In Film We Trust

Following the huge success of The Matrix Trilogy, The Wachowskis' turned their attention to the world of comic book adaptations with 2005’s V for Vendetta. Featuring an often-overlooked James McTeigue in the directors’ chair and a combination of James Purefoy & Hugo Weaving behind the now iconic mask, it’s a tale of governmental domination, of totalitarianism, of suppression of freedoms and th...

In our first ever Halloween special we're taking on Tim Burton's 1988 critical and box office hit, Beetlejuice. We also discuss Burton's working relationships with Michael Keaton and Johnny Depp, pitting them against each other to find out who we prefer as Burton's go-to man - and if Michael Keaton really is the best Batman. 

The In Film We Trust podcast is bringing Video Nasty month to a close in style. Italian style to be precise, with giallo master Dario Argento’s Tenebrae. American novelist Peter Neal travels to Rome to promote his new book. But what starts as an ordinary novel tour takes a sinister turn as people start turning up dead, and with Neal in the killer’s crosshairs, the identity of the culprit must be d...

In 1979, Italian exploitation filmmaker Ruggero Deodato, would assemble a cast comprising of Actors Studio alumni, indigenous Americans and international porn stars, head to the Amazon jungle, and embark on a long and treacherous shoot that would create one of the most depraved and maligned films to grace the cinematheque in the 20th century.  But here we are less than a decade from its 50 ye...

Video Nasty Month continues with Don’t Go In The House, aka, The Burning, aka The Burning Man. From first-time director Joseph Ellison, a name unfamiliar to most, it’s a tale of deep psychological trauma and the unpleasant ways it can manifest itself. Following factory worker Donny Kohler as he goes on a fire-laden killing spree while he’s plagued by voices in his head, it serves as somewhat of a...

We're kicking off our Video Nasty 4 episode run with Matt Cimber's 1976 Oddball The Witch Who Came From The Sea. We give an over view of what a video nasty is, the popular Netflix show that is influenced by Matt Cimber, and go full Sigmund Freud as we analyse the themes and plot of this underseen gem that is both dated and contemporary. 

When a cash-strapped college students applies for a babysitting job in a remote mansion on the night of a lunar eclipse, she expects to spend a few lazy hours at the house, take her money and go. But the owners, an elderly couple straight out of a gothic painting, have other plans. Before long, our heroine find herself far from home and out of her depth, and after ordering dinner from a less than...

5 years before Jonathan Demme brought us The Silence of the Lambs, Michael Mann would be the first to bring Hannibal Lector off the page and onto the big screen. Adapted from Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, the first in his Hannibal series, Manhunter is a completely different beast to The Silence of the Lambs and the films that would follow. Gone are the gothic inflections and the Grand Guignol o...

In 1987, a Los Angeles housewife finds her health deteriorating for no apparent reason, and with an indifferent husband, uncaring friends and doctors who can do nothing to help her, she takes matters into her own hands. Convinced that she’s suffering from so-called ‘environmental illnesses’, she seeks out a retreat in the countryside, a facility for those who share her ailment. But is there any me...

After a short summer hiatus, We're back! and for our returning episode we'll be taking a dive into Brian De Palma's most controversial film, Body Double. At the forefront of the erotic thriller genre, Body Double borrows heavily from De Palma's hero Alfred Hitchcock. Blending themes and tropes from Rear Window and Vertigo, Body Double weaves a Hollywood story that includes voyeurism, the porn indu...

Following our analysis on Roadgames (1981), we’re returning to the Australian Outback with Wake In Fright. Released during a crucial time for Australian cinema, premiering at the beginning of both the Australian New Wave and Ozploitation movement, it follows indentured schoolteacher John Grant as he prepares to take a hiatus from the sands of the Outback and travel to the coast for his Christmas h...

Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, Andrew Patterson's directorial debut is an accomplished masterclass in filmmaking on a budget. Set in 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico - yes, the allusions are purposeful - we follow two teenaged central characters: the spritely switchboard worker Fay, who digests the futurist tabloid stories of the day with glee and Everett, the local DJ at WOTW - once agai...

Premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and being released by Netflix a week later, Calibre is a film you’ll struggle to find fans of, but that’s certainly nothing doing to do with its quality. Following a pair of boarding school friends who go on a hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands, falling foul of the locals and finding themselves in a run for their life as they try to cover...

With Sean Baker's keen eye for examining America's underbelly, Red Rocket puts its focus on the marginalised and sex work. Following Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), as he returns to his hometown of Texas City, Texas. Mikey, a former porn star, with a canny ability to land on his feet, convinces his estranged wife and mother in-law to let him stay with them. Not long after returning he catches the eye of...

Back in 1980, a slasher film, released during the genre’s boom period, was released to scathing reviews, public outrage and widespread condemnation. That film was Maniac, starring late, great character actor Joe Spinell as Frank Zito. When he’s not cooped up in his apartment talking to a variety of mannequins, he’s prowling the street looking for blood. He hunts down women, kills them and removes...

Taking its influence from the Columbine School Massacre, Gus Van Sant's second film in his unofficial 'Death Trilogy' follows high school students as they navigate their way through a normal school day until an all too timely tragedy befalls them. Borrowing stylistic techniques from Hungarian director Bela Tarr, Van Sant chooses to film Elephant in a Cinema Verite style that doesn't give definite...

Last week we looked at the truly bizarre Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and we’re keeping the weirdness going this week with György Pálfi’s acclaimed 2006 film Taxidermia. Following a shall we say unusual family over 3 generations, through World War 2, the Cold War and up to modern times, it examines the history of Hungary across the decades, with the story being told through a succession of bizarre happen...

We're taking a deep dive into Shinya Tsukamoto's truly bizarre, experimental body-horror Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Splicing filming techniques including stop-motion animation with an industrial score, Tetsuo tells the story of a Metal Fetishist's revenge on the man who, not only ran him over, but attempted to dispose of his body. The way he enacts his revenge? By slowly turning him into metal. Strange...

With an amateur cast, an arsenal of water pistols, a tiny budget, 2 guitars cases and a huge passion for filmmaking, Robert Rodriguez kickstarted his career with El Mariachi. Serving as director, screenwriter, cameraman, composer and cinematographer to name just a few, Rodriguez brings us the story of a lowly guitar player looking for work in a small town whose inhabitants treat him with contempt....

Following the cultural phenomenon that was 2007's Superbad, director Greg Mottola followed it with the more personal and semi-autobiographical Adventureland (2009). A coming-of-age comedy-drama revolving around James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) who, after his father's demotion at work, is forced to get a summer job at the titular Adventureland to fund his planned trip to Europe before the start of u...

Glowing green liquids, zombie cats, terrible disguises, naked corpse henchman and the worst security guard ever. It’s the one and only Re-Animator! Stuart Gordon directs a horror comedy classic starring Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. Eccentric medical student Herbert West is experimenting with a reagent that has the power to bring the dead back to life. But their reanimation is short lived an...

In 2007, Tarantino and Rodriguez released a double-feature - Death Proof and Planet Terror - known as Grindhouse. We explore where this idea came from and the history of the films that played in these theatres.   We then move onto our feature presentation, as we take a dive into Rodriguez's half of this double feature - Planet Terror. A film that concerns a disparate group of survivors a...

From first time writer and director Robert Hiltzik, Sleepaway Camp was released at the tail end of the Slasher Movie Golden Age and primarily follows 2 youngsters, Ricky and Angela, as they travel to Camp Arawak for the summer. Ricky is outgoing and sporty, Angela is shy and reserved, and as such attracts the ire and attention of the camp’s bullies. Much to the horror of the campers, and the annoy...

IFWT takes on the found-footage genre! We explore the genre and its origins before digging deep into Patrick Brice's 2014 directorial debut Creep. Co-written and co-starring Mark Duplass in a peculiar, psychological horror film.  In Creep we follow videographer Aaron, who accepts an online ad for a job which he will find out consists of filming a day in the life of terminally-ill cancer suffe...

Directed and Co-written by Valdimar Jóhannsson, Lamb takes place on an isolated farm in Iceland, and follows a married couple, Maria and Ingvar, who live quiet and seemingly ordinary lives, tending to their animals and maintaining their equipment. But their idyllic existence is turned upside down when ones of their sheep gives birth to a bizarre human/lamb hybrid. The couple decide to take it in a...