Movies In Focus

Shane Dax Taylor’s Murder Company is an old-fashioned World War II men on a mission movie. On Demand now in the U.S., the film stars  William Moseley, Pooch Hall, Gilles Marini, Joe Anderson and Kelsey Grammer. The plot follows a group of US soldiers as they attempt to smuggle a member of the French resistance behind enemy lines so that he can assassinate a high-value Nazi target. Star Gilles Mari...

Writer/director Jake Allyn's film Ride is now available On Demand in the US. It’s a wonderful modern day western that sees Allyn star alongside C. Thomas Howell, Annabeth Gish & Forrie J. Smith. It's a beautifully shot & exceptionally well acted film that has dramatic highs alongside some strong tension. Jake Allyn joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about making Ride , the complexit...

Alexander Payne’s 1999 release Election was a film which took the filmmaker’s career to the next level. A biting satire, it features a great Matthew Broderick as a teacher with a grudge battling Reese Witherspoon‘s overly enthusiastic student, Tracy Flick. As part of a special look back at some of the films released in 1999 - a year many believe to be one of the finest in cinema history - film cri...

Arrow Shorts is a showcase for great short-form film-making. From the scary to the bizarre, Arrow highlights the amazing work being created by filmmakers in a shorter-length medium. Film-maker Drew Maxwell Weiss joins this episode of the podcast to talk about his Giallo inspired short Anatomy Maestro. With nods to the bloody thrillers of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, this short sees a stalker beco...

Arrow Shorts is a showcase for great short-form film-making. From the scary to the bizarre, Arrow highlights the amazing work being created by filmmakers in a shorter-length medium. Film-maker Alex Baro-Cayetano joins this episode of the podcast to talk about his small, but perfectly formed short, Keith . In the film, a little girl meets someone called Keith during difficult times. She doesn't kno...

Darkness Of Man is a new action noir starring Jean Claude Van Damme as a former Interpol agent haunted by the actions of his past.  Visually striking, Darkness Of Man sees Van Damme give a nuanced turn - and it’s once again an indicator that the action icon can deliver good performances alongside bullets and flying kicks. James Cullen Bressack, the director, producer and co-writer of Darkness Of M...

Arrow Shorts is a showcase for great short-form film-making. From the scary to the bizarre, Arrow highlights the amazing work being created by film-makers in a shorter-length medium. Film-maker Ryan Iriving joins this episode of the podcast to talk about Bark , a witty, original and well-composed slasher pastiche which crams a lot into its short running time. Bark sees two women desperately trying...

Arrow Shorts is a showcase for great short-form film-making. From the scary to the bizarre, Arrow highlights the amazing work being created by filmmakers in a shorter-length medium. Film-maker Izzy Lee joins this episode of the podcast to talk about her incredibly fresh and original short film Meat Friend . Meat Friend was nominated for a 2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Short Film, and it fo...

The Image Of You is the screen adaptation of Adele Parks’ novel of the same name. Directed by Jeff Fisher and adapted by screenwriter Chris Sivertson, the film stars Sasha Pieterse, Parker Young, Néstor Carbonell and Mira Sorvino. It’s something of an outlier - a modern take on the erotic thriller - one with particular nods to masters of the genre like Brian De Palma and Paul Verhoeven. Director J...

Adele Parks MBE has sold over 5 million plus copies and has been translated into over 30 different languages. Her 19th novel, The Image Of You has now been adapted for the screen by director Jeff Fisher and screenwriter Chris Sivertson. Starring Sasha Pieterse, Parker Young, Néstor Carbonell and Mira Sorvino, the film is a modern take on the erotic thriller that features nods to genre masters like...

Sometimes a movie will come along and subvert expectations - and Francis Galluppi’s brilliant feature film debut, The Last Stop In Yuma County is one of the movies. The set-up is that a travelling salesman is caught up with a pair of bank robbers in a remote diner - we’ve all seen that type of thriller a dozen times before but Galluppi takes things in many surprising directions. The last act is fi...

As its title suggests, Stefon Bristol’s Breathe is a claustrophobic and tense film that will leave you gasping for air. A prescient science fiction piece, Breathe is set in the near future where the earth has a depleted oxygen supply. A small family eke out an existence, but when strangers arrive at their doorstep paranoia seeps into their lives. Are these new arrivals friends or foes? Bristol’s f...

Unfairly dismissed in 1998, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Soldier underperformed when it was released, grossing a paltry $14.5 million at the U.S. on a then substantial $60 million budget. In the UK the Kurt Russell starrer became the most expensive film to go straight to DVD/Video. Danny Stewart's book Soldier: From Script to Screen takes a serious deep dive into the making of Paul W.S. Anderson’s film, c...

It’s usually hyperbole to say that someone does it all, but in the case of Larry Fessenden, it just so happens to be true. An award-winning actor, producer, writer, director and editor - Fessenden is a genre filmmaker with a real skill in delivering works that entertain but also have a fair amount of nuance and sophistication. Fessenden’s latest film is Blackout , a werewolf horror with a top-notc...

Based on E.O. Chirovici's novel, The Book of Mirrors, Sleeping Dogs is a twisty and entertaining thriller starring the mighty Russell Crowe. Crowe plays Roy Freeman, a former cop undergoing treatment for Alzheimer's disease who starts to dig into an old case in the hopes of exonerating an innocent man. The type of film that used to be Hollywood’s bread and butter, Sleeping Dogs' impressive cast al...

Joe Stephenson's Doctor Jekyll was the first Hammer horror film released since the company was purchased by its new owner - the perfectly named John Gore. An entertaining throwback feature with a modern twist, this new imagining of Robert Louis Stephenson's iconic tale stars Eddie Izzard and Scott Chambers. Izzard is the titular Jekyll, while Chambers plays the young man hired to assist the reclus...

Writer-director Gabriel Abrantes joins this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast to discuss his new film Amelia’s Children A slow-burning and delicately paced horror with Brigette Lundy-Paine, Carlota Cotta, Anabela Moreira, Alba Baptista, Amelia’s Children sees a New York-based musician discover that he has a long-lost mother and brother in Portugal. Taking a trip with his girlfriend, he visits...

In this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast, film director Andrew Davis talks about his long and prestigious career. Best known for directing the hugely acclaimed blockbuster The Fugitive with Harrison Ford, Davis’ career has been as eclectic as it has been successful. From his excellent jazz-fused 1978 debut, Stony Island through to The Package with Gene Hackman and Under Siege with Steven Sea...

Ruthless is a bone-crunching thriller starring an against-type Dermot Mulroney as a teacher trying to rescue one of his students from a gang of human traffickers. Eschewing preaching for entertainment, Ruthless is an enjoyable, no-frills throwback revenge thriller with a good turn from Mulroney. Best known for his romantic leads, Mulroney sells the badass action and shows an interesting side to hi...

Director Phillip Noyce and Morena Baccarin join the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about their new film, Fast Charlie . Brutal when it needs to be, funny when it wants to be and heartfelt when you least expect it, Fast Charlie is first-class entertainment for grown-ups. Master-craftsman Noyce has built a well-constructed revenge thriller around star Pierce Brosnan and the script delivers plenty o...

It’s A Wonderful Knife is an entertaining slasher flick - with a difference. As the title indicates, the film is a riff on Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic, It's A Wonderful Life . Starring Jane Widdop, Joel McHale and Justin Long, the film has heart and laughs wrapped up against the film's bloody kills.  A year after saving her small town from a crazed killer, Jane Widdop’s Winnie is down in...

Belfast-based director Dominic O’Neill joins the Movies In Focus podcast to discuss his new comedy horror, Haunted Ulster Live . A comedy of errors, Haunted Ulster Live uses the famed UK mockumentary  Ghostwatch as a stepping-off point. Taking place in a supposedly haunted house, the broadcast is interrupted by things that go bump in the night – as well as the myriad of errors that can take place...

Writer, film critic and visual artist Jaylan Salah joins this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast. A woman of many talents, Jaylan is a passionate film lover with a keen insight into multiple genres. Delving deep into what frightens her, Jaylan discusses a selection of thrilling films including Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead , Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook .

Douglas Schulze has been a friend of Movies In Focus since 2009, in the lead-up to the release of his David Carradine starring horror film Dark Fields  - or The Rain as it was then called. Films like Mimesis: Night Of The Living Dead, Mimesis: Nosferatu and his experimental thriller The Dark Below  show a director who wants to push the boundaries of low-budget storytelling with interesting and cre...

Belgian filmmaker Daphné Baiwir's  King On Screen is an excellent documentary that puts the focus on the many film and television adaptations that have been based on the work of Stephen King. A must-see for King fans, Baiwir looks at these adaptations from the perspective of people who made them - and the film features interviews with the likes of Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Mike Flanagan, Tom Ho...