Advent (2024)

 

After its premiere at Halloween Frightfest, writer-director Airell Anthony Hayes' pseudo documentary-cum found footage picture gets a digital release from Miracle Media.

Hayley (Rasina Pavlova) has a YouTube channel (which is where the found footage angle comes in) and wrote her university thesis on urban legends. She buys a 'Krampus calendar' online, which turns out to be a Christmas-tree shaped wooden box with 24 doors. Each time you open one it presents you with a challenge. Get to the end and Krampus steals your soul and ensures your body ends up in a messy suicide.

And that's the main problem with ADVENT. It's never adequately explained why Hayley would want to go through the various trials (which range from walking around your Christmas tree three times to staying up all night to sitting naked in front of an open fire - audiences of 'sophisticated' cinema should not get worked up about this, however) just to end up dead and consigned to hell.

It's a very low budget homemade-feeling endeavour with the standout performance being Nicolas Vince who is required to spout a lot of background dialogue and is presented to us as an expert filmed from the same two camera angles over and over, filling us in on information at regular intervals throughout the film. ADVENT is not scary, it's not especially involving and ultimately it's not worth its admittedly brief (77 minutes) running time. Here's the trailer:

Advent will be released on UK Digital (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play) by Miracle Media on 25th November 2024 

Magpie (2024)

Following its premiere at Halloween Frightfest last weekend, Sam Yates' thriller featuring a cast of familiar faces gets a digital release from Signature.

Ben (Shazad Latif from Penny Dreadful and Star Trek: Discovery) and Annette (Daisy Ridley from the trio of Disney Star Wars movie sequels) are thrilled when their young daughter is cast in a costume drama. However, when author Ben gets to meet star Alicia (Mathilda Lutz from Coraline Fargeat's REVENGE) he immediately becomes a bit too enamoured and the frequent trips to the studio lead to pancakes at her place, and we all know what that means.

And that's one of MAGPIE's key strengths - letting you think you know what's going on when perhaps you don't. Much is made of Ben and Annette's rocky relationship, with Annette's career seemingly on hold while they raise their two children. A business meeting between Annette and former boss Richard (Alistair Petrie from decent gothics EIGHT FOR SILVER and VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN) becomes excruciating due to the presence of Annette's baby son Lucas and there's the suggestion Annette may be on medication for depression.

The thing that carries MAGPIE through to its satisfying conclusion, though, is the acting, which is just the right side of melodrama to keep the whole thing believable, at least for the running time of the movie. A perfectly entertaining adultery-themed thriller for a winter's evening. Here's the trailer:

MAGPIE is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 11th November 2024