One of my favourite directors, Guillermo del Toro takes on the classic tale of Pinocchio. Teaming up with director Mark Gustafson and an incredibly talented bunch of animators and voice talent, del Toro moves the story forward in time to the 1920s, setting it in Italy during the rise of Mussolini, paired with some dark…
Tag: sacrifice
The Night Travelers (2023) – Armando Lucas Correa
Simon & Schuster Canada was kind enough to send me a copy of Armando Lucas Correa’s latest, The Night Travelers, and I was delighted to find myself completely swept up in the narrative he created, weaving historical fact into a multi-generational tale of mothers and daughters. Through the eyes of Ally, Lilith, Nadine and Luna…
V/H/S: Viral (2014) – Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Nacho Vigalondo, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Todd Lincoln
The anthology horror series, V/H/S is a bit hit and miss, but the great thing about anthology films is if you don’t like one story, just hold on and see what comes along next. The third entry in the series is no different, there are some that could have been executed a little better, some…
Space Battleship Yamato (2010) – Takashi Yamazaki
When I was a kid I would occasionally come across the odd anime cartoon, I always found them fascinating, there was the Americanization of Gatchaman that I adored until I discovered how much cooler the original was. And every now and then I would stumble across Star Blazers which took what looked like a naval…
The Cabin at the End of the World (2018) – Paul G. Tremblay
I read and enjoyed Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts, so when I heard about his novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, I was suitably intrigued as it seems both he and I don’t love the home invasion subgenre of horror. His thought process was ‘how would I write one?’ and this…
Eversion (2022) – Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds takes the reader on an epic journey across time. Tinging his new tale, Eversion, with hints of Verne, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, O’Brien, and 50s sci-fi Reynolds introduces us to Silas Coade, ship’s doctor, We slide through time, across a variety of vehicles, sailing ships, airships, and spacecraft, but it is always the same…
Ashgrove (2022) – Jeremy LaLonde
Haunting and elegant. There’s a heartrending beauty in the character of Jennifer who is brought to life by Amanda Brugel in Jeremy LaLonde’s latest film, Ashgrove. Set against a backdrop of a global pandemic that threatens extinction, an intimate character drama plays out that could change everything. There is a thread running through LaLonde’s films,…
The Wandering Earth (2019) – Frant Gwo
Liu Cixin who penned The Three Body Problem series of novels, also wrote the book that is the basis of The Wandering Earth, a massive cinematic undertaking from China. An epic tale that easily stands shoulder to shoulder with the epic end of the world films like Armageddon. In this film, the world is in…
A Classic Horror Story (2021) – Roberto De Feo, and Paolo Strippoli
I love taking a look at foreign horror films, because all filmmakers approach the genre from their own experiences, their culture, and their influences, and what scares some people may only be entertaining to others. The Italian film, A Classic Horror Story, plays our very enjoyable, and has a couple of shifts from horror sub-genre…
Apostle (2018) – Gareth Evans
There’s a lot to unpack in Gareth Evans’ film, Apostle, there are concepts of religious tenets, blood, sacrifice, family, worship, deification, and faith, all of it wrapped up in a character driven tale starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen. If you try to take it as the straightforward tale that the film’s plotline offers, you’re…
The Mind Reels 