Noticias

The stuck-in-one-place subgenre of horror is packed with clever concepts and places to be stuck in (from a coffin to a sailboat). #Manhole is the latest entry in this subgenre and it truly is one of these films where, no matter what it is anyone thinks is going on before watching, no one will ever guess what the actual twist is until it arrives. The film is the latest feature from Japanese genre director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri and it opened in Japan just a few weeks before premiering at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. The title is officially #Manhole with the hash symbol, which makes sense once the film gets going and the social media subplot kicks in. This quick festival review will be spoiler free, as I'd rather everyone go watch this film without knowing anything more before heading in. It is not a spoiler to say that there are twists,...

Quick takes from the 25th Raindance Film Festival, with public screenings in London through October 1st, 2017.

Black Hollow Cage

Thirteen-year-old Alice (Lowena McDonell) lives alone with her father (Julian Nicholson) in a striking modernist house in the middle of the woods. She is getting used to her new bionic arm and believes that their dog is actually her dead mother, though Dad insists this is not the case. (What Dad actually believes about the voice synthesizer the dog wears around her neck, which appears to be speaking the dog’s thoughts [the voice of Lucy Tillett], is not something Alice ever asks him. Maybe in this apparently future world, people’s pets talk to them as a matter of course.) And then two very young strangers, siblings Erika (Haydée Lysander) and Paul (Marc Puiggener) — she is badly beaten up, and he is mute — appear out of nowhere and disrupt Alice’s existence. Oh, and there...