FrightFest: I have a bad feeling about this

The 27th FrightFest is underway in London over the August long weekend, as always, bringing scary movies to audiences that love to be terrified. I'm only dipping my toes into the array of movies this year, and here are notes on films from the first three days...

Starsuckers
dir-scr Brett Butler, Jason Butler; with James Alex, Manon Ens-Lapointe 26/Can **
With over-saturated colours, this satirical horror comedy is flat-out ridiculous, populated with hilariously deadpan characters who are oblivious in their self-involvement or sentimentality. The Butler Brothers write and direct with a lot of witty style, although the plot is so absurd that it begins to wear thin early on. And while there are some strong points along the way, any message gets lost in the unhinged silliness.

Colony
dir Yeon Sang-ho; with Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan 26/Kor ***.
A decade after his Train to Busan reinvented the genre, Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho comes up with another new take on the zombie movie with this tense action thriller largely set within an infected Seoul high-rise. With its soapy plot threads, the script pulls the audience into the melodrama as chaos spirals out of control around enjoyably messy characters. And genre fans will enjoy the particularly yucky gore... FULL REVIEW >

Big Baby
dir-scr Spider One; with Brandon Scott, Krsy Fox 25/US ***.
Writer-director Spider One has some fun with the horror genre here, playfully juggling stalker movie cliches as well as the quirks of a creative person's imagination. Along with colourful production design and a self-aware script, there are also some deeper ideas in intriguing discussions relating to bullying and retribution. But of course the main point of the movie is to freak out the audience and some already frazzled characters.

Blood Secret
dir-scr Cameron Francis; with Katherine Lozon, Tiana Akers 26/US ***.
Cranking up the tension with a creepy sound mix and jarring editing, writer-director Cameron Francis makes the most of this offbeat thriller, which centres around a dinner between two women. But there are continual hints that there's also some ghostly nastiness happening around them. And both the actors and filmmakers have a lot of fun playing with various elements to keep the tension high before pushing everything over the top.

Electric Meat
dir-scr Dan Schaffer; with Caspian Faye, Emily Booth 26/UK **.
Shot in moody black and white, this experimental movie establishes its freak-out tone from the opening scene, which is disorientingly twisty and violent. Writer-director Dan Schaffer uses flickering edits, a dense sound mix and inventive camera trickery to create all manner of bonkers nuttiness. And because the scenes play out without dialog, it's a challenge to find narrative nuances that might allow us to get involved.

Full reviews will be posted on SHADOWS' FRIGHTFEST PAGE >

Critical Week: Puppy dog vibes

This has been an unusually busy week for me for a variety of reasons, mainly because there have been pre-Venice screenings in London to give me a jump on the festival, which starts next week. Meanwhile, I also caught up with Gregg Araki's new art-world/sadomasochism comedy I Want Your Sex, which stars Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde. It's colourful, lusty, funny and also a bit silly. Jacob Elordi leads the charge in Ridley Scott's thoroughly entertaining post-apocalyptic The Dog Stars, which has a refreshingly introspective tone interrupted by rather simplistic action and some nutty black comedy (Allison Janney alert!).

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Bitter Christmas • Coyote vs Acme
The Dog Stars • De Gaulle: Resistance
Boorman and the Devil
ALL REVIEWS >

I really loved the Cannes award-winning La Bola Negra, a sweeping Spanish epic directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Using gay themes, it traces three plot threads between 1932 and 2017. Ambitious and hugely involving, there's even a fabulous sequence featuring a scene-stealing Penelope Cruz. The Girl in the River is an underwhelming mystery starring Maggie Grace, Devon Sawa, Tiffany Haddish and every genre cliche imaginable. The jazz pianist biopic Everybody Digs Bill Evans is shimmeringly artful and rather aloof, with a terrific cast that includes Anders Danielson Lie, Laurie Metcalf and Bill Pullman. From French filmmaker Dominik Moll, Case 137 stars Lea Drucker as an investigator looking into police violence after a street protest. Straight from the headlines, it's riveting and urgent. The intriguing Bolivian drama The Condor Daughter follows a young midwife on a riveting journey into the big city. And the doc Super Nature features glorious Super 8 footage of life around the globe.

I also watched films this week that will be at the 27th FrightFest (this weekend in London) or the 83rd Venice Film Festival (next week in Italy). Both festivals will have regular reports right here.

Coming up, I'll be watching quite a few more films for FrightFest and Venice over the long weekend, plus Saoirse Ronan in Bad Apples and the sequel Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, then heading to Italy for Venezia83.

Critical Week: Stay sharp

I'm back in London after six days at the Edinburgh Fringe, where I watched and reviewed 15 shows. Back in London, film screenings are coming in thick and fast. I finally caught up with Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer in the sharply well-made drama The Death of Robin Hood, which is very violent and rather relentlessly downbeat. By huge contrast, there's the nearly shelved Coyote vs Acme, starring Jon Cena and Will Forte opposite animated characters from Looney Tunes cartoons. It's a riot of energy, references and inventive imagery. And it's very, very funny.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Magic Faraway Tree
Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma
ALL REVIEWS >

Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser lead the charge in the D-Day drama Pressure, a riveting true story about men on a knife-edge decision. It's seriously well-written, directed and played. Zoey Deutch has the title role in the comedy pastiche Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, but it's Jon Hamm and John Slattery spoofing themselves that makes this smart and very silly movie worth a look. Lea Seydoux stars in the Austrian drama Gentle Monster, as a woman whose life is upended by a police visit. It's powerful, complex and costars Catherine Deneuve. In addition, advanced screenings of films from next month's Venice Film Festival included the Bosnian drama Agata the Writer starring Mia Wasikowska. 

Coming up this next week, I'll be very busy watching Jacob Elordi in Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars, Olivia Wilde in I Want Your Sex, Maggie Grace in The Girl in the River, Cannes award-winner La Bola Negra, German satire Babystar, French crime drama Case 137 and Chabrol's restored 1969 classic La Femme Infidele. There will also be many more films from both FrightFest (which starts next Thursday in London) and the Venice Film Festival (I head to Italy the following week).

Fringe: Huge Davies - Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child

Huge Davies: Sleep Paralysis Princess
Monkey Barrel, Cabaret Voltaire 1 • Fringe 2026 ★★★★

With his grumpy style and hilariously absurd wordplay, Huge Davies takes the stage wearing a chef's hat for reasons than only become vaguely less unclear later. He starts by warning that old people in the audience won't like this show, and should just go to sleep. What follows feels like a fever dream that he makes up as he goes, although it's so well-structured that we know better. And he takes his dryly amusing contempt for his audience to startling new extremes this time.

The central joke here is that he hasn't been able to sleep for 10 years, which is affecting the way he sees everything. As he shares anecdotes from his life, he casually undermines homophobia, racism and xenophobia with close-to-the-bone jokes. Absurd stories from his childhood lead into a Henry VIII-style rhyme about his exes. One of these was a witch who placed a curse on him. And now he has discovered a profane ritual that will lift the curse, but at whose expense?

Huge's rapid-fire delivery keeps us thoroughly entertained, even as he snarls at us. He adds nonsensical twists to everyday situations that force us to look at them through new eyes. And his aggressive attitude is balanced by his snappy wit, which occasionally breaks the facade. Goofier moments include reenacting how he thought he was turning into a fly and listening to the audiobook of The Hobbit instead of sleeping, a gag that echoes and deepens right to the very end. It's unclear if he has a point here, but his caustic charm is thoroughly entertaining.

For more: HUGE DAVIES • 17.Aug.26

Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child
Zoo Southside, Studio • Fringe 2026 ★★★★

Directed by Maggie Soboil, this one-woman show is expertly performed by Bellina Logan, who walks the audience through her complex relationship with her mother. Bellina is such a skilful performer that every character in the story springs vividly to life with amusingly quirky details. Even though it's sharply well-written, the show only offers a glimpse of Bellina herself, leaving us wanting to know more about her too. But her mother Averil emerges as a larger-than-life figure who inspires us to embrace whatever life throws at us, although perhaps a bit less chaotically.

She launches into her quick-paced story describing her mother as a Maggie Smith-style Englishwoman, blonde and blue-eyed in striking contrast to her father, who looked like Shaft. They met in Los Angeles, and Averil hid her pregnancy from her two older daughters, heading to "Paris" then returning with a gorgeous brown baby. Over the years, they moved between London, New York and Los Angeles. There are several long-term friendships, plus an extended family of cats in Manhattan. And while Bellina was clearly raised to be independent and confident, her wedding and even the birth of her child are described in the context of her mother.

Bellina plays everyone using accents and distinct physicality, catching the most offbeat revelations about their personalities. Everyone is thoroughly colourful, especially her drama-queen mother. This is a funny and deeply involving show, peppered with lively breakout moments that add vivid textures of both musical joy and dark tension. In the final act, the show centres around Averil's slowly growing dementia and how Bellina had to "deconstruct the life of a lioness" to care for her. Even here, there's a terrific combination of real-life humour in the chaos of everyday events. Averil certainly had a very big life, and of course so did Bellina. Revealing more of herself here would make this even more powerful.

For more: BELLINA LOGAN • 18.Aug.26

Fringe: Maxx Eddy - Shane Torres

Maxx Eddy: Bi Meets World
Gilded Balloon Patter House, Blether • Fringe 2026 ★★★★

Charming the audience with his nervous energy, Maxx Eddy dives into his set with a flurry of anecdotes, taking on issues of masculinity and bullying from a refreshingly personal point of view, allowing him to make important points without ever feeling over-heavy. He's a terrific storyteller, adept at impersonating the people in his life with amusing detail. And the overarching narrative here feels like a journey of self-discovery, trying to understand important truths about himself and human nature.

As a small kid, Maxx was taught by his father to stand up to bullies. And he has always been especially sensitive to anyone who comes after his masculinity or sexuality. Sometimes this means that he is looking for a fight, for example ordering a piña colada with extra cherries just to get attention. The show is structured around three fights he got himself into, including a ridiculously physical showdown in a karaoke bar. And an extended narrative follows his online romance with a girl in Brazil, followed by a lively trip to meet her there, leading to a flatly ridiculous situation involving a PCP cigarette and a battle with the sea itself on a Rio beach.

Identifying as bisexual, he includes entertaining stories about experiences with boyfriends and girlfriends who have helped him find a sense of self. Insecurities follow him at every step, leading to him challenging anyone who confronts them, because he thinks that's the way a real man reacts. With hilarious asides and a witty perspective on the world around him, Maxx is hugely likeable. And it's impressive that he's able to keep the audience laughing even as he takes on some very serious themes and situations. So it's lovely to see how he brings all of the silliness together into a gentle note about how equating strength with masculinity only leads to isolation. And it's clear that he's still working on this.

For more: MAXX EDDY • 17.Aug.26

Shane Torres: Skinned Knees
Assembly Roxy, Downstairs • Fringe 2026 ★★★★

Using improvisation in a deliberately deadpan style, Shane Torres is a storyteller comic who embraces dark emotions and absurdity, but never gets silly. The humour emerges through what feels like a rather harsh worldview, so the show can often appear bleak, but witty observations make sure that it remains engaging. And the stream-of-consciousness narrative is thoroughly involving.

He opens with a brief confession about dropping Taco Bell into his mother's ashes, raising many questions, most of which will be answered over the next hour. Then Shane launches into his story about growing up in Texas with an Irish mother and a Mexican-American father, which made him fully Catholic. Anecdotes from his childhood have us imagining him as a chubby kid learning Irish dancing from his aunt, while his overworked night-nurse mother struggled to keep the family afloat after his vaguely unemployed father neglected to pay the bills, leaving them homeless. Much later, he recounts a haunting extended story, packed with amusing asides, about moving his father into a homeless shelter.

Because Shane simply chats to the audience, interacting with us, none of this seems scripted. So we genuinely feel his emotions as, for example, he becomes the "man of the house" at age 14. The masculinity theme is ever-present throughout this show, pointedly undermining expectations. And with each grim story point, he reminds us that it gets worse. Indeed, he circles back to comments about how both of his parents ended up as ashes in urns. It's an unusually serious show for a comic, and the way it takes on parenthood and mortality is both wryly offhanded and provocative on a surprisingly deep level.

For more: SHANE TORRES • 17.Aug.26

Fringe: Ele McKenzie - Here Comes Almost - Rory Marshall

Ele McKenzie: Bringing It All Back Home
Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker Two • Fringe 2026 ★★★★

With a style that's almost unnervingly deadpan, Ele McKenzie tells the audience how privileged she feels to be here on this magical evening. And over the next hour, she continues to skilfully subvert social norms using material that catches us off guard with its honesty, revealing things about us even as she pokes fun at herself. It's a confessional show punctuated with her happily absurd observations and dryly hilarious punchlines.

There's a sense of childlike wonder to the way Ele talks, amazed at being here when her life seems so small. She speaks with a mix of annoyance and affection about her critical mother Jane and golden-boy twin brother Will. Her relationship with her father is even more complicated, leading to a lingering worry about housefires and questions about what it would take for them to bond. Each anecdote is peppered with witty references and twists, as little jaw-dropping details are dropped in casually. Both Spam and Bob Dylan make a number of appearances, returning for an extended bit at the end. All of this is seen through the prism of her own obsessive-compulsive personality, a trait she probably shares with her mother.

A wry smile is about as much emotion as she can muster, but Ele's turn of phrase is masterful. Punchlines are thrown away matter-of-factly, which cleverly adds a layer of awkwardness to the audience's laughter. Her big imagination finds emotion in unexpected places, including within some amusingly rude gags. And while the evidence seems to signal that her life has gone off the rails, she's so sanguine about it that we realise that maybe we're taking our own troubles too seriously. "But hey," she reminds us, "it's all good now."

For more: ELE McKENZIE • 16.Aug.26

Here Comes Almost
Zoo Playground, One • Fringe 2026 ★★★

The freeform nuttiness that infuses this show is surprisingly winsome, as clowning performer Noah Seltzer engages closely with the audience to take us on a journey out of loneliness. It's all rather jolly and otherworldly, like a Ted Talk delivered by a child in pyjamas to a lineup of cuddly toys. But the point is important, so even if it feels meandering and repetitive, Noah grounds the show in a consistent barrage of joy and positivity. And by the end we can't wipe the smile from our faces.

Wearing a dragon onesie, Noah high-fives every audience member before introducing himself as sent by the World Health Organisation to find a vaccine for loneliness, which he wants to reduce from a pandemic to an epidemic. Amid rather a lot of running around, goofy wordplay and disarming crowd work, he presents protocols designed to help us feel seen as individuals, as members of a family and as connected to the world at large. He involves each one of us in this process, creating a playful atmosphere that's strongly endearing.

The endlessly smiley Noah performs this with exuberant energy, using his full physicality as he throws himself around the room, striking dramatic poses and doing a brief burst of juggling. He also plays a silly prank on one audience member. Then as we come deeper under his buoyant spell, he gets us to sing and dance along with him, while wildly cheering each achievement. All of this may feel a bit chaotic and also rather simple, but the underlying idea is profound, allowing emotions to sneak in. And the hopeful look in his eyes is hugely engaging.

For more: NOAH SELTZER • 16.Aug.26

Rory Marshall: Thank You for the Opportunity
Pleasance Courtyard, Beside • Fringe 2026 ★★★★★

A gifted character comic, Rory Marshall playfully takes the audience along with him as he dives into a rapid-fire series of scenarios, interlinking them to create his own absurdly ridiculous universe. Accompanying him on this journey is a lot of fun, as each sequence is packed with witty gags, sharp references and knowing observations about human behaviour, including a lacerating pastiche of hyper-masculinity and win-at-all-cost business.

Bounding in, Rory introduces himself as the staff social manager, promising to up the schedule from 10 social outings a year to 10 per week. And he has lots of ideas, but perhaps not quite enough funding. Further sketches feature him trying to sell special promotions, making various attempts to connect, using swagger with the boys and charm with the ladies, although some of his metaphors get away from him. There's a speed dating bit featuring a range of hilarious participants. He also becomes oblivious surfing instructor Ed, a sweary celebrity chef, an invasive server at a posh party and a heckler at his own standup show. 

In character, Rory also has a riotously funny rant about the very real difficulties of performing at the Fringe, and as a climax appears he in his pants as a life drawing model at yet another staff social. Yes, all of these sketches are interconnected and packed with amusing asides, surreal humour and jaggedly outrageous touches that ground the comedy in profound ideas. It's impeccably written, boldly skating close to the edge while remaining thematically resonant, and performed with so much charm and talent that we won't be surprised by anything he gets up to next.

For more: RORY MARSHALL • 16.Aug.26

Fringe: Stamptown - Soft Spot

Stamptown
Assembly George Square Gardens, Palais du Variete
Fringe 2026 ★★★★★

Quite possibly the most exhilarating show on earth, Stamptown is an explosion of unbridled chaos as talented performers unleash their most gleefully hilarious mayhem. It's never the same show twice, so I was happy to revisit it at the Fringe, two and a half years after first catching them in London. Here, Assembly's spiegeltent gives the show an even bigger impact, orchestrated by first-rate clown Zach Zucker as our hyperactive host Jack Tucker. "It's a hurricane up here," he says ruffling his already sweat-dampened hair, "or maybe a himicane!" as tech expert Jonny Woolley's sound and light effects create a frenzy of improvisation.

Over the next 80 minutes, regulars keep popping up, including roller-skating DylanBrand®, who does one of the funniest pratfalls imaginable, entangled in Jack's mic cord. There's also the endearingly woolly Cory Peter Lane as a "creation" called Mungus and Steffen Haanes as sneering vampire The Master. Recurring appearances include crowd favourite clown character Mister Cardboard (Miles Calderon), plus a hilarious turn from Lucas Tamaren of Thumpasaurus as James Bond. Britain's Got Talent winner Viggo Venn is also in the mix, as the performers interact with each other and the audience, keeping everyone on their toes.

Tonight's guest turns include the staggeringly entertaining Siegfried and Joy, who keep us laughing while doing some impressive magic, plus burlesque acrobats who are the best in the business: Rowan Thomas on a Cyr wheel, sword swallower Jacqueline Furey, umbrella foot juggler Tara Boom and the heart-stopping pole aerialist Donna Carter. There are also two drag acts: Séayoncé and her deadpan accompanist Lesley Ann do a high-camp cabaret piece about ghosting, and raucous drag king Boots performs a filthy mime to Don't Stop Me Now. The uncontrolled energy of this show is almost impossible to explain, finely performed with skill and precision, but always on the verge of anarchy. The joy on-stage is electric, and the audience wants more.

NB. A filmed Stamptown performance is coming to Netflix later this month, but will it be possible to capture this singular vibe in a bottle?

For more: STAMPTOWN • 15.Aug.26

Soft Spot
Zoo Southside, Main • Fringe 2026 ★★★★★

This riveting Swedish-Finnish circus act features the supernaturally steady acrobatic skills of Stina Otterström and Arttu Lahtinen as they interact with some 300 wine glasses. Working at an astonishingly controlled pace, these performers place themselves in poses that appear to ignore the laws of physics, and their movements certainly seem to be impossibly unwavering in the way they use balance and weight to dazzling visual effect.

Accompanied by a lovely tonal score, the hugely likeable Stina and Arttu silently take the stage balancing wine glasses on boards with simple elegance. Their sure-handed movements are slow and simple, and also absurdly difficult. Early on, a slight wobble results in a broken glass, which is carefully swept up to protect Stina's bare feet. And she cheekily breaks another one to make a point. Otherwise, their movement is intricate and exact, combining boards and glasses with bendy, gravity-defying handstands and manipulating the glasses with feet and slight-of-hand, sliding them from board to board and stacking them in elegant towers. We feel like we have entered Stina and Arttu's own surreal world.

All of this is achingly cool, performed with a playful, almost cheeky edge that vividly captures their close connection. They must work in perfect sync, supporting and also challenging each other. So when Arttu invites Stina to stand on the glasses, it's breathtaking. Seeing her shift her weight to stand on three glasses, then two, then one, is simply heart-stopping. As are the even more elaborate moves to come, as if this is a particularly perilous tight rope act. We feel we should applaud, but don't want to break the spell. And when they upend a container of broken glasses and use a broom to spread the shards across the floor, the setting becomes even more wondrous. It's a mesmerising show that feels magical as it unfolds with gentle precision. 

For more: OLO COMPANY • 15.Aug.26