J. A. Bayona directs Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones in this tale of a stoic boy whose grief, guilt and rage at his mother’s terminal illness manifests itself as a destructive, fable spouting tree monster.

Beautifully crafted and performed (the kid is excellent) – this sadly left me cold through no real fault of its own. For all its fine qualities, I struggled to see who it was for. Too close to the bone for bullied, orphaned or troubled children to entertain yet a bit self worthy to be cathartic for adults remembering when they went through similar traumas. Like Kubo or Silence, I’ll happily concede I can see how such intelligent labours of love from celluloid artisans could seduce everyone else, and that the fault must internally be with me.

5

William Malone directs Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen and Jeffrey Combs in this horror remake where a group of strangers accidentally get invited to a rollercoaster tycoon’s party in an abandoned, haunted asylum. 

I vaguely remember this opening well with 50s psychiatric staff being attacked by sharp pencil wielding loons. That bit still proves OK, as does a joke stunt to introduce Rush’ latest wild ride, but that’ about all there is to say for this duller. Once the actual plot begins this becomes a snooze fest. C-list movie stars go wandering off on their own, double crossing each other half heartedly, until some inevitable poorly rendered CGI fuggy swirl slugs about mildly in the final act, picking off anyone an unwanted sequel couldn’t afford to rehire. Punishingly uninvolving.

2