Danny and Michael Philippou direct Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen and Miranda Otto in this Australian horror where a ceramic hand allows the very worst of the spirit realm to possess your body.

The (un)pleasant surprise of the summer. The trailer didn’t do a very good job of selling this. It focussed on the annoying Gen Z party brats and appeared the be an elevated horror about grief. NOT AGAIN!?! And those are elements are in there but it works best as a far more traditional full fat shocker. Has pretty much everything I needed from the genre. Gnarly violence, flashes of hellish practical FX, a set of clear rules to be broken, a third act where there is no going back and anything could and does happen. Woo hoo! Untrustworthy horror heaven.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Hounds Of Love (2016)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Bassam Tariq directs Riz Ahmed, Aiysha Hart and Alyy Khan in this British drama where a London-Pakistani rapper is struck down by a disease that means he will miss out on a big break he has worked years to position himself into.

Curious that the hyper talented Riz Ahmed decided to make two films with essentially the same basic plot and overlapping themes in the same year. This is the more obtuse, experimental and abrasive of the diptych. Admirable but a lot of the runtime I just wished I was rewatching the superior Sound Of Metal.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Sound Of Metal (2020)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/