What's on Shudder in May

Shudder has plenty of cray this May, including:

What begins as a time of healing in the quiet Scandinavian countryside soon takes an ominous turn when Rachel (Teresa Palmer, A Discovery of Witches, Warm Bodies, Lights Out) begins to unravel the torturous truth about her son and confronts the malicious forces attempting to take a hold of him in The Twin.

The city of Taipei suddenly erupts into bloody chaos in The Sadness, as ordinary people are compulsively driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things they can imagine. Murder, torture, and mutilation are only the beginning.

The Found Footage Phenomenon tracks the origins of the found footage technique and how it has been transformed with technological changes throughout the last few decades. It features interviews with integral found footage directors whose films impacted the horror genre like no other sub-genre has, around the turn of the millennium.

The Twin – A Shudder Original 

New Film Premieres 6th May 

In The Twin, following the aftermath of a tragic accident that  claimed the life of one of their twin sons, Rachel (Teresa Palmer, A Discovery of Witches, Warm Bodies, Lights Out) and husband Anthony (Steven Cree, A Discovery of Witches, Outlander) relocate to the other side of the world with their surviving child in the hopes of building a new  life. 

What begins as a time of healing in the quiet Scandinavian countryside soon takes an ominous turn  when Rachel begins to unravel the torturous truth about her son and confronts the malicious forces  attempting to take a hold of him. Written by Aleksi Hyvärinen and Taneli Mustonen and directed by  Taneli Mustonen. 

The Sadness – A Shudder Original 

New Film Premieres 12th May 

The city of Taipei suddenly erupts into bloody chaos as ordinary  people are compulsively driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things they can imagine. Murder, torture, and mutilation are only the beginning. A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try to reunite amid the violence and depravity. 

The age of civility and order is no more.  

The film is the feature debut of writer and director Rob Jabbaz and stars Regina Lei (76 Horror  Bookstore), Berant Zhu (We Are Champions, How to Train Our Dragon), Tzu-Chiang Wang (It’s  Drizzling) and In-Ru Chen. Official Selection Locarno Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Frightfest and winner  “Best First Feature,” Fantsia International Film Festival. Written and directed by Rob Jabbaz

The Found Footage Phenomenon – A Shudder Original 

New Film Premieres 19th May 

This documentary tracks the origins of the found footage technique and how it has been transformed with technological changes throughout the last few decades. The Found Footage Phenomenon features interviews with integral found footage directors whose films impacted the horror genre like no other sub-genre has, around the turn of the  millennium. Score by music legend Simon Boswell. Written, directed and produced by Sarah  Appleton and Phillip Escott. 

A Banquet – A Shudder Exclusive 

New Film Premieres 26th May 

Widowed mother Holly is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. 

In an agonising dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront  the boundaries of her own beliefs. Starring Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes and Lindsay Duncan. Written by Justin Bull and directed by Ruth Paxton. 

NEW ADDITIONS TO SHUDDER’S LIBRARY 

2nd May 

Eli Roth's History of Horror S3 

This season of Eli Roth’s History of Horror continues to explore the fun and the fear of scary  films – both timeless classics and wildly frightening films that flew under the radar, tackling the  topics of Sequels (That Don’t Suck), Infections, Psychics, Apocalyptic Horror, Holiday Horror and  Mad
Scientists. All-star lineup of interviewees include Cate Blanchett, Margaret Cho, Jeffrey  Combs, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Lex Scott Davis, Robert Englund, Vanessa  Hudgens, Elliott Knight, David Koechner, Christopher Landon, Meat Loaf, Greg Nicotero, Jonah Ray, Giovanni Ribisi, Jessica Rothe, Madeleine Stowe, Quentin Tarantino, Jennifer  Tilly, Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie, and many others.  

3rd May 

Excess Flesh 

Jill becomes obsessed with Jennifer, her gorgeous roommate, and in a twisted attempt to bring  them closer together, violently imprisons Jennifer inside their apartment.

A maniac traps an actress in a limousine, feeding her commands through a distorted speaker.  She must comply with his deranged demands if she ever wants to leave the limo again. 

Life After Beth 

A guy (Dane DeHaan) discovers that his girlfriend (Aubrey Plaza) has returned from the dead,  but his joy turns to horror as she slowly undergoes a horrible transformation. 

10th May 

V/H/S: Viral 

A police chase through the streets of Los Angeles inspires dozens of fame-obsessed teens to  try to capture the salacious footage, but they are unaware that they will face their own deaths as  stars of the next video sensation. 

February 

An unseen evil affects two girls staying at a boarding school over winter break. Rose (Lucy  Boynton) is fretting over an unplanned pregnancy and Kat (Kiernan Shipka) has convinced  herself her parents are dead, giving the entity the perfect cover to start turning the young women  inside out. And then there’s Joan (Emma Roberts), who’s just left an asylum and is heading to  the girl’s school…  

17th May 

We Summon the Darkness 

Heading to a party at a secluded country house after a heavy metal concert, three best friends cross paths with some sadistic killers. 

The Taking of Deborah Logan 

An elderly woman battling Alzheimer’s disease agrees to let a film crew document her condition,  but they discover something far more sinister is going on.  

24th May 

Knock Knock 

Two nubile, stranded women (Ana de Armas, Lorenza Izzo) reveal a sinister agenda after they  spend the night with a married architect (Keanu Reeves). 

Tales of Halloween 

Ten short stories revolving around ghosts, ghouls, monsters, the devil, aliens, and axe  murderers who terrorise a suburb on Halloween night.

31st May 

Viral 

Separated from their father (Michael Kelly), two teenage sisters (Sofia Black-D'Elia, Analeigh  Tipton) try to survive an apocalyptic viral outbreak that leads to a quarantine. 

The Resident 

When a young doctor suspects she may not be alone in her new Brooklyn loft, she learns that  her landlord has formed a frightening obsession with her. 

Blair Witch (2016) 

A young man and his friends venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the  mystery surrounding his missing sister. Many believe her disappearance 17 years earlier is  connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, especially when two locals  act as guides through the dark and winding woods. As the night wears on, a visit from a menacing  presence soon makes them realise that the legend is all too real, and more sinister than they  could have ever imagined. 

Death on the Nile: Disney+ Review

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo, Letitia Wright, Rose Leslie
Director: Kenneth Branagh

If ever you wanted a backstory to a moustache, or to gather an amazing star-studded cast and have them not do a lot, then Kenneth Branagh's Covid and controversy-delayed Death on the Nile is the film for you.

Hercule Poirot (Branagh, mining the mournful and revealing some layers to the Belgian detective) is back with another fiendish case set aboard the SS Karnak, five years after he boarded the Orient Express.

This time, Poirot finds himself entangled in the lives of Armie Hammer's Simon Doyle and Gal Gadot's Linnet Ridgeway after they believe Simon's ex (Sex Education's Emma Mackey, one of the few who pop on screen) is stalking them.

When things take a turn for the worse, and the bodies begin piling up, everyone's a suspect, and Poirot's got his work cut out for him.

It's not that Death on the Nile is anything less than a lavishly-shot, brilliant recreation of the era, more that Branagh's somewhat mournful take on it feels a little flat and less deadly than an Egyptian cruise trip should be.

With superb CGI-created vistas and a sense of atmosphere early on, the boat takes somewhat too long to get to its destination, and delivers only a murderous sense of intent some 1 hour in to a 2 hour outing. Leisurely it may be, but somehow, even with an overstuffed cast, it still manages to feel lacking.

It doesn't help that most of the veteran cast don't have nearly enough to do other than deal with accusations in the second half, and that the film doesn't spend enough time with each early on. One sequence sees a character dispatch reams of backstory and exposition on each to an intently-listening Poirot, dizzying audiences and leaving the whole thing feeling somewhat surface level only.

But there are some pearls within.

Despite all the controversies off the boat, Armie Hammer makes great fist of his Simon Doyle (though at times, it's hard to separate some of his offscreen allegations from the character he's playing); Sex Education's Emma Mackey is a vibrant revelation as the woman scorned, and Tom Bateman's Bouc is the best sidekick there ever could be for Poirot - their double act is dizzyingly good as it swirls around the final revelations.

And despite some flagging execution, Branagh's Poirot is a more mournful character, given the early backstory and avoiding some of the quirks that David Suchet's take on the Belgian detective would have rendered on many viewers.

Some cinematic journeys are about the destination. 

In truth, Death on the Nile is too languorous an outing to fully grasp onto, a murder mystery that lacks urgency and substance despite a prestige and sheen. There's a solid film here to enjoy, and some foundations that don't fully rattle things, but in terms of a whirling whodunnit, the biggest mystery for Poirot to tackle is how this classic story sadly falls flat.

Thor: Love and Thunder: First look

The first trailer and a new poster for Taika Waititi's upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder has been unveiled.

The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. 

But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. 

To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. 

Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late. 

Directed by Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, 

Thor: Love and Thunder opens in New Zealand cinemas July 7, 2022.

Spider-Man: No Way Home: Blu Ray Review

Capping off the Home trilogy, and running like some kind of greatest hits package, Tom Holland's Spider-Man: No Way Home has its eyes firmly on crowd-pleasing more than anything.

Picking up directly from the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home with Mysterio revealing Spider-Man's identity to the world via J Jonah Jameson's Alex Jones-esque truth shouter, Peter Parker is facing the reality of being unmasked. Under siege from the press, maligned for the death of Mysterio and with his friends suffering because of their association with the Spider-Man, Parker approaches Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch) to ask for his help.

But when Doctor Strange's magic plan to make things all better is derailed by Parker, the multi-verse splits open and some of Spider-Man's foes from other worlds come bursting through - setting up an epic showdown that will change lives forever.

There's no denying that really Spider-Man: No Way Home is unabashed fan service, wrapped up in a coming of age story for a young superhero.

From secret cameos and Easter eggs aplenty aimed at resetting some of the prior Spider-wrongs, the film's got plenty of ways of ensuring the feel-good factor after Covid derailed everyone's year once again. 

In truth, while this plays greatly to Spider-Man's core audience above anything else, the film also affords Tom Holland a chance to flex some emotional depth throughout, dealing with the consequences of being Spider-Man and the responsibility of being a hero.

Shorn of some of the relative care-free approach of the prior films, there's a bit more heft this time around, even if the film abandons some of that in its second half in favour of fan service and in jokes. But it's also at this point that Spider-Man: No Way Home jettisons some of its propulsiveness, and the film starts to feel a bit stop-start as it hurtles toward its conclusion.

Of the returning pack of villains, Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe do great work, reminding you why their turns were so iconic early on in differing franchises. There is an argument of familiarity feeling like a lazy approach to end a series, but in truth, the idea of another villainous origin story ending in a CGI-infused smackdown would have derailed the series and robbed the franchise-ender of the emotional edges it was aiming for.

Zendaya's MJ feels a little sidelined in the middle part of the movie, stepping aside to let others take the spotlight, and removing some of the emotional heft of the Spider dilemma. (Cumberbatch's Dr Strange feels more like a villain in this piece, his more po-faced ideology at odds with Holland's more idealistic approach to second chances.)

But with crowd-pleasing action scenes and sequences that are aimed purely at the popcorn-chewing brigade, Spider-Man: No Way Home is perhaps the first Marvel film where the ending lands in uncertainty, and a future for Spider-Man is less guaranteed. 

There's ambition in this webslinger adventure, and it doesn't always succeed in doing much out of its confines, but there's no denying that fans will lap it up, and 2021 will end on a cinematic Spider-man induced high.

First look: Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who finale

The BBC has unveiled the first look at Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who finale.

Airing after the end of Legend of the Sea Devils, the as-yet-unnamed special showed off the return of companions Ace and Tegan Jovanka (played by Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding) as well as teasing the return of Sacha Dhawan's Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen.

Ace was a popular companion of the Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy. Her fate was left unknown after the series was cancelled in 1989 and the show's final serial Survival had been aired.

Tegan Jovanka was a companion to Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor between 1981 and 1984. She left the series after the endless massacre of Resurrection of the Daleks, having been turned off travelling with the Doctor because of the human cost. She first appeared in Tom Baker's final serial Logopolis and became an unexpected companion after a run-in with the Master.

Also appearing in the trailer are a return for Jacob Anderson's Vinder, who appeared in Doctor Who:Flux and Kate Stewart of U.N.I.T.

It also seemingly showed the opening of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteen beginning to regenerate with her last words teased solely as "Yaz." 

Though it remains to be seen if those shots are just a tease, with it already having been revealed that Jodie Whittaker's regeneration this time won't be set inside the TARDIS itself - something confirmed by the trailer if true, given Thirteen appears to be somewhere else other than inside the time machine.

There's no date yet been set for the episode's broadcast, but it will form part of the BBC Centenary celebrations which are due to begin in October.

An announcement on who will become the 14th Doctor is expected within the next few weeks, according to the BBC.

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils: Review

So the penultimate outing for Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor is here - a seemingly swashbuckling adventure that somehow ended up out at sea.

The second of three specials to farewell Thirteen, Legend of the Sea Devils promised so much - a return for one of the Doctor's most iconic enemies, first glimpsed in 1972, and a chance to cut loose before the final regeneration story. But what emerged from this relatively footloose and fancy-free adventure was one that promised much menace from the Sea Devils but really relegated them to footnotes in their own story.

After promising the crew she'd take them to the beach, the Doctor and the TARDIS were thrown off course and land in China in 1807, just as Crystal Wu's famed pirate Queen Madame Ching sets loose a Sea Devil from a statue  in her hunt for treasure. 

Thrust into the middle of a conflict where there should be none, it's up to Yaz, Dan and Thirteen to try and save the day - and ultimately the planet as the Sea Devils' plan is revealed. 

Splitting the crew into two camps - Dan essentially on his own, and the Doctor and Yaz - means the script can ultimately address the burgeoning relationship between Yaz and the Doctor which Dan forced into the light during the end of the New Year's Special, Eve of the Daleks.

And while Dan's seafaring adventures with Madame Ching and islander Ying Ki make for reasonable entertainment, allowing John Bishop to dispatch one-linters, the main thrust of the adventure becomes the continuing subtext of the Thasmin relationship. 

It's not that this is a bad thing to have done, and in truth, it leads to some fairly emotive and weighty scenes between Mandip Gill and Jodie Whittaker's characters, but it also sidelines the Sea Devils from their own story - and certainly, the resolution of their menace feels cursory and utterly rote. 

This is perhaps the biggest problem with Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils: it feels rushed and jumpy in parts. In among the cutlasses and swashbuckling, there's a feeling the script jumps about or was cut for running time as it gets to the crux of the matter - the Doctor's desire to never be fixed to one point, and that her time is running out as she was told in the denouement of Doctor Who: Flux.

But for all of the disappointment within the episode and the feeling a production was saddled with Covid restrictions meaning what should have been an epic adventure was more an intimately filmed one with relationship issues at its core, it showcases the best and worst of what Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who reign has proffered up.

Deeply affecting emotional moments are contained within, and others are sidelined. While no-one could have foreseen the problems the production of these past few years would have faced, and those involved are to be commended, there's an overriding feeling that pacing is an issue that's undercut the show at most turns.

When the show slows and the character moments are given a chance to shine, they soar. Witness Yaz and Thirteen's beach-set final talk and contrast it with Dan's brief phonecall back to an Earth-bound friend. One feels rushed, the other feels organic, the product of a thread that's been given time to bloom and grow.

As the end comes for Thirteen, Yaz and Dan, Legend of the Sea Devils shows that despite high production values, and the lure of an iconic menace, Jodie Whittaker's penultimate episode is a little too washed up to be as memorable as it should have been.