In 2020, Grimmfest will pay tribute to four Legends of Horror, in the suitably elegant, art-deco surroundings of Stockport Plaza. Experience classics of the genre in suitably grand, elegant style, in the most beautiful Picture Palace in the region. Grimmfest has partnered with The Horror Channel to offer big-screen presentations of a whole host of classic horror films from four masters of the genre all on the big screen, across Spring and early Summer. Tobe Hooper (9/2/20), David Cronenberg (8/3/20), John Carpenter (9/5/20) and Wes Craven (5/7/20). 16 movies in total over 4 special day events. DAVID CRONENBERG – SUNDAY 8/23/20 “Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos.” – David Cronenberg. Doors Open: 12.30pm. 1.00pm RABID (91 mins) 15 Cert In the wake of the Soska Twins’ recent remake, a chance to revisit the stark, bleak original; the film in which Marilyn Chambers truly is insatiable. 3.10pm VIDEODROME (87mins) 18 Cert “Long live the new flesh!” Remember the whole “video nasties” hysteria of the 1980s? Fear of what exposure to such things might be doing to the young? It could have been a lot worse. 5.10pm THE FLY (96 mins) 18 Cert “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don’t know why. Perhaps she’ll die…” One of the genre’s greatest ever love stories. Yes, seriously. 7.15pm CRASH (100 mins) 18 Cert Cronenberg’s cinematic reimagining of J.G Ballard’s novel was described as “beyond the bounds of depravity” by critic Alexander Walker. The perfect combination of filmmaker and source material, in other words. Tickets are available here: https://horrorlegends.eventive.org/schedule/5e219603309e9e0101df33a6/tickets If you fancy a chance of winning a couple of day passes to the event alongside a Grimmfest goodie bag chock full of horror goodies, Grimmfest are running a competition right here (Comp closes Friday 28th Feb): https://www.facebook.com/478609738823901/posts/3113813225303526/?d=n And to celebrate the day, Grimmfest have produced a special Grimmfest Cronenberg trailer right here:

★★★ Directed by: #JessicaHausner Written by: #JessicaHausner Starring: #FranziskaWeisz #BirgitMinichmayr #MarleneStreeruwitz Film Review by: Bruna Foletto Lucas When Irene (Franziska Weisz) starts her new job as a maid at a hotel, she quickly discovers that the woman who was previously doing her job has disappeared in mysterious ways. Written and directed by Jessica Hausner, Hotel is unapologetically what it is. Hausner has such strong views on cinema and, even though she risks losing audience with her cinematic choices, she sticks to them. She has previously said that she prefers to differ from adhering to a genre and its characteristics, therefore creating new conventions and destroying the audience’s feeling of security. Hotel flees from naturalism – just about to still maintain a certain ambiguity where neither the supernatural nor the rational are fully explained. Not different from her other films, Hausner gives us an incomplete puzzle and invites the audience to put it together – using their own interpretation to complete the blank spaces. The film is centred in Irene, a young woman who has just started her new job, she is quite restricted and prudish, she always has her hair done perfectly, her clothes are always pristine and her face doesn’t give much away. She is troubled, much more than she might expect, but she keeps it all inside. She is detached from reality as she strives for a more interesting life – she takes on a lover, she “breaks rules” and swims in the hotel swimming pool, she wears someone else’s glasses and she lies to her family about the intensity of her job. In a sense the character is just like us, trying to finish the puzzle with her own perception of reality – for Irene, the puzzle, as a diegetic story, is her life. Her routine is banal and the disappearance of the previous maid is an opportunity to make it more interesting – her imagination creates a story she cannot control, and by revealing it, it becomes true. The camera work here is interesting because it works with this duality – showing us frames of legs whose real identity we are unable to pinpoint, leaving a question mark of whether they belong to Irene or someone else. The feature relies on atmosphere – at times, it relies too much - and the suspense is palpable, the fear, however, is not. Although Hausner allows the audience to create the film’s own story, it lacks some guidance. The cinematography and the editing brilliantly create a dramatic tension, but the story is not driven forward, neither by the situations, nor the character.

★★★★ Directed by: #PaulMaziere Written by: Paul Maziere Starring: #TrevorMurphy, #LauraShiplerChico, #BenGardnerGray, Short Film Review by: Chris Olson Joseph Turns 42 (or the Inconsistencies of Wonder) Movie Review A mid-life crisis on holiday, filmmaker Paul Maziere’s short film Joseph Turns 42 (or the Inconsistencies of Wonder) is as picturesque as it is sprawling, captivating the audience with charm, subtle comedy, and beautiful locations. Trevor Murphy plays the titular Joseph, a man on holiday in the Côte d'Azur with his partner (Laura Shipler Chico) but who longs to be back in Blighty. After attending his own birthday party, staring intensely into a swimming pool, and getting agitated by his insufferable “friends” (who spend most of their time discussing the best credit card to own), Joseph ends up on an odyssey across the French Riviera by accepting any and all adventures that come his way. Including a particularly exciting one involving a guy named Gonzo (Ben Gardner Gray). Disjointed, cynical, and brimming with sardonic observations, Joseph Turns 42 embraces the best and worst of getting old by giving us a central character who is on the brim of a breakdown, without going full Falling Down. Instead, we get a rather joyous caper across the idyllic towns and landscapes, numerous eccentric characters, and a sense that nothing really matters as long as you just go with the flow. Maziere utilises minimal dialogue, letting his central character’s obvious discomfort do the heavy lifting, and is ambitious in his construction of each scene. Multiple camera angles are used, a ton of different locations (an extraordinary feat given the sub-20-minute running time of the short), and a little room for each scene to breathe - which allowed for the comedy moments to burn brighter - such as Joseph dressed as a hotel worker. And whilst the movie feels safe in its charming and gorgeous environment, there is a threat posed by the recklessness of Joseph which keeps the film from feeling too safe. His antisocial behaviour is just the start of keeping the audience on edge, as we follow him on this heedless journey into the unknown, getting into several strange situations that allow the pace of the piece to feel incredibly satisfying. With a title like Joseph Turns 42 (or the Inconsistencies of Wonder), viewers should expect a short film that is unconventional and a little barmy. And whilst you do get those aspects, Maziere compounds them into a cinematic spectacle that is also superbly crafted and intelligently structured. #ChrisOlson Watch the Movie Trailer

★★★★★ Directed by: #BobbyChase Written by: Bobby Chase Starring: #JackBoggan, #AngelaPotrikus, #JohnMacSchurr, Bobby Chase Short Film Review by: Rachel Pullen Jacob: The Story of a Suicide Survivor Movie Review As a person who has spent a lifetime having mental health issues I have ridden the wave of society’s acceptance and shunning of those who suffer from the many different ailments that the brain casts upon its victims, thanks brain. And now we have come to live in a time whereby everyone is free to discuss, seek help and be accepted no matter their mental state, and while that is immensely positive and an excellent step in the right direction, we are subsequently subjected to the flooding of posts on the internet about mental health awareness. You know the ones, friends hugging in a field with sun flares all over the screen and people like Bob Hoskins telling us it’s ‘’Good to talk’’. And so, welcome to the stage #filmmaker Bobby Chase, a man who is a triple threat, handsome, talented, and can drive a car, you know all the good stuff, and not just that, but a man who has faced suicide head on, and what do you do with a trauma like that? Well you either let it eat you alive, not recommended, or you can take that energy and invest it into something positive, and in Bobby’s case, writing, directing and starring in a short film about said event seemed like the best idea. Jacob, straight off the bat, is visually stunning; expansive drone shots over their hometown allow us to not only familiarise the viewer with the suburban backdrop but also bring a sense of understanding that there is a big wide world out there that sometimes we don’t remember exists. Bobby listens to phone messages, generating a backdrop to the events that are about to unfold, foreshadowed by a phone call from his worried mother about his brother falling into depressive acts again, so like a good bro, he heads over to see if he is ok. Of course it is not long until he discovers the body of his brother hanging from the basement ceiling, and here is where the film takes a fresh approach to the subject, rather than the dramatic orchestral score and crying from Bobby, we see him fall into shock, he runs around frantically, goes to a neighbour and then makes a rather calm phone call to 911, believable?... hell yes. This approach has such a stark realism to it that it hits home quickly, people don’t always act like we see on the big screen, humans are complex and the brain sometimes cannot handle it and so we end up acting in a way that does not fit the narrative. Seeing this on film allows us to sympathise with the family more, with the fallout of suicide, and, importantly, makes us consider how we would act. This is not a short movie about suicide, but more about the reaction to suicide, from friends and family, how people will perceive and react, and this is something that can directly affect those considering such a path, sometimes we need a bit of tough love and Jacob certainly allows this to take centre stage. We could talk for hours about the professional nature of this piece, the acting, the #cinematography, the script, all is top quality, but really the execution and manner in which the subject is tackled are what make this a standalone piece. #RachelPullen Jacob is currently one of the Free Movies available to watch on the UK Film Channel. Click the image below to watch now!

★★★★ Directed by: #DanielArbon Written by: #DanielArbon Starring: #RobertMoore #PenelopeWildgoose #PeteMeredith #TomRiddle Short Film Review by: #ChrisBuick The year is 1919. Strolling through a ridiculously picturesque landscape, George (Moore) approaches his latest appointment affable as ever, carrying crockery he hopes to sell to the local well-to-dos. After a promising agreement with one Mrs Teesdale (Wildgoose), he looks ready to close his sale, but after revealing his name, the lady turns cold, calls him out as a coward and presents him with a white feather. As White Feather explains in its closing moments, due to the heavy losses the British army had sustained in the first two years of the First World War, in 1916 the government passed conscription into law which obliged all able men to enlist and fight for their country. These measures would allow the military to add over two million more men to their numbers. But of those called up, approximately sixteen thousand of those men refused to fight, appealing mostly on either moral or religious grounds, leading to these men becoming known as “conscientious objectors”. If their appeal was upheld after an often long and aggressive tribunal, they instead contributed to the war effort in non-combative duties. However for the others, their only choice was to be sent to the front lines or be arrested. Those who refused to fight, were often presented publicly with a white feather as a symbol of their perceived cowardice. What Arbon does really well here is emphasise the stark difference between the perceptions of war versus the harsh realities of such conflicts. Starting in the relative comfort and safety of an idyllic English countryside post wartime, where its easy for one to sit and talk about the do’s and don’ts of war, we then are able to witness through George’s flashbacks the grim reality of the trenches that he and countless other men were faced with that would be impossible to fully comprehend without being unfortunate enough to witness first hand. But Arbon doesn’t just reflect these contrasts in the films locations, but also in its characters, Mrs Teesdale and her opulent surroundings equally juxtaposes the more simple Everyman George (both of whom play their parts admirably). The use of distinctive colour palettes for each time period also help establish a vivid tone for every setting and even the films score transitions from a grand triumphant opening to more haunting notes as we delve into George’s past. There is also an immaculate attention to detail in this period piece, the film manages to look as clean and as fresh as those verdant gardens all the way through. Arbon expertly uses contained, character pieces for his scenes, rather than being tempted to bloat the piece with a flurry of attention grabbing action beats you might expect from a film with the subject of war at is heart, which shows a considered level of control and helps keep the film grounded with its poignant message at the forefront, driven once again by a strong cast performance. These men had tremendous courage in their convictions in not wanting to contribute to one of mankind's most violent periods in our history, but were ultimately ostracised for it instead of receiving due respect for their equally noble contributions and service to their country in its time of need. However White Feather is a touching salute from a well-equipped #filmmaker to their memory that Arbon should be proud of. #ChrisBuick Watch the Movie Trailer

★★★ Directed by: Preston Randolph Written by: #PrestonRandolph Starring: Grant Bulltail Documentary Film Review by: Chris Olson Return to Foretop's Father Movie Review The Native American story is one of the US’s greatest shames (and that seems like it's saying something, given their current political climate). Having been marginalised, stripped of their lands, and all but forgotten by European settlers, Native Americans form a tiny proportion of modern American society and rarely find a place amongst its mostly white culture. It is their connection to nature and the land, though, that documentary #filmmaker Preston Randolph is more focused on with his short doc Return to Foretop’s Father. Starring Grant Bulltail, a Native American elder, who is passionate about telling the stories of his ancestors and keeping their memory alive, whilst campaigning for a change in what he sees as the destructive forces in modern society. He challenges advances in technology and industry by relating them to his childhood memories of a land barely recognisable now. Where he once roamed freely and was able to see nature flourish, the land is now carved up by fences, roads, railways, and other things that divide us. His monologue becomes a call-to-arms by the final third, as Randolph adopts some theatrical techniques in order to add gravitas to the words being spoken. Climate change is unsexy (which is why the government bods changed it from Global Warming, so we would all pipe down) and filmmakers attempting to engage audiences with #documentaries about the ailing health of our planet, regrettably, need to bring their full utility belt of tricks if they are looking to grapple the audience in. Return to Foretop’s Father does have moments of compelling cinema that use the nature of storytelling to create a powerful effect. Grant Bulltail’s narration seems bursting with wisdom and emotion, and the stunning scenery (including some impressive aerial shots) paints a picture which is vividly tragic and yet hopeful. Regrettably, the short documentary is also dense with repetitive condemnations of modern society which leak their potency as the piece develops. Bulltail bemoans the youth’s reliance on technology like he’s saddled up to a bar and giving the same speech he gives to anyone who will listen. There is no real balance to the piece, no objection to his rhetoric - not even from himself, and the film as a whole doesn’t seem too concerned with unpicking his thoughts, rather just presenting them as promotion for his wider appeal (there is a website). Celebrity-fronted climate change documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth or Before the Flood have tried to grab the attention of viewers to mild effect. Preston Randolph makes a decent stab at coalescing the bleak future we face if we don’t consider our past mistakes by paralleling it with the Native American experience. However, the content needs to be far more enthralling, distressing, and willing to self-examine than this if it is going to wake anyone up. #ChrisOlson

★★★ Directed by #CarolinePoggi #JonathanVinel Written by #CarolinePoggi #JonathanVinel #MarietteDesert Starring #AomiMuyock #SebastianUrzendowsky #AugustinRaguenet Film Review by Hope Madden Shudder’s latest premiere, the French film Jessica Forever, offers a scifi antidote to war films. This is a quietly absorbing genre piece concerned with the lives left to those who know nothing more than fighting for survival, those who must endure not only what battle has done to them, but what battle has encouraged them to do. In an unnamed future, Jessica (Aomi Muyock, Love), collects and rehabilitates “orphans” — feral young men with nothing and no one. Left entirely on their own, they wreak bloody havoc on society and are hunted by government-controlled drones. We open on one such young man, Kevin (Eddy Suiveng). He’s thrown himself through a pane of glass in what looks to be a recently abandoned home. As a heavily armed tactical unit descends on the premises, only to softly embrace the combatant, writers/directors Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel introduce the visual and tonal fluidity the film will emphasize throughout its running time. The dystopian cinematic landscape is highly populated, but Jessica Forever manages to carve out a unique space. Muyock’s enigmatic central figure, so quietly effecting, provides the film its compelling center of gravity. Around her orbits a loose family of young men, and as Poggi and Vinel weave in and out of their day-to-day, we’re tuned into the filmmakers’ primary interest. Unlike so very many movies out there, it is not the glamour or danger of war that attracts these filmmakers. Instead, Jessica Foreverfocuses on the mental and emotional wreckage these young men carry around with them as they cling to each other and their varying ideas of family, home and normalcy. Everything about the design of this low budget scifi poem is astonishing. Working with cinematographer Marine Atlan, who shot the pair’s short After School Knife Fight, Poggi and Vinel create and sustain a hypnotic mood. An absurd beauty to some of the shots helps the filmmakers offset its deliberate pacing. The entire crew, sound design in particular, pulls their weight as well, and the cumulative effect moves this lightly plotted ensemble piece in daring directions. #HopeMadden

★★★★ Directed by #KittyGreen Written by #KittyGreen Starring #JuliaGarner Film Review by Christie Robb One of the more depressing aspects of maturity is the realization that evil is somewhat banal. Rarely does the antagonist sport a handlebar mustache that he twirls while ogling the victim he’s tied to the railroad tracks. The heinous are more ubiquitous and their misdeeds are cliched. The soul is crushed, not under a train, but under the repetition of many predictable, everyday disappointments. Kitty Green’s The Assistant is a day-long coming-of-age story. Jane (Julia Garner), the titular assistant, has held her job for five weeks. We follow her from her bleary pre-dawn commute till she shuffles away from the office hours after sunset. She’s entry level at a New York production company, one of many assistants to an entertainment bigwig with a well-used casting couch. Her day is filled with mundane tasks: organizing travel, making copies, stocking the fridge with bottled water, cleaning cum stains off her boss’s furniture, taking messages, fielding phone calls, ordering lunch… Concerned about a young and potentially vulnerable new-hire, Jane tries to alert folks at Human Resources. But there are no heroes at corporate. Garner carries the film with a nuanced performance that illustrates the exhaustion of a woman who represses much of herself in order to navigate a culture that normalizes predatory behavior and rewards complicity. Informed by Green’s research and interviews with women post-Weinstein at technology and engineering companies as well as those in entertainment, The Assistant explores the machinery involved that works to normalize toxic work environments, that exchanges tolerance of bad behavior for a modicum of opportunity. Green’s background in documentary (Ukraine Is not a Brothel, Casting JonBenet) serves her well here. She’s got an eye for the tiny but not so insignificant details that give an office its character—whether people decide to talk or to stay silent when a co-worker enters the breakroom, who gets off the elevator first, the aggression not so subtly hinted at by sliding a box of tissues across a desk. It’s a hard film to watch that explores what, besides our time and labor, we are trading in exchange for a paycheck. #ChristieRobb

★★★ Directed by #JeremyTeicher Written by #NickKroll #AlexiPappas #JeremyTeicher Starring #AlexiPappas #NickKroll Film Review by Matt Weiner You have to admire the chutzpah when the first feature film ever to shoot on location at the Olympics has the star athlete’s event be over immediately after the opening ceremony. But it’s an anticlimax that sets the tone for the rest of Olympic Dreams. Cross-country skier Penelope (real-life Olympian Alexi Pappas) is at a crossroads in her life. Young in years but already worn out in a world that measures time in all-consuming four-year spans, she spends the rest of her time at the Olympic Village wandering around, talking to fellow athletes and delaying the inevitable return to reality when she has to go back home. She meets volunteer dentist Ezra (Nick Kroll, foreshadowing an effective mid-career transition to these reined in dramedy roles), an outgoing Olympics nerd who’s just happy to be there. The two hit it off, united by a vague sense of longing for… well, something. It’s a movie with modest aims, which are often dwarfed by the impressive settings. The story (by Pappas and Kroll along with Jeremy Teicher, who also directs) feels like it came long after securing the PyeongChang Olympic Village as the setting. There’s the barest of plots, a sort of fish-out-of-water romcom that plays like a mumblecore Lost In Translation. As endearing as the two leads are, there’s not a lot of scaffolding to help them out. The film relies less on subtle characterization and more on a safe bet that you’ve seen these particulars enough to fill in the blanks yourself. It’s a shame because Kroll and Pappas excel in their elements. Between Kroll’s deadpan improv with the various athletes and Pappas’ sincere empathy for the sacrifice and emotional highs and lows constantly unfolding in the background, it’s a wonder the filmmakers didn’t play it straight as a documentary. The film has plenty of warm moments, with Pappas especially managing to balance a range of heartbreak, uncertainty and charm in a way that doesn’t get to come through in the official behind-the-scenes featurettes during the Olympics. There’s just not enough there to back her up. The film might take us to the finish line, but just barely. #MattWeiner

★★★ Directed by #MichaelCristofer Written by #MichaelCristofer Starring #TyeSheridan #AnadeArmas Film Review by Hope Madden Any film centering on a character on the Autism spectrum is risking a lot. It’s far too easy to simplify this character to a handful of tics that lend themselves to a narrative device: Mercury Rising, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Forest Gump. (That’s right. I said it.) But if it’s done well, if the character is a character and not a narrative device, the film can benefit immeasurably. The Night Clerk falls somewhere in between these two options. Writer/director Michael Cristofer leans on a committed cast, including the always wonderful Tye Sheridan in the lead, to pull you into a mystery thriller that may be too simple for its own good. Sheridan is Bart. He works nights at a hotel near his home and in his off hours he practices. He rehearses human interaction, small talk. He and his mother (Helen Hunt, a touching mixture of brittle and tender) live day to day in what has clearly become well-worn patterns. Most nights at work are probably uneventful, but on this particular night, Bart discovers a murder. The detective on the case (John Leguizamo) suspects Bart, but Bart is distracted by a kind hearted and lovely new guest (a convincing Ana de Armas). Without Sheridan’s committed performance, the film would fall apart. At no point does Sheridan, Cristofer or this film condescend to Bart. The audience isn’t one step ahead of the character; we are piecing through the mystery along with him. We aren’t asked by the film to pity Bart but to be frustrated along with him, and Sheridan is up to the task of keeping this character from tipping into martyrdom. The problem with this film is not the characterization of a young man with Asperger syndrome. The issue is the writing. Cristofer may nail the characters—and for the most part, with the help of talented performers, he does. But the lapses in logic when it comes to the policework, not to mention the basic simplicity of the plot itself, keeps the film from really engaging or staying with you. The plot feels almost too uncomplicated to be a TV drama let alone a feature film. Tensions over the outcome never rise above a flutter, and regardless of how strong the performances—de Armas, Hunt and Sheridan, in particular—this is a thriller that rarely manages to generate any real tension. As a character study it’s intriguing, sometimes comical and certainly respectful. It’s a showcase for solid acting, but not much else. #HopeMadden

★★★ Directed by #ChrisSanders Written by #MichaelGreen Starring #HarrisonFord Film Review by George Wolf Look, we're all thinking it, so let's just get it out there. Raiders of the Lost Bark. Happy now? Okay, we can move on. Truth is, there's plenty of bark in this latest adaptation of Jack London's classic novel, but not much bite to be found. We're still introduced to Buck, the sturdy St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, as the spoiled pet of a wealthy California judge (Bradley Whitford) in the late 1800s. Stolen and sold as a sled dog to French-Canadian mail dispatchers, Buck adapts to the pack mentality and the harsh conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, eventually teaming up with the grizzled Thorton (Harrison Ford) for a journey into the Yukon. It should come as no surprise that Ford is effortlessly affecting as a world weary mountain man. What is surprising is his endearing rapport with a CGI dog (motioned-captured by Terry Notary). Ford's narration is earnest enough to soften its heavy hands, drawing Thorton and Buck as two kindred spirits, both lost in their own wilderness. While taking the actual wild out of The Call of the Wild seems sadly ironic, the computer-generated beasts come to fall perfectly in line with director Chris Sanders' family-ready vision for the enduring tale. Stripped of any bloody carnage, cultural insensitivities or harsh realities, Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, The Croods) and writer Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) fill the gaps with obvious questions, easy answers, and a flesh and blood bad guy (Dan Stevens in full Snidley Whiplash mode) who manages to be the biggest cartoon in a film full of computer animation. Buck himself - looking fine but landing a notch below the motion capture high water of the last Planet of the Apes trilogy - is often stuck between Lassie and Scooby, heroically loyal while seeming to instantly understand everything from English to drunkenness. With the sharp edges ground down, this Call of the Wild becomes a pleasant metaphor for the simple life, and for finding your place in it. In short, it's a PG-rated primer, meant to hold a place until the kids are ready for the real thing. #GeorgeWolf

★★ Directed by #WilliamBrentBell Written by #StaceyMenear Starring #KatieHolmes #ChristopherConvery #RalphIneson Film Review by Hope Madden Wow. Who would have guessed that director William Brent Bell could drive his lackluster 2016 scary doll flick The Boy to a sequel? Not the half dozen or so of us who saw it. But here you have it, Brahms: The Boy II is a real live movie. Katie Holmes is in it. She plays Liza, concerned mum. She and her youngster Jude (Christopher Convery) survived a trauma and now they are recuperating, along with supportive dad Sean (Owain Yoeman), in an old English manner. Jude finds this creepy doll buried outside, just his little white hand poking out from the ground. They take him inside and clean him up and keep him because they have never seen a horror movie. If you have, you can definitely skip this one. While there’s not a lot to like about Stacey Menear’s script, the problem here—as with his 2016 effort that began this whole killer plaything saga—feels more like poor direction. The story sets up a slight twist on a common horror theme: someone survives a traumatic experience only to find themselves in a potentially super natural circumstance. This begs the question, is this person insane, or is this super natural event really happening? Scads and scads of horror films have wandered the psychological corridors of this premise. In this case, there are two possible crazies (both Liza and Jude). So, there is something here. We could twist throughout the film wondering, is this doll sentient evil? Is little Jude a budding maniac? Or is Liza suffering from PTSD and imagining it all? We don’t wonder, though, because Bell clarifies the true culprit early and often. He’s so clear on the matter that the subsequent moments of Liza questioning her own sanity, or of Jude staring menacingly at his bully cousin, amount to an idiotic mishandling of material. Ralph Ineson (The Witch) and his grizzled baritone make a quick appearance. There’s also a Google search or two—damn, horror movie Google searches deliver results, don’t they?! And how lucky to bump into that stranger in town who 1) asks where you live and, 2) happens to have all the info you’d ever need on the entire history of the home you’re renting. Too nutty! But let’s be honest, do you even want to see this movie? #HopeMadden