Shameless Self Expression

Still troubled by a nervous breakdown suffered in Africa, teacher Joan Fontaine accepts an English country village teaching position at a private school. Before long she notices strange things occurring and starts to suspect witchcraft being involved. Alec McCowen plays a priest-of-a-kind, who hires Fontaine, with Kay Walsh as his sister who helps run the school with McCowen. Leonard Rossiter plays a doctor, Duncan Lamont is a cheerful local butcher, and Michelle Dotrice one of the kids.   Unless Angela Lansbury or Anjelica Huston are involved, witches and witchcraft don’t tend to be my kind of thing. This 1966 effort from Hammer Studios is nonetheless well-done, though the more mysterious first half engaged me more than the unravelling in the second half. Directed by Cyril Frankel (who directed Hammer’s terrific “Never Take Sweets From a Stranger” ), it’s really creepy stuff and overall quite solid though the editing is a bit crude at times. Scripted by Nigel Kneale ( “Quaterm...

  Set in the late 70s, Ohio-born Dakota Fanning arrives in West Berlin in hopes of admittance into the Markos Dance Academy. Academy director Miss Blanc (Tilda Swinton) reluctantly accepts the novice, and soon enough starts to see something in her new pupil. Meanwhile, it appears several of the students have started to go missing, with rumours of witchcraft circulating as well. Mia Goth plays a fellow student, Chloe Grace Moretz plays a troubled former student, and Jessica Harper turns up briefly as well in a cameo.   No one needed a remake of Dario Argento’s iconic “Suspiria” . It’s not my favourite of his films (I prefer “Inferno” ), but it still works perfectly fine. It definitely didn’t need to be turned into a 2 ½ hour dance drama with psychological and supernatural horror elements, that’s for damn sure. While this arty-farty 2018 remake from director Luca Guadagnino ( “Call Me By Your Name” ) and screenwriter David Kajganich (the underrated “Blood Creek” and “True...

Wannabe crypto-currency entrepreneur and tech whiz Jesse Metcalfe visits his estranged dad Bruce Willis with hopes the old geezer will invest. Willis lives in a surprisingly hi-tech retreat for elderly citizens (which also contains the ultra hi-tech bunker of the film’s title) and isn’t overly invested in any father-son bonding, let alone crypto. However, before long father and son will have bigger problems on their hands. Armed mercenaries led by a figure from Willis’ past (Chad Michael Murray) storm the retreat. They’re looking for Willis…but why? Shannen Doherty plays a senior military figure (!), Michael Sirow plays a supremely annoying ranger at the retreat, Sean Kanan is a goon, and Kelly Greyson is an employee at the retreat.   Director James Cullen Bressack ( “Killing Field” ) and screenwriter Alan Horsnail ( “Midnight in the Switchgrass” ) combine to make one of the lesser of Bruce Willis’ recent output, which is really saying something. This cheap, uninspired 2021 fi...