I don’t know what kind of epitaphs get written for horror movie victims, but I can’t help thinking that the tombstone engravers must often be tempted to replace ‘RIP’ with ‘FFS’.
If they’re not heading down to the cellar alone because they ‘heard a noise’, they’re building their dream homes on ancient Indian burial grounds.
But I have to say the characters in the trailer for the new Candyman film take the biscuit: specifically summoning the means of your destruction by saying his name five times into the mirror – for lols – is proper facepalm stuff.
The hook-handed killer returns to terrorise a fresh generation this week – while there’s marital strife for Jude Law in The Nest, and a rowdy day out in 1990s Edinburgh for Our Ladies…
New releases
Candyman
The original Candyman became a slow-burning cult hit on its release in 1992, and is now seen as a modern horror classic – and with Get Out mastermind Jordan Peele on hand as exec producer and co-writer, hopes are high for this new instalment (director Nia DaCosta has already been snapped up for the next Captain Marvel film).
The story sees young couple Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Aquaman) and Brianna (Teyonah Parris, WandaVision) moving into Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighbourhood – aka the Candyman’s former stomping ground.
Artist Anthony finds inspiration in the macabre details of the true story behind the Candyman legend – but when he begins to incorporate them into his paintings, events take a sinister turn.
Cert 15, 91 mins | |
Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
From Fri Aug 27 | |
More details |
Our Ladies
A group of working class Catholic schoolgirls run riot on a day trip to Edinburgh in this promising 1990s-set comedy-drama, adapted from Alan Warner’s 1998 novel The Sopranos.
Obviously nothing to do with those Sopranos, but enthusiastic reviews suggest that the feisty, sweary bunch could probably hold their own against Tony and co.
Friends Orla (Tallulah Greive), Finnoula (Abigail Lawrie), Manda (Sally Messham), Kay (Eve Austin), Chell (Rona Morison) and Kylah (Marli Siu) head out to the Scottish capital to take part in a choir competition – except they’re far more interested in all the other opportunities the city has to offer.
The excellent Film Stories website – a reliable champion of quality mainstream films that can fall under the radar – have been banging the drum for this one, and they’re not alone, with Little White Lies hailing it as ‘one of the new great British teen movies’.
Cert 15, 106 mins | |
Cineworld, Everyman, Vue | |
From Fri Aug 27 | |
More details |
The Nest
Jude Law and Carrie Coon (of cult TV fave The Leftovers) star in this psychological thriller from director Sean Durkin, which marks the long-awaited follow-up to his highly acclaimed 2011 debut Martha Marcy May Marlene (also showing at City Screen this week).
The 1980s-set tale sees self-made man Rory O’Hara (Law) relocate his family from New York to his native England, where they move to an old country mansion in Surrey.
However, as the cocksure Rory’s dreams of even bigger success back home start to stall and wife Allison (Coon) struggles with her new environment, the cracks in the couple’s seemingly perfect marriage begin to deepen.
There have been rave reviews for both lead performances, with Empire opining that the film ‘has the trappings of a haunted-house movie but delivers something much scarier — the slow death of a marriage, performed to perfection’.
Cert 15, 107 mins | |
City Screen, Everyman | |
From Fri Aug 27 | |
More details |
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Summer holiday round-up
As the holidays draw to a close, there are inevitably fewer kid-friendly new releases, with the one new film out this week being Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon (Cineworld, all week) – an ecologically-themed CGI adventure with shades of Moana in its tale of a plucky heroine who sets out on a journey to save her jungle homeland.
It’s also a similar plot, in fact, to this week’s budget offering at City Screen, which is the recent Disney tale Raya and the Last Dragon, showing in their Kids’ Club slot from Mon 30th to Thurs 2nd – while there’s also a Kids’ Club screening of Australian CGI animation Daisy Quokka: World’s Scariest Animal on Sat 28th (tickets for all screenings £3.00).
Over at the multiplexes, Peter Rabbit 2 is your budget offering again this week, showing in Cineworld’s Movies For Juniors strand (daily, tickets £3.25) and Vue’s Mini Mornings (daily, £2.49).
Other screenings
First up, apologies as I completely forgot to flag up the return of Luna Cinema to York in last week’s preview – the popular series of outdoor screenings began in Dean’s Park earlier this week, and will be showcasing three more film favourites against the beautiful backdrop of the Minster over the Bank Holiday weekend.
You can catch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Fri 27th, followed by Dirty Dancing on Sat 28th and 2019’s supremely entertaining whodunnit Knives Out on Sun 29th. Doors open at 6:45pm with the films starting at 8:15.
Heading back indoors, City Screen has a couple of smaller releases showing throughout the week alongside the big hitters – Egyptian drama Souad deals with its teenage lead’s struggle to reconcile her online and real world personas, while feelgood British tale The Last Bus sees Timothy Spall’s pensioner take a meandering journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End courtesy of his free bus pass.
City Screen’s Wong Kar Wai season continues on Sun 29th with 1995’s Fallen Angels, a darker companion piece to last week’s Chungking Express which, like the earlier film, follows the interlocking stories of a cast of loners adrift amongst Hong Kong’s teeming nightlife.
Meanwhile, A Terrifying Uprising – City Screen’s season of female-led horror movies – arrives at 2016’s much-heralded Raw, a French tale of cannibalism which sees a veterinary student stray extremely far from her family’s vegetarian principles when she starts at college.
I must confess I’ve had the DVD of this one sat unwatched on my shelf for the last two years, as it’s apparently very good, but also apparently features a rather unpleasant scene involving a thumb…if you’re braver than me, you can catch it on Tues 31st.
Also on a horror tip, they have a handful of further screenings of acclaimed British chiller Censor on Fri 27th, Tues 31st and Thurs 2nd.
With The Nest out this week, City Screen are also giving us a chance to see director Sean Durkin’s first film Martha Marcy May Marlene on Weds 1st – this tale of a young woman who runs away from a cult marked the debut performance of Elizabeth Olsen, now thoroughly ensconced in the MCU as Wanda Maximoff, and this 10th anniversary screening will be preceded by a filmed introduction from Durkin and Olsen.
Music fans may want to head down to City Screen and Everyman on Mon 30th for Jazz on a Summer’s Day, a reissue of the classic concert doc covering the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, featuring performances from luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington and Mahalia Jackson – sounds like it would make a good double bill with the recent Summer of Soul.
Over at Cineworld, Punjabi-language comedy-drama Chal Meera Putt 2 screens throughout the week – this sequel to the 2019 global hit continues the tale of the loves, hopes and dreams of a group of illegal immigrants in Birmingham.
And finally, two very different cinematic icons return to Vue for a victory lap this week, though neither are what you’d call the life and soul of the party – Shrek celebrates 20 years in the swamp from Fri 27th to Sun 29th, while we can only hope that some freedom fighter from the future will soon arrive to take out the sinister AI which keeps on commissioning inferior sequels to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Fri 27th/Sun 29th/Tues 31st/Thurs 2nd), back on the big screen for its 30th anniversary.