It's that time of year once more folks - as comedy, theatre, cabaret, magic and storytelling don a more ghoulish guise as they embrace the darker tales to offer tricks and treats for Edinburgh audiences. Featuring a couple of reanimated favourites, plenty of original creations, and a heaping helping of scares and frights - the … Continue reading Have A Gander – Edinburgh Horror Festival 2023
https://youtu.be/7RkjXYk-BIQ Written by Morna Pearson after Bram Stoker Directed by Sally Cookson Tickets from £19.50 ★★★ The sign of a remarkable Dracula is to ensure that even in their absence, their lingering presence slowly constricts the heart of those watching: fear growing, nerves tightening, breath quickening. And it's what Liz Kettle manages to accomplish in … Continue reading Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
https://youtu.be/BvGQ4K6e-Yc Created by Danny Robins Directed by Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr Tickets from £19.50 ★★★★ Audiences' nerves don’t stand a ghost of a chance as we enter a season of spooky treats across Edinburgh – with a fair few spirits rising to greet guests at the Festival Theatre. From re-imagined Dracula to contemporary ghoulish … Continue reading 2:22 A Ghost Story – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
https://youtu.be/yerpfSfyJ2o From the Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe Monologue by Dave Robb Directed by Flavia D’Avila ★★★★ Up high, high in the dark Belfry: the familiar but eerie twangs of a fiddle are strung. And as the grand clock tower at the centre of Vondervotteimittiss rings thirteen o’clock, atrocity strikes the dour and dull … Continue reading The Devil in the Belfry – Pleasance Lomond Room
https://youtu.be/QpHEFY4cq_k Directed by Pete Ohs Written by Andy Faulkner, Callie Hernandez, Pete Ohs, Ashley Denise Robinson and Will Madden 2022/72mins ★★★ Fed up with the leering and continually unwanted advances from men, it’s no wonder the extremes women resort to in evading stalkers and persistentance. And though the film transitions itself in storytelling genres, and … Continue reading Jethica
https://youtu.be/BRb4U99OU80 Written by Akela Cooper Directed by Gerard Johnstone USA/2022/102mins ★★★ If you’ve been on the internet for more than a day, you’ll likely have seen the ‘M3GAN dance’ – the viral advertising for the film showcasing the titular film’s animatronic lead/antagonist and its kitsch and ostentatious style. But beneath the camp horror, M3GAN aims to introduce new … Continue reading M3GAN
https://youtu.be/MDQJ5M6RKRw Written and Directed by Andy Mitton United States/ 2022/ 87 mins ★★★★ Covid-19 as a narrative tool isn’t entirely new; most expressionist mediums have taken to picking at the still-open wound of the Pandemic in various ways, but there’s a trickier minefield to navigate where the horror genre is concerned. Here Covid-19 isn’t strictly … Continue reading The Harbinger – Shudder
https://youtu.be/y0snyYvBhsw Directed by Dominic Brunt Written by Joel Ferrari and Pete Wild ★★★ The continuing grasp of British horror-comedy already claims zombies, a smattering of vampires, ghoulies, and even a few too many killer sheep. Well, now it is the turn of a beast of old, a lycanthropic laugh infusion in the form of Emmerdale actor and … Continue reading Wolf Manor
https://youtu.be/MCWDBtZo8eM Written by Justin Benson Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead 2022/USA/116 mins ★★★★ Paranoia is a drug; highly addictive and almost therapeutic in its poison. It’s a difficult habit to shake off, hence its use as the building blocks for successful horror, sci-fi and thriller pieces of cinema. And while Something in the Dirt has … Continue reading Something in the Dirt
Written by Taqi Nazeer Directed by Niloo Farr Khan ★★★★ The Jinn, or perhaps you’re more familiar with the term Djinn or anglicized and generic term Genie, are beings of near-impenetrable veils, unlikely to ever be seen but always felt. The power and faith behind these pre-Islamic spirits are no less revered or impactful than … Continue reading Jinnistan – Traverse Theatre
