Viewings: September 2026

Real life priorities reared its ugly head again. Blogging took a hit and so my review of Walter Hill's classic thriller Southern Comfort, Picks of 1996, and a feature on the lost Carry On films were put on the back burner.

Fortunately, I managed to cover a film I originally thought I had seen, but hadn't until now: Sam Peckinpah's neo-Western Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was unquestionably the highlight of the month for me.

 

Film:

The Trollenberg Terror AKA The Crawling Eye (Quentin Lawrence, 1958)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974) 

Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 1981) ♲

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (Lou Adler, 1982)

Cast a Deadly Spell (Martin Campbell, 1991)

Bloody Tennis (Nikias Chryssos, 2026)

Dr Who Meets the Scorpion (Richard Roberts & Philip Roy, 2026)

Gator Face (Padraig Reynolds, 2026)

Ice Cream Man (Eli Roth, 2026)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun, 2026)

 

Television:

Hammer House of Horror: Children of the Full Moon (Tom Clegg, 1980) ♲

Doctor Who: World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls (Rachel Talaley, 2017) ♲

Mastermind (2026/2027)

♲ Rewatch

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Similar to the Richard Quatermass films, The Trollenberg Terror was another TV sci-fi series adapted to film. Sadly, no physical copies of the series exist today, which is too bad as the multiple plot threads might have been more effective in that format than in the feature film. Not even the legendary screenwriter Jimmy Sangster could sort that mess out. Great aliens, though. They remind me of Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons. 
• Imagine Who Framed Roger Rabbit? but instead of Looney Tunes being mixed with Film Noir it's H.P. Lovecraft. You get Cast a Deadly Spell; a film with magic, gremlins and raining blood being the norm in 1940s L.A. Enjoyable film, with a great cast (Fred Ward, Clancy Brown, Julianne Moore and David Warner), but I wish the concept was taken more seriously instead of being so tongue in cheek.
• Gator Face is essentially The Texas Chainsaw Massacre substituting the Sawyer family with a bizarre, Christian offshoot of alligator worshippers. All the attractive actresses die very early on. 
• Diane Lane and Ray Winstone deliver outstanding early career performances in the punk drama Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains. It's a shame the rest of the film isn't on their level.
• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is yet another symptom of horrendous millennial writing and over done meta narratives in an effort to over intellectualise film making. It's not even a slasher film. Bored me to tears, and it's the worst thing I've seen Gillian Anderson in since that one she did with Danny Dyer.
• Ice Cream Man doesn't really deserve the hate it's getting from slacktivists; but I also don't like it enough to waste time defending it, either. 
• Bloody Tennis is essentially a mash-up of Challengers with Suspiria. Very uneven, but it might grow on me if I ever catch it again. Why practice on a clay court for Wimbledon, though?
• Apart from being better than anything we got from the Chibnall and RTD2 eras, the best thing about that new Doctor Who fan film is it making me laugh when a zombie Adric appeared on screen. 

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) ♲

The 27th Day (William Asher, 1957) 

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 Night 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 discovered 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.

Viewings: July 2026

This month’s selection is a case of the underdog and the outsider both rising to the top during the season of the summer flopbusters. Two exceptional films that are easily my two biggest 2026  highlights so far.

Curry Barker demonstrates that a YouTube filmmaker can produce an ultra-low-budget horror film that transcends its targeted Gen Z audience. Obsession’s phenomenal success can also be attributed to Inde Navarrette’s breakout performance. Good to know she maintains her grounded approach by continuing to produce Let’s Play videos while being one of the most talked-about actors of the summer.

Similarly, Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious is a stand-out martial arts film, and exemplifies the superiority in quality of Asian brawlers over the typical fix-it-in-post Hollywood actioner. That five-man rumble is epic.

 

Film:

Any Old Port! (James W. Horne, 1932) ^♲

Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953) ♲

The Gorgon (Terence Fisher, 1964) ♲

Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973) ♲

Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981) ♲

To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1986) ♲

  Spontaneous Combustion (Tobe Hooper, 1989)

Falling Down (Joel Schumacher, 1993) ♲

Welcome II the Terrordome (Ngozi Onwurah, 1994)

Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 1997) ♲

Cold Prey AKA Fritt Vilt (Roar Uthaug, 2006) ♲

Cold Prey II AKA Fritt Vilt II (Mats Stenberg, 2008) ♲

Cold Prey III AKA Fritt Vilt III (Mikkel Brænne Sandemose, 2010)

Diabolik (Antonio Manetti & Marco Manetti, 2021)

Diabolik: Ginko Attacks! (Antonio Manetti & Marco Manetti, 2022)

Diabolik: Who Are You? (Antonio Manetti & Marco Manetti, 2023)

Carolina Caroline (Adam Rehmeier, 2025/2026)

Dolly (Rod Blackhurst, 2025/2026)

The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli, 2026)

The Furious (Kenji Tanigaki, 2025/2026) 

Masters of the Universe (Travis Knight, 2026)

Obsession (Curry Barker, 2025/2026)

Vampires of the Velvet Lounge (Adam Sherman, 2026)

 

Television:

Object Z (Daphne Shadwell, 1965)

Doctor Who - Frontios (Ron Jones, 1984)

Doctor Who - Attack of the Cybermen (Matthew Robinson, 1985) 

FIFA World Cup 2026

Mastermind (2026/2027)

♲ Rewatch    ^ Short

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Apart from a smoking hot Miriam Leone, the only other positive aspect to the Manetti Bros’ Diabolik trilogy was that it prompted me to review the more accomplished 1968 film after God knows how long.
• Speaking of trilogies, I finally got around to watching the third and final part of the Cold Prey franchise. It’s a notable departure from the previous films in Norway’s flagship slasher series but decent, nonetheless.
• Tinfoil hat time: the critical reappraisal for the dystopian and horrendously awful Welcome II the Terrordome, which cashed in on Public Enemy's style and music, is nothing more than a convoluted effort to peddle the inevitable Criterion/BFI Blu-ray to gullible cinephiles. A similar deal to the revisionist love for Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
• "Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see." Event Horizon is more Hellraiser-in-space than what Hellraiser: Bloodline turned out to be. RIP Sam Neill!
• Carolina Caroline is a clichéd and mediocre Bonnie and Clyde tale made tolerable by Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner's performances. Starting to think Dinner in America was a one hit wonder for Adam Rehmeier.
• Spontaneous Combustion is essentially Tobe Hooper doing Scanners. The film is a mess, but the pyrotechnic horror effects are genuinely good and Brad Dourif never disappoints.
• The Drama is filled with the most insufferable and cringe-worthy characters I've seen all year; and I've watched Primate and The Bride!

Always a pleasant surprise whenever I find a novelty extra included with a Blu-ray/4K UHD. Willem Dafoe's mug on a counterfeit $20 bill is the latest example of this inside Arrow's To Live and Die in L.A. packaging. Other goodies I hope to be included from the subgenre of crooked cop films are Harvey Keitel's school run coke from Bad Lieutenant (1992); the vomit pen from Training Day (2001); and Vince Vaughn's salt shaker from Dragged Across Concrete (2018).

Viewings: June 2026

Chances are The Plumber might have been a dreary sex comedy starring Robin Askwith if it was made in Great Britain. Thankfully, Peter Weir's film is an entertaining blend of absurdist comedy and psychological thriller from Australia. I knew it was going to be good once I saw this clip online. 

Blogger is still "buggered", like Jill's pipes.

 

Film:

The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (James Parrott, 1930) ^ ♲

Oliver the Eighth (Lloyd French, 1934) ^ ♲

The Red Menace (R. G. Springsteen, 1949)

Spaceways (Terence Fisher, 1953)

Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) 

The Reptile (John Gilling, 1966) ♲

Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968) ♲

The Plumber (Peter Weir, 1979) 

Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde, 1990) ♲

Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009) ♲ 

Citizen Vigilante (Uwe Boll, 2026)

Greenland 2: Migration (Ric Roman Waugh, 2026)

Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord & Chrisopher Miller, 2026)

 

Television:

 Moviedrome: Welcome to the Cult (Nic Wassell, 2025)

FIFA World Cup 2026

Spider-Noir - Season 1, Episodes 1-3 (Various, 2026) 

♲ Rewatch    ^ Short  

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Ashes and Diamonds is considered one of the best films ever according to film making luminaries Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. I wish it clicked for me like it did for them. Great cinematography, though. I reckon Brian De Palma might have borrowed the fireworks scene from the film and used it in Blow Out.
• The Red Menace is a far too dull to be the Red Scare equivalent of Reefer Madness. Yvonne Kraus AKA Greta Blok would have been a successful Twitch streamer, if she was around today, however.
• The first Greenland was an unexpectedly decent disaster flick; its sequel, however, is a lacklustre effort. Greater plot holes than the ridiculous giant crater in France that happens to be an oasis of life.
• Citizen Vigilante is absolutley awful and the worst 2026 film thus far.
• The more I think about it, the more I realise that Project Hail Mary is essentially Interstellar with MCU quips. I might have overrated it on Letterboxd.

Last month, it was Hammer's Dracula (1958) announcement; this month, it's Ken Russell's The Devils getting the uncut treatment:

The Devils | Teaser

Ken Russell | 1971

Viewings: May 2026

Not honestly sure what I would have thought of The Grapes of Death if I had discovered it in my youth, but I liked this poncey French hybrid of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue meets The Crazies. It also helped that Marie-Georges Pascal was a dead ringer of Melinda Clarke in it, too. Definitely my favourite find this month.

Adding it to the ever growing backlog of films I've failed to review (in time). Spent way too long on The Prisoner post.

 

Film:

From Hell It Came (Dan Milner, 1957)

The Snake Woman (Sidney J. Furie, 1961)

The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976) ♲

The Grapes of Death (Jean Rollin, 1978) 

 The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979) ♲

 Madness (Bruno Mattei, 1994)

Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)

Faces of Death (Daniel Goldhaber, 2026)

They Will Kill You (Kirill Sokolov, 2026)

 

Television:

The Prisoner (Various, 1967-1968) ♲

♲ Rewatch

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Amazed how the infamous video nasty Faces of Death (1978) has been resurrected into a modern era slasher with a Charlie XCX cameo. Very uneven film, with eye-rolling hackneyed social commentary and logic that made me lose more brain cells than that poor monkey in the original. But I did enjoy its dark humour and unexpected mean-spiritism. Gavin Brivik's soundtrack is very fitting until a horrendous pop song sampling Dr. Francis B. Gröss starts blasting during the end credits.
• There's nothing in Sorry to Bother You as remotely funny as Boots Riley going from 5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O. to sponging off Larry Ellison's nepobaby in getting it produced. I'll give his latest one a miss.
• Bruno Mattei's Madness is a Poundland Tenebrae.
• The Snake Woman comes across as a B-movie forerunner to Hammer's The Reptile (1966). Ridiculously short for a feature film, but even then, it's still something of a slog to get through. Not enough action, sadly. 

Speaking of Hammer, I'm hyped for the uncut version of Dracula (1958) finally getting released this year.

Viewings: April 2026

Motivation to binge and blog about various films like in the past has really taken a hit due to personal circumstances.

Despite this, I did get the chance to watch enough flicks that would satisfy the monthly quota for your average normie. 

Pick of the bunch was Baz Lurhrmann's documentary feature on Elvis during his residency at the formerly known International Hotel in Las Vegas. The film echoes many of the highs that I loved about Luhrmann's biopic on the artist and serves as a perfect encore.

 

Film:

Lust for a Vampire (Jimmy Sangster, 1971) ♲

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) ♲ 

Special Effects (Larry Cohen, 1984)

XX: Beautiful Hunter (Masaru Konuma, 1994)

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Baz Luhrmann, 2025/2026)

The Bride! (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2026) 

Thrash (Tommy Wirkola, 2026)

 

Television:

Salem’s Lot (Tobe Hooper, 1979) ♲

Mastermind - Episodes 29-31 (Various, 2025/2026) 

♲ Rewatch 

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Jean Luc Besson's Nikita (1990) kickstarted the trend for female assassin movies in the '90s. Japan's XX: Beautiful Hunter is by far the sleaziest of the lot Regardless of all the sexual perversity, there's never a dull moment and it's way better than Besson's contemporary rehashes of his original film.
• Do yourself a favour and ignore Thrash and watch Alexandre Aja's superior Crawl (2019) instead. 
• Well done to Eric Bogosian for being the only actor to actually bother putting in a decent performance in Larry Cohen's failed attempt at a Brian De Palma style thriller. The film also made me realise why Zoe Lund played a mute in Ms .45 (1981).
• Tobe Hooper will forever be associated with the classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), but he's also responsible for traumatising us Gen X kids for the window scene alone from Salem's Lot. Try sleeping after watching that.

Salems's Lot | Window Scene

Tobe Hooper | 1979

Viewings: March 2026

Back from Hell like Run D.M.C.

John Waters's Cecil B. Demented may be a step down from his previous efforts, but its biting satire on a creatively bankrupt film industry, underground cinephiles and a puritanical general audience is just as cutting today as it was decades ago. The tattoo scene is a personal highlight as it validates my own opinion that H.G. Lewis, the godfather of gore, is worthy of being amongst the great auteurs of cinema.

 

Film:

 Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963) ♲

Curse of the Devil (Carlos Aured, 1973)

Carry On Emmanuelle (Gerald Thomas, 1978)

Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, 2000)

Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025)

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Nia DaCosta, 2026)

Cold Storage (Jonny Campbell, 2026)

Primate (Johannes Roberts, 2026)

Scream 7 (Kevin Williamson, 2026)

Send Help (Sam Raimi, 2026)

Whistle (Corin Hardy, 2026)

Television:

Mastermind - Episodes 23-28 (Various, 2025 / 2026)

  

♲ Rewatch

   

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Always knew Carry On Emmanuelle was a terrible film, but seeing it all the way through, for the very first time, was legitimately shocking. The worst effort in the entire franchise.
• Marty Supreme was nothing but ugly looking characters shouting at one another. A gruelling viewing experience, thanks to its laborious run time.
• Whistle's haunted maze scene is a great sequence from what's otherwise a derivative and predictable mash-up of the Final Destination and Smile films.
• The best moments in Sam Raimi's Send Help are when he's completely off his leash and gets to deliver his over-the-top style, such as Rachel MacAddams hunting a terribly CGI rendered wild boar.
• Glad someone was savvy enough to realise that the most entertaining moments from Jordan Peele's overrated Nope (2022) was the killer chimp. Thus, we have Primate. Unfortunately, it's ridden with the most dumbest and boring collective of Gen Z teens which make this surprisingly gory effort a real drag.
• Hats off to Nia DaCosta for getting two fantastic performances out of Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and still managing to deliver only a conventionally  passable sequel. This latest instalment lacks the creativity, eccentricity and world-building of its predecessor, as well as it feeling like a side-story than the second act in a trilogy. The Iron Maiden scene is admittedly great, however:

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple | Iron Maiden Scene

Nia DaCosta | 2026

Viewings: February 2026

Stranded in a Greek hell hole rather than the heavenly confines of my movie room. I’ve watched nothing but a so-so documentary on Clint Eastwood on TV that could have been sourced from a Wikipedia article about the iconic legend.

On the positive side of things, picturesque sunrises over the Mediterranean Sea and a mesmerising Evi Spanou presenting the news at 4am, were the best viewing experiences I had all month.

God knows when I’ll be back home. Soon hopefully.

Viewings: January 2026

Didn't get anywhere close to completing my write-up of my favourite discovery this month; Mervyn LeRoy's pre-Code drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang.

Neither did I get to even start on Álex de la Iglesia's superb horror comedy The Day of the Beast, regrettably.

Fortunately, your host still managed to squeeze in two other unearthed gems which got the Dada Debaser™ treatment; teen horror Mirror Mirror, and another LeRoy winner, Little Caesar.

No notes this month.

 

Film:

Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931)

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)

The Brain from Planet Arous (Nathan Juran, 1957) ♲

The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) ♲

The Curse of the Yellow Snake (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1963)

The Mad Executioners (Edwin Zbonek, 1963)

The Killers (Don Siegel, 1964) ♲

In the Eye of the Hurricane (José María Forqué, 1971)

The Light at the Edge of the World (Kevin Billington, 1971)

Pretty Maids All in a Row (Roger Vadim, 1971)

Gordon's War (Ossie Davis, 1973) 

The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1975) ♲

Massacre at Central High (Renee Daalder, 1976) ♲

The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1982) ♲

Looker (Michael Crichton, 1981) ♲

Fear City (Abel Ferrara, 1984) ♲

At Close Range (James Foley, 1986)

The Terror Within (Thierry Notz, 1989)

Mirror Mirror (Marina Sargenti, 1990)

The People Under the Stairs (Wes Craven, 1991) ♲

The Terror Within II (Andrew Stevens, 1991)

The Day of the Beast (Álex de la Iglesia, 1995) 

Dead Presidents (Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, 1995)

Garden of Love (Olaf Ittenbach, 2003) 

Television:

The Avengers (Various Episodes) (Various, 1961-1969)

The New Avengers (Various Episodes) (Various, 1976-1977) 

 

♲ Rewatch

  

Alas, I'm on an unplanned hiatus. Might not get to post or respond to any comments for a while. Back soon, hopefully.

Viewings: December 2025

 

Blogging may have taken a substantial hit, but I still managed to cover a bunch of new and old film discoveries worth writing about in 2025. Hope to repeat the same for next year.

Lam Nai-Choi's bonkers sci-fi actioner The Cat was easily the best find for me this month. It features one of the most epic fights you will ever witness between a cat and a dog; not to mention a multitude of other insane sequences.

Close behind is the N.Y.C. crime thriller Night of the Juggler. A cult film which was rescued from video hell this year, and was well worth it.

 

Film:

The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1947)

Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)

North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)

Ikarie XB1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963)*

Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (William Beaudine, 1966)*

Carry On Screaming! (Gerald Thomas, 1966)

Carry On Doctor (Gerald Thomas, 1967)

Carry Om Camping (Gerald Thomas, 1969)

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock, 1971)

Horror Hospital (Anthony Balch, 1973)

Sex of the Witch (Angelo Pannacciò, 1973)*

Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973)

Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 1975)

The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976)

Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson, 1976)

Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978)

New Year’s Evil (Emmett Alston, 1980)

Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, Sidney J. Furie•, 1980)

The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987)

Lustmord (Hisayasu Satô, 1987)*

Love Letter in the Sand AKA Pervert Ward (Hisayasu Satô, 1988)*

The Cat (Lam Nai-Choi, 1992)

Death Machine (Stephen Norrington, 1994)*

Chicken Run (Peter Lord, Nick Park, 2000)

Darkness Falls (Jonathan Liebesman, 2003)*

The Belko Experiment (Greg McLean, 2016)

Malignant (James Wan, 2021)

Stelios (Girogos Tsemperopoulos, 2024)*

Nosferatu (Robert Eggers, 2024 / 2025)

Strange Harvest (Stuart Ortiz, 2024 / 2025)*

Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025)*

Reflection in a Dead Diamond ( Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2025)*

The Running Man (Edgar Wright, 2025)* 

 

Television:

The War Between the Land and the Sea (Dylan Holmes Williams, 2025)

Mastermind - Episodes 20-22 (Various, 2025 / 2026)*  

 

* First time viewings.

• Uncredited. 

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• I wrote about some of my very favourite queens of giallo this month.
• Speaking of giallo, there aren’t too many that I like produced in between Argento’s Deep Red (1975) and Tenbrae (1982), Pupi Avati’s The House with the Laughing Windows, is superb, however. Additionally, it also happens to be a fantastic folk horror, too.
• I wish James Gunn stuck with writing horror screenplays instead of comic book movies. His irreverent humour felt more natural in The Belko Experiment compared to being shoehorned in Superman (2025).
• One half of The Vicious Brothers is back! It’s another faux TV show, too. Strange Harvest could have been another cult horror film like Grave Encounters (2011), but I found it somewhat lacking, despite the cosmic horror appeal.
• Reflection in a Dead Diamond might be one of the best looking films for me this year, but it's also one of the biggest disappointments as well, sadly. The constant flip-flopping of meta levels of reality and eras in time made it a slog to sit through. This experimental treatment just doesn't work in a what's essentially a throwback to Euro-spy films like it did with the directors' prior films.
• I was going about to blog about Russell T. Davies's latest unintentional comedy, The War Between the Land and the Sea (2025), but never had the time nor the motivation. The best thing about it was its acronym being changed to T.W.A.T.B.L.A.S.T. by Doctor Who fans.
• Bidi-bid-bidi rest in peace, Gil Gerard! Best known as Captain William "Buck" Rogers in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). Coincidentally, two recurring characters, Colonel Wilma Deering and Princess Ardala, are featured in Buck Roger's 500 year wet dream in the opening credits of the pilot, despite the astronaut having not even met them yet.

In terms of the blogosphere, I enjoyed The Martorialist's fave choons old and new in 2025; Glen McCulla's in depth piece on Sergio Martino gialli; and The Flashback Fanatic's review on Rollerball (1975), which inspired me to rewatch the film and a host of other sci-fi flicks this month.

Viewings: November 2025

With the long, cold nights in full effect, binging on movies with a hot cup of cha is a necessary survival tactic for your host. The majority of November's viewings are rewatches, but there are a couple of first time gems worth praising.

Edward G. Robinson proving simpin' ain't easy in Fritz Lang's superb Scarlet Street is easily my favourite find this month. Ought to check out The Woman in the Window (1944) considering it's practically the same cast and crew involved.

Fast forwarding to the present day, Alex Russell's psychological drama Lurker is a compelling tale of fan love and obsession with a neat little twist.

Film:

La Chienne AKA The Bitch (Jean Renoir, 1931)*

The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942)*

This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942)

Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)*

The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957)

The Angry Red Planet (Ib Melchior, 1959)*

Dark of the Sun (Jack Cardiff, 1968)*

Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kümel, 1971)

The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971)

The Case of the Bloody Iris (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1972) 

Death Falls Lightly (Leopoldo Savona, 1972)* 

The Bloodstained Lawn (Riccardo Ghione, 1973)*

Murder by Decree (Bob Clark, 1979)

 Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)

The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Ms .45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)

Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)

Re-Wind (Hisayasu Satô, 1988)*

Hardware (Richard Stanley, 1990)

Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990)

Dead End (Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa, 2003)

The Mother of Tears (Dario Argento, 2007)

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)

The Ruins (Carter Smith, 2008)

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)

Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 2025)*

Lurker (Alex Russell, 2025)*

One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025)*

Warfare (Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza, 2025)

 

Television:

Blake's 7 - Series 2 (Various, 1979)  

Prisoner: Cell Block H - Episodes 3-10, Series 1 (Various, 1979)*

Mastermind - Episodes 16-19 (Bill Wright, 2025 / 2026)* 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• I discovered The Misfits' Walk Among Us album cover originated from a scene from The Angry Red Planet.
• Surprised by how brutal Jack Cardiff's Dark of the Sun was; especially when it's made out to be a '60s men-on-a-mission actioner with Rod Taylor, Jim Brown and Kenneth More.
• Can't overstate my love for This Gun for Hire. Alan Ladd being an unfathomably based hitman might possibly be the earliest example of the anti-hero assassin in a film. Not hard to see the on-screen chemistry shared with Veronica Lake, either; considering she was an absolute smoke show in it.
• It's a shame Ladd and Lake's The Glass Key isn't on the same level as This Gun for Hire. Despite the so-so direction and a convoluted plot, there's a cool escape sequence in it, as well as a death by cuckoldry scene, which makes it at least memorable.
• Despite its title and associated cast, I should have realised The Bloodstained Lawn wasn't a giallo once I spotted the robot chilling in the background. Very dull and meandering, but Marina Malfatti is a definite highlight as an aristocratic noble using the aforementioned robot to suck the blood out of working class undesirables and selling it. Plus, she wears revealing garments like in her gialli. Sweet!
• Nearly seventy years old and Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein does everything better than Mexican Tim Burton's adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel. It wasn't struck by Disneyfied visuals, uneven pacing and Cushing and Lee weren't playing characters with daddy issues.
• A film I never totally understood (and still don't, to be honest), is Ken Rusell's Altered States. William Hurt experiencing religious visions in a sensory depravation chamber and consuming enough psychedelic drugs to turn him into primal matter are worth watching the film, however. I love the caveman scene.
• Both of Arrow's restorations for Ms .45 and Wild Style look incredible in 4K. It's crazy how well they depict early '80s New York City on such small budgets. In the very remote chance an Arrow rep is lurking here, can we please get The Exterminator (1980) next year?
• The Mother of Tears is a perfect example as to why a director should never finish their trilogy if too much time has passed. Dario Argento fell off well before producing this unintentional comedy. I'm dreading Gareth Evans announcing The Raid Part III.
• Serious question for all the “Paul Thomas Anderson is the master of modern cinema” people: which brand of colouring crayon tastes the best?
• Already discussed the second season of Blake's 7 in detail, but I feel compelled to include Shivan's scene just to end the month on a high:

Blake's 7 | Voice from the Past | Shivan Scene

George Spenton-Foster | 1979 

Viewings: October 2025

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's The Platform was such an enthralling, sci-fi thriller that it made me check out his two other films, post haste. Sadly, they're significant downgrades from his stellar debut; his latest effort amongst the worst watches of 2025. Still, that doesn't tarnish my appreciation for The Platform (technically, the sequel does a tiny bit) for its hellish concept and biting social commentary; earning it the coveted Dada Debaser Film of the Month™. Highly recommended,

 

Film:

 Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, 1943)*^

Obscene Desire (Giulio Petroni, 1978)*

Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)

Graveyard Disturbance (Lamberto Bava, 1987)

Until Death (Lamberto Bava, 1987)

Chainsaw Scumfuck (Alex Chandon, 1988)^

Creep (Christopher Smith, 2004)

Hush (Mark Tonderai, 2008)*

The House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009)

Byzantium (Neil Jordan, 2012)*

Coherence (James Ward Byrkit, 2013)* 

Circle (Aaron Hann, Mario Miscione, 2015)*

The Platform (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019)*

Deadstream (Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter, 2022)

The Platform 2 (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2024)*

The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence, 2025)* 

Rich Flu (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2024 / 2025)* 

Night of the Reaper (Brandon Christensen, 2025)*

Other (David Moreau, 2025)* 

V/H/S/Halloween (Various, 2025)*

 

Television:

 Whicker's World - A Handful of Horrors: I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes (Charles Denton, 1968)*

Prisoner Cell Block H - Episodes 1 & 2 Series 1 (Various, 1979)*

Mastermind - Episodes 12-15 (Bill Wright, 2025 / 2026)* 

 

*First time viewings.

^Short film. 

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• You know horror directors have gone full meta when The House of the Devil, a fantastic throwback to '80s horror, is also being referenced in Night of the Reaper, a not so great throwback to '80s horror.
• Hard to believe David Moreau, the director behind one of the best films of last year, could deliver such a terrible effort this year with Other. Not even Olga Kurylenko in her undies could save this indulgent snoozefest.
• A random Letterboxd'er described The Long Walk as Stand By Me meets Punishment Park, which is accurate, but nowhere near as good as those films. Imagine if George A. Romero got to direct it in the '80s like he originally planned to, instead of the bloke who did The Hunger Games films!
• So glad Deadstream finally got a Blu-Ray release, as it's one of the best horror comedies in years. Also pleased the Winters' excellent short film To Hell and Back from V/H/S/99 (2022) is included as a bonus extra.

Other stuff I enjoyed: Don't know how anyone can find the time to write an in depth film review every day of the month, but Arena of the Unwell's 31 Days of Halloween reviews were hilariously entertaining reads. I also enjoyed a video on Eagle's Doomlord in my YouTube home page. A rare algorithm win.

Viewings: September 2025

It's been a rotten film year thus far, but Zach Cregger's Weapons is a noteworthy highlight that goes against the grain, and a reason to still remain positive. A gem of a film balancing dark humour and dread filled horror with aplomb.

 

Film:

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sidney Lanfield, 1939) 

Missile to the Moon (Richard E. Cunha, 1958)*

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terence Fisher, 1959)

Teenage Gang Debs (Sande N. Johnsen, 1966)*

A.A.A. Masseuse, Good Looking, Offers Her Services (Demofilo Fidani, 1972)*

Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods (Sauro Scavolini, 1972)

Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)

Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky, 2025)*

Dracula: A Love Tale (Luc Besson, 2025)*

Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025)* 

 

Television:

 Earth - Season 1 (Various, 2023)*

Mastermind - Episodes 7-11 (Bill Wright, 2025 / 2026)*

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Torn over which is the best Sherlock Holmes film adaptation I watched this month. 20th Century Fox's 1939 film boasts Basil Rathbone, the definitive actor to have played the great detective (even after the time jump), but I can't help being mesmerised by Hammer's gothic technicolour splendour in the 1959 film.
• A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services is an awful giallo that focuses more on its lead actress getting in and out of her kit for most of the film than anything else. Predictably dull and only notable for its relative obscurity (until recently).
• Sauro Scavolini's Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods is a twisted psychosexual drama before veering into giallo territory near the end. Definitely an acquired taste, but I enjoyed revisiting this again.
• Manhattan bad girl Terry (Diane Conti) moves into a Brooklyn neighbourhood and quickly moves up the ranks of a local gang — thanks to being complete dynamite in the sack  — in the largely plotless Teenage Gang Debs. It's a juvenile delinquency movie where the teens look around thirty, dance like your parents at a wedding and wear knitted cardigans at a knife fight. It's been done better elsewhere, but I did enjoy parts of it, though.
• Keep forgetting to make notes for Alex Proyas's Dark City, as I really want to review it, but too much time passes by where I'm no longer in the right zone to cover it. Incredible film, regardless.
• Style wise, Luc Besson's utterly awful Dracula: A Love Tale borrows heavily from Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation, initially. After that, he's mining the perfect scent scenes from Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and Jamelia's Money music video. Even with all the makeup, Caleb Landry Jones still looks like Axl Rose than the titular count, and the CGI stone gargoyles can't be taken seriously.
• Apart from featuring every bloke's sci-fi fantasy — a planet populated with extraterrestrial babes (there's always going to be a cat fight, eventually!) — the best thing about Missile to the Moon are the laugh out loud rock monsters:

Missile to the Moon | Rock Monsters Scene

Richard E. Cunha | 1958 

 

Other Stuff I Enjoyed This Month:

The third part in Crab Apple's incredible run down of BBC 2's Horror Double Bills; The Martorialist's favourite Female Rap Songs of the 2020s; The Flashback Fanatic's review of Heavy Metal (1981), Chris Wood's review of Assault (1971) and Dave Parker's epic Top 25 Horror Movies of 1982 video essay.

Viewings: August 2025

Karel Kachyňa's The Ear was the only discovery I liked enough to even bother with a dedicated blog post. One of the few films dubbed as new wave which didn't bombard me with pseudo intellectual diarrhoea. The Ear is an accessible and thought provoking film, with some alarming parallels to our current timeline. Well worth checking out.

 

Film:

The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932) 

The Long Hot Summer (Martin Ritt, 1958)

Beyond the Time Barrier (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1960)

Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)

Lunch Hour (James Hill, 1962)*

Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)

The Ear (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)* 

Smile Before Death (Silvio Amadio, 1972)*

The Weapon, the Hour, the Motive (Francesco Mazzei, 1972)*

The Secret of Seagull Island (Nestore Ungaro, 1982)*

Cobra (George P. Cosmatos, 1986)

Enemy Territory (Peter Manoogian, 1987)*

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Tony Randel, 1988)

Her Vengeance (Ngai Choi Lam, 1988)*

Def by Temptation (James Bond III, 1990)*

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller, 2024)

Eddington (Ari Aster, 2025)*

Red Sonja (M.J. Bassett, 2025)*

Superman (James Gunn, 2025)*

 

Television:

Mastermind - Episodes 4-6 (Bill Wright, 2025 / 2026)* 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• The god Leviathan, the Labyrinth, Dr. Channard cenobite, Pinhead's origin and Julia's metamorphosis from the wicked stepmother to the evil queen; this is how you creatively expand upon a classic film and deliver one of the best horror sequels ever. Feeling like a right mug not including it in my GOAT Brit flicks list.
• Did not expect the depth and drama exploring the price for revenge in Cat. III thriller Her Vengeance. There's still enough to appease the exploitation crowd, however, particularly an '80s action movie montage and a brutally violent showdown for a finale.
• Smile Before Death is a very sleazy giallo with an insufferable theme that plays ad nauseam. Effectively guaranteeing I'll never bother with it again.
• Sticking with giallo: The Weapon, the Hour, the Motive is an acceptable murder mystery surrounding the death of a randy priest. Hilariously, the detective investigating the case winds up proposing to one of the prime suspects.
• Enemy Territory is a curious entry from the legendary B-movie company Empire International Pictures. It's neither a horror, sci-fi or a fantasy movie, but an urban thriller set in an apartment building that's very much inspired by Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and The Warriors (1979). It's nowhere near as good as those, however, but it does have a great over-the-top performance by Tony Todd as The Count, the psychotic leader of a gang called The Vampires.
• James Gunn once again transplants his tried and tested formula of outsiders finding a surrogate family in another comic book movie. Worked with unfamiliar / forgotten characters like Star-Lord or Polka-Dot Man, but surprisingly not with his Superman outing. Gunn's irreverent humour also feels very dated and ill suited for such a wholesome character like the Man of Steel, especially after years of quips being run into the ground from similar movies. However, the biggest issue is the lack of time given for the viewer to process everything, and therefore it's one CGI set-piece to the next. I gave it three stars on Letterboxd; too generous, in hindsight. 
• There's a half decent crime thriller lurking about somewhere in Ari Aster's latest overlong picture. Having to wade through over an hour's worth of cringe, satirising the insanity of 2020, is the reason why I'll most likely never bother with Eddington again.

And finally: R.I.P. Terence Stamp and Ray Brooks!