Jac Silver

In 1976, director Francesco Rosi and producer Alberto Grimaldi adapted Leonardo Sciascia’s 1971 novel Equal Danger into the hazy, gritty thriller Illustrious Corpses, a film that offers no easy answers. The fascinating title could be taken as a blunt description of the film’s early, high-profile targets, a succession of judges dispatched in what appears to be a mission of revenge...

Night of the Juggler - Night of the Juggler( UHD/ Blu Ray) [Radiance Films - 2026]
Night of the Juggler oozes the ‘Fear City’ era of 1970s New York, and being released in June 1980, it may be a significant final late entry in the neo-noir crime thriller subgenre that also brought us The French Connection (1971) and Death Wish (1974). Not, however, that many in the UK will know it as such...

The Knife is a quietly devastating procedural and psychological drama set entirely inside or around a house on one terrible night. Director and co-writer Nnamdi Asomugha doesn’t hold back with this taut tale that turns a family’s life upside-down in an instant, and has a lot to say about the state of the nation. Intense and thought-provoking, it’s a brilliantly filmed, unsettling watch...

Hong Kong demonic possession horror Devil Fetus, directed by Hung-Chuen Lau, ambitiously bundles together a host of influences in a way that can’t help but be entertaining. The 1983 film starts at an auction, where young mother Cheng Shu-ching is mesmerised by a jade vase, only for her impulse purchase to bring years of terror to her family...

As the year rolls to its end. Here are our writers' best-of lists for 2025, and as always, it’s a highly genre-varied mixed selection of titles- highlighting the site's mission statement. Some writers list taking in both music/ sound and film, or just music/ sound, depending on what they review on M[m].

Sergio Corbucci’s The Hellbenders (I Crudeli) was released in 1967. Sandwiched between two bigger and brasher efforts often cited as the director’s best, Django (1966) and The Grand Silence (1968), it’s no wonder that it’s often relegated in conversations of Corbucci’s work. Its profile is limited by swapping the action of those better-known movies for suspense...

Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s third film is a fascinating mash of genres that keeps its audience guessing. On the face of it, the 2024 picture is a punchy entry in the brewing Airbnb horror subgenre popularised by films like 2020’s The Rental and 2022’s Barbarian. Horror fans, however, may be surprised at how well they take to an opening hour of mystery that unravels as an awkward romantic drama before things take a dramatic turn...

Director’s Cut - Director’s Cut (VOD) [Miracle Media - 2025]

A band’s disappearance in spring 2024 is the springboard for Director’s Cut, a slasher from writer-director Don Capria.

A former band manager, Capria was inspired by filming a music video for a metal band to craft this warning for bands ready to sacrifice everything for fame. He may dodge the idea of a Faustian pact, but by the end, you may think he also has something to say about directors...

If Detonation! Violent Riders (Bakuhatsu! Boso zoku) isn’t the coolest-looking biker film, it’s close. Although it's fantastic shots of riders and an all-too-cool lead combine with an exploitative approach to sex and violence..

The Betrayal - The Betrayal (Blu Ray) [Radiance Films - 2025]

The Betrayal, originally released in 1966, is an evocative and stylish Samurai film that defies expectations. Director Tokuzo Tanaka, a former assistant to legendary helmer of Samurai classics, Akira Kurosawa, stepped out from the shadows with this jidaigeki (period drama). While it may not have afforded him the same fame as Kurosawa, certainly outside Japan, The Betrayal is a must-watch for fans of the swordplay genre...

Director-cinematographer Jonathan Zaurin weaves two sides of a violent crime to explore trauma and grief in his compelling 2024 revenge thriller, Derelict.

It’s a confident film that explores the effects of one brutal crime from two sides. One half follows two dissimilar brothers as they build up to a murder and then suffer the consequences. The other tracks the painful journey of the victim’s grief-ridden daughter...

Sitting in the subgenre of folk horror, 2023's The Seeding is a barren, intense film that puts its protagonist through the wringer. Here on the Arrow Video Player is a VOD release of the film. The Seeding is the first full-length film from Barnaby Clay, who wrote/ directed it. Before this, he had fifteen credits, taking in music videos & shorts. It sits in the legacy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other Southern Gothic movies...

2011's Rural Gothic Horror Jacob is a relatively straightforward take on the slasher genre, where a disturbed, mistreated and misunderstood figure becomes a local bogeyman. Written, directed, and produced by Larry Wade Carrell, his additional involvement in taking not one but two roles on screen leaves us in no doubt that Jacob is very much his film. Here's a recent Blu-ray release of the picture from Crazed House.

Although it starts and ends in th...

With his punning stage name, New Jersey resident Bill Zebub has achieved cult notoriety for his promotion of independent movies of dubious taste and heavy metal. If you’re a fan of both, this Blu-ray release of his 2014 horror might be a passable hour and a half.
It’s hard to say which came first, the riff on the name of the 1980 Italian horror Cannibal Holocaust...