TagYou Are Not My Mother
3 stories
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesReviews
This year was an outstanding one for horror films making the film festival rounds, which is where I see most of my movies each year. Thankfully, many films are making it to wider release quicker than in the past — for example, my #1 film of 2021 is already available on VOD, and several of my honorable mentions are on streaming services or on DVD or Blu-ray. Keep the following films in mind because some of them just may be future favorites for you in 2022! 1. The Feast (Wales) Director Lee Haven Jones’ Welsh outing The Feast — a blend of folk, psychological, environmental, and supernatural horror — instantly became my favorite film of the year, regardless of genre, when I saw it as part of SXSW Online 2021 in March. In my Horror Fuel review, I said that The Feast is an “eerie slice of horror cinema that jangles the nerves and does a beautiful job of slowly
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignReviews
Beginning with one of the most harrowing scenes in recent memory, writer/director Kate Dolan’s Halloween-set Irish horror outing You Are Not My Mother serves up traditional European folklore in a modern urban setting. The result is one of the most thrilling, eerie cinematic experiences of this year. High-school student Char (Hazel Doupe) reluctantly accepts a ride to school from her seemingly depressed mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken), who almost drives the car straight into a horse. Angela disappears later that day but returns in a few days; however, she now seems to be in lighter moods, more active, and more engaged regarding spending time with Char. At first the bullied teen seems cautiously optimistic about her mother’s new behavior, but soon Angela begins displaying increasingly disturbing bearings. Char’s grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie), who makes talismans for protection, warns Char about a supernatural presence behind Angela, but Char wants none of that because she has heard schoolmates and neighbors mock her family
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeign
Shocks and shudders abound during Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) hybrid event September 9–18, 2021, with in-person cinema screenings in Toronto and digital screenings available to viewers across Canada. Among the incredible international line-up of horror, science fiction, thriller, and other genre-cinema styles are the following six stand-outs, which Horror Fuel highly recommends. My comments follow in italics after descriptions adapted from TIFF’s official program and website. Kicking Blood “Blaine Thurier’s sultry, perma-stoned, ultra-modern spin on the vampire genre evokes cult-horror figures like George A. Romero and Stuart Gordon.” Fusing the grittiness of George Romero’s Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon’s early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier’s undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks. Vampire Anna (Alanna Bale) is disappointed
Continue reading →
More from You Are Not My Mother
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesReviews
This year was an outstanding one for horror films making the film festival rounds, which is where I see most of my movies each year. Thankfully, many films are making it to wider release quicker than in the past — for example, my #1 film of 2021 is already available on VOD, and several of my honorable mentions are on streaming services or on DVD or Blu-ray. Keep the following films in mind because some of them just may be future favorites for you in 2022! 1. The Feast (Wales) Director Lee Haven Jones’ Welsh outing The Feast — a blend of folk, psychological, environmental, and supernatural horror — instantly became my favorite film of the year, regardless of genre, when I saw it as part of SXSW Online 2021 in March. In my Horror Fuel review, I said that The Feast is an “eerie slice of horror cinema that jangles the nerves and does a beautiful job of slowly
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignReviews
Beginning with one of the most harrowing scenes in recent memory, writer/director Kate Dolan’s Halloween-set Irish horror outing You Are Not My Mother serves up traditional European folklore in a modern urban setting. The result is one of the most thrilling, eerie cinematic experiences of this year. High-school student Char (Hazel Doupe) reluctantly accepts a ride to school from her seemingly depressed mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken), who almost drives the car straight into a horse. Angela disappears later that day but returns in a few days; however, she now seems to be in lighter moods, more active, and more engaged regarding spending time with Char. At first the bullied teen seems cautiously optimistic about her mother’s new behavior, but soon Angela begins displaying increasingly disturbing bearings. Char’s grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie), who makes talismans for protection, warns Char about a supernatural presence behind Angela, but Char wants none of that because she has heard schoolmates and neighbors mock her family
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeign
Shocks and shudders abound during Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) hybrid event September 9–18, 2021, with in-person cinema screenings in Toronto and digital screenings available to viewers across Canada. Among the incredible international line-up of horror, science fiction, thriller, and other genre-cinema styles are the following six stand-outs, which Horror Fuel highly recommends. My comments follow in italics after descriptions adapted from TIFF’s official program and website. Kicking Blood “Blaine Thurier’s sultry, perma-stoned, ultra-modern spin on the vampire genre evokes cult-horror figures like George A. Romero and Stuart Gordon.” Fusing the grittiness of George Romero’s Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon’s early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier’s undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks. Vampire Anna (Alanna Bale) is disappointed
Continue reading →
