Negatives (1968)

 

The BFI are releasing director Peter Medak’s fascinating first feature film, which also marked an early feature appearance by Glenda Jackson, on Blu-ray in the UK.

Theo (Peter McEnery) runs an antique shop in the absence of his father (Maurice Denham) who is ill in hospital. Theo and his partner Vivien (Jackson) indulge in somewhat peculiar sexual role-play that, while they have all the items in the shop at their disposal, seems to recurringly centre around infamous murderer Dr Crippen and his lover.

Into this mix comes photographer Reingard (Diane Cilento) who observes them for a while from afar before renting an upstairs room at their house. She begins to have an effect on Theo, transforming him into the equally notorious ‘Red’ Baron Von Richtoven. When Theo spots an ancient biplane about to be destroyed at a local wrecking yard he brings it home and it signals a major change for all involved.

A study of a young man’s descent into a catatonic fantasy world is certainly one way you can read NEGATIVES, a film that belongs to the ‘Eccentric British Goings On Behind Closed Doors’ genre which could also the sheer exuberant lunacy of MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY AND GIRLY (1969) and even SIR HENRY AT RAWLINSON END (1980). The characters scream at each other sufficiently that John Waters is most likely a fan and it’s very much one of those films where you can’t quite see where it’s going until you get there.

The BFI’s Blu-ray has a commentary track by Tim Lucas which is up to his usual excellent standard. A third audio track boasts audio interviews with director Medak conducted by the late Lee Gambin and David Gregory and which impressively almost takes up the entirety of the running time, lasting just shy of 90 minutes. Other extras include a McEnery interview (11 minutes), as well as interviews with Medak (16 minutes) and editor Barrie Vince (31 minutes). You also get Dr Clare Smith talking about the actual Crippen case for 24 minutes which provides some fascinating extra context. Finally, the set comes with a booklet with a lengthy analytical essay by Josephine Botting about the film and a piece on the director by William Fowler.

Peter Medak’s NEGATIVES is out on Blu-ray from the BFI on Monday 16th March 2026

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

“Essential for Horror Fans”

Following its release in UK cinemas in January, Nia DaCosta’s direct sequel to Danny Boyle’s 28 YEARS LATER (2025) is now out on digital from Sony. When DaCosta was initially announced as director concerns were expressed in some quarters that she might not be able to successful follow Boyle’s combination of horror and satire tinged with outright comedy. However it’s a delight to report that, if anything, THE BONE TEMPLE contains even more extreme horrors than its predecessor while skimping not a jot on the heavy dose of satire in returning screenwriter Alex Garland’s script.

Starting pretty much immediately where the previous film left off, we join young Spike (Alfie Williams) having been rescued by the ‘Cult of Jimmy’ and about to fight for his place among the followers of the group's cruel and (literally as we find out later) psychotic leader ‘Sir Jimmy Crystal’ (a mesmerisingly disturbing performance by Jack O’Connell). 

Meanwhile Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) the builder of the bone temple, is making inroads, DAY OF THE DEAD-style, into communicating with the infected, specifically a large brutal individual called Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) who he is able to control with large doses of morphine. But the world of the doctor and the world of Jimmy Crystal are about to meet, resulting in a climax in which not everyone will make it out alive.

Nia DaCosta’s 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE is for everyone who thought Danny Boyle’s 28 YEARS LATER was way too lighthearted, coming across as it does like an extra grim episode of Terry Nation’s frequently exceedingly grim 1970s TV series Survivors. The emphasis here is on the insanity of many of the uninfected human characters, and it fully justifies the 18 rating it has been given by the BBFC with some wincingly effective torture scenes.

DaCosta also manages a few really stylish touches that show her effective CANDYMAN (2021) was no fluke. The sound editing deserves a shout out, too. Watch this with a good surround sound system and you’ll be convinced zombies are creeping up behind you. An essential film for fans of modern horror and an excellent entry in what is shaping up to be the best satirical horror film series of the 2020s. Excellent stuff.

Nia DaCosta’s 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE is out to rent or buy on digital platforms from Sony now

Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)

Following its UK cinema Christmas release last year, Mike P Nelson’s grindhouse slasher movie remake par excellence is now getting a Blu-ray, DVD and digital download release through Studio Canal.

This new version of the 1984 original keeps the best elements (child traumatised by seeing his parents killed by 'Santa' grows up to become lunatic slasher wearing the same festive outfit) but adds a lot more to the mix, including why the killer is creating his own advent calendar of death, a subplot about children being abducted, and a romance with a girl into true crime documentaries. 

Where SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT really scores big, though, is that here there's none of the irony, smugness or post-modernism of so many of those tiresome pseudo 1980s slasher tributes, the ones so keen to keep nudging you that 'this is just like the 80s, right?'. Instead here everything is played straight, which also helps to make an outrageous sequence in the middle (that appears so gob-smackingly out of left field) a thing of near genius. There are some in-jokes but they are subtle and more to be nodded at by those in the know, although fans of SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 will most likely cheer at the mention of ‘Garbage Day!’.

Considering how many extra elements are added, including the reason the lead character has been going on a killing spree every Christmas for the last ten years, it would be easy for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, to collapse under the weight of too many absurdities. Full marks, then, to Nelson and his talented and likeable cast who get the balance just right. Likely to become an annual seasonal watch for horror fans, this is how you do a modern slasher picture. Studio Canal’s Blu-ray comes with an eleven minute making of that includes interviews with Nelson, the producers (who also produced the original) and the lead players.

Mike P Nelson’s SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from Studio Canal on Monday 2nd March 2026

Else (2025)

“French Arthouse Melding of Lovecraft and TETSUO Creates Something Beautiful”

You won’t have seen anything quite like ELSE, the debut feature from director and co-writer Thibault Emin which is getting a digital release from Blue Finch. Set almost entirely within the apartment of Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) the film begins with the aftermath of what he believes to be a one night stand with Cass (Edith Proust). There’s some knockabout romantic interaction and the whole thing is played very lightly, with the production design of Anx’s flat so bright and garish it could almost be mistaken for the playroom of a local kindergarten.

Cass leaves and over the next few days we stay with Ax as he begins to learn of a new disease which is sweeping the country. The symptoms? People seem to be turning to stone and, in some cases, even merging with the concrete of their surroundings. Things soon reach epidemic proportions and the government initiates lockdown. Reunited with Cass the two hole up in Anx’s flat, occasionally interacting with other neighbours by voice only down the laundry chute. Meanwhile the building as a whole begins to change, and it becomes apparent that once things have settled down the world is going to be a very different place.

        Mixing body horror with cosmic horror, one of the many interesting aspects of ELSE is that as our protagonists mutate and meld with their surroundings, so the film changes too. Beginning as a romcom, by the halfway mark the film is more akin to a grim black and white eastern European art house project, while by the end the human characters, and the world they now inhabit, have become nameless things of ethereal beauty. 

ELSE is not a fast paced film but it is one full of imagery that will stay with you. Just be prepared to go with the broad swings from French comedy to Cronenbergian horror to otherworldly serenity and you’ll find yourself enjoying a unique cinematic experience. And don't worry, the title does get explained. Here's the trailer:

Thibault Emin’s ELSE is out on digital from Blue Finch on Monday 2nd March 2026

God of Frogs (2026)

 

When the history of 2020s cinematic horror is written, there's going to need to be a fairly big section labelled 'ambitious and interesting ideas that lacked the budget and skill to really make them work'. GOD OF FROGS, which is getting a digital release from Miracle Media, is a case in point, offering an almost Lovecraftian concept of a frog worshipping community living among us but throwing a number of other interesting ideas and concepts into the mix as well.

The film is in four parts, each written and directed by different people, which is always a bit of a worrying sign suggesting a cobbling together of short films rather than a coherently thought through feature, although there are credits suggesting the project did have overall supervisors. The first part, 'Mother of All Frogs' is set in 1969 and introduces us to a hippy frog-worshipping cult, the frog in question being a large anthropoid amphibian that has to reproduce its kind with a willing human female.

Part 2, 'God of the Bog' is set in 1994 and tells the tale of a documentary film crew who set off into then swamps of Florida where they encounter normal frogs galore as well as something more monstrous. Part 3, 'Beelzebufo' is set in 2019 and suggests that big business is now planning to isolate the frog chemical hallucinogen introduced in the previous part and arrange for its mass manufacture. Unfortunately the man they go to for funding suffers a helicopter crash in Florida and ingests a bit too much froggy swamp water. Part 4 'Farm to Table' is set in 2044 with the mass industrial exploitation of frogs (I think) for their drug properties and involves a baby frog monster being saved by an industrial spy.

There's a lot going on in GOD OF FROGS but the underlying story of what's happening isn't always clear, so much so that you might need to watch it twice to work it out. Technical skills across the board are of the 'ultra low budget but in some cases promising' variety. The photography, especially in the first two stories, could have done with being more vivid rather than the horribly washed out palate we get, but the frog monster suit (and the baby frog monster in part four) are very well rendered. Even so it's a shame we get to see so much of them under bright lighting as a little subtlety here would have gone a long way to making things more effective. Still, if you're interested in modern ultra low-budget horror cinema you're definitely going to want to give GOD OF FROGS a look.

GOD OF FROGS is out on digital from Miracle Media on Monday 2nd March 2026

Strongroom (1962) & The Man in the Back Seat (1961)

 

The cover of this new BFI release (out soon on Blu-ray, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and - in a bit - on BFI Player) may only mention STRONGROOM (newly remastered in 2K) but be assured that as a bonus you also get another superb Vernon Sewell-directed thriller THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT as well. So let’s take a look at both.

STRONGROOM is a seriously decent little 79 minute B picture about a bank job gone wrong, resulting in the bank manager and his secretary being trapped in the vault. The robbers concoct a plan to free them but then the only one able to do it is almost immediately killed in a car accident. Should the others go back and risk being caught? Or leave the prisoners there to die and risk being caught and hanged? 

        The leads (Derren Nesbitt, Colin Gordon and Ann Lynn) are all very good but the best bit is the writing, which quickly starts piling disaster upon disaster in such a breathless way that by the time the baddies are loading their van with oxy-acetylene equipment and the police are hot on their trail all you're wondering is if the two stuck in the vault might actually die. You’ll have to watch the film to find out.

THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT was made before STRONGROOM and also features Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner, who got on so well with Vernon Sewell that he cast them in STRONGROOM the following year. They are two crooks who plan to steal the takings from a greyhound racetrack. The only problem is the bag is handcuffed to the man they beat senseless to get it. How to remove it? First they have to get him to a place where they can do it, which is how he ends up as the title character. This is great, tense stuff that by the end transcends the crime genre into something approaching pure horror, and the film is one of the best of a series of Leslie Parkyn - Julian Wintle crime pictures made at Beaconsfield Studios in the early 1960s.

Extras on the BFI’s Blu-ray include a new commentary track from Josephine Botting and Vic Pratt on STRONGROOM and another from them on MAN IN THE BACK SEAT, a two part audio interview with editor John Trumper that's spread over two tracks on STRONGROOM, Footpads - a one minute British crime film from 1896 (!), Donovan Winter’s 1957 heist short THE AWAKENING HOUR (21 minutes) and a couple of public information films - AFTER DARK (14 minutes) from 1979 about road safety and A TEST FOR LOVE from 1937 (27 minutes) which is about the perils of STDs and is on here because it was directed by Vernon Sewell. The first pressing of the disc also includes a booklet with new writing on the film from James Bell, Barry Forshaw and Tony Dykes.

STRONGROOM and THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT are coming out from the BFI on Blu-ray, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime on Monday 23rd February 2026 and on BFI Player on Monday 23rd March 2026

Anaconda (2025)

After its release in UK cinemas at the end of last year. Sony’s novel, metatextual reboot of its 1997 Luis Llosa-directed Jennifer Lopez and Jon Voight-starring ANACONDA is now available on digital platforms from Sony.

Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) were childhood friends who dreamed of going to Hollywood and making movies, to the extent that they made their own monster opus ‘The Quatch’. While Griff went to LA and ended up as an actor in minor roles (“four episodes of SWAT”) Doug stayed at home where he became a wedding videographer, although he insists what he makes are “short films”.

It’s Doug’s birthday and as well as a VHS cassette of the long thought lost ‘The Quatch’ Griff has a proposal for him: Griff has recently acquired the rights to the film ANACONDA and wanted Doug to direct an ultra low budget remake in the Amazon with friends Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn). Despite getting a bank loan that’s even smaller than the minimal budget required off they go to the jungle where they meet up with a snake handler and his pet anaconda before travelling up the Amazon to make their magnum opus. But a number of surprises await them, not least that fact that Sony themselves are in the middle of making their own reboot. 

The basic idea behind ANACONDA 2025 is sound, the stars are appealing, and there are a number of in-jokes and a couple of laugh out loud moments. Overall, though, it feels a bit forced and just isn’t terribly funny, especially when you consider the talents involved. That said there are cameos to make you smile and a big explosive ending with an enormous CGI snake. If you want something to just pass the time this will do the trick if you’re not too demanding. 

At this point I would normally post a trailer but Sony have done another of their food tie-ins so instead I’ll leave you to decide if you want to watch the film and / or enjoy the Chicken Shop Big Bite meal, serving in restaurants across London:

ANACONDA is now available on Digital platforms from Sony