Festivals: Sitges Reviews
Sitges 2023 Review: HALFWAY HOME, Romance Before the Afterlife
Hungarian director Isti Madarasz orchestrates a whimsical journey between the living and the dead with Péter Bárnai, Vivien Rujder and Erzsébet Kútvölgyi.
Sitges 2023 Review: LAST STRAW, Taut Diner-Invasion Neo-Noir Thrills, But Doesn't Chill
The first feature-length film from writer Taylor Sardoni and director Alan Scott Neal, Last Straw answers a seemingly simple, if rarely asked, question: When is a home-invasion thriller not a home-invasion thriller? The answer is just as simple, if also...
Sitges 2022 Review: STORIES TO KEEP YOU AWAKE Season 2 Delights, Terrifies, Intensifies the Fears
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's series Historias para no dormir remains one of the most important and influential in Spanish television history; part Twilight Zone, part horror anthology, it has been revived a few times, in the early 2000s with works by...
Sitges 2022 Review: UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS, Close Encounter of the Queer Kind
The road trip movie is tailor-made for the journey of self discovery; more so perhaps in North America, where the distances are long, the population sparse, and the lack of anything to do besides face yourself dominates. This can be...
Sitges 2022 Review: EMILY, A Soul Driven to Create a Masterpiece
There is a reason why Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights has remained a literary favourite, a mainstay of school books lists, and had several adaptations in film and television: it is very well written, and it is terrifying. One of...
Sitges 2022: PIAFFE, Embracing Animal Behaviour
We too often forget than humans are animals. Too many of us have divorced ourselves from the natural world, the world of our, for lack of a better phrasing, animal instincts. We clothe ouselves, eat (usually) with utensils, as if...
Sitges 2022 Review: IRATI, Basque Epic of Pagan Women & Giants
There isn't a culture on the planet without its myths and folklores (or if there is, I don't want to know about it). These are the stories than can tell a people where they came from, who they were, perhaps...
Sitges 2022 Review: INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE, Hilarious and Ridiculous, Signature Dupieux
French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux might be one of the most prolific filmmakers of our time, and he's also one of the strangest. From sentient, killer tires to jackets that drive people to madness to giant flies, he finds a completely...
Sitges 2022 Review: LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE, A Delightful Homage to 80s Asian Action
It's a very fine line to walk when your film is metatextual; movies about the making of a movie, particularly the movie that's being made, means understanding the language of cinema deeply enough to make the references without killing the...
Sitges 2022 Review: EVIL EYE, Blood & Magic Abound in Modern Mexican Fairy Tale
It's not easy to be the sibling of an ill child. You're expected to be more of an adult than you're prepared for, accept less attention from your parents, be brave and kind, when you yourself are still growing up...
Sitges 2022 Review: THE FIVE DEVILS, The Making of a Witch
Power can be dangerous in the hands of a child. They too often don't quite know what the power is, don't know how to stop it, and don't realize (or sometimes don't care) who they hurt in the process. They...
Sitges 2022 Review: NIGHTMARE, A Woman's Place is in The Dark
The expression 'You've come a long way, baby' might be true for women, but we still have a very long way to go. Despite more contemporary understanding (at least in some parts of the world) that women are capable of...
Sitges 2022 Review: THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, Holding On to Horror in the Final Hours
As one of the characters points out in the first epsiode, what's scarier than finding out you have a terminal illness? Perhaps once you know you're going to die - the ultimate unknown, which is what drives much of fear...
Sitges 2022 Review: BRIAN AND CHARLES, Bridges Over Troubled Waters
It's a cliché to say that people need people, but it is a cliché because it's true (at least for most of us). Humans are social creatures and built for community and love, be that friendship or romantic. And while...
Sitges 2021 Review: BELLE
At this stage of his career, I think it's pretty safe to say that Mamoru Hosoda has firmly established himself as one of the best contemporary Japanese animation directors. And he's also no stranger at Sitges, where he has won...
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Sitges 2020 Review: THE SHOW, Alan Moore's Darkly Comedic Foray Into Feature Films
A man of many faces searches for an artifact stolen from a wealthy benefactor. His search leads him to the haunted town of Northampton. It is a town occupied by Voodoo gangsters, masked adventurers, Noir-era private dicks and a violent...
Sitges 2020 Review: VICIOUS FUN, The Name of The Movie Says it All
Never has marketing a film been so easy! Q: So. What's your film about? A: (points to title) Joel is an obnoxious film critic and wisenheimer who writes for a national horror rag. One night Joel follows Bob,...
Sitges 2019 Review: THE SHED, Such Horrors in Such a Tiny Place
Stan has his share of problems. He is an orphan under the care of his abusive grandfather. The threat of landing back in juvie looms around him at every moment. He pines for Roxy, the girl who has found herself...
Sitges 2018 Review: 70 BIG ONES, Crime Thriller That Keeps You Guessing
While Spain is slowly emerging from the economic crisis of the early 2000s, it still hasn't recovered completely, and even the most skilled worker can face themselves with extreme circumstances for which they need money. A lot of it. Now....
Sitges 2018 Review: KNIFE + HEART, Delightfully Queer, Sensuous and Cruel
An editor looks through reels of a gay porn film, making decisions about what to cut, with the image of a beautiful young man flashing before her. At the same time, this young man is at a club, surrounded by...
