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Horror Film Review: Penny Lane is Dead (2025)

2026-08-27T08:00:00.000+01:00

I’m going to start this review by saying that I thought I was going to love it. A punk-rock horror film set in Australia in the 80s? I’m completely up for that. But as I watched Penny Lane Is Dead, I began to wonder, why make an Ozploitation film in the 2020s when horror has evolved over the past four or so decades? If you’re going to revive the style, I reckon you have to bring something new to the genre.

What was edgy in the 70s felt like a true crime dramatisation now, and there’s a reason I watch about ten times more horror than true crime: true crime stresses me out. Horror is supposed to be my escape from that. Give me catharsis, consequences, triumph.

Penny Lane Is Dead is very 80s, very punk and very Australian. A group of teenagers find their night spiralling into absolute carnage when they cross paths with some seriously nasty people. There’s friendship, jealousy, romance, a lovely sapphic thread and enough gore to fuel a proper horror.

It also looks fantastic. I loved the colour, the grimy styling and the cinematography, not to mention the gore. When the film gets down to the business of dealing with its villains, I was absolutely on board. Give me that blood-soaked revenge.

Great casting, excellent performances and compelling characters fuel the film. Which is probably why it felt so real. Tahlee Fereday and Bailey Spalding shine as friends-to-lovers Toni and Penny Lane; and Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn captivates as the unhinged and unpredictable Kat. I appreciated that the story explored the motives and jealousy behind her behaviour.

I loved the sapphic aspect. I loved the friendships. I liked the cousins and their jealousy. I liked the little character details. Even the villains were well characterised, each one a distinctly awful piece of work. Ultimately, the thing the film does so well is also the thing that made me not enjoy it. It takes real-world violence and captures its randomness and unpredictability.

For me, that makes it a particularly violent and graphic thriller, not a horror.

Because this wasn’t scary. It was stressful. There’s a big difference.

I like horror that uses violence to produce catharsis. I don’t mind nastiness when it leads somewhere emotionally satisfying. I don’t want violence when its function is solely to produce shock, disgust, outrage or spectacle.

And I realise that’s part of the Ozploitation tradition of the 70s and 80s, but that brings me back to my original question. The world is a dumpster fire, true crime is increasingly violent, and we need escape. Some horror fans are going to absolutely love this film and its unapologetic embrace of the nastier traditions of exploitation horror.

I’m not one of those people.

It’s a gorgeous-looking film with excellent performances, and there are parts of the story I really liked. But horror should be scary, cathartic, exhilarating. I should be cheering for a satisfying outcome. This just made me miserable.

Viewer discretion is very much advised with this one. There are some sickening scenes of violence against women.

Scares ★★☆☆☆ | Aesthetics ★★★★☆ | Acting ★★★★☆ | Plot ★★☆☆☆ | Enjoyment ☆☆☆☆☆

★★☆☆☆

A Shudder Original Film, Penny Lane Is Dead Premieres Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ Friday 28 August

Trailer: Penny Lane is Dead (2025), dir. Mia Kate Russell

Horror Film Review: Hellcat (2025)

2026-08-13T18:03:27.340+01:00

It’s a nightmare scenario. Expectant mother Lena (Dakota Gorman) wakes to find herself locked in the back of a moving mobile home. Disorientated and unable to summon help, she is met instead by a disembodied voice insisting that her captor is a good man and that she has been infected. In his feature-length directorial debut, Brock Bodell explores a modern take on the Little Red Riding Hood story in Hellcat (2025). There is just one problem.

Who is the Big Bad Wolf in this scenario?

As Lena fights to survive and protect her unborn child, one thing becomes certain: she has no idea what's going on. She realises that she cannot trust herself or her memories, and her already fragile grip on reality is further threatened by a shocking discovery. What the hell happened, and how did she land up in this predicament?

Throughout all of this, Hellcat wrings an impressive amount from such a limited setting, as Lena's plight becomes increasingly desperate and oppressive. Dakota Gorman shoulders almost the entire film. I never once doubted her performance as Lena, even when the narrative began to lose its footing. Todd Terry and Liz Atwater are also worth a mention, but I'll leave you to discover exactly why for yourself.

But Is It Scary?

I wouldn't call this a horror exactly and so, by extension, it isn't really scary. It sits much more comfortably in thriller territory. Without venturing into spoiler territory, the central reveal ultimately fell rather flat for me. While Bodell clearly wants to wrong-foot the audience, I suspect some viewers may come away feeling that the film shifts genres without quite earning the transition.

What Hellcat is, though, is intensely claustrophobic and uncomfortable viewing. For much of the film, Lena is stuck in the back of a moving, grimy, old-fashioned mobile home and the viewer is stuck there with her through the constant rattling and tinkling of cups, pots and every other loose object inside.

Given the tiny space he was working with, cinematographer Andrew Duensing has done a great job with rich, saturated colours, giving Hellcat a genuinely cinematic look without losing sight of the grime and decay surrounding Lena. It elevates what could easily have become a visually repetitive setting.

The Big Bad Reveal

There was plenty to like about Hellcat, but the direction the story ultimately took didn't quite work for me. I enjoyed the claustrophobic setting, the atmosphere and Dakota Gorman's performance, but the eventual reveal left me underwhelmed. It's a shame, because there is a lot to admire here and, with a different approach to the story, I could easily have been looking at a four or even five-star review.

Even so, Hellcat was a great way to spend 91 minutes and there's more than enough here to recommend it. I'm giving it an enthusiastic three out of five stars.

★★★☆☆

Scares ★★★★☆| Love ★★★☆☆ | Design ★★★★☆ | Acting ★★★★☆ | Plot ★★☆☆☆

A Shudder Original Film, Hellcat Premieres Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ Friday 14 August

Trailer: Hellcat (2025), Dir. Brock Bodell

Horror Film Review: This Is Not a Test (2025)

2026-05-18T13:51:07.932+01:00

If you’re going to tackle a zombie horror these days, you need something fresh. Look at what Black Summer did in a market already overflowing with zombie lore: urgency, terror, impossible choices to survive. This Is Not a Test, set in the opening days of a zombie apocalypse, promised a sharp, emotional story about an abused teen and the slow awakening of a survival instinct after years of wishing she was dead.

Olivia Holt stars as Sloane, a traumatised teenager trapped in an abusive home when a violent zombie outbreak brings chaos to her town. She escapes her father and falls in with a group of classmates, eventually taking refuge inside their high school. It’s messy, brutal and chaotic, but This Is Not a Test seems to be trying to position itself as a cut above.

It’s a powerful concept based on the novel by Courtney Summers, a major YA author whose work should have translated into something far more impactful on screen. But it never does. I didn’t see it and, more importantly, I didn’t feel it. The best zombie films and series get under your skin. They create a mood, a lingering sense of dread that sticks with you long after the credits roll. I first fell for the genre with Open Grave, and that whole film was pure mood.

This Is Not a Test had no mood.

A lot of the problem comes down to telling rather than showing. We’re told Sloane is suicidal, that her father is abusive, that her sister left home. We see some of the abuse. Logically, it makes sense why a teen would feel hopeless. But that’s not work my brain should be doing. The film should have done that work for me.

The same applies when Sloane meets the other survivors and they move to the high school. We know some of these teens aren’t in the best headspace, but none of it really lands. This is the opening day of a zombie apocalypse after all. They’ve all already lost someone.

I expected more from these rising teen stars, but the film never gives them enough depth or direction. Froy Gutierrez (Rhys), Corteon Moore (Cary), Chloe Avakian (Grace) and Carson MacCormac (Trace) all feel like they’re trying to do what they can with thin material, especially when the film never even bothers to properly explain what caused the apocalypse.

I rarely dislike a zombie film, especially one leaning into gritty, emotional territory rather than comedy. But I felt nothing here, much like Sloane did at the start.

This is the second Olivia Holt film I’ve rated one star, the first being Heart Eyes. At this point, I’m starting to think she’s just not my cup of tea.

If you’ve made it this far reading because you too were disappointed, I’m sorry. But I can wholeheartedly recommend anything in the Walking Dead universe, or Z Nation and Black Summer.

For promising and failing to deliver a hard-hitting zombie apocalypse horror based on the work of the excellent Courtney Summers, I give This Is Not a Test one out of five stars.

★☆☆☆☆

A Shudder Exclusive Film, This Is Not a Test Premieres Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ Friday 22 May 2026

Trailer: This Is Not a Test, dir. Adam MacDonald

Horror Film Review: I Know Exactly How You Die (2026)

2026-04-06T10:00:00.011+01:00

What would you do to overcome writer’s block? With a looming deadline and freshly ghosted by his girlfriend, struggling horror novelist Rian (Rushabh Patel) retreats to a remote motel to finish writing his book. Caught between a storyboard populated only by the first and last scene and bouts of frenzied bathtub writing, Rian begins to hatch a story about drug counsellor Katie on the run from an increasingly violent stalker (and possibly serial killer).

It soon becomes clear that Rian’s story is unfolding in real time.

As his path collides with the real Katie, can they stop the stalker before it is too late? And what exactly is Naja, the mysterious hotel manager, hiding?

Directed by Alexandra Spieth (Stag) and written by Mike Corey, I Know Exactly How You Die is a darkly comic nod to classic slasher cinema, blending metafiction and visceral gore to warn about the perils of weaponised storytelling. The familiar warning to be careful what you wish for pales beside the risks writers face when confronting what they create.

For an 88-minute film, I Know Exactly How You Die packs in an impressive amount of story. Where many horror films, regardless of budget, falter with thin backstories, this film takes care to flesh out the antagonist, exploring who he is, how both his past and profession fuel his violence, and why Katie becomes his focus.

The local history of the crumbling motel is also explored, deepening the atmosphere of the film. In fact, the motel deserves a mention in the final credits because it was absolutely a main character. Cinematographer Michael Kohlbrenner does a great job of capturing the grime and sleaze of this dead-end motel with its cheap furnishings, broken lamp shades, peeling paint and tangibly sticky carpets.

Stephanie Hogan is excellent as Katie. She has such great on-screen presence and she steals the show as she wrestles the title of protagonist from the hapless and morally beige Rian (played by Rushabh Patel). Rawya El Chab was also great as hotel manager Naja, hinting throughout as to something that lies beneath the surface (what exactly does she know?) but revealing nothing until the very end.

Where I Know Exactly How You Die trips up is in its structure. Some parts of the film are hard to follow, particularly in how the opening scene connects to later events and in clarifying the slasher’s actions. This lack of cohesion undercuts the tension, making key moments feel more confusing than suspenseful.

Ultimately, I Know Exactly How You Die is a reminder of what independent horror can achieve with a strong concept and a limited budget. There’s ambition here, and plenty to admire in its performances and ideas, but its uneven structure ultimately blunts the impact of its most interesting idea: the danger of weaponised storytelling.

I give I Know Exactly How You Die a good 3 out of 5 stars, a compelling and inventive horror that doesn’t quite stick the landing.

★★★☆☆

Acting ★★★★☆ | Plot ★★★★☆ | Scares ★★★☆☆| Structure ★★☆☆☆ | Execution ★★☆☆☆

Beginning April 7, audiences across the US will be able to rent or own I Know Exactly How You Die on Digital HD, including Prime Video and Fandango at Home. The film will also be available on DVD.

Trailer: I Know Exactly How You Die, dir. Alexandra Spieth

Glasgow Film Festival 2026 Review: Satisfaction

2026-03-08T14:28:00.005+00:00

Quietly devastating and utterly spellbinding, Alex Burunova’s Satisfaction is screening at the Glasgow Film Festival this weekend. Fans of Mayor of Kingstown on Paramount+ will recognise lead actress Emma Laird from her role as Iris, and know that she doesn’t shy from difficult material, though this performance ventures into particularly dark territory.

Set against the sun-washed beauty of the Greek Isles, British composers Lola (Emma Laird) and Philip (Fionn Whitehead) exist together in a relationship defined less by love than by distance and silence. For all the tranquillity of their surroundings, an unbreachable divide spans between them. When Lola meets the enigmatic Elena (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), the fragile equilibrium between Lola and Philip begins to fracture, revealing a much darker portrait of people bound together by trauma.

Before the darkness suddenly descends on Satisfaction, Burunova lingers on Lola’s extraordinary talent and her creative process. She listens to the world around her and transforms it into music: footsteps splashing in puddles, dog walkers beneath a bridge, a truck reversing in the street outside.

Sound becomes composition and composition becomes a way of understanding life itself. Is this how great composers hear the world, every fragment of noise forming a greater harmony?

But then the film turns and Lola’s music is taken from her not once, but twice as she is betrayed by the person closest to her

The performances in Satisfaction carry the delicate emotional weight of the film with grace and restraint. Emma Laird is incredible and Zar Amir Ebrahimi mesmerising. One unforgettable scene between Lola and Elena unfolds without audible dialogue. We know what Lola is telling Elena, and what Elena says in reply, yet all we hear is the crash of waves against the rocks. It is a remarkable moment of trust between filmmaker and audience.

Visually, Satisfaction is stunning. The coastal location and luxury villa are beautifully captured, breathing with the characters where they stagnate. Sound plays a vital role too, in the near-silences where the world around Lola becomes audible, and in Midori Hirano’s ethereal score.

Contrasted against the idyllic location, the film reveals something far darker. Burunova explores betrayal and the ways in which we rewrite our own trauma in order to survive. Satisfaction is billed as a romance but it is not. It is an unromance, a story about something beautiful being stolen and almost destroyed. One line, quietly spoken, says it all: the night I said no.

Yet Satisfaction ultimately finds catharsis. Sunlight, wind, waves. Fingers gently caress the air, as if searching for notes only she can hear.

I give Satisfaction a full five out of five stars and expect this haunting film to become a festival standout and a serious awards contender in 2026.

★★★★★

Content note: Satisfaction includes an extended scene that may be upsetting for some viewers.

Satisfaction enjoys its UK film festival premier at Glasgow Film Festival on 7 & 8 March and will screen at BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival on 22 & 23 March and Manchester Film Festival on 23 March.