Dead Northern Festival News and Reviews Archives - Dead Northern | Page 6

Safe (Directed by David Yorke)  Shattering all predictions is David Yorke’s Safe, a microshort that stuns with its humour and dark wit as we follow a unique ‘home invasion’ by a knife-wielding masked killer. The clever amalgamation of horror and comedy is not an unfamiliar sight, yet Yorke’s ability to create thrilling scenes of intense ...

Les Bêtes (Directed by Michael Granberry) Inspired by the works of Ladislas Starevich, the creator of the first puppet-animated film The Beautiful Leukanida (1912), is Les Bêtes, a haunting stop-motion horror akin to a dark fairytale that follows a mysterious rabbit who summons a myriad of wonderfully strange creatures. This four-year project, conceived by Michael ...

Collection Only (Directed by Alun Rhys Morgan) Estranged friends Nye (Steffan Evans) and Daf (Tomos Gwynfryn) go to collect a free armchair from a seemingly lonely, frail elder woman (Olwen Medi); however, when a cascade of sinister events unfold, the pair must fight to make it out alive. Collection Only defies expectations as this thoroughly ...

Tasty Tongue (Directed by Pearl Zheng)  A-Zhe has a bitter soul (Shang-Ting Chung), continuously cursing others, but when he encounters Mia (Wen-Ling Cheng), a beautiful and mysterious woman, he develops a grotesque appetite for human tongues. The curiously disturbed story of A-Zhe is one of great significance, with director Pearl Zheng basing the film on ...

The housebound Francine (Gracie LeClere) is gifted a case of matches by her controlling husband, Sebastian (James Viller), who owns various match manufacturer factories. However, she soon discovers that this gift holds a great curse as a dead girl, Vera (Amy Anderson), is resurrected each time a match is lit.  Britain circa the late 19th ...

Released by HorrorWeb Productions is The Black Quarry, a wild and sinister exploration into the dark side. The black metal band “Drown the Priest” travels to an abandoned quarry to shoot a music video as intense as their signature hardcore sound. Unbeknownst to the band members, the lead singer has menacing motivations for using the ...

Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer does not simply toy with expectations with a horror-cum-cabin fright fest. Instead, it completely dismantles and excitingly remixes events, creating a wild ride that goes full throttle from beginning to end.  A motley crew of friends head out to a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend ...

The Blair Witch Project opens with the infamous title card announcing the disappearances of three student filmmakers. What follows is the discovered footage of what went on during the fatal trip, culminating in their mysterious and unexplainable vanishings. Legend has it, the trio’s bodies have never been found… In 1993, film students Daniel Myrick and ...

Written and directed by Michael Houston King is Lake Jesup, which brings back the rip-roaring, ultra-violent and brutal creature feature. This monstrous exploration chronicles the havoc wrecked upon Jesup City, Florida, circa 2003 as a deadly alligator named Bonecrusher escapes from its home at Gator Galaxy, owned by the greedy Angus Sullivan (Jeff Benninghofen), who ...

Bursting with tales of losing control and challenging reality, all entwined with a hint of familial trauma and ladened with a haunting gothic aesthetic that bodes stunning imagery and a grippingly tense atmosphere is Sophie Osbourne’s The Monster Beneath Us.  Yorkshire, England, 1898, sees Lord James Abbington (Jack Forsyth-Noble) of Doloridge House turn a gun ...

The Healing makes two things clear: be careful who you trust, and be careful of what you trust. This tense and unnerving descent into chaos is an exercise into the dark underbelly that seedily lies amidst seemingly tranquil and ‘healing’ situations… The film follows Lyuba (Alyona Mitroshina), who, in a bid to escape from her ...

Drowning in sordid secrets and lies, hellbent on delivering devilish antics and driving tension to a delightfully unbearable peak is Kill Victoria.  This thrilling rollercoaster follows a group of friends composed of couples Paula (Sara Canning) and Pete (Michael Xavier), Jacky (Gia Sandhu) and Nigel (Robin Dunne), along with the incessantly single Nick (Aaron Poole). ...