Dead Northern Festival News and Reviews Archives - Dead Northern | Page 4

Leigh Whannell is somewhat contemporary horror royalty, belonging to projects such as Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2010), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), Upgrade (2018), The Invisible Man (2020) and now Wolf Man (2025). Regardless of opinion, Whannell is a seasoned horror creator, but is his extensive experience enough to make ...

Amy (Hannah Deale) barely scrapes by; working two thankless jobs whilst simultaneously caring for her drug-addict mother, Debra (Jennifer Herzog). The hope of a brighter future for the hardworking young woman is on the horizon, with the prospects of exciting scholarships looming, however, her aspirations and entire selfhood are ripped to shreds when she unexpectedly falls pregnant.

The Descent (Directed by Neil Marshall, 2005)  Very rarely does a film like The Descent come around, with the horror being comparable to one hundred minutes of pure fright. This British film comes from the mind of horror auteur Neil Marshall, who delivers an experience that is known for managing to scare the wits out ...

The Witch (Directed by Robert Eggers, 2015)  Robert Eggers has become a prodigy in contemporary gothic horror, creating films that ooze a rich, dramatic aura that presents historical, period-based tales of folklore and mythology. One film in particular that kickstarted his now cemented reputation as a historical-fiction director is The Witch (stylised as The VVitch). ...

The Monkey makes an array of promises. It vows to shock at the audacity of its plot, urges a repulsive affective response at some of the more gnarly moments, and most importantly, it demands that every viewer is grinning from ear to ear at the bombastic ludicrousness of it all. Conceived originally as a short ...

Basked in the cruelty of the human nature, blasting deep truths, whilst being equally entrenched in glimmeringly stunning imagery is Drew Hancock’s Companion.  The trending Companion follows an unconventional love story that challenges and startles as we see the likes of Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lucas Gage, Rupert Friend, Megan Suri and Harvey Guillén navigate ...

Serpil Altin’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the Future: 2121’ is an ominous tale with sparks of surreal comedy that acts as a bold and honest take on both the familial regime under pressure and the horror that arises from fears of the future.  In the year 2121, planet Earth has broken down from years ...

Unlike anything many have ever seen before, convolutedly excellent, with a slow burn-like atmosphere is precisely what makes Presence the cinematic enigma that it is. This film is not simply genre bending, it is a complete malformation of categorisation, which has left a slew of mixed reviews in its wake. However, forgoing the ruse stirred ...

From the same mind that conjured The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019) is the long-awaited tale of Nosferatu by the brilliant Robert Eggers.  Nosferatu, a remake of the F. W. Murnau silent German Expressionist film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), follows Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), who in her youth pledged her devotion to the ...

Presence (Directed by Steven Soderbergh)  Expected release date: 24th January  This upcoming atmospheric chiller comes from the mind of the great Steven Soderbergh, whose previous award-winning credits include hits such as Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), Erin Brockovich (2000), and more recently, Unsane (2018). Presence takes place from the perspective of a ‘ghost’, as the ...

Abigail (Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett)  Abigail is part heist movie, part monstrous horror. A film of two halves. The first half plays on its own genre stereotypes and known ploys, lulling us into a sense of familiarity, before ripping the curtain back and unveiling an exhilarating ride that ceases to calm right ...

It goes without saying the entire selection for this years fest deserve recognition for their talents as film makers and artists. So narrowing this down to just a handful of award winners has been extremely difficult for this year’s judges panel! With that said, lets take a look at all the incredibly deserving award winners ...