Viewings: August 2026

An impressive selection of new to me films that I enjoyed this month:

Based on the life and works of the Marquis de Sade and featuring actors in anthropomorphic masks, Henri Xhonneux's Marquis is bizarre, depraved and surprisingly enchanting. It deserves the Dada Debaser Film of the Month™ from me.

Sadly, I never found the time to review Carol Reed’s spy comedy, Our Man in Havana, starring Sir Alec Guinness as a British expat living in Cuba. An entertaining satire on the Cold War Intelligence services with our protagonist reporting bullshit to his employers just to make ends meet. 

Leaping to the present, and the first of my polarising faves, is Yeon Sang-ho's viral outbreak movie Colony. I thought the virus transforming the infected into a constantly evolving central intelligence was a unique selling point in the oversaturated zombie movie subgenre.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I found Nicolas Winding Refn’s nigh on incomprehensible film, Her Private Hell, more rewarding the more I thought about it.

Film:

The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938) ♲

Our Man in Havana (Carol Reed, 1959)

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961) ♲

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) ♲

Are You Being Served? The Movie (Bob Kellett, 1977) ♲

Unhinged (Don Cronquist, 1982) ♲

Ænigma (Lucio Fulci, 1987) ♲

Marquis (Henri Xhonneux, 1989)

Alone in the Night (Takashi Ishii, 1994)

The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000) ♲

Colony (Yeon Sang-ho, 2026) 

Evil Dead Burn (Sébastien Vanicek, 2026)

Her Private Hell (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2026) 

Nightborn (Hanna Bergholm, 2026)

Soulm8te (Kate Dolan, 2026)

 

Television:

 The Boy from Space (Jill Glindon Reed, 1971/1980) ♲

Mastermind - Final (1972)

Doctor Who - Asylum of the Daleks (Nick Hurran, 2012) ♲

Mastermind (2026/2027)

♲ Rewatch

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Lily Sullivan’s performance was the only real highlight in the horribly titled Soulm8te. Essentially, a cut and paste of every other killer robot movie from the last few years. Predictable.
• Big fan of Bergholm's debut film, Hatching (2022), but her latest effort, a blend of new motherhood fears and Finnish folk horror, is not quite on the same level.
• I wish Evil Dead Burn wasn't so bland looking and filled with unlikeable characters. I did like its mean spiritism and it taking inspiration from the New French Extremity movement, but none of these franchise films that aren't helmed by Sam Raimi will ever be official to me.
• Think I found the most incompetent heroine in a revenge film. Alone in the Dark is how I’d imagine a yakuza film would be if it were helmed by Mike Leigh. Pure misery porn.
• I compiled a list of my 10 Favourite Brits Abroad films, which took me forever to complete.

After reviewing The Day the Earth Caught Fire, I found out Val Guest directed a sci-fi musical in the ‘70s, starring Olivia Newton-John, called Toomorrow. I’m not a fan of musicals, but I want to see it for this lot:

Edit: The whole film is available to watch on YouTube.