he can offer any services of his own, and sure enough Candy and her husband, Larry (Hugo Armstrong) find a way that Ronnie can get involved in their internet porn business.

Cuck is the feature debut of Rob Lambert who also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Joe Varkle and they tell a very familiar and yet still very relevant story of a man whose exposure to right wing media and the influences around him have turned him into an incel.

Although there may be comparisons to Taxi Driver and more recently Joker, what sets Cuck apart is that it views its protagonist with neither a hint of sympathy and doesn’t ever laugh at his expense. Instead setting the film in the present-day turns Cuck into a character study that feels very real and Sherman’s portrayal feels so authentic that Ronnie could be somebody that you could meet at any time.

Sherman puts in a great performance as Ronnie and there’s never a time where the audience won’t totally believe that Ronnie doesn’t totally believe in what he’s saying. However, Sherman’s portrayal leads to moments of great sympathy for Ronnie as the audience may even find themselves wishing that if Ronnie wasn’t so naïve and easily led, then his life would be so much better.

It is unfortunate that Cuck does go down the route that audiences may expect from a film such as this, however as this story is as relevant now as it ever was, a little reminder that bad influences don’t go away so easily may be just the right thing that’s needed for modern America.

The film’s UK release has been postponed to sometime later this year, however it will be available to view on Amazon Prime from April 20.