Top 10 Animal Horror Films Of All Time

Welcome to that time of year where we look back at another horror sub genre for Halloween. This year we will be uncaging Animal Horror and considering the long and lost history of man versus nature classics.

So sit down beside the fireplace with your dead childhood pets and reminisce about burying them in the back garden. Just dont flush that baby crocodile down the toilet when your're bored of looking after it. They only come back bigger.

Watch the Top 10 animal horror movies below.

In descending order of greatness:

10. Willard [1971]

This creepy low budget B movie focuses on a sweet natured teenage boy, Willard, who uses his psychic powers to control hoardes of rampaging rats to wreak revenge on the adults who bullied him and made his life a misery.

Starring Bruce Davison and Elsa Lanchester, this film is a slow burning study of teenage rebellion which never fails to surprise with the delicious depths of the main characters’ penchant for violence. This film is easily confused with the very similar Ben movie due to an identical rat premise but I’ve always found Willard to be a darker and more biting affair.

Willard was remade in 2003 starring the excellent Crispin Glover in the title role.

9. Cocaine Bear [2023]

Cocaine Bear is perhaps the most famous of recent animal horror films, and despite being critically panned, this rabid Paddington Bear CGI monstrosity deserves a special mention for it’s black humour and surprisingly blood soaked scenery.

The film is based on the true story of a bear discovering a cache of cocaine in Oregan and going on a wild rampage. That’s about it. But the film never takes itself too seriously and features some stand out scenes of hilarity. It was also famously directed by the actress Elizabeth Banks.

None of this makes a lot of sense when you consider all the random elements that had to come together to make this bizarre film - but savour the fact it exists at all.

8. Razorback [1984]

I remember watching this under appreciated low budget Australian horror when it first came out on VHS. Like Jaws, it somehow took rare animal attacks and turned them into an everday possibility. Especially when Razorback centres on a rampaging wild boar - basically a killer pig -in the Australian outback which was unlikely to happen in your local suburban town.

I still have vivid images of the climax in the canning factory at the finale which made this low budget classic look like a million dollar Hollywood production.

7.Lake Placcid [1999]

Any animal horror film list needs to include Lake Placcid purely because it is completely tongue in cheek and intentionally bad - but that’s half the fun. The black humour and bad acting carry this classic across the line when the film opens with an animal attack at a lake in Maine. This event leads to the local sheriff calling in New York paleontologists when a dinosaur tooth is discovered and a giant crocodile is suspected to be on the loose.

This movie has a famous Hollywood cast starring Brendan Gleeson as Sheriff Hank Keough, Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda, and Oliver Platt, all doing their best to overdramatise the situtation. It proved so popular that it birthed a further two sequels which I’ve never bothered to watch.

6. Piranha [1978]

Literally following in the watery wake of Jaws, Roger Corman’s low budget B movie classic cashes in and retreads the danger at sea / lake premise. It features some terrifying underwater scenes of rampant pirhana attacks, but whereas Jaws only alluded to the horror (and left it to the audience’s imagination) Corman revelled in the sea change of blood red waters. Ferocious attacks leave bodies picked clean of their flesh with skeletons left floating to the bottom of the ocean. A horror B movie classic.

5. Alligator [1980]

I’m not sure which came first, Alligator the film, or Alligator the urban myth. Some people may remember an urban myth circulating around the Big Apple for many years where Alligators lived in the sewers of New York city after children flushed their pet baby alligator down the toilet.

This gritty film features an early starring role for the Oscar nominated actor, Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) and is the logical conclusion of urban myth into reality. A Hollywood cash-in.

The film climaxes in a flood when the alligators burst through the drain covers to attack New York citizens. Or perhaps I imagined it? Maybe it’s another part of the myth. Either way this horror classic deserves to live on in people’s imaginations and fears.

4. Cujo [1983]

Famously based on one of Stephen King’s worst books, Cujo is a simple affair about a family dog that contracts rabies and turns against its owners. The film is surprisingly well made and isn’t that unrealistic when you consider XL Bully dog attacks kill owners every day.

King cleverly took something ordinary and elevated it into every parent’s worst nightmare - the family pet - but then sadly didn’t take the premise much further until Pet Cemetary. Despite the narrative shortcomings, Cujo is a gruesome and intense classic because of Dee Wallace’s emotionally committed performance as a mother trying to protect her children from the relentless St Bernard dog attacks. Perhaps owning pets that are larger than you isn’t such a good idea.

Fun fact: Cujo was an allegory for King’s personal nemesis, alcoholism, and he had no memory of writing it.

3. Food Of The Gods [1976]

This 1970’s Canadian classic plays it straight and throws every cute furry animal known to man at the audience. No animal is spared. While some films had a single giant shark or crocodile, the Food Of The Goods upped the ante and delivered thousands of giant killer rats and giant killer bunnies. It’s cheap, it’s low budget, it’s fantastic.

This man versus nature film features a committed performance from Marjoe Gortner, a classic 1970s ubiquitous actor who appeared in every B movie from Starcrash to Earthquake, trying to shepherd his family to safety. But the practical in camera effects really are the star of the show - the giant attacking furry paws and toy furry faces maybe less so.

2. Jaws [1975]

Let’s get this out of the way. Everyone loves Jaws. It’s a great film based on a novel by Peter Benchley, but controversially, it’s not my favourite animal horror film. But is it even a horror film?

There is very little blood or gore on display but Jaws proved that a horror film could leave everything to the audience’s imagination and its impact upon society changed the way people viewed the seaside, and even the local swimming pool. It meant noone was safe. In fact, it’s interesting how we misremember its key scenes of horror - which are few and far between - when we consider it was rated a PG.

Steven Spielberg famously had a terrible time shooting Jaws due to the constant mechanical failure of Bruce the shark which rendered much of the footage unuseable. He nearly abandonded the project but then Verna Fields, a relatively unknown film editor, changed the course of Spielberg’s career and deliberately ommited the shark footage to build tension and fear. It’s limited screen time made it more impactful, and her contribution made Jaws one of the most suspenseful horror movies of all time.

1. The Birds[1963]

Alfred Hitchcock invented the man versus nature premise of Animal Horror when he made The Birds.

Originally taken from a story by the British author, Daphne du Maurier, this film wedged in my brain for years as I tried to comprehend why the birds attacked humans? The film provides no explanation or inciting incident as the birds begin to flock together and attack in ever larger numbers. Ultimately, it’s irrelevant.

The narrative follows Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, as a San Francisco socialite who pursues her boyfriend, Rod Taylor, to Bodega Bay where she is randomly struck by a seagull, foreshadowing the attack on the townsfolk. But it’s the films climatic scenes where Hitchcock employs a masterstroke of building tension as the birds gather outside a local schoolhouse. The indoor scenes are intercut with growing numbers of birds outside the building, poised to the attack the children when they leave. Hitchcock even adopts a birds eye view of the local town’s destruction when the birds attack - a technique used in Jaws underwater point of view shots.

The Birds is a triumph of horror and tension which heavily influenced the next generation of filmmakers. It is certainly the bleakest of Hitchcock’s films and reflects the growing pessimism at the heart of the 1960’s that would later flourish in the cinema of the 1970s.

And now a word from our host, Alfred Hitchcock…

The Changeling [1980]

I recently had the pleasure watching the cult horror 1980s classic, The Changeling, on the big screen.

The film’s premise is simple but soon develops into a compelling narrative when John Russell (George C Scott) loses his wife and child in a tragic accident. He retreats to New England to start a new life and rents a local haunted house, only to discover a mysterious child entity called Joseph can sense his grief and refuses to rest until Russell uncovers the truth of the boy’s death.

The Changeling is one of those films that sounds familiar and employs so many traditional haunted house film tropes that you may even think you have seen it before. The film initally seems straightforward but soon takes a left turn into the dark and delirious, supernatural and intense, with echoes of The Omen, The Haunting, and other 1970s classics.

Highly recommended.

Watch The Changeling trailer here:

The Keeper Trailer 2025]

The horror film director, Osgood Perkins, is building a reputation for writing and directing unhinged and dark humoured low budget modern horror films. His last two films, Longslegs starring Nicholas Cage and The Monkey starring Theo James, were critical and commercial successes, especially with hardcore horror fans. Now Osgood returns with his latest creeping nightmare, The Keeper.

The Keeper’s narrative is somewhat of a mystery but judging by the trailer’s cabin in the woods horror trope backdrop we’re in for an unpleasant surprise when a couple retreat to the forest for a romantic anniversary.

Fun fact: The director, Osgood Perkins, is the son of actor Anthony Perkins from Psycho infamy.

The Keeper is released on November 14th, 2025.

Watch The Keeper trailer below:

Adam Curtis and Ari Aster Interview [2025]

Read an interview with Adam Curtis, the revered documentary maker of Shifty, HyperNormalisation and Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and Ari Aster, the horror film director of Eddington, Hereditary and Midsommar, in conversation. Both filmmakers attempt to make sense of some of the biggest political and social problems in an age of nostalgia and disconnection.

You can read the recent interview here:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/08/adam-curtis-ari-aster-eddington-interview-covid-politics

Dead Talents Society [2025]

Dead Talents Society is a whole lot of spooky fun in the afterlife as dead people compete to scare the living and become urban legends.

This wacky Taiwanese comedy horror riffs on Ringu and Beetlejuice and really should have found a larger audience. It’s dead good so don’t miss it.

Dead Talents Society is available on video on demand now.

Watch the trailer below:

Adam Curtis Gets ‘Shifty’ Documentary [2025]

Adam Curtis returns in 2025 with another mind blowing documentary series called ‘Shifty’.

From what I understand, ‘Shifty’ focuses on the financial decisions that led to the erosion of Truth and belief in authoritarism in our society and media courtesy of Silvio Berlusconi, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump who reeked havoc with lies and propoganda, leaving people with nothing left to believe in except a vacuum where mistrust breeds conspiracy, and ultimately control.

You can read a new Adam Curtis interview about the themes of his new series here:

https://www.frieze.com/article/adam-curtis-interview-2025

Personally, I think we are witnessing the slow painful death of the Fourth Estate in a world where checks and balances are removed and truth is now a subjective digital currency of the disinformation age.

Shifty is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer now.

Watch the Shifty trailer trailer below:

Messiah Of Evil [1974]

Long considered a cult gem, Messiah Of Evil, is an atmospheric zombie B movie classic that has recently been restored to its former glory with a remaster and inclusion of its original electronic soundtrack.

The story concerns a young girl (Marianna Hill) in search of her missing father in a town at the end of the world where she descended into madness. Or was it an encounter with an evil soon to overcome the world? Although this slow burning classic is bereft of gore and almost entirely bloodless, it's ominous tone, powerful imagery and unique premise make this worth watching in a saturated genre.

Starring Marianna Hill as Arletty and Anitra Ford as the mesmerising Laura, it also features a cameo by Elisha B Cook as a spooky and wise drunken vagrant. It's also worth noting that the appearance of zombie shoppers predates George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead satire on consumerism by at least four years.

Watch the full film on Youtube now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkyLGNX-7Rk

Hammer Horror’s Ithaqua [2025]

Hammer Horror are back from the dead. Having released Doctor Jekyll [2023] they have finally announced their latest film production, Ithaqua.

Ithaqua will be directed by Casey Walker who has previous form as director of the excellent The Void [2016] HP Lovecraft inspired tale of cults and inter-dimensional gateways to evil.

I'm a fan of Hammer's classic Abominable Snowman [1957] starring Peter Cushing so I have high hopes for this similar release. According to the Hammer Horror press release : "Set in the brutal wilderness of 1800s Canada, the fur trade is in decline and a remote outpost is starving. A mercenary fights to unite the survivors against the cold, the hunger… and something far worse. A dark force is watching. Waiting. And those who fall into its grasp are cursed with an insatiable hunger for flesh.

Hammer Horror’s legacy continues with Ithaqua, now in production, starring Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, Michael Pitt, Craig Lauzon & Leenah Robinson, and directed by Casey Walker.

This is horror as it was meant to be: terrifying and utterly unforgettable."

28 Years Later Trailer [2025]

First there was 28 Days Later.

Then there was 28 Weeks Later. Now there is 28 Years Later.

Christmas has come early for horror fans with the release of the new trailer for Danny Boyle’s latest addition to the 28 Days Later zombie trilogy. Some fans were contemptuous of the film’s abandoning of zombie genre tropes which saw the introduction of running zombies, but few could deny the artisty, energy and originality in the low budget english horror classic.

Now director Danny Boyle returns with writing duties from Alex Garland (Ex Machina / Annihilation / Civil War) and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer as humanity retreats to remote walled communities to prevent extinction.

Watch the 28 Years Later trailer below:

The Substance [2024]

Is The Substance the best mainstream body horror in recent years?

Shocking, grotesque and essentially brilliant feminist body swap nightmare, The Substance stars Hollywood luminary Demi Moore, and Margaret Qualley. Directed by relative newcomer Coralie Fargeat, the simplistic plot follows an aging actor’s experience of aging and self hate in Hollywood, who after receiving a mysterious offer, will stop at nothing to regain her lost beauty and declining career. Even if it means battling herself.

Have you ever thought about creating a newer, better, improved version of yourself? Then stick around for the frankly demented ending(s) which piles on the misery in a similar fashion to Requiem For A Dream. But whatever you do, don't miss it.

It’ll change your life.

The Substance is in cinemas and on video on demand now.

Top 10 Folk Horror Films Of All Time

Let’s be honest, it’s a foregone conclusion. The Wicker Man wins hands down.

But what constitutes Folk Horror? Folk Horror simply would not exist without The Wicker Man that birthed an entire horror sub genre by setting horror within a religious conspiracy in rural communities - a symbiotic relationship between horror and a conflict of idealogies that leads to collective madness. I would argue that mythology sits at the heart of some of the best folk horror films where ancient gods must be appeased by sacrifice to guarantee local survival with a bountiful harvest, the grieving are granted their loved ones resurrection, religious persecution is rife, or people are spared an old testament threat when morality is questioned.

Still, it could be argued that the UK is not the only country to have evolved its own folklore traditions, religious persecutions, and collective madness, so welcome to that time of year where we look at another horror sub genre and sit down with the ancient gods and unearth some cursed gems that will make your eyes bleed. Just pray you don’t upset the locals.

Watch the Top 10 folk horror movies below.

In descending order of greatness:

10. KILL LIST

Ben Wheatley’s Kill List is a deceptive film that starts off as a cheap-looking British revenge thriller, and like most good folk horrors, descends into a different genre en route to hell.

Starring Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley, Kill List is an underated gem about two hit men take on a mysterious job that may or may not lead to their redemption, if they can live long enough. The final sacrificial scenes are strangely reminiscent of the infamous bohemian grove undercover documentary about George Bush’s membership of the skull and bones society’s worship of Moloch, the owl god, which no doubt influenced the director.

Kill List [2011]

9. VIY [1967]

This obscure and beautifully shot early 1960’s fantasy horror was directed by Konstantin Ershov and based on russian folklore. It begins when a monk is summoned to keep a three night vigil of a local dead woman and the woman is revealed to be a witch who returns to life and invites the forces of hell to test his faith. Although not overtly similar to The Wicker Man, the main character has to endure a test of his faith, much like Edward Woodward, through the lens of russian folk tales.

Viy [1967]

8.The Witchfinder General [1968]

The Witchfinder General is the third in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell.

Let’s not forget that according to early english religious belief systems, people really did believe that witches existed within society and were a threat from within. Women were maligned, drowned and burnt at the stake for practicing early medicines or denounced for not following strict moral codes laid down by the church and a patriacharal state. A collective madness which saw the introduction of witch finders in rural communities.

To be honest, I’ve always found this film a bit dour and boring in comparison to the superior Mark Of The Devil (also starring Vincent Price) which some of you may recognise as a Freudstein song. However, it’s Vincent Price’s villainous portrayal of the real life exploits of 17th-century witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins, that is worth the price of admission alone.

Witchfinder General [1968]

7. The Witch [2015]

The Witch was Robert Eggers breakout success which excelled at subtlety and confusion to obsfucate the viewer as a puritan family encounter a witch.

The film centres on Christian pilgrim settlers in 1630s New England as they seek to survive amid a new harsh and alien landscape where religious persecution is a threat from within. Anna Taylor Joy gives a pitch perfect performance, in her first big role, as a young girl who may or may not be a witch, in this atmospheric and psychological horor.

The Witch [2015]

6. The Blair Witch Project [1999]

The Blair Witch Project is so infamous its almost too easy to dismiss it as just another 90’s horror film, but look closer and you’ll spot some of the tropes of folk horror, albeit an americanised version.

Local mythology tempts a group of teenager to dare to spend the night camping in the local woods where, rumour has is it, a witch still lurks in the lost village of Blair. They encounter pagan symbols tied to trees and something moving through the forest at night, and slowly descend into a collective madness.

The film’s low fi use of found footage catapaulted the film into the national consciousness and even created its own urban myths with a marketing campaign when the actors were listed as deceased on the internet and the found footage concept, first alluded to in Cannibal Holocaust, was reborn.

The Blair Witch Project [1999]

5. A Field In England [2013]

Ben Wheatley’s second entry into our top 10, A Field In England, is perhaps his most psychedelic period piece which literally take place in a field during the English Civil War. The folk horror trope of rural environments, religious persecution and a threat from within are all present but what makes this film so haunting is the creeping paranoia and terrifying performance from Reece Shearsmith.

This low budget black and white film is perhaps Wheatley’s most personal project with its focus on characters and dialogue as the characters slowly detach from reality due to shell-shock, religious beliefs, and some local magic mushrooms.

A Field In England [

4. Midsommer [2019]

Midsommer is a direct descendent of The Wicker Man and is one of my favourite films directed by the talented, Ari Aster, who also made the harrowing Heriditary.

In many ways Midsommer is an inbred relative of The Wicker Man with a similar fish out of water tale that echoes the original when a group of teenagers travel to a Swedish mid-summer festival. It’s a modern take on the folk horror genre with a fictional swedish pagan mythology used to trap its victims in a cult as the festival slowly builds to a horrific, if somewhat predictable climax.

I particularly love the fact that the film, unlike most horror films, employs bright colours and comforting day time scenes to lure the viewer into safety, when horror resides in plain sight.

Midsommer [2019]

3. The Blood On Satan’s Claw

This often overlooked Hammer Horror classic, Blood On Satan’s Claw, is the second in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell.

Blood On Satan’s claw is a Hammer Horror classic B movie with its creeping, mysterious atmosphere building to a crescendo as a teenage occult worship develops in Medieval England. The isolated rural setting and strange belief systems are ever present as timeless fears of teenagers and the corruption of youth from outside forces cause adults seek to fear and uproot the threat from within.

Blood On Satan’s Claw [1971]

2. The Shout [1978]

The Shout is a relatively unknown British cult classic starrring John Hurt, Alan Bates and Susannah York. I would argue that this an unconventional folk horror which begins as a simple love triangle when a stranger enters a couples lives, hell bent on stealing the main protagonist’s wife, then descends into a meditation on magic and loss based on aboriginal folk lore.

The stranger, played by Alan Bates, who may or not be a magician, is a spellbinding presence who threatens the protagonist’s morality in a small rural village. His refusal to leave their home leads to a plot twist and finale that is incredibly subtle, quintisesentially english, and ahead of its time with the use of a unconventional narrative struture.

Madness or magic? Although there is no larger conspiracy at play on the part of the local village, the rural setting and heavy leanings towards psychological horror, magic and folklore, make this worthy of cannon.

1. The Wicker Man

It’s no surprise to find Robin Hardy’s debut film at the top of our list. This is the first in the unholy trinity of folk horror films first identified by genre scholar and author Adam Scovell. The Wicker Man was based on David Pinner's 1967 novel, Ritual, and its unpredictable climax is so memorable its like psychological lightning in a bottle.

The film perfectly sets out the first tropes of folk horror with its literal slow burning execution, when a Christian policeman (Edward Woodward) is sent to a remote rural community in the outer hebrides to investigate the disappearance of a local girl, when his faith is tested. He soon encounters pagan beliefs and meets Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), an atypical villain who is neither fearsome nor dramatic, but an eloquently spoken and thoughful cult leader, concerned for the survival of his community.

The Wicker Man features a wonderful soundtrack composed by Paul Giovanni which was so convincingly conceived that the songs and lyrics are believable as traditional english folk songs about fertility and sacrifice. It’s a personal favourite.

The Wicker Man is so steeped in english folklore and psychological horror that it seems believable that somewhere out there a community of Summerisle pagans still exists, practicing ancient sacrifices to ward off bad harvests, famine and evil. It is a reminder of our recent past, our collective madness, that makes you question if society really has progressed past its prejudices and old belief systems. Are we really so enlightened?

Watch it and burn.

The Wicker Man [1973]

Nosferatu [2024]

Robert’s Eggers’s long rumoured gothic horror remake of Nosferatu [1922] has finally surfaced with a captivating and sinister trailer teasing the return of the long fingernailed immortal undead Count Orlock.

Director Robert Eggers is well known for his previous slow burning edgy gothic horrors The Witch [2015] and the Lighthouse [2019], and his new production of Nosferatu features Bill Skarsgård [Stephen King’s IT] as Count Orlock, Nicholas Hoult and William Dafoe. The original black and white silent film was one of the first horror films ever made with its extensive use of german expressionist cinema techniques, ominous shadows, camera angles, special effects and make up which inspire film makers even today.

The film was previously remade as Nosferatu The Vampyre [1979] with Klaus Kinski in the lead vampiric role and directed by Werner Herzog. The rumoured insane use of method acting employed by Kinski to remain in character and prey upon the camera crew and actors throughout the whole production was glorified in the film Shadow Of The Vampire [2000] with William Dafoe in the Count’s role. In a call back to the previous remake, Dafoe returns as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, in Egger’s remake.

Nosferatu is available in cinemas on December 24th.

Watch the Nosferatu trailer below:

RIP Donald Sutherland 1935 - 2024

I've always followed Donald Sutherland's impeccable career and was saddened to learn of his death. His incredible acting ability always elevated anything he appeared in, including Mash, Klute, Don't Look Now, Kelly's Heroes, and yes, even The Hunger Games. He was a versatile and unique actor who often played the role of the outsider, an unsuspecting lead character, who always brought something very un-Hollywood and grounded to every role.

Weeks before his death, I watched Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978) because I was curious to see if it lived up to the original 1956 black and white science fiction horror classic. I had a weird feeling that I had seen it before but there was something odd about the film. For some reason I couldn't remember if the remake was better or worse. Obviously, I assumed it would be terrible. Jesus, was I wrong.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a bona fide classic which builds on the orginal cold war premise of encroaching Communism and explores the societal weirdness as the invasion builds steam and more and more people are replaced. Donald Sutherland's performance as a curious, hard nosed, happy go lucky health inspector brings the role to life as he slides into encroaching paranoia.

The file was directed by Philip Kaufman, who it has to be said, was somewhat ahead of his time in the use of hand held cameras to track Sutherland's walk through New York City as he wakes up as an outsider in his own land. The unnerving extended shots of everyday people remind me of Adam Curtis's documentaries and express that intense otherworldly feeling of dread. Lingering shots of other people lurking in hallways, watching, conspiring, waiting for you to fall sleep and replace you.

Of course, the original film, and the remake, were analogies for cold war paranoia and the mcarthy era that swept America. But I would argue that this film can be seen in a new perspective since Covid-19. The constant fear of other people, family members, loved ones or strangers who might attempt social contact and infect you at any moment, represent pure agrophobia. Or perhaps it's just me? The shots of Donald Sutherland wandering the streets alone, caught within a circling web of conspiracy that he can never escape feel very familiar as the pandemic swept their world.

The remake also features an incredible cast of 1970’s actors including Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartright, Jeff Goldblum and Brooke Adams. Incredibly, it also features a brief cameo by the original 1956 actor, Kevin McCarthy, reprising his role as the original Dr. Miles J. Bennell. The electronic soundtrack was also ahead of its time with long electronic drones and weird noises punctuating the invasion of planet earth by strange biological wisp like beings from another world.

The final shot of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is pure 1970’s horror and may stay with you forever, which is perhaps why I always remembered there was something strange about this film. After all these years I think I must have blocked out the memory of this horror classic for my own sanity. Thank god I didn't rewatch it in 2020 at the height of the pandemic or I may never have left the house again.

Rest in Peace Donald Sutherland. Your career lives on.

Lumberjack The Monster [2023]

Today I woke up to discover Takashi Miike’s latest film, Lumberjack The Monster, is available to stream on Netflix. This live action horror thriller stars Kazuya Kamenashi as a psychopathic laywer turned vigilante as he sets out to stop a masked serial killer with strange abilities.

Takashi Miike has a reputation as the international bad boy of asian cinema with a huge catalogue of over 100 dark and strange, funny, violent and horrific films such as Audition, Dead Or Alive, Ichi The Killer, 13 Assassins, and many more strange and beautifully weird films and anime series. His work is impossible to pin down because he's not afraid to mix several genres within one film so you never quite know where the story won’t go. So it's surprising to find this lengendary auteur’s latest film released on Netflix with zero publicity or fanfare. In fact, you'll have to hunt it down before the masked serial killer hunts you down first.

Lumberjack The Monster is available to stream on Netflix.