Tag: Johnny Restall
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ANALYSIS: The Monster Is The Message – The Foundations of GODZILLA (1954)
This month on the Pod we’re celebrating all things Gojira, so Johnny Restall wades into the waters of Tokyo Bay and take a closer look at the radioactive backdrop of the world’s most famous monster… The Godzilla (ゴジラ) films of Toho Studios are an established international franchise. Appearing in more than 30 films (as well as comic…
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ANALYSIS: “Lived any good books lately?” – IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)
Do you read Sutter Cane? Johnny Restall does, and he’s here to unpack the closing chapter of John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy… John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1994) is widely viewed as the third instalment of the director’s unofficial Apocalypse Trilogy, alongside 1982’s The Thing and 1987’s Prince of Darkness. While the loosely-linked trio share no characters or plotlines,…
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ANALYSIS: There’s No Place Like Home – the Unexpected Triumph of PSYCHO II (1983)
How do you follow-up one of the most game-changing horror movies ever made? With an under-rated cult sequel, that’s how. Johnny Restall goes back to the Bates Motel to investigate… Despite its initially lukewarm critical reception, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) went on to become one of the director’s most iconic works, frequently credited with reinventing the horror…
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REVIEW: Super Z (2021)
dir. Julien de Volte and Arnaud Tabarly French comedy-horror Super Z tells the tale of a small group of genetically modified zombies who escape from a secret industrial lab. Able to speak and with distinct wills of their own, the undead misfits form a dysfunctional family unit, creating their own warped domestic utopia in the woods. As…
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REVIEW: Orchestrator of Storms – The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin (2022)
dir. Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger Idiosyncratic French director Jean Rollin receives a deep-dive retrospective in this feature-length doc. Best known for languid, dreamy horrors such as Requiem for a Vampire (1971) and Lips of Blood (1975), Rollin bridged the gap between exploitation and arthouse, faithfully pursuing a distinctly personal vision despite eternally low budgets, public indifference and critical…
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REVIEW: Splinter (2022)
dir. Tom Ryan When Scott (Jim Thalman) inherits the house of his late, estranged mother he moves in with his wife and teenage daughter, seeing it as an opportunity to bury his troubled childhood and start afresh. However while renovating their new home a stubborn splinter embeds itself in his foot, starting a chain of…
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INTERVIEW: Airell Anthony Hayles, Andy Edwards and Ludovica Museumeci – directors MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW (2022)
“It’s essentially a rom-com plot pushed to a dark place by the threat of impending death” With its World Premiere at FrightFest this August, portmanteau horror anthology Midnight Peepshow promises to be provocative. Centred on a sinister Soho peep show, it follows one unlucky patron who gets more than he bargained as he slips into…
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ANALYSIS: Phantom Felines – The Revenge of the Oppressed in KURONEKO (1968)
Trigger warning: this article discusses the film’s portrayal of rape. As part of our examination of J-Horror, Johnny Restall looks back on an iconic landmark in Japanese folk cinema. Japanese cinema has long been influenced by the country’s rich, distinctive folklore. Arguably the figures best-known to Western audiences are the ghostly yurei, particularly onryo – wronged souls, often female,…
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