STING
Ritz Cinemas - Wednesday 17 April 7pm & Lido Cinemas – Thursday 18 April 7pm
Kiah Roache-Turner returns with his fourth feature, and it’s a creature feature doozy: giant alien spider attacking and eating people inside an apartment block. Oh yeah, bring it on! Utilising NZ’s legendary special effects team Weta to bring to life this truly horrifying fanged menace, and featuring a top-notch cast, lead by Ryan Corr and young Alyla Browne, it tells the plight of a family and other residents in a claustrophobic old building in wintery NYC after Charlotte (Browne) secretly welcomes the arrival of a rather unusual arachnid in her bedroom. Before you can say “Incy wincy…” all manner of enormous eight-legged hell has broken out. Once again Turner delivers the cinematic terror with stylish aplomb, navigating the interior terrain and the visceral shocks with gusto and a cracking pace. Special mention to comic relief Jermain Fowler as a pest controller out of his depth, and Silvia Colloca as the lonely drunkard neighbour who gets more boozed than she bargained for! Oh, and the title? It’s Charlotte’s nickname for her wee pet.
DIVINITY
Lido Cinemas - Friday 19 April 8.45pm & Wednesday 1 May 8.10pm, Thornbury Picture House – Tuesday 30 April 8.35pm, Ritz Cinemas - Saturday, 20 April 8.40pm & Wednesday 1 May 6pm
Like some kind of mutant strain between Beyond the Black Rainbow and Tetsuo Iron Man with further perverse sensibilities a la Cronenberg and Lynch, comes experimental filmmaker Eddie Alcazar’s second narrative feature, and continuing his predilection with the connections between the psyche and the physical self, this is the survival of the fittest. Stephen Dorff plays Jaxxon, the son of a maverick scientist (Quantum Leaper Scott Bakula) who sought immortality for humankind. The setting is some kind of barren Earth, no blade of grass in sight. Jaxxon’s appropriated quest and his arrogant control is interrupted by two brothers from another planet - and interstellar purity source - with the purpose of upsetting his grand scheme. But can the additional arrival of dark seductress Nikita (Karrueche Tran) circumnavigate this cosmic intrusion? Will Ziva (Bella Thorne) and her perfect specimens follow through? Stunning 16mm monochrome cinematography and a gorgeous production design elevate this mindfuck (literally) excursion and deliver (literally) an existential organic skincare commercial from the retro-future.
THE BRAZEN
Lido Cinemas – Thursday 25 April 8.50pm & Wednesday 1 May 6pm, Ritz Cinemas – Thursday 2 May 8.10pm & Monday 6 May 8pm
Not too many Latvian horror movies come this way, and this curious tale of domestic upheaval is a beautifully performed character study of madness and obsession as Helena (Marta Grase) and her husband, teenage son and young daughter return to her father’s decrepit stone cottage in the countryside. As each family member grapples with the building’s icky presence, the walls begin to crawl. And crawl. And crawl some more. A slow-burning psychological nightmare with skeletons in the closet that bear six legs or simply writhe in their multitudes. If you’re insect squeamish, beware! Terrific art direction awash with sumptuous dark colours, writer/director Aik Karapetian has fashioned a deeply unsettling take on broken memories and the fragility of familial relationships. Grase is superb in the central role, as the unhinged mother wrestling with her wayward family, and hoping her dance career – and her mind - will remain intact long enough to conquer the past.
CANNIBAL MUKBANG
Lido Cinemas – Saturday 27 April 8.30pm & Monday 6 May, 8.30pm, Thornbury Picture House – Friday 26 April, 8.40pm, Ritz Cinemas – Wednesday 24 April 6pm & Friday 3 May 6.30pm
We love a good low-budget indie horror, and writer/director Aimee Kuge’s debut feature is a delightfully perverse take on the girl-eats, err, meets-boy romantic comedy. Taking its cue from the internet phenomenon that features YT hosts videoing themselves tucking into all manner of sweet and savoury dishes, essentially all for the salivating pleasure of the viewer, rather than being any kind of proper food critique. The mukbanger in this story is kissed-by-fire Ash (April Consalo). The object of her hot-and-cold affections is Mark (Nate Wise), a bit of a dweeb, but good-looking and inoffensive enough to warrant a soft-kidnapping and emotional manipulation. Soon enough they’re partners in outlandish vigilante crime. But this dish will ultimately taste better cold. Consalo gives a wonderful, stand-out performance - my favourite so far this year - effortlessly harnessing her character’s damaged goods and sly foxy nature. The dialogue crackles with an American Psycho kind of satirical edge, there’s a refreshing element of subtle eroticism, and, oh, yes, there is plenty of flesh and blood.
THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY
Lido Cinemas – Friday 19 April 6.15pm & Friday 3 May 8.30pm, Ritz Cinemas – Thursday 25 April 6.30pm & Saturday 4 May 6pm
Just when you thought you’d seen enough QT-inspired takes on classic genre tropes, along sidles writer/director Francis Galluppi’s debut feature, and spittoons the hell out of the dusty thriller-in-the-desert flick. Reminiscent of Oliver Stone’s cult fave U Turn, and the early revisionist films of John Dahl such as Red Rock West, there’s a strong self-conscious streak that runs through the picture, but it’s so well-saddled that this horse fairly gallops along. Half the job is done with such sterling performances from, and not limited to, Jim Cummings as the kitchen knife salesman (nope, he doesn’t get a name), Jocelin Donahue as Charlotte behind the diner counter, Richard Brake as soft-spoken bank robber Beau, Sierra McCormick as Southern belle Sybil, and an all-too-brief appearance from indie darling Alex Essoe. The whole dang cast is bang on! There’s a Mexican stand-off that is the best one I’ve witnessed since Reservoir Dogs. So, what is it about Yuma? I’ve made a note to avoid that place, seems the only kind of joe that’s brewing there is terrr-rubble. That said, make sure you catch this movie on the big screen, it’s the one-stop crime-hop you need to make! Yeehaw!