Dead Duck Film Club

The Last Viking (2025) is the new film from Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Jensen's sixth film with both actors broke the Danish box office on opening weekend with 127,000 tickets sold, the biggest Danish live-action opening since 2018. UK release: June 2026. Seb is joined by Bruna, George and Mark for a full spoiler discussion. They cover the b...

When Evil Lurks (2023) is an Argentinian supernatural horror written and directed by Demian Rugna (Terrified). It premiered at TIFF's Midnight Madness, won Best Feature at Sitges (the first Latin American film to do so in 56 years), and holds a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 6.9 on IMDB. Seb and George talk through Rugna's rejection of religious horror. No crucifixes, no holy water, no prayers. The...

Ghost in the Shell (1995), directed by Mamoru Oshii and based on Masamune Shirow's manga, was released simultaneously in Japan, the UK, and the US, unusual for anime at the time. A quiet theatrical run in the West, a cult hit on VHS, and then a direct influence on The Matrix: the Wachowskis showed it to Warner Bros executives when pitching their film. Seb and George cover the 82-minute runtime and...

Funny Games (1997), directed by Michael Haneke, is an Austrian home invasion film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Comparisons made to Speak No Evil (original Danish) and The Coffee Table. Films mentioned: Benny's Video, The Piano Teacher, Creep, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Hostel, Kill Bill. Warm-up: Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), Suspiria (2018 remake, Dakota Johnson), Shin Godzill...

Audition (1999), directed by Takashi Miike, is a Japanese horror film based on Ryu Murakami's 1997 novel of the same name. Released the same year as Ring, it holds 81% from critics and 80% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The film caused walkouts and audience illness at its original festival screenings in Dublin and the US. Eihi Shiina plays Asami, a role she and Miike partly developed through i...

This week Seb and Mark are in Bad City, talking about Ana Lily Amirpour's 2014 debut A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The Iranian vampire western. They dig into what makes this film so unlike anything else in the genre, from its punk iconography rooted in a chador and a skateboard, to its black and white California-shot vision of a fictional Iran packed with all the things you would never expect...

Akira (1988), directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, Japan. Based on Otomo's six-volume manga series. One of the most widely referenced animated films of all time, credited with opening the Western market to Japanese animation. Its 1989 US release led to the formation of a dedicated anime distribution company for the West. Sebastien and Markc cover the plot's structural limitations (six volumes condensed in...

Seb and Mark dig into The Stranger (2026), François Ozon's new adaptation of Albert Camus' L'Étranger (1942), a book long considered unadaptable, which Visconti already tried to film in 1967. Starring Benjamin Voisin as Meursault, Rebecca Marder as Marie Cardona, Denis Lavant as Salamano, and Pierre Lottin as Raymond. Set in 1930s French-colonial Algeria, the film follows an indifferent Frenchman...

Two films, two very different ways of being trapped, and two answers to what good adaptation actually looks like. Infernal Affairs (2002, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong) holds 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 95% audience approval, and made more money in China that year than Harry Potter 2 and Spider-Man. Exit 8 (2024, Kenji Kawamura, Japan), adapted from a viral solo-dev indie game, has grossed 41 mil...

Jermaine Edwards is the cinematographer behind My Father's Shadow (2025), directed by Akinola Davis Jr , the first Nigerian film ever selected for Cannes, where it received a Caméra d'Or special mention. He also shot Ish, which screened at Venice the same year. Both films shot on film. In this interview, Jermaine walks us through three months of prep in Lagos, the Harmattan light that shapes so mu...

My Father's Shadow (2025) is a Nigerian drama written and directed by brothers Akinola Davis Jr. and Wales Davis. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard as the first Nigerian film ever selected for the official Cannes program, won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut, the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director and Best Lead Performance, and was the UK's official submission f...

Séb and Derry Shilitto go deep on Gareth Evans' The Raid: the $1M Indonesian action masterpiece that launched pencak silat onto the global stage and started with a Welsh filmmaker falling in love with a delivery man who happened to be a martial arts genius. We get into Mad Dog's terrifying screen presence, the corridor sequence, the cameraman literally jumping through the floor with the actors, wh...

Sébastien is joined by Emily, co-founder and editorial director of the Nottingham Horror Collective , for a deep dive into The Ugly Stepsister (2024): the Norwegian body horror reimagining of Cinderella that's been causing a stir on the awards circuit, including an Oscar nomination for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling. We get into what makes this film such a gut-punch: the grotesque beau...

This week we’re talking Oscars. From the chaos of the Oscar Death Race to how the Academy has changed over the last decade, we dig into what the awards actually mean now, how international cinema is reshaping the ceremony, and the films that hit us the hardest this year. Expect opinions, trivia, and probably a few controversial takes.

Two films. Same idea. Very different outcomes. We compare Save the Green Planet and Bugonia : tone, themes, performances, and why they hit so differently depending on when you watch them. Spoilers. Disagreements. Good chaos. 00:00 Intro 05:20 Why These Two Films Are Even Comparable 16:30 Class, Belief and Conspiracy Culture 28:30 Violence, Shock and Tone Differences 37:20 The Cop Scene Comparison...

Séb and Mark dive into Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice , unpacking its dark humour, themes of masculinity, wealth, desperation, and societal pressure. They explore the film’s performances, visual style, emotional shifts, and moral chaos, offering an honest, spoiler-filled take on one of the year’s most provocative releases. 00:00 Intro 06:00 First thoughts on No Other Choice 12:00 Themes: masculi...

We dive into Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, a seductive, twist-filled thriller about power, deception, and desire. We unpack its shocking turns, shifting perspectives, and why it feels like one of the boldest, funniest, and most exhilarating films of the 21st century. Expect spoilers, strong opinions, and a lot of love for a modern masterpiece.

Oscar-winning makeup artist Adrien Morot reveals how the shocking, hyper-real wounds of Martyrs were created, from foam-latex prosthetics to the infamous flayed-body finale.

The editor behind Titane and all of Julia Ducournau’s films joins Dead Duck to break down brutal cuts, emotional rhythm, and how a Palme d’Or winner was shaped in the edit suite.

The author of Mickey7 joins Dead Duck to tell the wild story of how his unpublished sci-fi novel became Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 , plus the science, characters and creative heart behind the book.

The legendary editor behind Parasite , Snowpiercer and Okja joins Dead Duck to break down Bong Joon-ho’s editing process, the iconic Peach montage, and how great films are really cut.