Home Comforts Halloween Special: The best in horror TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray (Monday October 26 - Sunday November 1)

To celebrate Halloween, here’s a list of 25 scary moves – in no particular order – worth a look in the coming week…

1. The Exorcist 

(22:00, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror, Saturday)

Forty-two years old in December, William Friedkin’s demonic possession chiller remains one of horror cinema’s finest moments. Trailer below

2. The Cabin In The Woods 

(22:25, Channel 5, Saturday) 

Horror goes meta in Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s clever and inventive film. The pair has enormous fun playing with the genre’s tropes and clichés to create something new and genuinely surprising.

3. Horror Express 

(01:50, BBC2, Saturday)

An English anthropologist discovers what he believes to be the frozen body of the Missing Link and transports it back to Europe on the trans-Siberian express. But the creature thaws out and starts murdering his fellow passengers. Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas star.

4. The Blair Witch Project 

(21:00, amc, Saturday) 

Not the first found footage horror movie but probably the best. Three amateur filmmakers head off into the woods to investigate a local legend about a witch – what they find there is genuinely chilling.

5. American Mary 

(23:00, Film4, Friday)

Those whacky Soska Sisters serve up a bloody slice of body horror in this disturbing film set in the world of underground plastic surgery and body modification. Freaky.
6. Witchfinder General 

(00:35, BBC2, Friday)

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without Vincent Price and he’s on top form here as Matthew Hopkins, a cruel and greedy man who travels the country hunting ‘witches’ the identification and elimination of which lines his pockets. Ian Ogilvy is the young soldier determined to end his reign of terror. Trailer below

7. The Skull 

(Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD, from today)

Peter Cushing plays a collector of occult items who purchases the skull of the Marquis de Sade… madness and mayhem ensue. The Blu-ray boasts a 1080p restoration of the film plus a bunch of extras.

8. Howl 

(various streaming services, DVD/Blu-ray, from today)

A train full of commuters is menaced by a bloodthirsty lycanthrope in this new British werewolf flick.
9. Fright Night 

(22:45, Movie Mix, Thursday)

The late, great Roddy McDowall stars as a TV horror host turned vampire hunter. It’s funny, scary, and immeasurably better than the lame remake starring David Tennant.

10. Scream 4 

(23:00, 5*, Tuesday)

Ol’ Ghostface is back – and so is screenwriter Kevin Williamson – in the final part of Wes Craven’s clever horror franchise.   

11. Coraline 

(16:45, Film4, Saturday)

Superb animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s celebrated – and deliciously creepy – children’s novel. Trailer below

12. The Addams Family 

(19:00, Film4, Saturday)

A brilliant cast (Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci) and sharp script make this adaptation of Charles Addams’ original cartoons – as well as the 1960s TV show – an absolute treat.

13. The Sixth Sense 

(23:05, More4, Saturday)

M Night Shyamalan serves up the most famous movie twist since Planet Of The Apes. Bruce Willis stars.

14. A Nightmare On Elm Street 

(22:00, Dave, Saturday)

Freddy Krueger makes his debut in the late Wes Craven’s modern monster classic.

15. Warm Bodies 

(23:10, Channel 4, Sunday)

Likeable zombie romance starring the excellent Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road).

16. The Faculty 

(23:00, ITV2, Sunday)

The teachers at a rundown high school have all been replaced by killer aliens in Robert Rodriguez’s riotous update of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Kevin ‘Scream’ Williamson’s script is as smart as you’d expect. Trailer below

17. Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell

(22:55, Horror Channel, Sunday)

1970s Hammer horror in which Peter Cushing plays Baron Frankenstein. The rotter is planning a gruesome new experiment whilst working at an insane asylum. 

18. Tremors 

(23:00, ITV4, Sunday)

Kevin Bacon battles giant burrowing worm monsters in this hugely entertaining homage to 1950s creature features. Apparently, they’re up to Tremors 5 now…

19. The Shining 

(20:00, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror, Saturday)

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel stars Jack Nicholson in one of his most celebrated roles. King famously didn’t care for it but he’s wrong; it’s great. “Heeere’s Johnny!”

20. Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

(21:00, Film4, Saturday)

That Gary Oldman is a right rotten Count, Winona Ryder the object of his affections, in Francis Ford Coppola’s not-at-all faithful adaptation of the original novel. Just pretend Keanu Reeves isn’t in it and you’ll be fine.

21. Knock Knock 

(various streaming services, DVD and Blu-ray)

Keanu Reeves (again!) comes a cropper when he cheats on his wife with two beautiful but unhinged young house guests. Funny Games meets Hard Candy in a pacy and surprisingly effective horror thriller. Trailer below

22. Fear Itself 

(BBC iPlayer)

A terrified young girl takes us on a fascinating journey through 100 years of horror cinema to explore how filmmakers scare us – and why we let them.

23. Final Destination 

(22:00, Watch, Saturday)

Death feels cheated when a bunch of teenagers escape doom in a plane crash so he starts hunting them down one by one. Quite right too…

24. Freddy vs Jason 

(23:00, Sky One, Saturday)
A Nightmare On Elm Street meets Friday The 13th in a disappointing mash-up.

25. Devil's Playground 

(22:50, Horror Channel, Tuesday)

Danny Dyer sorts out some zombies taking liberties on his manor. The slags. Trailer below

And one to avoid…

It’s Halloween, so everything – even Freddy vs Jason – gets an amnesty!

Please note: Films starting after midnight are always considered part of the previous day's schedule, e.g. Witchfinder General begins at 00:35 - technically Saturday morning - but is still part of Friday's listings. All times in 24-hour clock.

Sicario is a slickly entertaining thriller but is undermined by a clumsy revenge plot and one-dimensional characters

No '5 For Friday' this week. Have a review instead...

Sicario

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro

Running time: 121mins

A caption at the start of the film tells us "In Mexico, Sicario means hitman". By the end, I was wondering what Mexico's equivalent of ‘less than the sum of its parts’ might be. Yes, Sicario has an awful lot going for it – lead Emily Blunt is excellent, the direction crisp, the pace breathless, the score suitably industrial and foreboding, and Roger Deakins’ cinematography is never less than sumptuous. But, for all that, Denis Villeneuve’s drug war thriller is a frustrating piece of work that certainly has its moments but ultimately isn’t half as sophisticated as it thinks it is or needs to be. In fact, Sicario is surprisingly by-the-numbers, with thin characters (despite the efforts of a fine cast), a simplistic plot and a clumsily administered twist.

The versatile Blunt (Into The Woods, Edge Of Tomorrow) plays Kate Macer, a by-the-book FBI agent fighting a losing battle against powerful and ruthless drug cartels on the US/Mexico border. She is recruited into a special taskforce headed by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), a cocky and evasive spook who struts around in flip-flops like he’s fresh off the beach. The gung-ho team’s aim, as Graver has it, is to “shake the tree” enough to flush out the cartel’s Mr Big so he can be captured, his operation destroyed. Kate doesn’t trust the taskforce’s motives from day one, an attitude proved entirely correct by the highly illegal tactics they employ and the arrival of Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), a former prosecutor turned mysterious, enigmatic badass with a big secret.

Sicario is at its best early on. The opening raid on one of the cartel’s desert safe houses is probably the movie’s finest scene – action-packed, horrifying and climaxed by an explosive exclamation mark that punches you right in the guts. Almost as effective is a sequence after the taskforce has travelled into Mexico to extract a senior cartel member from prison. On the way back through the border into the States, Graver and Co’s convoy gets stuck in traffic and they quickly realise they are about to come under attack by cartel members in other vehicles. It’s a beautifully staged scene, rich in suspense and paranoia. Blunt is at her best here, too; a perfect study in confusion, fear and fury as she starts to realise the true magnitude of the madness she has naively volunteered to be a part of.

The film’s problems begin soon enough though. You quickly realise this isn’t going to be a story about a brave young FBI agent overcoming enormous obstacles to earn her stripes but yet another of those ‘necessary monsters’ tales, perhaps done best recently in US TV shows such as The Shield and True Detective. In fact, Matthew McConaughey’s character Rust Cohle from the latter drama’s first season sums up this trope perfectly when he says: “The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.” And that’s pretty much what we have here – Graver and Alejandro are the bad men, the only real defence against the cartels’ utter unflinching ruthlessness. No rules and laws can apply to them because to restrict these “bad men” in any way would be to hand their enemies a crucial advantage. The only way to win is to give them carte blanche to deceive, to threaten and to kill. “You are not a wolf and this is a land of wolves now,” Del Toro tells Blunt, somehow keeping a straight face amidst the tsunami of ridiculous macho bullshit. I’m not saying Sicario is sexist or misogynist (the fact the only woman in the entire film is shown to lack the required grit to properly compete in this ‘land of wolves’ speaks more to her humanity than to her gender), just that the film's descent into a fairly unremarkable revenge story, full of absurd testosterone-fuelled confrontations and simplistic solutions (killing the bad men who aren’t on our side), critically undermines what was a promising set-up. 

Blunt’s role in Sicario is a strange one. On the one hand, she’s supposedly the lead character; on the other she’s almost peripheral to the plot as Graver and Alejandro go about practising their dark arts and refusing to reveal their real intentions or ultimate goal. The film’s revenge story isn’t even her revenge story. The fact that, despite all that, Blunt is the film’s only truly believable or empathetic character says a lot about her ability as an actor and the flimsiness of the writing elsewhere. I often think the mark of a successful fictional character is one whose life you can imagine away from the story in which you first encounter them. It’s easy to conjure images of Kate Macer as a mother, daughter, lover, friend or neighbour, impossible to do likewise with one-dimensional ciphers like those Brolin and Del Toro do their best to portray.  

My other problem with Sicario is that I’ve seen a couple of other films recently about the Mexican drug cartels that handle the subject matter rather better. Amat Escalante’s 2013 film Heli is a work truly deserving of the word visceral (a term many critics have used to describe Villeneuve's movie). The titular character is a young Mexican whose family is targeted by a local cartel after his 12-year-old sister and her older boyfriend conceal stolen packages of cocaine. When the crime is discovered the revenge perpetrated upon these kids is terrible to behold (torture, rape and murder), and stands in stark contrast to Sicario’s rather clumsily inserted subplot about a Mexican policeman similarly in over his head. Escalante’s film shows how the cartels’ mephitic presence seeps into every area of their victims’ lives and the ways in which it foments hatred and criminality. If you want to see a drug war story with vengeance at the centre of its jet-black heart, it’s really Heli that you should be checking out.

Better still is Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman’s documentary about two vigilante gangs – one in Mexico, the other in the US – that have organised to fight back against the cartels. The American group are Fox News-addicted halfwits for the most part, driving around the desert in a tiny convoy trying to find newly-arrived illegal immigrants like characters in one of Donald Trump’s wet dreams. Far more intriguing are Mexico’s Autodefensas, a veritable army operating successfully in the Mexican state of Michoacán and led by small-town physician, Dr Jose Mireles. ‘El Doctor’ is a fearless but flawed man; a serial philanderer not afraid to order his foot soldiers to put their cartel enemies “in the ground”. You could go as far as to call him a “bad man who keeps other bad men from the door” but, here’s the thing, unlike Alejandro or Graver he is a multi-faceted real person rather than a jumble of character traits straight out of a ‘How to Create a Brusque Tough Guy’ screenwriting class. Sicario’s biggest fault, then, is one it can do precious little about – the reality of the drug war is far more interesting, disturbing and complex than any movie drama (however slick its direction, however accomplished its actors) could ever hope to match.

Cartel Land goes on to show the connections between the vigilantes, the authorities and the cartels and how, ultimately, it becomes difficult to tell them apart so interdependent are they. The cartels’ tentacles are long, their influence pernicious and pervasive. They certainly can’t be beaten by a brooding antihero with a tragic backstory and a hard-on for guns. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is stronger too.

Rating: WW

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful
WWW = Worthwhile
WW = Watchable
W = Woeful

Home Comforts: The best in TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray (Monday October 19 - Sunday October 25)

14 films to check out on TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray in the coming week...

1. Back To The Future (16:30, ITV2, Wednesday)

2. Back To The Future Part II (18:50, ITV2, Wednesday)

3. Back To The Future Part III (22:30, ITV2, Wednesday)

All three films showing (almost) back to back on October 21, 2015, the exact date 30 years in the 'future' to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown famously travelled in the trilogy's second installment. Celebrating 'Back To The Future Day' marks a clever bit of programming from ITV2 but it's spoiled somewhat by the unwanted arrival, at 21:00, of Keith Lemon's Back T'Future Tribute. Ninety fucking minutes of joke-free idiocy from a man so unfunny he makes Dapper Laughs look like Louis CK. Maybe just splash out on those gorgeous new Blu-rays instead...

4. AAAAAAAAH! 

(various streaming services, from today)

Steve Oram (who you might remember from Ben Wheatley's mighty Sightseers a few years ago) makes his debut as writer/director with probably the most peculiar and challenging film you'll see all year. Imagining a world in which people behave and communicate like apes (there's no spoken dialogue), Oram - who also stars - has enormously scabrous and satirical fun revealing how beastly behaviour forever lurks just below the surface of modern, supposedly civilised, society. Julian Rhind-Tutt and Toyah Wilcox co-star.

5. Boyhood 

(21:30, Sky Movies Select, Wednesday)
Not only a great film but also a genuine feat of dedication, organisation and sheer bloody-mindedness. Filmed at various stages over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s movie follows Ellar Coltrane’s Mason as he grows from a tousle-haired six-year-old into a talented and likeable young man just starting college. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette – as Mason’s mum and dad – are both superb. Low on melodrama, this is just life as it’s lived and it’s never less than fascinating. Please don’t let the film’s 165-minute running time deter you.

6. The Selfish Giant 

(01:45, Film4, Tuesday)

Based very loosely on Oscar Wilde's 19th Century children's fable of the same name, Clio Barnard's film is a bleak but brilliant drama chronicling the lives of two teenage boys - Arbor and Swifty - whose friendship is tested to the limits after they go to work for Kitten (the excellent Sean Gilder), an unpleasant local scrapdealer.  

7. Theeb 

(various streaming services, from Saturday)

Powerful coming-of-age tale, set in the years before WWI, about a young Bedouin boy marooned in the desert with an injured bandit after the death of his brother. It's a beautiful-looking film (shades of Lawrence Of Arabia at times) and effortlessly carried by youngster Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat as Theeb. Naji Abu Nowar's film is refreshingly unpredictable, too, managing to totally wrong-foot me twice. 

8. Pasolini 

(various streaming services, from today)
Willem Dafoe is terrific as Italian filmmaker, writer and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini in Abel Ferrara's sort-of biopic chronicling the final day of the Salo director's life. 

9. The Wild Bunch 

(23:25, ITV4, Tuesday)
William Holden's band of ageing outlaws are out of time and out of luck in a masterful – but brutal – western from director Sam Peckinpah. 

10. The Jerk 

(01:10, ITV4, Friday)

“Poor black child” and hopeless idiot Navin R Johnson (Steve Martin) searches for his "special purpose" in one of the finest film comedies ever made. "I'm gonna buy you a diamond so big, it's gonna make you puke!"

11. A Clockwork Orange 

(Midnight, Sky Movies Select, tonight)
Stanley Kubrick's controversial adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel is still vicious, disturbing and utterly mesmerising. Malcolm McDowell stars as ultra-violent Beethoven fan Alex DeLarge, a performance he's never bettered.

12. Tucker & Dale vs Evil 

(21:00, Syfy, Friday)
If you're a fan of Scream, The Cabin In The Woods or this year's The Final Girls, this horror-comedy is for you. Cleverly playing with the slasher movie stereotype of 'chainsaw-wielding, murderous hillbillies', it turns the usual script on its head. Tucker and Dale are just a couple of good old boys looking to drink beer, go fishing and repair their cabin. But their peace is shattered by the arrival of a bunch of paranoid college kids convinced the pair wants to kill them. A hoot. 

13. The Falcon and the Snowman 

(DVD/Blu-ray)

From 1985, John Schlesinger (Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy) directs a gripping espionage thriller based on a true-story. Timothy Hutton is the all-American boy who becomes disillusioned with the US government and starts selling secrets to the Russians, Sean Penn the friend who aids and abets him.

14. Love is All 

(DVD)

A history of romance and courtship as seen on the silver screen over the last 100 years, directed by Kim Longinotto and soundtracked by Richard Hawley. The DVD boasts a host of special features, including a Q&A with the director and a fully-illustrated booklet listing all the clips used in the film.

And one to avoid...

Total Recall 

(22:00, Channel 5, Thursday)

Not Paul Verhoeven's hugely entertaining take on Philip K Dick's original story, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the other version. The one from 2012 we don't talk about.

Please note: Films starting after midnight are always considered part of the previous day's schedule, e.g. The Selfish Giant begins at 01:45 - technically Wednesday morning - but is still part of Tuesday's listings. All times in 24-hour clock.

5 for Friday (October 16): Trailers, new releases and box office

1. Crimson Peak
What is it? After the action-packed excess of Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro returns to what he does best – a gothic horror tale jam-packed with ghosts, spectacular visuals and an atmosphere so thick you could slice it like bread. It stars Mia Wasikowska (pictured above), Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston, and features a spooky mansion that “breathes, bleeds… and remembers".
Where in the UK can I see it? Everywhere.
Critical consensus: A ghost-bustingly average 67 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
My take: It’s difficult to see this rivalling Pan’s Labyrinth as Del Toro’s best film but if this sumptuous trailer is anything to go by, Crimson Peak will be a treat.

2. The Lobster

What is it? Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman star in a surreal and disturbing sci-fi satire on the dating game and the pressure exerted on people to find romantic love. In a dystopian future, singles must find a partner in 45 days or be transformed into animals and released into the wild. It sounds far more humane than Take Me Out.

Where in the UK can I see it? Key cities, including London, Cardiff and Manchester.

Critical consensus: A tasty 88 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: The first movie I saw by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos was 2009’s Dogtooth, a piece of work that was inventive, transgressive and quite superb. Suffice to say, I have high hopes for this.

3. Howl

What is it? Passengers on a broken-down train come under attack from a werewolf in this British-made horror movie. Dog Soldiers’ Sean Pertwee’s in it although not, it seems, in a starring role.

Where in the UK can I see it? Howl is getting a very limited cinema release before clawing its way onto DVD, Blu-ray and VOD on October 26.

Critical consensus: A bitingly mediocre 57 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: It’s been a while since old-school horror fans had a really cracking werewolf flick to get our teeth into (Dog Soldiers in 2002, by my reckoning) so I’m keeping my fingers crossed this contains the requisite amounts of scares, gore and black comedy.

4. The Program

What is it? The rise and fall of seven-time Tour de France winner/cancer survivor/doping cheat Lance Armstrong (Ben Foster). Chris O’Dowd plays the Irish journalist determined to prove the champion cyclist’s guilt. Stephen Frears (Philomena) directs, Dustin Hoffman co-stars.

Where in the UK can I see it? It’s getting a wide release so shouldn’t be difficult to track down.

Critical consensus: A chemically-unenhanced 52 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Armstrong’s fall from grace is one of the most extraordinary events in sporting history and fully deserving of the big movie treatment. But Frears’ film will do well to better Alex Gibney’s 2013 documentary about the same subject, The Armstrong Lie.

5. Censored Voices

What is it? Documentary about 1967’s Six Day War in which Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan and grabbed land in Gaza, Sinai, and the West Bank. The country tripled in size in under a week, leading to euphoric scenes. However, away from the celebrations, author Amos Oz recorded interviews with Israeli soldiers, fresh from the battlefield, and their take on the conflict is anything but jubilant. Nearly 50 years on (the recordings were suppressed for decades) the interviews are replayed for the same group of soldiers... 

Where in the UK can I see it? London only.

Critical consensus: An impressive 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, albeit after just seven reviews.

My take: Any documentary about the Israel/Palestine situation is always pertinent and prescient for one simple reason - nothing there ever seems to change. I hope this gets a speedy DVD/VOD release as its probably the only way I'll get to see it.    

Also in cinemas this week...

Back To The Future 2 (reissue, from Wednesday)

Chic!
Dans La Cour
The Diabolical 
Henry V – RSC Live 2015
Hotel Transylvania 2 

The Last Witch Hunter (from Wednesday)
Le Talent De Mes Amis

Laurel & Hardy: Towed In The Hole & Way Out West (double bill) (reissue, from Tuesday)
North V South 
Pan 
Rough Cut
Soaked In Bleach
SuperBob

UK box office top 10

1. The Martian
2. Sicario (15)
3. The Walk
4. Legend
5. The Intern
6. Everest
7. Macbeth
8. The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
9. Regression
10. Inside Out

US box office top 10

1. The Martian
2. Hotel Transylvania 2
3. Pan
4. The Intern
5. Sicario
6. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
7. The Walk 
8. Black Mass
9. Everest
10. The Visit

Home Comforts: The best in TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray (Monday October 12 - Sunday October 18)

13 films to see on DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and TV in the coming week...

1. The Act Of Killing 
(23:55, Sky Atlantic, Thursday)
2. The Look Of Silence 
(DVD/Blu-ray)
It really isn't hyperbole to say Joshua Oppenheimer's films dealing with the systematic slaughter of alleged communists in 1960s Indonesia are two of the finest - and most disturbing - documentaries ever made. In 2013's The Act Of Killing, Oppenheimer focuses his attention on the leaders of the death squads, men whose heinous acts have made them heroes and celebrities in their home country. Proceedings take a bizarre turn when the killers are invited to re-enact their crimes as if they were in a gangster movie, complete with make-up and props, and readily agree. The Look Of Silence - released earlier this year - is a smaller, more personal story of one of the families who lost a loved one during the purge. The murdered man's brother - a gentle but determined optometrist named Adi - confronts his brother's killers in a number of jaw-dropping scenes.

3. Scarface 
(22:00, Sky Select, tonight)
Brian DePalma directs Oliver Stone's screenplay and Al Pacino turns in one of the best performances of his career as Tony Montana (pictured, top of page), a poor Cuban immigrant turned ruthless drug cartel boss in '80s Miami. Too long, too violent, endlessly quotable and packed with expletives (207 fucks), Scarface is both a cautionary tale (mountains of cocaine, cash and hubris are a bad mix) and one of the most purely nihilistic films you'll ever lay eyes on.

4. Drive 
(22:45, BBC2, Saturday)
Nicolas Winding Refn's masterful LA noir starring Ryan Gosling as a mysterious, taciturn car mechanic/stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver. Gosling - his character doesn't have a name - runs bumper-first into trouble when he agrees to help out his struggling neighbour Carey Mulligan. Stylish, stunning and one of the best films of the last decade. 

5. Raging Bull 
(22:00, Sky Select, Wednesday)
Robert De Niro stars in Martin Scorsese's biopic of former world champion middleweight boxer Jake 'The Bronx Bull' LaMotta. Not just the finest film about boxing ever made (although, in truth, it doesn't have a lot of competition) but an extraordinary portrait of a deeply troubled man whose appetite for self-destruction wrecked every important relationship in his life. A stone-cold American classic.

6. Beasts of No Nation 
(Netflix UK, from Friday)
Netflix's first original feature film venture is an adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala's 2005 novel about a child soldier in an unnamed African country. Idris Elba (Pacific Rim, Second Coming) stars, Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) directs.

7. The Firemen's Ball 
(Blu-ray/DVD Double Play)
This was the last film Milos Foreman (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus) made in his native Czechoslovakia before he fled to Hollywood. The 1967 comedy - which utilised a cast of non-professional actors, many of whom were actual firemen - was banned by the Czech authorities at the time as they suspected its portrait of small-town incompetence was a dig at them. This Blu-ray release showcases a new 4K restoration of the film by the Czech National Film Archive.

8. Super 
(Netflix UK, from Thursday)
Rainn Wilson (The Office) is The Crimson Bolt, Ellen Page (Juno) his trusty sidekick Boltie, in James Gunn's weird, warped and wonderful superhero satire. Everyone went gaga for Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy last year but this is even better. Shut up, crime!

9. Whiplash 
(NOW TV, from Friday)
Abusive music teacher Terence Fletcher (Oscar winner JK Simmons, below) pushes talented young musician Miles Teller to the edge in a punishing drama. Who knew the world of jazz drumming could be so brutal or so entertaining?

10. The Incredibles 
(18:00, Sky Disney, Wednesday)
Or, as the film is known in certain quarters, 'the Fantastic Four done properly'. Suffice to say, this funny, inventive and action-packed superhero family adventure is another winner from Pixar. Hurry up with that sequel, already!

11. Gravity Special Edition 
(Blu-ray)
I was never the biggest fan of the Sandra Bullock/George Clooney disaster-in-space flick from 2013 but this new two-disc Special Edition has me intrigued. As well as a heap of extras, it features a 'Silent Space Version' of Alfonso Cuarón's movie that omits Steven Price's original score. If this clip is anything to go by, it could make for a genuinely eerie experience.

12. The Fifth Element 

(18:40, Channel Five, Sunday)
Bonkers twenty-third-century-set sci-fi from French director Luc Besson (Lucy). Bruce Willis is Korben Dallas (really!) an elite commando turned cab driver who must protect Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), a young woman battling to save Earth from the evil Zorg (Gary Oldman). I'm not sure any of it makes a jot of sense but it is a lot of fun.

13. Cooties 

(various streaming services, DVD/Blu-ray)
Horror comedy starring Rainn Wilson (again), Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings trilogy) and Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) as teachers fighting for their lives when a mystery virus turns students at a remote elementary school into marauding savages.

And one to avoid...The Happening 

(21:00, SyFy, tonight) 

Anyone who thought director M Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) had reached his nadir with Lady In The Water would have been knocked sideways by this SF/horror flick about nature rising up against humanity. Starring Mark Wahlberg as a block of wood pretending to be a scientist and Kooky McKookington who'd go on to star in kooky US sitcom New Girl, it features several shots of grass swaying threateningly in the breeze and some well-scary trees. The tiramisu scene alone should have ensured Shyamalan was never allowed within six feet of a movie camera ever again. 

5 for Friday (October 9): Trailers, new releases and box office

This week's five most intriguing cinema releases...

1. Sicario 

What is it? Denis Villeneuve's visceral thriller stars Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent battling brutal drugs cartels on the US/Mexican border. Benicio Del Toro is the mysterious hitman brought in by Josh Brolin to fight fire with fire. 

Where in the UK can I see it? Everywhere.

Critical consensus? An addictive 93 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Sicario has crossed the Atlantic with the kind of buzz only the likes of Whiplash and Birdman have been able to match this year. Roger Deakins' sumptuous cinematography and Blunt's gripping performance have been particularly singled out for praise. To say I'm looking forward to seeing it would be an understatement.

2. Red Army
What is it? The story of the Soviet Union's all-conquering Red Army ice hockey team as told by its players, particularly captain Slava Fetisov, who went from national hero to despised enemy when he left the USSR to play in America's NHL. Imagine the Cold War on ice and you're most of the way there.
Where in the UK can I see it? It's getting a limited cinema release in key cities only but is also available from today on VOD.
Critical consensus? A stick-busting 96 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
My take: Fetisov is a fascinating character and has lived an extraordinary life. I'm happy to put aside my lack of interest in ice hockey to give this a go.

3. Suffragette

What is it? Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne-Marie Duff are working class women battling a hostile state for the right to vote in early 20th century Britain - valiant foot soldiers in Emmeline Pankhurst's Suffrage movement. Blowing up mailboxes and putting bricks through windows, they play a cat and mouse game with the authorities whose response becomes more brutal and uncompromising. Meryl Streep lends a bit of Hollywood glitz to proceedings as Pankhurst.

Where in the UK can I see it? Everywhere from Monday.

Critical consensus? A vote-winning 80 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Before now there has always been a certain middle class, 'BBC1 on a Sunday evening' cosiness about Suffragette dramas. Sarah Gavron's film looks set to blow such notions out of the water and about time, too.

4. The Nightmare

What is it? Part-documentary, part-horror story, Rodney Ascher's film explores a disturbing medical condition called sleep paralysis. Victims - and there are thousands of them - are unable to move and subject to terrifying hallucinations involving 'shadow men' and other nasties. Some sufferers even believe their condition isn't psychological but paranormal. Ascher recreates the experiences of eight sufferers using actors, probably guaranteeing himself the director's job on a proper horror movie in the not-too-distant future.

Where in the UK can I see it? In just a few London cinemas.

Critical consensus? A dreamy 72 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: One of the things Ascher - himself a sufferer - points out is that a lot of the imagery from these hallucinations and night terrors have, over time, seeped into art and literature, informing movies such as A Nightmare On Elm Street. As a horror fan, that's reason enough for me to see it right there.

5. The Walk 

What is it? Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away) directs the story of Frenchman Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who, in 1974, strung a high-wire from one of the World Trade Center towers to the other, then walked across it. If this real-life story sounds familiar it's because it formed the basis of the excellent 2008 documentary Man On Wire.

Where in the UK can I see it? It should be pretty much everywhere now after getting an IMAX-only release last week.

Critical consensus? A perfectly-balanced 87 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Unfortunately, Gordon-Levitt's Clouseau-esque accent has been getting more attention than the film's extraordinary, vertigo-inducing CGI. As someone who gets a nosebleed from going upstairs on a double-decker bus, I definitely won't be seeing this in 3D.

Also on release this week

Addicted To Fresno

A Haunting In Cawdor

Dildariyaan

I Believe In Miracles (from Tuesday)

Jazbaa

Leading Lady

Madimak: Carina'nin Gunlugu

Monty Python And The Holy Grail (reissue – from Wednesday)

Regression 

Rudhramadevi (3D)

Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story
Zarafa

UK box-office top 10

1. The Martian
2. Legend
3. Everest
4. The Intern
5. Macbeth
6. The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
7. Miss You Already
8. Singh Is Bling
9. Inside Out 

10. Dragonball Z: Resurrection Of F

US box-office top 10

1. The Martian
2. Hotel Transylvania 2
3. Sicario
4. The Intern
5. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
6. Black Mass
7. Everest
8. The Visit
9. War Room
10. The Perfect Guy 

Review overload!

A dozen short reviews of films I've seen in the last couple of weeks - ranked from best to worst (although there isn't a single stinker among them). I've seen 116 of the many hundreds of movies released in UK cinemas in 2015 and am hoping to reach 150 by the end of the year... 

Love & Mercy

(director: Bill Pohlad)

Bravura biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, concentrating on two crucial periods of his life. Paul Dano plays the songwriter as a young man at the height of his musical powers (Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations) but teetering on the brink of mental illness, while John Cusack is the older Wilson, under the perfidious spell of Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), a quack psychologist who took his money and cut him off from his family. Love & Mercy boasts superb performances (Dano has to get an Oscar nod), smart storytelling (the two strands are beautifully weaved together) while the music is, of course, simply gorgeous.

Rating: WWWW

Released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16

A Syrian Love Story

(director: Sean Armitage)

Bruising but timely documentary from British filmmaker Armitage chronicling the lives of a Syrian family - Amer, Ragdha and their three sons - as they flee to France after suffering under the oppressive Assad regime. The film is both uplifting and heartbreaking, as elation at Ragdha's release from prison (she had written a book critical of the regime) soon gives way to pain and disillusion as her marriage to Amer starts to unravel. Refusing to offer any easy answers to Syria's myriad problems, Armitage's film shows how oppression seeps into every single area of a person's life - even a seemingly rock-solid marriage isn't safe from it.

Rating: WWWW

In cinemas and on BFI player now

Catch Me Daddy

(director: Matthew Wolfe)

Atmospheric and brutal British 'honour killing' drama about a young couple on the run on the Yorkshire Moors from the girl's vengeful father. First-time director Wolfe blends elements of social realism, thriller and the western (The Searchers has been mentioned as an influence) to great effect while newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed is a revelation as Laila. Be warned, though, this is anything but an easy watch.

Rating: WWWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Martian

(director: Ridley Scott)

Sci-fi blockbuster starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars when a manned mission to the planet goes tits up. It's MacGyver in space, it's Cast Away meets Apollo 13, and although the final 20 minutes strain credulity and Damon's character never seems bothered enough by his predicament, I enjoyed it a lot more than other recent SF blockbusters such as Gravity or Interstellar.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Goob

(director: Guy Myhill)

Gloomy coming-of-age drama set in the Norfolk Fens and focused on the titular Goob (Liam Walpole), a teenage boy struggling to come to terms with not only impending adulthood but also the behaviour of his step-dad, a deeply unpleasant bully played to evil-eyed perfection by Sean Harris. Writer/director Myhill conjures a potent but dispiriting vision of what it is to be young and trapped by poverty and circumstance.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Reunion

(director: Anna Odell)

Clever film-within-a-film from provocative Swedish artist Odell. In real life, the director (who also writes and stars) wasn't invited to her high school reunion so the first half is a fictionalised account of what might have happened if she had attended (short answer: nothing good). In the second half, she recreates interviews she conducted with former class-mates - many of whom had tormented her - after showing them the film and recording their reactions. Beneath the art-project posturing, there's a powerful film with plenty to say about bullying, betrayal and the horrors of high school.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

Pasolini

(director: Abel Ferrara)

Ferrara (Driller Killer) dials back the histrionics after last year's gloriously over-the-top Welcome To New York with this sober, elegaic sort-of-biopic of late Italian filmmaker, writer and intellectual, Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe). It focuses on the last day of the Salo director's life (it isn't a spoiler to say he was murdered in 1975) as he writes, eats with friends and family, is interviewed for a newspaper article, discusses a new film project and, ultimately, is led to his doom after picking up a rentboy. Ferrara also visualises scenes from both Pasolini's novel in progress and what would have been his next movie in a film that sidesteps hagiography to reveal a complicated man full of contradictions but with a huge cultural contribution still to make. Dafoe - despite his American accent - is terrific.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas and on VOD now, and released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26

Macbeth

(director: Justin Kurzel)

The last 20 minutes are probably the most visually stunning of any film I've seen all year as Birnam Wood does indeed come to Dunsinane and Michael Fassbender's Macbeth (pictured at the top of the page) faces off against his nemesis Macduff. Elsewhere, Snowtown director Kurzel's adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' is a broodingly gothic, brutal and nightmarish affair, buoyed by suitably intense performances from Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. Kurzel has an interesting take on the central character - he isn't just an ambitious monster spurred on by a pushy wife - but a battle-weary warrior unhinged by the death of his young son. It's a nice twist but one that fails to humanise the character as much as the director would clearly like it to. 

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Emperor's New Clothes

(director: Michael Winterbottom)

Comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand shines a light on the 2008 financial crisis and asks, not unreasonably, why the bankers who caused the crash got away with it scot-free. It's enjoyable, rabble-rousing stuff for the most part, and Brand is an articulate, passionate narrator who clearly loves people, but I couldn't shake the feeling Michael Moore and Mark Thomas not only did this stuff first but did it rather better. 

Rating: WWW

Available on DVD and Amazon Prime Video

Samba

(director: Olivier Nakache)

Likeable drama chronicling the travails of the titular Senegalese immigrant (Omar Sy) as he battles to stay in France while slowly but surely falling for Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the charity worker helping him with his case. Some of the plotting is a bit clunky and at two hours Samba goes on a bit, but the film nevertheless boasts some fine moments, especially when shining a light on the hand-to-mouth experience of immigrants in France. Both leads (Gainsbourg is a criminally underrated actress), as well as the film's supporting cast, are excellent.
Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Results

(director: Andrew Bujalski)

Off-beat and deceptively clever romantic comedy starring Guy Pearce (The Rover) and Cobie Smulders (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) as Trevor and Kat, personal trainers and former 'fuck buddies' whose relationship is put back under the spotlight with the arrival of wealthy depressive Danny (Kevin Corrigan). In truth, Corrigan - a perfect storm of self-loathing and emasculated manhood - steals the show while the two leads - for all their skills as actors and comic performers - never quite convince as a couple. It's a shame because writer/director Bujalski's film is, for the most part, charming and funny while offering an interesting spin on a tired genre.

Rating: WW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Mia Madre

(director: Nanni Morretti)

Nanni Moretti might be one of Italy's most celebrated directors but this semi-autobiographical drama about a filmmaker emotionally unraveling as her mother's health deteriorates is a bit of a slog. Mia Madre (My Mother) has some perceptive things to say about grief and mortality, and John Turturro works overtime to lighten the mood, but overall this is a ponderous piece of work that is easy to admire but difficult to like.

Rating: WW

In cinemas and on VOD now

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful
WWW = Worthwhile
WW = Watchable
W = Woeful