​THE STORY:
Rookie, Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) has the honour of working the last shift at an old police station.  What she doesn’t know is this station is the final resting place of the murderous satanic Paymon cult responsible for the death of her cop father.  Aside from a few strange phone calls, nothing seems to be wrong…until the lights go out…
 
It comes as no surprise to see director DiBlasi working his creepiest magic after the human puppet horrors of 2011’s Casadaga.  The nightmarish imagery is very Clive Barker’s Hellraiser with maybe a hint of Steve Beck’s reworking of Thirteen Ghosts (2001).  He borrows a few visual tricks here and there from the classics such as Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982) and even M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999). 
 
However, his best moments are when he reminds us stiff upper lipped horror folk how much fun it is to be afraid of the dark.  The bulk of the movie’s most effective scenes are shrouded in complete and utter pitch-black, with the cell in which the Paymon cult shed their mortal coil naturally being the centre of all the madness.
 
Harkavy plays Loren so well, creating a character that is easy to route for.  As well as being tough yet compassionate, she is vulnerable yet resilient.  She’s also a very pretty young lass which, whether unfairly or not, means girl’s got a lot to prove, to everyone, and even herself.
 
Strangely enough I didn’t find the Paymon cult particularly intimidating until the final act.  Plus, a tone-deaf hooker smoking at the back door of the police station, while different to the old cliché neatly put in place by Friday the 13th’s (1980) Crazy Ralph, it is hardly the spookiest way to be warned of impending doom.  And though a group of singing girls is eerier than say the deathly ringtone from the 2008 remake of One Missed Call, in theory, it is perhaps the most forgettable horror jingle I’ve heard.  “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you”, may be borderline juvenile, but it works and it sticks.  For the record, I have no complaints about Mr. Paymon’s devil face.  More devil face, I say!
 
LAST WORDS:
Creepy and tense, with a main character you can care about, Last Shift is DiBlasi’s best work to date.

The boys are back in town! and after the thrilling events that finished season 9 what could be in store for Sam and a now demon Dean? well my answer is the BEST scripted season since season 5.

Now the main story arch for the Winchesters should have stopped at Season 5 (awaiting backlash) and this is from someone who LOVES the show to bits and who will continue to watch even with the bloody angels. however Season 10 has brought the show back to the same storytelling as the earlier seasons, back to fighting demons back to the humor and back to a decent story line.

We see the return of show favorite Charlie who follows Dorothy (Wizard of Oz Dorothy) the the merry old land of Oz turning into a pretty cool bad ass along the way. The Mark of Kane is still on Dean's arm, which is pretty much the story arch for the series, and the bromance between Crowley and Dean goes through a rough patch.

We are also introduced to a new villain in the form of Rowena, a witch who just happens to be the mother of Crowley! and the only person who may know a way of removing the mark from Dean's arm. We are also taken on a journey with Cas, who is looking to make amends for the family of Jimmy, the man whose body he has taken (who as we all know died a few seasons ago). We find Cas trying to bond with Jimmy's daughter Claire who is now a run away teen, angry and looking for her mother.

I like the different routes the show is giving us. I loved the link to The Wizard Of OZ and the even more unexpected like to Frankenstein in the form of the Stein Family which gives the show a wider range of characters to work with in later seasons (at least it wasn't like the Dracula episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!). The story line flows so much better than the last few season, which to be honest have felt a little slap dash, but when I got to the final episode of season 10, with all the emotional scenes leading up to it (i'm not going to spoil it for you), I was left with that feeling of "OH MY FUCKING GOD!!" which i have not felt in a show for a long time.

I can't wait till season 11, this was an amazing season and as a whole Supernatural has enough going for another season, however how much more damage can the brothers to the world before there is nothing left to fight for. 

A good documentary is one that can really get under your skin and tap into your emotions or fears or both and that’s exactly what Crystal Moselle’s latest insight into one family who live in the gritty lower East side of Manhattan does. It’s fascinating, intriguing, disturbing at times but most of all engaging.

It follows the Angulo brothers as they tell their rather depressing story of being locked away from the outside and all of society by their strict father. They know nothing more than what lies within the walls of their home. Therefore they learn about the world through the films they watch. They take us through accounts of their childhood where they re-enacted scenes from the likes of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and The Dark Knight in order to keep themselves sane and develop a hobby without being allowed to venture beyond their apartment. However everything starts to change when one of the brothers decides to take a big step and leave one day to see what the outside is like.

Moselle’s documentary is enthralling from the very beginning and you go through a range of emotions; from feeling sympathetic and sorry for these characters to eventually getting an uplifting sense of hope that things are starting to get better for them. The brothers are extremely charismatic and likeable and you instantly feel drawn to them and connect with them; all they’ve known is the inside of their home for all these years and yet they are happy and content.

​The fact that this is a film about films in a way is powerful and effective; it proves that film itself can be such a strong form of escapism and it can change someone’s life. It was there for these boys at a time when they needed it and it helped them learn about the world. This is a product of both great filmmaking but also the ability to engage with a family to tell their story without being too pretentious and exaggerative. This is very real and you feel that instantly. This is definitely one of the best documentaries I’ve seen of late and I would thoroughly recommend it.
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On the cards for a while and with an extremely high level of expectation for director JJ Abrams to deliver on such a long-awaited sequel, we finally got to see the next edition of the franchise. Only having seen the original trilogy recently (I know this is a sin as a movie buff!) I was in somewhat of a good position to judge how well-presented following on from these. I came out with shivers running down my spine and frustrated that it had to come to an end.

Taking place three decades after the Galactic Empire and the events of Episode VI it follows young heroine Rey (played by brilliant newcomer Daisy Ridley) who comes across a BB-8 droid that knows where the long lost Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is. Rey then meets a rogue Stormtrooper by the name of Finn (a stellar performance from John Boyega) and together alongside some familiar faces – the legends that are Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) – they are thrown in the centre of a battle between the First Order and the resistance.

From then on we are treated with lashings of breath-taking cinematography and special effects, superb acting and a story that excited, emotes and simply entertains from start to finish. Taking the best of the originals but also putting his own fresh stamp on the franchise, JJ Abrams has delivered on all accounts and proven to us again that he is capable of producing something truly special whether you give him a classic series – Star Trek or something new – Lost (yes I was one of the few who stuck with it until the end!) to make. The cast are brilliant both old faces and new. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are as charismatic as they were back in the first film and their onscreen chemistry hasn’t got lost after all these years.
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Out of the new cast John Boyega really stands out as Finn; quirky but sincere he gives a brilliant performance which bodes well for future ventures – both Star Wars and otherwise. Adam Driver is also superb as Kylo Ren, one of the more fierce presences onscreen. However it is fresh newcomer Daisy Ridley who really steals the show as Rey. A strong heroine from the moment she appears, this is one character that you instantly take a liking too because of Ridley’s honest and realistic performance. This being her first film role, she is certain to go onto bigger – if it’s possible to get any bigger than this – features in years to come. All in all the film deserves every bit of hype surrounding it because it shines in every which way and will be enjoyed over the coming months as it should be.