An aspiring young painter falls for his patron's niece but forsakes love for ambition when a ghoulish stranger demands her for himself. Adapted from the chilling ghost story by J Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalcken the Painter weaves a fictional tale of terror around the work of real life seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Godfried Schalcken. Originally screened by the BBC, this exquisitely shot, atmospheric horror film explores the uneasy relationship between art, commerce and erotic desire.
find out more...Kevin Smith had a podcast where they made a joke about the idea of kidnapping and turning a human into a walrus. It went viral on the twittersphere. Then it became a movie. This movie. Though the whole thing starts out well, with decent doses of good humour and dramatic tension, it all falls very quickly by the wayside. The result is a ridiculous prosthetic walrus suit that envelops Justin Long. Somewhere inside this mess of a movie there's a punchline, if only Smith could get to it without q find out more...
Set against the background of the English Civil War, this tale of the violent persecution of alleged witches by the eponymous central character is a masterpiece of 60's British cinema. Excellent performances, (especially Vincent Price's), complement evocative use of scenery. One point of interest is the changes in film stock, which makes the film appear redder at the end than at the beginning, a deliberate ploy on behalf of the director who uses the deepening crimson to symbolise the story's find out more...