Wednesday 26 December 2018

All the new British horror films released in 2018

My master list contains 89 British horror features released during 2018. This is slightly down from last year's round-up, which I announced 12 months ago. (It was 107 films at the time but currently stands at 105 as I have discovered prior releases for a couple of titles). We’re still on course to hit a thousand films (since January 2000) sometime in the coming year.

So: 89 feature films. How many have you seen? How many have you heard of? I've managed to catch 38 of these so far.

As ever, I define a film as 'released in 2018' if this year saw the first chance for someone to watch the movie - whether in a cinema, on DVD, on demand or just posted on YouTube - without attending a special event. Some of these films played festivals or had other one-off screenings in 2017 or earlier years.)

Please let me know of anything I've missed, or any other corrections.

  • Abduction 2: Revenge of the Hive Queen (Mol Smith)
  • Anna and the Apocalypse (John McPhail)
  • Apostle (Gareth Evans)
  • Assassin's Revenge (Richard Driscoll)
  • Attack of the Adult Babies (Dominic Brunt)
  • Aura aka The Exorcism of Karen Walker (Steve Lawson)
  • Await Further Instructions (Johnny Kevorkian)
  • The Bad Nun (Scott Jeffrey)
  • The Black Gloves (Lawrie Brewster)
  • The Book of Birdie (Elizabeth E Schuch)
  • Boots on the Ground (Louis Melville)
  • Calibre (Matt Palmer)
  • Cannibal Farm aka Escape from Cannibal Farm (Charlie Steeds)
  • Caught (Jamie Patterson)
  • Charismata (Andy Collier, Toor Mian)
  • Condemned aka God’s Acre (JP Davidson)
  • Conspiracy X (Sam Mason Bell et al)
  • Curse of the Scarecrow aka Scarecrow Rising (Louisa Warren)
  • Curse of the Witch's Doll (Lawrence Fowler)
  • Dark Beacon (Corrie Greenop)
  • Dark Highlands (Mark Stirton)
  • Dark Vale (Jason MJ Brown)
  • Darkness Comes (David Newbigging)
  • The Demonic Doll aka The Demonic Tapes 2: The Doll (Richard Mansfield)
  • The Devil's Doorway (Aislinn Clarke)
  • Die Gest: Flesh Eater (Tony Newton et al)
  • Dogged (Richard Rowntree)
  • Dragon Kingdom aka Dark Kingdom (Simon Wells)
  • Fanged Up (Christian James)
  • The Ferryman (Elliott Maguire)
  • Fever aka Mountain Fever (Hendrik Faller)
  • Fox Trap aka Don’t Blink (Jamie Weston)
  • Fractured (Jamie Patterson)
  • Ghost Stories (Andy Nyman, Jeremy Dyson)
  • Gore Theatre (Sam Mason-Bell et al)
  • Grim Places (Jason Impey)
  • Grindhouse Nightmares (Richard Driscoll)
  • Habit (Simeon Halligan)
  • Halloween Hell Night (David Black et al)
  • Halloween in Hertford (Michael Curtis)
  • Harvest of the Dead (Peter Goddard)
  • Haunted 2: Apparitions (Steven M Smith)
  • Haunted 3: Spirits (Steven M Smith)
  • The Hell of Ween (Tom Stavely)
  • Home Videos (Jason Impey et al)
  • House of Salem (James Crow)
  • The House of Screaming Death (Alex Bourne et al)
  • The House of Violent Desire (Charlie Steeds)
  • The House on Mansfield Street (Richard Mansfield)
  • Jurassic Predator (Andrew Jones)
  • The Legend of Halloween Jack (Andrew Jones)
  • The Little Stranger (Lenny Abrahamson)
  • Mandy the Doll (Jamie Weston)
  • Maniacal (Sam Mason-Bell et al)
  • Mara (Clive Tonge)
  • Mask of Thorn (MJ Dixon)
  • Matriarch aka Mother (Scott Vickers)
  • Monochrome (Tom Lawes)
  • Monster (Matt Shaw)
  • Old Blood (Denise Channing)
  • Paranormal Farm 2: Closer to the Truth (Carl Medand)
  • Patient Zero (Stefan Ruzowitzky)
  • Polterheist (Paul Renhard, Dave Gilbank)
  • Possum (Matthew Holness)
  • Psychomanteum: Tales of the Dead (Ray Brady et al)
  • Pumpkins (Maria Lee Metheringham)
  • Recovery (Marcus Scott)
  • Redcon-1 (Chee Keong Cheung)
  • The Redeeming (Brian Barnes)
  • The Revenge of Robert (Andrew Jones)
  • The Same Circles (Mark Garvey)
  • Shadow of the Missing (Jamie Lee Smith)
  • Sin (Self Induced Nightmares) (Dan Brownlie et al)
  • Slaughterhouse Rulez (Crispian Mills)
  • The Snarling (Pablo Raybould)
  • The Spawning (Simon Riley)
  • Tone Death (John Hickman, Roger Armstrong)
  • Toxic Schlock (Sam Mason-Bell, Tony Newton)
  • Trash Arts: Killers Vol.1 (Sam Mason Bell et al)
  • Twenty Twenty-Four aka It Lives (Richard Mundy)
  • Virus of the Dead (Tony Newton et al)
  • The Wasting (Carolyn Saunders)
  • Webcast (Paul McGhie)
  • Welcome to Essex (Ryan J Fleming)
  • Welcome to Hell (Sam Mason Bell et al)
  • Where the Skin Lies (Michael Boucherie)
  • White Goods (Bazz Hancher)
  • Winterskin (Charlie Steeds)
  • Writers Retreat (Diego Rocha)

Sunday 9 December 2018

Morticia


d./w./p. Nabil Shaban; cast: Jenni Young, Karen Douglas, Ricky Callan, Nabil Shaban, Sofie Alonzi, Dolina Maclennan, Andrew Dallmeyer, James Tennant

Interesting and worthwhile, despite low production values, Shaban’s only feature is a character study of a 12-year-old goth. Kylie, who prefers ‘Morticia’, is regarded as the local weirdo by children and adults alike. An able and intelligent child, her poetic school essay about wanting to become a vampire causes chaos when read out in class. She steals a paperback of Dracula from the library and reads it in a churchyard, then steals a bat from Edinburgh Zoo. Her bumptious mother and long-suffering father, a disabled Gulf War veteran, don’t know what to do with her. Eventually her romantic view of death is cracked by overhearing her dad talk about the women and children he was required to kill in Iraq. Right at the end, Dracula himself appears, probably a hallucination. Disabled actor Shaban (still fondly remembered for a role in 1980s Doctor Who) plays a psychologist. Night Kaleidoscope director Grant McPhee pops up in the credits as colourist. Shot in 2009, this premiered at a vampire film festival in October that year.