Jac Silver

J-pop and J-horror combine in Takashi Shimizu’s return to his horror roots. Having shot to the top table of the genre by masterminding the menace-heavy Ju-On franchise in Japan and the United States, this time, the director spins out the horror from an old cassette tape, which haunts anyone who hears it with a mysterious melody before they vanish.

Franco Nero and Martin Balsam headline the curiously titled Confessions of a Police Captain, an Italian crime drama which earned acclaim on release in 1971. Now, 55 years on, a new 2K restoration from Radiance brings Damiano Damiani's compelling, thought-provoking thriller into high definition. It starts with a gothic tour of a facility for the criminally insane...

My Sister’s Bones - My Sister’s Bones (VOD) [Signature Entertainment - 2026]
Director Heidi Greensmith crafts a short and polished thriller from Nuala Ellwood’s 2017 dark psychological novel. But it’s a story that could have done with more than a meagre 82 minutes to hit home its themes of trauma and the sins of the past...

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..