‘Zombieland’

Mild throwaway comedy entertainment where zombies have taken over America with a socially awkward student hoping to travel from Texas to his home in Ohio.

A dystopian landscape of abandoned vehicles creates a serious restriction for Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) along with the need to avoid packs of zombies. Unexpected help comes his way from Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) but when two sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) get the better of the two men, a Californian theme park becomes their destination.

A road journey that is full of predictable scenarios balanced by fast paced dialogue (it’s Eisenberg after all). Polished performances from the four leads who work beautifully together result in a Zombieland that is a madcap feature gratuitously gory but which thankfully never takes itself too seriously.

Rating: 57%

Director: Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad, Venom)

Writer: Rhett Reese (Deadpool, Spiderhead), Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Spiderhead)

Main cast: Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me, Resistance), Emma Stone (Birdman, The Favourite), Woody Harrelson (Natural Born KIllers, Out of the Furnace)

’Talk to Me’

A captivating and quietly shocking Australian horror feature that goes against genre type in the building of character within a group of teenagers.

Still coming to terms with the loss of her mother, Mia (Sophie Wilde) reluctantly attends a small party with best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen). Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) to whom Mia has a close affinity tags along. Turns out the party is a form of seance – Hayley (Zoe Terakes) has come into possession of an embalmed hand from which spirits can be conjured. The gang are hooked – and Mia looks to talk to her mom. But she goes too far, allows Jade to have a go – and unleashes terrifying, uncontrollable forces.

Directors Danny and Michael Philippou, twin brothers, expertly ramp the tension and existential dread. As the families of the teenagers attempt to deal with the consequences, Mia’s addiction to the need to know answers from her mother grows. The moments of horror, though brief, are deeply shocking, adding to the sinister complexities of the unfolding narrative.

Winner of 8 AACTA Awards in 2023 including best film, director, actress and script

Rating: 76%

Director: Danny Philippou (TV’s RackaRacka) Michael Philippou (TV’s RackaRacka)

Writer: Danny Philippou (TV’s RackaRacka), Bill Hinzman

Main cast: Sophie Wilde (The Portable Door, TV’s Boy Swallows Universe), Alexandra Jensen (The Moogai, TV’s The Messenger), Miranda Otto (The Daughter, War of the Worlds)

’Totally Killer’

A fleeting comedy horror time travel feature as 17 year-old Jamie finds herself back in 1987 in time to stop the Sweet 16 Killer claiming his three victims in the lead up to Hallowe’en.

Some 35 years after the last victim, Pam Hughes (Julie Bowen) is stabbed 16 times in her own home – the fourth and final member of a school friendship group. Her daughter Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) appears to be the next victim but accidentally triggers a time travel machine. Finding herself at school in 1987 and in the same class as her 16 year-old mom (Olivia Holt), Jamie looks to prevent the murders – and deal with 1980s language and attitudes.

A hybrid of horror film pastiche, occasional (stylised) gruesome brutality and snappy dialogue, Totally Killer may not always work but, anchored by a funny and gritty Shipka, it’s an unexpectedly entertaining if lightweight 100 minutes.

Rating: 60%

Director: Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe, TV’s Young Rock)

Writer: David Matalon (The Clearing), Sasha Perl-Raver (Let’s Get Married), Jen D’Angelo (Quiz Lady, Hocus Pocus 2)

Main cast: Kiernan Shipka (Wildflower, TV’s Mad Men), Olivia Holt (TV’s Cloak & Dagger, Kickin’ It), Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson (TV’s Big Sky, On My Block)

‘Infinity Pool’

Gruesome, confronting, explicit, perverse but strangely compelling, Infinity Pool is never afraid to go to extremes to make its allegorical point.

Wannabe writer James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is holidaying with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) at an all-inclusive luxury beach resort on the totalitarian island of La Tolqa. He’s looking for inspiration for his second novel but the two have a discomforting air of boredom about them. Persuaded to break the rules by Gabi (Mia Goth) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert) to leave the fenced-in compound, a fatal accident results in the Fosters being exposed to the island’s draconian laws and the surreal hedonism that prevails for tourists to circumvent justice.

Nightmarish in subject and presentation, to escape Em flees the island but the budding novelist is compelled by Gabi, drawn in by deranged privilege of extreme wealth with its primitive and barbaric ideas of entertainment and fun.

Rating: 73%

Director: Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor, Antiviral)

Writer: Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor, Antiviral)

Main cast: Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend of Tarzan, Lee), Mia Goth (Suspiria, Emma.), Cleopatra Coleman (In the Shadow of the Moon, TV’s The Last Man on Earth)

‘What Lies Below’

Absurd and ineffectual horror story as a teenager returns from summer camp to discover her mother has taken a new lover – a man too good to be true.

Collected by her mom at the end of camp, Liberty Wells (Ema Horvarth – Who Are You People, Don’t Look Deeper) is taken by surprise on arrival at their quiet, lakeside home. Mom (Mena Suvari – American Beauty, American Pie) has a new boyfriend – the charming hunk of a man, marine biologist John Smith (Trey Tucker – The Space Between Us, The Outpost). But things are not what they seem as it looks like Smith is there to stay.

More things that go splash than bump in the night, What Lies Below as written and directed by Braden R. Duemmler in his feature film debut is way, way out of its depth – more paddling pool than deep end. In a conchshell, it’s plain awful.

Rating: 24%

‘M3GAN’

Horror, social commentary and satire all rolled into an unexpectedly thoughtful and entertaining feature.

The death of both parents in a freak accident leaves 9 year-old Cady (Violet McGraw – Doctor Sleep, A Christmas Mystery) living with a virtually unknown aunt – a workaholic robotics engineer at a toy company. But enlisting the M3GAN doll prototype she’s developing to help with Cady provides Emma (Allison Williams – Get Out, The Perfection) with totally unexpected results and challenging consequences.

Splendidly creepy as M3GAN – Model 3 Generative Android – is a next-level robot that looks like a real girl for the most part and is responsive to its user. Something of a lonely outsider dealing with grief, Cady is a target for bullying. But science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s first law is that a robot shall not harm a human, or by inaction allow a human to come to harm…

With AI under the spotlight, the creepy doll trope is expertly explored in M3GAN as directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound). It’s not the scariest of horror films, but its full of suspense and uncertainty and a toy story like no other!

Rating: 70%

‘The Babadook’

Psychological horror in the suburbs of Adelaide as a single mum confronts the fears of her son and the monster contained within their home.

Struggling with the grief of losing her husband in a car accident several years earlier, Amelia (Essie Davis – Nitram, Babyteeth) is exhausted by the demanding Samuel’s (Noah Wiseman) nighttime routines and daytime aggression. As their relationship unravels, so the Babadook increases its presence in their everyday.

A sublime study of psychosis and PTSD as Amelia subconsciously blames Samuel for her husband’s death, The Babadook, with its excellent central performances, is a provocative and scary horror movie directed by Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale) in her feature film debut.

Winner of the 2015 AACTA award for best Australian Film.

Rating: 68%

‘The Black Phone’

Unexpectedly engaging, The Black Phone works by weaving psychological fears with the supernatural as 13 year old Finney finds himself imprisoned in the basement of a child killer.

Director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) sets the scene of a slight, bullied Finney (Mason Thames – TV’s For All Mankind, Walker) struggling at home with an alcoholic father and a tough, younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw – American Sniper, Ant-Man and the Wasp) who has visions. Young teenagers are disappearing from the delapidated neighbourhood. Eventually, The Grabber takes Finney. Alone in the basement, a disconnected black telephone provides a connection with previous victims.

It’s a chilling narrative as Finney must find a way (quickly) to survive whilst his sister tries to tap into her visions to find him. More insight into The Grabber and the duality of personality would have helped provide depth but The Black Phone is ultimately about the relationship between the two siblings and the boy’s confinement along with more than a passing social commentary.

Rating: 61%

‘A Quiet Place II’

An unquestionably tough act to follow up on the original A Quiet Place, the equally intense second part sees the Abbott family forced to move on from their home and face the terrors of the unknown.

With the teenage Regan (Millicent Simmonds – A Quiet Place, Wonderstruck) leading the family to the fabled island sanctuary, mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt – Sicario, A Quiet Place) is as wary of the threat to their safety by human survivors as by alien creatures. Teaming up with an initially reluctant neighbour Emmett (Cillian Murphy – Inception, 28 Days Later), they look to survival in a world determined by silence.

Director John Krasinski (The Hollars, A Quiet Place) picks up where he left off as the family unit treks across the unfamiliar of the once familiar facing threats to their lives. A sense of ominous foreboding exists in a narrative that, unlike its prequel, has a sense of achievable closure. The result is a film that almost equals the innovative A Quiet Place but its plot veers towards the predictable post-apocalyptic adventure. But it remains darn good storytelling.

Rating: 69%

‘Barbarian’

Whilst not a fan of the horror genre, Barbarian is a surprisingly effective chiller of a thriller as the airbnb rental is not what it seems.

It’s bad enough for Tess (Georgina Campbell – TV’s Suspicion, His Dark Materials) when the house rental proves to be double-booked, with Keith (Bill Skarsgård – It, Eternals) already ensconsced in what proves to be an almost abandoned, derelict neighbourhood of Detroit. Against her better judgement, she stays. Meanwhile, in LA, the owner of the house, AJ (Justin Long – Live Free or Die Hard, Going the Distance), needs to make himself scarce and decides to return to Detroit.

Whilst undoubtedly a tongue-in-cheek poke at the genre, written and directed by Zach Cregger (Miss March, TV’s Newsboyz) Barbarian proves to be simultaneously tense and humorous as the subterranean claustrophobia of suburban Detroit reveals its chilling secrets.

Rating: 57%