Nick Bartlett

Freelance Writer

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Body Heat Review (Criterion Collection)

It feels like Criterion is skimping on the extras a little nowadays, focusing more on the picture quality and restorations than the supporting materials, which is a little galling considering how much the price of these has risen. A lot of the special features included here were available on the Premium Collection release – these include deleted scenes, featurettes on the making of, and archive interviews with Hurt and Turner. The new features include an in-depth interview with Kasdan, and a con...

Body Heat Review (Criterion Collection)

It feels like Criterion is skimping on the extras a little nowadays, focusing more on the picture quality and restorations than the supporting materials, which is a little galling considering how much the price of these has risen. A lot of the special features included here were available on the Premium Collection release – these include deleted scenes, featurettes on the making of, and archive interviews with Hurt and Turner. The new features include an in-depth interview with Kasdan, and a con...
FILMHOUNDS Magazine •

The General (4K Review) — A Masterpiece Of Silent Comedy

Having released almost all of Buster Keaton’s filmography on various Blu-ray boxsets, Eureka Entertainment are marking the centenary of his masterpiece, The General, with this beautiful UHD release. Co-directed with Clyde Bruckman, this remains not only one of the defining works of silent cinema, but arguably the first true action-comedy: a perfect fusion of gags, spectacle and pathos that still feels startlingly modern a century later.

Obsession Review

With his sophomore feature, Curry Barker takes a premise we’ve seen countless times before in sitcoms, teen comedies and science fiction for decades, from Buffy The Vampire Slayer to The Twilight Zone and even Rick & Morty. What happens when you wish for your unrequited love to fall hopelessly in love with you? What makes Obsession so effective is the way it refuses to treat this ostensibly light-hearted premise as a joke. Instead, Barker simply follows the idea to its logical, grisly conclusion...
Critical popcorn •

Cronos review: Dir. Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro’s directorial debut is a startlingly assured gothic fable that fuses vampirism with the director’s now-trademark fascination with arcana, alchemy, clockwork machinery and an underlying sense of the macabre. There are better debuts out there, but very few that come with the director’s sense of style and tone already so clearly cemented. From the very start, you can see the style that will be present in every subsequent del Toro film.

Hard Boiled 4K Review (Arrow)

Even if you haven’t seen Hard Boiled, you’ve almost certainly seen the promotional image of Chow Yun-Fat, decked out in full tactical gear, shotgun in one hand, a very confused-looking baby in the other. It’s instantly iconic, equal parts absurd and deadly serious, and perfectly captures the film’s tone. This is action cinema pushed to its most operatic extreme, but with just enough self-awareness to prevent it from collapsing under its own intensity – never taking itself too seriously.

Salem's Lot Review (Arrow Films)

In his introduction to the paperback release of Salem’s Lot, Stephen King described his lofty ambitions for what was only his second novel: to combine the gothic terror of Dracula with the sensationalism of EC Comics and the naturalistic fiction of Frank Norris. The result is one of his most overt works of horror – a traditional vampire story transposed into small-town New England – and it remains one of his most genuinely frightening books.
The Custard TV •

More Than Cosy: The Quiet Brilliance of Foyle’s War.  - The Custard TV

It’s easy to see why the Foyle's War has acquired a reputation as being comfort television. Period costumes, polite dialogue, a softly spoken detective solving murders in a picturesque coastal setting – it all feels so familiar. However, now that the series is available on Netflix and mercifully uncensored, it’s easier to see that this reputation is wildly misleading. Beneath the polite manners, plummy British accents and idyllic rural setting lies one of the most interesting and morally layered procedural dramas that British television has ever produced.

The Magic Faraway Tree Review

Any adaptation of Enid Blyton seems a questionable prospect in the 21st century. Like Roald Dahl, her work has gone through re-evaluations in recent years, and even if the frequently xenophobic, sexist, and classist attitudes of her books weren’t an issue, her stories are so rooted in the past that any adaptation would face an uphill battle in order to remain faithful and still appeal to modern audiences, especially children. That The Magic Faraway Tree manages to feel both warmly nostalgic and...

Revisiting The Little Stranger (2018) - Horrified

The opening narration of The Devil’s Backbone establishes the central premise of the film with this question. A haunting and often philosophical exploration into what constitutes a ghost, Del Toro’s film features ghosts in different roles, as ominous harbingers of things to come, of protectors of the weak, and as avenging spirits. However, while the ghosts in Del Toro’s film do subvert expectations, they still fit with our preconceived ideas of what makes a ghost.

Does a horror film have to be scary? Revisiting The Awakening (2011) - Horrified

The Awakening (UK, Nick Murphy, 2011) has all the traits of a traditional ghost story: a ghostly child, a huge empty house, and a protagonist with a troubled past. Even the setting, just after World War One, is ideal territory for a chilling tale. However, unusually for a ghost story, the film actually suffers a little from the inclusion of genre tropes and is much more interesting when it digs a little deeper into the psychology of its characters.
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