Despite the absolutely iconic imagery of Vincent Price as Dr Death, Madhouse is a film that has somehow slipped by me. The new release from Eureka Entertainment was the perfect way to see it for the first time – in HD, followed by an introduction to by horror novelist Stephen Laws, a video essay by horror and gothic scholar Mary Going and audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle.
As always, Vincent Price was a delight to watch. Price was quite possibly the most handsome, charismatic and magnetic actor to ever grace our screens. And seeing him alongside the equally legendary Peter Cushing is always a good time.
I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but Madhouse is one the earliest meta, self-aware horror movies I’ve seen. Watching older genre films is always fascinating, seeing how much they have influenced other writers and directors. Surely Madhouse was a huge inspiration for Wes Craven when creating the genius work that is New Nightmare. I love anything that looks at film-making within film, especially from a 1970’s perspective.
Madhouse is a lot of fun and considering how much I’ve seen the image of Price as Dr Death over the years, I can’t believe I’d never seen the film. But this is why physical media is so important! New releases alert us to gems we’ve missed and now get to discover and enjoy and more importantly, in light of Sony’s nonsense this week, KEEP FOREVER!
It’s a beautifully shot film with wonderfully camp characters and performances. I really enjoyed it and definitely going to pick up the gorgeous limited edition Blu-ray next time I’m physical media shopping.
Diabolic is a new religious horror, available in the UK from next week. After suffering terrifying blackouts, a young woman returns to the religious compound where she was raised. As she unravels the dark secrets of her past, an ancient ritual unleashes the vengeful spirit of a cursed witch.
I love horror about religion and I enjoyed Diabolic, because it’s the first time I’ve seen a movie focused around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While I don’t think Diabolic does anything ground-breaking, it’s really interesting to see a horror set outside of the usual Catholic and Christian churches. All I know about the Mormon church, I learned from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and The Book of Mormon. So it’s safe to say, that’s not a lot!
Elise, played by Elizabeth Cullen who will star in Evil Dead Wrath, has escaped from a Mormon compound. She’s so desperate to rid herself of the blackouts that are seemingly caused by her trauma, she ill-advisedly returns to the community for a ritual to restore her memory. Nothing about this seems like a good idea, so it’s a little frustrating that not only Elise wants to go ahead, but her boyfriend and best friend come along for the ride. Strength in numbers, perhaps, but it is the first of many silly choices from the characters. The story is heavy on religious horror tropes, but I guess that’s what we’ve come to see.
What Diabolic does do really well, is give us beautiful sets and great practical sfx. It’s a really gorgeous film, with a lovely colour palette and atmospheric locations. I was really pleased to see so much practical work and it’s really effective – two of the things that are guaranteed to freak me out (as vague as possible – repeatedly banging your head and coughing up a hairball!) are present. And freak me out, they did. It was also really nice to see a queer storyline. I can’t speak to whether it was an accurate portrayal of the church’s response, or overall depiction of the church, but it added an interesting angle.
As predictable as the story felt at times, it’s still worth a watch to enjoy the visuals and experience a different type of religious horror. A solid 3 star movie!
Diabolic will be available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Monday 25th May. Thank you to Strike Media for letting me review the film!
The Devil’s Candy is a dark, atmospheric, disturbing horror that doesn’t get the flowers that it deserves. With a metal soundtrack, powerful performances and haunting visuals, it is an absolutely beautiful film.
The second feature from The Loved Ones and Dangerous Animals director Sean Byrne, The Devil’s Candy fits firmly into a subgenre that I love – metal horror. Painter Jesse and his family move into an isolated, rural home and his sudden artistic inspiration comes from an unexpected source. Jesse and his daughter are metalheads – long hair, tattoos and headbanging on the school run. It’s always nice to see metallers in a film that feel authentic – not what a fancy dress shop says we look like. Ethan Embry, who plays Jesse, is a heavy metal fan himself so it really was an authentic performance. There is an incredible original score from Michael Yezerski and a bangin’ soundtrack featuring Metallica, Sunn O))), Pantera, Machine Head and Slayer.
The Devil’s Candy is also visually stunning. The editing and cinematography masterfully juxtapose horrific acts with Jesse’s creative process. (The scene with the bathtub is just gorgeous.) The Satanic and religious imagery littered throughout is unsettling and works perfectly with the metal soundtrack and score. Dark imagery and dark music, paired with a loving family that feels full of light.
Ethan Embry as Jesse
The cast is small, but perfect. Ethan Embry is fantastic – he is able to balance the loving, devoted father and husband side of Jesse, with the “tortured artist” side without either ever feeling like a stereotype. The intensity of his performance is captivating and I think it’s Embry’s best role. Pruitt Taylor Vince is chilling as Ray, a genuinely intimidating presence who somehow elicits fear and sympathy. Shiri Appleby as Astrid and Kiara Glasco as Zooey are also brilliant as Jesse’s wife and daughter, anchoring him to reality.
Limited edition release from Second Sight
The ever-wonderful Second Sight have given The Devil’s Candy a beautiful release on limited edition 4K UHD & blu-ray, which you can preorder now and will be available from 25th May. There’s a fantastic commentary from Sean Byrne, interviews with Embry, Director of Photography Simon Chapman, Editor Andy Canny and Production Designer Tom Hammock. There’s also a vfx feature and two of Byrne’s short films, Advantage Satan and Work? The limited edition boxset also includes 6 art cards and a 120 page booklet of essays – one of my favourite things that Second Sight does with their releases. This is a 5 star movie, with a 5 star special release and I can’t recommend it more.
Thank you to Second Sight and Aim Publicity for sending me the release to review.
Could there be a more perfect pairing than Second Sight and Hammer Films?! As someone who is working through the Hammer back catalogue, these releases are an absolute gift and a dream. Originally released on special edition, both films will be available on standard blu-ray from Monday 25th May.
The Mummy and Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell are new films to me and it’s been great being able to watch them, immediately followed up by special features talking about the history of Hammer and the impact of the films. Both have fantastic performances from the iconic Peter Cushing, a highlight of my Hammer history lessons, as well as the incomparable Christopher Lee in The Mummy.
Of the two, The Mummy is my favourite. The neon green lighting is stunning and much more of a visual treat than the muted palette of Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell. Terence Fisher’s take on two classic monster stories is interesting to see – I feel The Mummy has been far more influential on horror, than Frankenstein… The look of the Monster (good ole Darth Vader himself, David Prowse) is very different than other iterations I’ve seen over the almost 100 years of Frankenstein on screen. While this creation wouldn’t necessarily be my favourite of Frankenstein’s monsters, it’s nice to see Hammer doing something different. I definitely want to see the studio’s other Frankenstein stories!
The Franz Reizenstein score for The Mummy and the James Bernard score for Frankenstein… are both beautiful. They just don’t make film scores like that anymore. The music in both films is lush, atmospheric and absolutely getting added to my horror scores playlist. Both blurays contain special features about the scores, which is a delight. We don’t get extras dedicated to the score very often and when we do, it’s usually from Second Sight!
The new artwork from Graham Humphreys is gorgeous too. Beautiful additions to my physical media collection and more gaps in my horror history filled!
The Psychic is, sadly, a victim of its marketing. Audiences familiar with the utterly terrifying Ghost Stories may expect another fright-filled experience from the images on social media of seance tables and the ominous scrawl of “mummy wants to kill you” in chalk. The new play from writers Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson is a thriller filled with twists and turns, but it doesn’t deliver much in the way of scares. It’s not intended to. The Psychic isn’t a horror play, but unless you hear those words from Nyman and Dyson in interviews, you’d be forgiven for expecting another Ghost Stories.
I must preface this by saying how massive a fan of Ghost Stories and Dyson and Nyman’s work I am. I have seen their first production eight times and have spent the last 15 years preaching the gospel of Ghost Stories to anyone who will listen (and even if they aren’t listening!). I have never been so frightened in my entire life, as the night I sat in front of Andy Nyman himself playing Professor Goodman. I was so scared I couldn’t stop sweating, I had the most horrendously dry mouth and was on the verge of tears the whole time. Now I revel in its familiar scares and drag my poor friends along, while I watch them out of the corner of my eye at key moments. Gleefully rubbing my hands together, like an evil little fly.
The Psychic follows celebrity medium, Sheila Gold, who is wondering “is any of it real?”. Unlike Ghost Stories’ all-male cast, this play centres around a matriarchal community. Sheila grew up in the Showman community and the story shares some of the traditions and how this can impact the relationships within. This is the true heart to the story and is a fascinating look into a world I had no idea about. Dyson and Nyman have done their research, littering the script with Showman lingo and treating the themes with respect. They even go as far to cast actress Megan Placito as Tara, who came from a Showman background herself. There is a glossary of terms in the theatre foyer, with a list of the key words we’ll hear throughout the play. I now know where the phrase “cushty” comes from!
Megan Placito as Tara.Photograph: Manuel Harlan
The Psychic is a very good, very enjoyable play. I’d purposefully avoided any information about it, but excitedly watched the teasers as they popped up on my Instagram feed. The focus on the seance imagery led me to believe The Psychic would centre around a seance parlour set-piece and hopefully feature some terrifying parlour tricks. Perhaps with something akin to the debunking of “Psychic Cheats” in the Ghost Stories film adaptation.
As much as I would have loved that version of the play, what we got was an interesting, tense thriller. I was very lucky to attend the press night last week and also a performance with a post-show Q&A with the cast and creatives. Had I only seen the first performance, I think my review would have been much less positive. While I enjoyed the show, I was very disappointed as I felt like the play we got wasn’t the same play we were promised. Speaking to others after both shows, it seems many of the audience were also Ghost Stories fans who expected another spooky scarefest. This was further compounded when audience quotes shared from the press night included “I was genuinely scared”, “I yelped once or twice in my seat”, “genuinely chilling” and “I was grabbing onto [my friend] in fear”. That may well have been the case for those theatre-goers, but from reading reviews and talking to others at both performances, that sentiment seems to be in the minority. On the second watch I was able to approach it as a fun rollercoaster ride thriller and enjoyed it all the more for it, knowing what to expect. The story is exciting, with layered, likeable characters and I feel there was a way of focusing the marketing on this aspect, without giving too much away. I’m doing my best to “keep the secrets” of The Psychic, as we are also asked to do at the end of Ghost Stories. While there are twists in the tale that I’d hate to spoil, as the play doesn’t centre around set-pieces and scares that will lose impact if you know what is coming, I’m not sure the request is as warranted as with Ghost Stories.
The cast really are fantastic, with the three female leads giving stellar performances. Eileen Walsh is brilliant as Sheila Gold, who includes an element of improvisation in every show. She makes balancing dark humour, emotional vulnerability and intensity look easy and is a genuine pleasure to watch. The most recognisable cast member, Frances Barber, is wonderful as the delightfully camp Rosa, commanding the stage and clearly enjoying every minute and every laugh from the audience. The stand-out was Megan Placito as Tara, an incredibly magnetic actress who shows a lot of range and brought her Showman heritage to the stage. This was something I only learned from the post-show Q&A and it seems Megan helped ensure the script and story were a true reflection of Showman life, even giving tarot readings to her castmates at rehearsals. I think this input and dedication to authenticity is a strong point of the play, but (to me) this is another element that could have been key to the marketing.
Eileen Walsh as Sheila Gold. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
The sets are beautiful, with a particularly impressive set in the second act that made me gasp in awe. The illusions were designed by Chris Fisher, the absolute genius behind the nightmare-inducing Paranormal Activity stage show and the incredible (but sadly besmirched) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. While there were some brilliant moments on stage, I wish I’d been able to lose sleep after seeing tables floating, people disappearing and planchettes and glasses move of their own accord, in the version of the play I thought we were getting. While I appreciate only the more nerdy audience members would see the name Chris Fisher and go “yes, we are ABSOLUTELY getting some mindblowing, terrifying stage magic”, his involvement further supported the scary play expectations.
I am fully aware I have said a lot, without actually saying much at all, but am conscious to not ruin any of the plot. But I would like to manage expectations for anyone hoping to catch the show before the end of its run at the York Theatre Royal on Saturday 23rd May. It’s a really good play that is well written and brilliantly acted. If that’s what you are expecting, then I think you will thoroughly enjoy The Psychic. If you’re expecting Ghost Stories part 2, you may leave the theatre a little disappointed. As someone who has definitely hyperfixated on Ghost Stories and made it part of their personality, I’m painfully conscious of the fact I am approaching The Psychic from a very different place to most people. But I did find solace in the fact that many others have expressed similar thoughts about their expectations from the marketing and how they would have enjoyed it so much more if they weren’t completely thrown by the tone of the play. I expect we’ll see The Psychic tour the UK and I recommend it for a fun (if not scary!) night at the theatre.
⭐⭐⭐
Tickets for The Psychic are available from the York Theatre Royal. Thank you to the Theatre Royal for having me along to the press night.
I love getting to chat to people about movies, so talking horror on Let’s Talk Horror was a good time! We chose Barbarian out of a shortlist of possible choices and I love getting to share my appreciation of Mama. What a sweet baby angel!
I’m always conscious of talking TOO much when it’s not my podcast, so didn’t want to shoehorn in some small business Barbarian merch recommendations! But I’ll share them here, as I love them!
The incredible monster-maker extraordinaire, Tom of The Evil Shed, has sculpted the most gorgeous plaque of Mama. She’s not on the website at the moment, but keep an eye out for Tom at conventions as she’s often on display there. Tom’s work is INSANE and I’d love to own some of his busts, as they are masterpieces!
I had the pleasure of joining the lovely Ben Errington and Andy Conduit-Turner to talk about the atrocious Return to Silent Hill on Horror Hangout. It was lush to have a good natter, after being in the same circles for a while and always missing each other – even if it was about this stinker of a film. But I enjoyed talking about it with them, learning some more about the game and the story that I didn’t get from the movie! Hopefully I’ll join Ben and Andy again soon, to talk about a film I actually DO enjoy!
It’s the second week of January and, somehow, I’ve only watched four movies so far this year. 2025 had a bloody brilliant start, with me going to see Nosferatu on New Year’s Day – 2026 hasn’t started with as majestic a bang! (Although seeing 28 Years Later and The Bone Temple as movies 3 and 4 has helped!)
Last year was absolutely brilliant for horror cinema and I thought I’d write a round-up of my year in horror. I fully planned to do this last January, wrapping up 2024’s movies. I mapped it out, got as far as February or March, got overwhelmed and ditched it. So this year, I’m eating the elephant in chunks (or whatever that weird phrase is) and breaking it down. I want to challenge myself to write more regularly and forcing myself into a 12 month retrospective is hardly the best place to start!
I am relying on love of my life, Letterboxd, to go through my year otherwise I won’t bloody remember anything. As I go month by month, I’ll link to various reviews and videos to mix it up a bit, in an attempt to make this somewhat digestible. I logged 311 films in 2025 (god knows how many I forgot to log…), covered 7 film festivals as press and got so many brilliant review opportunities. I’m a bit proud of myself, even if I don’t know what to do with that feeling.
New movies
Nosferatu was a wonderful way to start the year and I fell in love with how beautiful it was. The cinematography, costumes, score, performances and Orlok himself were all exquisite. In typical me fashion, I’d planned to write or record a full review but after I left this hilarious Letterboxd note I left it as it was. Nosferatu was also my second movie of the year – I went back to watch it again, this time on IMAX which really allowed me to see the glorious depths of the darkness.
After the excitement of Nosferatu, I was really excited for the rest of the year ahead. The first horror festival of the year was Horror on Sea (which is running as I write) which, for me, was a mixed bag of films. A few were awful, but don’t want to name names as I always feel terrible being negative about indie films. Plus, it may just not be my taste and someone else may love it. But there were also some pretty good and some absolutely great films.
My favourites of the festival were The Mill Killers (2024) and Protein (2024), two Welsh movies that I think were just brilliant. Both perfectly captured the feeling of small Welsh towns and I will always love seeing Wales portrayed on film. I’d definitely recommend both – The Mill Killers is available to watch for free on Prime and you can rent Protein on Prime too.
Marginalia (2025) was an absolutely gloriously absurd movie, which I’d really love to see again. It doesn’t seem to have been released in the UK yet, but I’m hopeful for a physical media release.
The other new watches for the month were Books of Blood (2020),A Bay of Blood (1971), Room 6 (2006), Funeral Home/Cries in the Night (1980) and Swamp Thing (1982). I don’t recall any of them particularly standing out to me, as I didn’t rate or review any of them. But I’m always pushing myself to watch new-to-me movies, instead of rewatching, so I think that was pretty good going. I also watched Bottoms (2023) – not a horror movie, but I love queer movies and I’m definitely trying to watch more non-horror movies and push myself out of my comfort zone a little.
Talking of my comfort zone, though, I rewatched Hereditary (2018) and The Monster Squad (1987). Two movies I will always go back to for a dose of comfort and familiarity – just on opposite ends of the wholesome scale!
Podcasts
I put out two podcast episodes in January 2025, both with very different themes. For Horror Hyperfixations, I waxed lyrical about my love of Ghost Stories and talked to myself about my favourite play for over 3 hours. SPOILER – I ended up going to see Ghost Stories 4 times in 2025. Not that I’m obsessed, or anything…
And furthering my attempt to watch movies outside of the horror genre, I watched Transformers the Movie with my friend Kev for Speshul Features. I’ve never been a Transformers girlie, but the soundtrack slapped and there was a dinosaur robot. Sold!
Books
I go into most years with the goals of reading more, writing more, watching more, so reading Schrader’s Chord by Scott Leeds was a good start to inspire me to keep reading in 2025. When you’re late for work because you can’t put your book down, you know it’s good! (Spoiler: I didn’t read anywhere near enough last year, but at least I read!)
Rabbit Trap is an incredibly beautiful folk horror from Bryn Chainey and Spectrevision and I absolutely loved it. I still feel under its spell, even after it’s finished.
Set in Wales, Rabbit Trap follows a married couple who are recording an album in a remote house. Daphne is a musician, Darcy is a sound engineer and Darcy happens upon a neighbour, while out recording in nature. Credited as “the child”, the neighbour seems to be a genderless, ageless being who knows a lot about the area and the local folklore. The tiny, but perfect, cast of Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen and Jade Croot really grounded the fantastical story.
While it was filmed in Yorkshire, Rabbit Trap really captures the magic and beauty of Wales. The scenery, the language and the rich history of myths and legends. I felt very emotional hearing Welsh words and Welsh song in a film that’s been produced outside of Wales (by Spectrevision, no less!) And to hear “be there now in a minute” in a film that will be seen all around the world (starting at bloody Sundance!) was magical in itself.
Sound is so integral to this film and by a happy accident, I watched it with headphones on. The sound design is absolutely incredible and so engrossing. While the plot of film is entirely different, the soundscape reminded me a lot of In the Earth by Ben Wheatley – capturing something ancient, otherworldly and unknowable. For the first time in ages (I know, for shame!) I sat through the entirety of the credits at home, so I could bask in the sound for as long as possible. I really need to see Rabbit Trap on the big screen, not only for the visuals, but to appreciate the sound on huge speakers.
Rabbit Trap is just a glorious film and it’s especially impressive that this is Bryn Chainey’s debut feature. I truly hope that this gets a wide release so I can see it again and more people can experience a little bit of Welsh magic.
Rabbit Trap had it’s European premiere at Grimmfest on 11th October and a UK release date has not yet been announced. Rabbit Trap is available to watch online in the US.
An obsessive, psychopathically perfectionist furniture designer takes his desire to create the perfect chair to truly… excessive lengths.
I hope you’re sitting down for this one (buh-boom-tshhh!). Incomplete Chairs from Kenichi Ugana has been my favourite film of Grimmfest so far.
The gore in this film is absolutely exquisite and Incomplete Chairs doesn’t waste any time, it gets straight into it. Within about 10 minutes, there’s an absolutely beautifully disgusting POV shot that is just… *chef’s kiss*. The camera does cut away at times, with a delightful juxtaposition of squelchy gore sounds with beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds. But thankfully, Ugana always delivers another dose of disgusting gore right after. It’s what we deserve.
I’ve never considered chairs so much – there’s lots of talk of the “chair industry” and I genuinely don’t think I’ll ever look at chairs in the same way again. Grimmfest likens Incomplete Chairs to American Psycho (amongst other excellent comparisons – go read their write up!) and the lead character definitely has Patrick Bateman energy. Handsome, charming, composed when he needs to be and also, utterly, utterly unhinged.
I will absolutely be revisiting this film often and would love to own a copy on Blu-ray. I’m gutted I missed the chance to see it on the big screen, I’m sure it looked and sounded so squelchy and delicious.
Kenichi Ugana
Hi Kenichi, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I LOVED Incomplete Chairs. Can you tell us about the plot of the film?
Thank you. This movie is about making chairs out of human materials lol
It’s brutal, bloody and I had so much fun watching it. Where did the inspiration come from?
I think it’s true all over the world, but I’ve felt that the social media environment in Japan has become excessive in recent years, and I wanted to express what would happen if strangers’ unreasonable verbal abuse were replaced with actual violence.
I’ve never thought so much about chairs, who designs them and how they are made until I watched Incomplete Chairs. I don’t think I’ll ever look at a chair the same way again!
Many of the chairs we use are also dead trees.
Touche! The practical effects in the movie are absolutely amazing and the gore is incredible. It must have been an incredibly messy shoot – did you come up against any problems on set, with so much blood and gore?
The hardest part was finding a house where we could shoot the blood. In the end, we used my grandma’s house as the location lol
Incomplete chairs is a very stylish, beautifully shot film, which is such a strong juxtaposition with the limbs and viscera. Did any movies inspire the look of the film?
He didn’t mention any specific movie names, but I think he said he wanted the visuals to be similar to those of Cronenberg, as I’m a big fan of his films.
Grimmfest says Incomplete Chairs is a “mischievous mash up of AMERICAN PSYCHO, Lars Von Trier’s THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, the films of Takeshi Miike”, which I think is a perfect description. Did you draw any inspiration from Harron, Von Trier or Miike?
I’m a big fan of theirs, so they’ve always had a big influence on me. However, I tried not to be too conscious of other works when writing this film. However, when I started writing the script, I was somewhat conscious of “Angst.” In the end, it turned out to be a completely different work.
I love to talk about people’s favourite movies – what’s your favourite? Do you have a favourite sub-genre of horror?
This may come as a surprise to you, but my favorite movie these days is Béla Tarr’s “Sátántangó.” I love all the horror subgenres, but I’ve recently gotten back into watching zombie movies.
What can we expect from you next? You’ve now shown two of your movies at Grimmfest – can we hope for a third next year?
I love Grimmfest, so it would be a great honor to be screened there again. I finished my new film two weeks ago, a body horror about a family. I’m also shooting a sci-fi action musical romantic comedy next month, and another horror film next year. Please look forward to it.
Thanks Kenichi! I love musicals too, so that sounds incredible! Plus, I can’t wait to see what horror you cook up next!
Sam Munster 