Australian cinema has long flirted with ferality, sun-bleached nihilism, men unraveling, and landscapes too vast to contain their collapse. Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer doesn’t just participate in that tradition; it detonates it from within. With Nicolas Cage at its trembling, half-mad center, this film is not merely a slow-burn thriller. It’s a sunstroke hallucination about…
Monster Island (2024) is a WWII survival horror film steeped in Malay folklore, where a Japanese soldier and British POW battle inner demons and an ancient monster. Directed by Mike Wiluan and streaming via Shudder, the film is a slow-burn descent into character-driven chaos, soaked in myth and moral ambiguity.
Hot Spring Shark Attack (2025) is a Japanese horror-comedy that blends absurdist shark attacks, spa tourism satire, and surprisingly competent filmmaking into a cult-worthy splash. Directed by Morihito Inoue and streaming via Utopia, the film flexes rubber sharks, weird science, and oiled-up heroes with comic finesse.
“The Rule of Jenny Pen” is an unsettling psychological horror featuring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow. In a New Zealand nursing home, a former judge must stop a twisted resident who uses a puppet to terrorize patients. Based on Owen Marshall’s short story, the film explores aging, justice, and institutional neglect with grimy cinematography and dread.
I’ll give Breaking Glass Pictures credit where it’s due; they struck while the iron was hot with that title. “Freak Off” captures the zeitgeist of current headlines surrounding certain hip-hop moguls, and honestly, kudos for getting there first with the provocative branding. The casting department also deserves recognition for finding look-alikes that genuinely hold merit;…
In Vitro (2024) review: This Australian sci-fi thriller explores biotechnology gone wrong in the outback. With only three cast members, directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith create a claustrophobic psychological horror about livestock cloning that turns personal. Featuring excellent cinematography by Shelley Farthing-Dawe and distributed by Saban Films, this indie gem delivers genuine tension. A minimalist and intimate horror film.
