Diary of a Mayhem 2025 Day 4 - Sunday

Bone Lake

A couple book a romantic getaway in a lavish country house next to a lake in the middle of nowhere. Another couple turns up claiming they have also booked the venue. Mind games ensue. EuroHorror obsessives will likely be ahead of things at every step here, but for everyone else this has plenty of twists and turns that I'm certainly not going to spoil, suffice to say it all gets pleasingly bloody during the final act.

Heresy

In a grim, dank, medieval Dutch village a woman cannot conceive and so naturally the townsfolk accuse her of being possessed by the devil. When she goes into the nearby forest from which No-one Returns Unscathed she has an encounter with something that isn't the devil but which is certainly very supernatural indeed. Director Didier Konings' folk horror piece offers a slight story even for its brief (61 minute) running time, but it's worth watching for one night shot when we see the spirits of the forest at a distance.

The Occupant of the Room

Algernon Blackwood is one of the greats, and one of those classic authors whose work is difficult to film because so much of what goes on in his stories (often inspired by his own adventures) takes place in the lead character's mind. Full marks, then, to writer-director Kier-La Janisse whose THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM feels more like the 1970s BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas than that channel's own recent attempts at reviving the format. Minturn (Don McKellar from Cronenberg's EXISTENZ and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE) desperately needs to spend a snowbound night at a remote inn. All the rooms are taken, but one of them has not seen its occupant for a couple of days after she set off up the mountain. He takes it, of course, and comes to regret his decision, of course. The story is told neatly, atmospherically and economically over 30 minutes and benefits from some disquieting animation towards the end. Produced by Severin Films and an excellent companion piece to their just as good TO FIRE YOU COME AT LAST, directed by Sean Hogan. 

Portal to Hell

Dunn (Trey Holland) discovers a portal to hell in a local laundromat. His neighbour Keith David is dying of cancer and Dunn just happens to waylay the demon come to collect David's soul. Unfortunately the demon wants three other souls to replace it, so Dunn has to find three 'deserving' cases he can send to hell through a washing machine. It all sounds very silly and it is, but PORTAL TO HELL manages to be far more charming and touching than you might expect and is worth checking out even if you're not a fan of comedy with your horror.

Dead by Dawn

Giallo meets Lovecraft (sort of) in this Polish horror that doesn't live up to the potential of that premise. After some encouraging mentions of olde Lovecraftian favourite books like De Vermis Mysteriis, Cultes Des Ghouls and the Pnakotic Manuscripts, we join a bunch of actors employed to rehearse a play in a theatre at midnight. It's all for a ritual, you see, as is the bumping off of each of them by a killer wearing the mask on the poster. Unfortunately this is all executed with the storytelling expertise of hitting you over the head with a hammer wrapped in the screenplay. Loud music, flashing lights and shaking camerawork, not to mention the muddy photography, serve to render some scenes difficult to follow. The undemanding may enjoy the references to OPERA, the remake of SUSPIRIA and other 'nods to' (or possibly steals from) better films, but it's all a pretty unsatisfying experience. 

Diary of a Mayhem 2025 Day 3 - Saturday

Mag Mag

Young men are being haunted by the ghost of a girl whose size and physical appearance resembles Rob Zombie's version of the adult Michael Myers. When they reject her advances they end up dead with the eyeballs plucked out. But what's actually going on here isn't quite as straightforward as it initially seems, with the ultimate explanation for the hauntings reserved for the last few minutes of the running time. In between we are treated to a gleeful embracing of many J-Horror cliches, comedy monks and a dance routine that involves some bizarre sphincter artwork. If you're a fan of J-Horror you'll appreciate the references to previous genre films, but a lot of this can be enjoyed just as much even if you don't know them at all. 

Man Finds Tape

A found footage horror, but don't go scrolling away just yet. MAN FINDS TAPE is found footage shot (on the whole) by characters who are themselves film professionals, collated with CCTV footage and other nicely static sources that eliminate the wobble cam that plagues the worst of the genre. A man in a small Texas town discovers a video recording that shows a stranger in his bedroom when he was a boy. Then CCTV footage turns up of people suddenly falling asleep in the town high street and a van running someone over. It would be a shame to say any more, and indeed to suggest the horror authors whose work this film is most reminiscent of, but in a festival that hasn't had that much horror MAN FINDS TAPE helps to redress the balance very nicely.

Bulk

What's this one all about? Travelling the time streams, that's what! Ben Wheatley's new film acknowledges Philip K Dick, Alan Moore, Kurt Vonnegut and an awful lot of others at the end but to me this felt most like one of the Jerry Cornelius novels of Michael Moorcock, especially A Cure for Cancer. Agent Sam Riley is thrown into the time streams by Alexandria Maria Lara in search of a missing scientist whose Brane (sic) has exploded. This is where he meets Noah Taylor in a large number of roles, alters roles himself as does Lara and the three of them meet up, cross over and affect the outcome of the time streams while always coming back to the same house but in different rooms. Shot in black and white in academy ratio ('because it's best for faces' said Mr Wheatley) and making ingenious use of both new tech and old school model work. If you're not a fan of Mr Wheatley this is unlikely to convert you, and if you've seen everything he's ever done chances are you'll still be surprised by this one. Oh, and your mileage will undoubtedly vary as to whether it's your cup of tea or not. 

Event Horizon

This year's big screen classic, which if you haven't seen you should, as it's still Paul WS Anderson's best. 'Big, British and Bloody Scary', as SFX magazine called this tale of deep space exploration gone horribly wrong (and to a hell dimension) back in the day. And an excellent opportunity for those who missed it the first time round to experience it on the big screen. I was there opening weekend so I elected to retire early. 

Diary of a Mayhem 2025 Day 2 - Friday

Chess of the Wind 

A new restoration of this 1976 Iranian thriller (which was very quickly banned in its country of origin) and a film that's very much in the vein of Clouzot's 1954 LES DIABOLIQUES, Hammer's 1960s psycho thrillers and even Andy Milligan's bizarre gothic tales of weird families intent on bumping each other off to inherit a fortune. When the matriarch of a wealthy family dies she leaves her money not to her husband but to her daughter from a previous marriage. Both the husband and his two grown stepsons are keen to get their hands on the money but the wheelchair-bound daughter isn't prepared to lose it without a fight and even murder. But if the patriarch is subsequently killed why do the police see him two days later? And who was it musicians claim sent them to the house to perform? A fascinating film from a culture not known for this kind of subject matter, CHESS OF THE WINDS also boasts an effective music score that gets under your skin. All this and THE EXPANSE's Shohreh Aghdashloo in her first film as the daughter's handmaiden. Good stuff & recommended if you can find it - it's currently available only on a Korean Blu-ray or as part of a US Criterion box set.

Transcending Dimensions

A monk holds the secret to moving to other dimensions, aided by the severing of your little finger. One of his acolytes has disappeared (and is in fact now part of a trans-dimensional experiment). The vanished monk's girlfriend, who is not quite what she seems, gets her assassin colleague to find out where he went. This involves a trip on a spaceship, a much smaller monk, a naked lady who functions as a toilet seat warmer, and a lot of other things before we get to a final battle. That's about as much sense as I could make of this one, which very much feels like a mishmash of stuff the director wanted to see in a film without worrying too much about how much sense it made or if it all fitted together. But if you're a fan of Japanese craziness this will be your big dose of it for the year.

The Arbiter

An unexpected gem, THE ARBITER asks the question: What if Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS was low budget, British, and funny? Rival gangs of pyromaniacs, roller skaters, graphic designers, ice cream salesmen and others rule the city at night, turning parts of it into no-go zones that the police have agreed to stay away from as long as no guns are used and no property is damaged. But one gang is threatening to wipe all the others out and it's the job of Verril (Craig Russell) to act as arbiter between the gang leaders and the police to reach some sort of solution. THE ARBITER starts off hard and fast, flinging as much comedy as action at the audience in its opening act such that by the time things slow down a bit it has you firmly on its side, all the way to the highly satisfying conclusion. A genuine low budget treat and very much a highlight of the festival. 

Redux Redux

Irene (Michaela McManus) travels from parallel universe to parallel universe to kill the man who murdered her daughter in every one. In one of them she also ends up rescuing his latest victim, 15 year old runaway Mia (Stella Marcus), who joins Irene on her journey to some understandable reluctance on Irene's part. Each of the parallel universes is remarkably similar and the killer remains conveniently the same in each, but then that's not the point of REDUX REDUX which is more interested in looking at the dehumanising effect Irene's lengthy vendetta has had on her as a human being. And to that end it succeeds admirably.

Diary of a Mayhem 2025 Day 1 - Thursday

After a couple of years away, Mrs Probert and I are back at Nottingham's Mayhem Film Festival. It's taking place, as always, in the luxurious environs of the Broadway Cinema, still the comfiest setting we've ever attended for an event such as this. And that's just as well, seeing as this year's programme is packed with must see films. As usual I'll be posting my thoughts as I go so let's get started:

Game

The festival opened with the UK premiere of this low budget effort set in 1993. David (Marc Bessant) wakes up in an overturned car and finds himself trapped when he can't get his seatbelt to release. After spending some time trying to escape he's attacked by a dog, which he kills (dog lovers beware of this). Unfortunately the dog belongs to a local poacher (Jason Williamson) who has no intention of letting David go. However, when David pours the stash of drugs he obtained from a rave the night before into the poacher's cider, everything takes a turn for the psychedelic. 

        The plot for GAME is slight and the film spends a ponderous amount of its scant 80 minute running time detailing David's attempt to get out of the car. Neither character evinces any audience sympathy and by the time everything goes Ben Wheatley by way of Ken Russell stylistically in the final act you are still wondering why you should care about either of these unpleasant characters. 

The Old Woman with the Knife

In 1975 a 16 year old girl stumbles into a restaurant and, after she kills a US soldier who tries to attack her, into a new way of life. 50 years later she's the most senior member of a secret assassination squad who only take on hits on people they consider vermin in society. But 50 years of hits means you make a few enemies, and one of them is about to come back to haunt her. Min Kyu-dong's Korean crime thriller plays around with narrative, making things a bit confusing at times, but it builds to an action-packed climax at an abandoned amusement park and the lead performance from Lee Hue-yeong as an ageing female John Wick is a winner.

Daughters of Darkness 4K (1971)

Harry Kumel's classic, highly regarded vampire tale set in gloomy Belgian locations is getting a 4K UHD and Blu-ray dual format limited edition release from Radiance Films.

Stefan (John Karlen) and Valerie (Danielle Ouimet) are on their honeymoon. Their next planned stop is to visit Stefan's mother at Chilton Manor in the UK, but on the way from Switzerland a problem with their train causes them to end up stuck in Ostend. It's the middle of winter and they find themselves the only guests at a lavish seafront hotel. Until, that is, the arrival of the Countess Bathory (Delphine Seyrig) and her 'ward' Ilona (Andrea Rau). 

The hotel clerk (Paul Esser) is convinced the Countess has stayed at the hotel before, but if that is the case she has not aged in forty years. Meanwhile, the newspapers report the killing of three young women in Bruges, their bodies drained of blood. Ilona tells the Countess she wishes to leave her service and the Countess herself has already set her sights on Valerie as a new companion, while Stefan has some secrets to reveal about both his mother and his sexual preferences. 

There's not a lot of blood in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (although when it is seen it packs quite the punch) but there is a lot of red, including the Countess' car, Stefan's leather jacket, and some of the articles of clothing that both the Countess and Ilona (sporting a very Jess Franco VAMPYROS LESBOS red scarf) wear. Kumel shoots the hotel in which all the action happens in the style of 'tell me you're in a Gothic castle without actually being in a Gothic castle', complete with storm. The film feels markedly different from other European vampire pictures of the period and, like the oeuvre of Jean Rollin, has its own unique feel, right down to a climax that tries to do something a little different. 

Radiance's 4K transfer is the best this film has ever looked, with night scenes clear, and colours, especially of Ms Seyrig's costumes, splendidly vivid. Extras on Radiance's disc include a commentary track from Virginie Sélavy and Lindsay Hallam. There's a new piece from Kim Newman, who provides a concise summary of vampire film cycles through the years (28 minutes), an excellent new interview with Kumel by Anne Billson which discusses amongst many other things the proposed sequels to the film (31 minutes) and Immoral Tales, a visual essay by Kat Ellinger who charts the history of both lesbian vampire movies and the depiction of Elisabeth Bathory in both fiction and film, digging up some obscurities so that everyone watching this will probably have some homework. Archival material includes a 1989 interview with Seyrig (27 minutes), on-set footage from 1970 (10 minutes) and a 1971 interview with Kumel as he shoots the final stunt (3 minutes). Also included are a couple of Kumel short subjects - Anna The Maid (1958) about a minad who fantasises about killing her employer (five minutes) and the surreal seven minute Aether (1960).

Finally, Radiance's limited edition set comes with an 80 page perfect bound book featuring new writing on the film. There's a slipcase to keep everything in that's complete with the usual Radiance packaging that allows you to have the disc free of BBFC certificates. Here's a trailer:

Harry Kumel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS is out from Radiance Films in a dual format UHD and Blu-ray limited edition of 5000 on Monday 27th October 2025

Severance (2006)

Icon are releasing SEVERANCE, the horror comedy Bristol-born film-maker Christopher Smith made in between CREEP (2004) and TRIANGLE (2009), on 4K in a limited edition dual disc UHD and Blu-ray set with extras, a poster and four art cards.

A group of office workers from the Palisade weapons company are off on a team-building weekend in Hungary. They get lost in a forest and end up having to deal with areas filled with landmines, huge mantraps, and psychotic guerrillas armed with flamethrowers, machine guns, and very big knives who have vowed to kill anyone connected with Palisade. 

So far, so we’ve-seen-it-all-before, but SEVERANCE has several things going for it that many of its predecessors in the being-chased-around-the-woods subgenre have lacked. Firstly the acting is very good right across the board. Characters are fleshed out well and quickly endear themselves to the audience. Tim McInnerney does a great job as the unpleasant, ineffectual leader of the group whose exit scène nevertheless elicits genuine sympathy, Laura Harris (probably best known for TV series Dead Like Me and Robert Rodriguez's THE FACULTY) shows she can do more than be the brittle blonde, and Danny Dyer is actually very good as the dope head with a constant supply of spliffs and ecstasy who’s never quite sure if what is happening to him is real or not. 

        The direction is right on the button, which is all the more of an achievement when you take into account that the script veers between hilarity and out and out horror, yet Smith never makes a mistake – this is one of the few films where you will be chortling merrily one minute and then be genuinely horrified the next. And by the time the characters meet their demise you’re truly sorry (and in at least one case really upset) to see them go. 

On its original release SEVERANCE was plugged as another SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It isn't. Whereas Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright’s film was essentially a comedy with gory bits, SEVERANCE is a genuine horror film that manages to seamlessly include bits that really make you laugh. If you're of a disposition to enjoy such things, you'll find your spine tingling quite a few times with the sheer deliciousness of the whole endeavour.

Icon's release comes with a ported over commentary track with the cast and crew (present on both the UHD and Blu-ray disc). Unique to the Blu-ray (and not provided for review) are eight featurettes, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes and out-takes and two new interviews for this edition - one with director Christopher Smith and the other with star Andy Nyman. 

Christopher Smith's SEVERANCE is out in a limited edition dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray edition from Icon on Monday 20th October 2025

Eyes Without a Face 4K (1960)

The very first film I wrote about for House of Mortal Cinema gets a sparkling 4K restoration release on UHD, Apple TV and Amazon Prime courtesy of the BFI.

Plastic surgeon Dr Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) has, through his careless driving, caused extensive damage to the face of his daughter Christianne (Edith Scob). Being the kind of surgeon usually encountered in pulp horror fiction of the period, Genessier hasn’t heard of trying to take skin grafts from elsewhere on Christianne’s body to try and improve her appearance, even though he gives a lecture on the subject at the start of the film. But why should he when he lives so near Paris and there’s a bevy of beautiful women whom he can kidnap and graphically remove the faces of in increasingly desperate acts of transplantation?

With its pulpy source material it’s not surprising that George Franju’s film kick-started a subgenre of horror cinema that concentrated on the lurid rather than the lyrical aspects of his movie. The tale of the surgeon responsible for destroying his own daughter’s face and willing to do anything to repair his actions is the stuff of pulp paperback luridness, and Franju certainly elevates it way above its penny dreadful potential, making as fine a horror film as one could hope for with the material. 

Apart from the nasty bits there’s a pervasive gloom to the film that serves to augment the desperate situation of its central character, wandering her father’s isolated country mansion, a literally faceless wraith assumed dead by the rest of the world. One imagines the city-set scenes at the police station and its environs would be grey even if the picture were in colour, and it never seems to stop raining. Almost from the beginning there is no suggestion that the film is going to end anything other than badly, which is possibly why the final scene is all the more moving, simultaneously suggesting hope and hopelessness, freedom and utter loneliness.  

EYES WITHOUT A FACE was made in 1959 but it’s best viewed out of context with contemporary horror cinema of the time, when Hammer was well on its way to becoming the most successful producer of horror films in the world, Hitchcock was about to make PSYCHO, and British company Anglo Amalgamated had just released Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM. Compared with these slicker movies the Franju film seems a bit creaky. The horror is no less effective, but nevertheless the movie feels as if it belongs to a different age, making the surgical scenes and the deaths at the climax possibly even more shocking and unexpected. 

As I’ve mentioned above, the BFI’s 4K transfer looks excellent, and really gives this film a new lease of life. Extras include a new commentary track from Alexandra Heller-Nicholas with the archival commentary track by Tim Lucas also present and correct. We also get Mark Kermode's introduction to the film from 2016 (3 minutes), a fifty minute Franju career overview (LES FLEURS MALADIVES), an interview with Edith Scob from 2014 (17 minutes), and two short films: MONSIEUR ET MADAME CURIE is fourteen minutes long and tells of the work of the scientists from the point of view of Marie Curie; and LE PREMIER NUIT, which comes with a Georges Delerue score and tells the twenty minute tale of a young boy spending a night on the Metro. The disc also comes with a reversible sleeve featuring new art and a booklet with archival writing on the film. 

Georges Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE is out on 4K UHD, Apple TV and Amazon Prime from the BFI on Monday 20th October 2025