Whistle - The scoop and digest

Unrelated to manga and anime series Whistle!, supernatural horror is written by Owen Egerton and directed by Corin Hardy.

Dafne Keen - Chrys Willet

Sophie Néilisse - Ellie Gains

Sky Yang - Rel Taylor

Ali Skovbye - Grace Browning

Percy Hynes White - Noah Haggerty

Michelle Fairley - Ivy Raymore

Nick Frost - Mr. Craven 

Summary

During a basketball game at Pellington High School, Mason "Horse" Raymore is troubled by a demonic humanoid.  Inside his locker is a mysterious urn, which he destroys.

Horse takes a shower and the same monster sets him on fire, with water doing jack shit.

Err, okay.

Six months later, new girl Chrys inherits Horse's old locker and finds the same urn completely intact.  She takes a peek inside and finds an Aztec death whistle.

Chain smoker Mr. Craven confiscates trinket and cannot resist giving it a good old blow, leading to his sick future self killing him.

It's revealed he had lung cancer.

At a pool party, Grace blows object which emits a deafening scream, placing everybody in danger.

Chrys and Ellie visit Horse's terminally ill grandmother Ivy, who breaks everything down.

If the whistle makes no sound, your future self won't show up until your time is up in real time.

But if it makes a noise - all bets are off.

However, offering a sacrifice before death results in survival.

Got all that?

Cool. 

Mid-credits

Three months later, a girl finds the whistle and blows it in assembly, beginning the cycle again.

Summon your death

Clearly influenced by A Nightmare on Elm Street (Mr. Craven is named after Wes) and primarily Final Destination, this has some decent kills, but is ultimately disposable.

A cigar box reads Muschietti, as in Andy, who directed It and co-developed prequel TV series It - Welcome to Derry.

Coincidentally, Nick Frost played Andy in The World's End (2013), the final part of the so-called Blood and Ice Cream trilogy.

One rule I purposely didn't mention is that if whoever tries to 'kill' their apparition, the consequences happen to them.  For example, firing a gun means you also take a bullet.

This is identical to the justice field in Red Dwarf IV episode Justice (February 1991), which punishes criminals by making the result of any crime happen to them, as Lister soon finds out.

Did they really plagiarise shit?

Who the fuck knows.

Reanimal

Tarsier Studios' spirital successor to Little Nightmares is here.

Summary

An orphaned brother and sister (known as only The Boy and The Girl respectively), enter a broken world of land and sea to rescue lost friends from monstrous fragments of their mysterious past.

Explore hell

Depends on player of course, but I'd suggest most will finish this in 4 hours (providing non-essential hidden stuff is ignored, like concept art posters, lighting statues and opening coffins).

Claustrophobic environments include an orphanage, a hospital and farm, which is resident to a giant pelican, whose throat pouch is creepily exaggerated.

Battering aggressive seagulls or zombie-like children with a crowbar is extremely satisfying, and combat is a huge step up from II.

Mistakes are punished without mercy, but blame is attached to yourself rather than design. 

Characters are of few words and ask questions which are never answered, which may or not frustrate.

Ambient sounds fit sinister atmosphere like a glove and music delivers a dramatic punch during chase sequences.

Auto-saving aside, we can manually do so by sitting on a sofa, which is surely a nod to Ico (2001).

Unreal Engine 5 ensures this is a fantastic looking game, with superb lighting and shadows, but does unfortunately suffer from pop up (which I assume is across all formats), particularly noticeable when first antagonist The Sniffer sticks his head through a door.

Also, vast open spaces are purely for spectacle. 

Puzzles are extremely basic, largely involving grabbing a key or nearby object.  In fact, the only time you'll have to use a bit of imagination is using a pair of binoculars to reveal the solution to a Connect 4-esque code.

Yes I've nit-picked, but the last hour or so is ABSOLUTELY thrilling.

Passing through a submerged city leads to The Abyss, which had me purring with admiration.

Climax takes place during an alternative World War, where soldiers casually blow their heads off or themselves up.  Diabolical sequence is compounded by machine gun nests and snipers taking offence to our presence, all while we're being pursued by a bloodthirsty, multi-limbed sheep.

Post-credits

The well fills up with black liquid, culminating in 'something' floating to the surface.

Explanation

Well, my take at least.

After girl died, the children tried to resurrect her, but blood ritual only succeeded in summoning an unwanted demon (the lamb), creating a swirling shit storm.  Creature represents dark arts and why everything reanimates.

Verdict 8/10

Twisted (2026) - The scoop and digest

Unrelated to multiple things of same name, Darren Lynn Bousman's mystery thriller is written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer.

Lauren LaVera - Paloma

Mia Healey - Smith

Djimon Hounsou - Dr. Robert Kezian

Neal McDonough - Bradshaw

David Call - Tad

Renes Rivera - Lenny

Jacob Lukas Anderson - Crace

Gina Philips - Warricker

Alicia Witt - Rebecca

Summary

Paloma Joia (going under the alias of Molly Bloom, and other fictional literary characters, such as Emma Woodhouse and Fleur Forsyte), runs a real estate scam with her lover Smith.

Cosplaying through a life of crime is going swimmingly, until they get too cocky and choose brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Kezian, who has dark ambitions for Paloma.

Hypovolemic shock

Screenwriters dropped a bollock by not calling Healey's pointless character Faith.

As combining both first names would make...

Anyway, what appears to a derivative of Saw X (what Bousman didn't direct), quickly becomes something far more ridiculous.

Kezian plans to remove half of Paloma's brain and transfer it to his comatose wife Rebecca, who for years has been suffering from a degenerative brain disease.

He owns two houses side by side, with basements converted into makeshift hospitals.

I know walls aren't transparent, but that's not in the slightest bit suspicious, right?

(Laughs).

Smith is chatted up by a random bloke in a bar and when told that Paloma's 'boyfriend' beats her up, geezer takes a gun, forces his way inside Kezian's house and is amusingly killed by a broken vinyl disc.

IT'S SO FUCKING STUPID.

Bumbling cops Crace and Warricker (hot on 'Molly's' trail) storm the 'wrong' house and discover a morgue, but don't think to check next door.

So while the NYPD stand around dejected, Kezian successfully performs surgery and some time later, nurses Rebecca back to health at another mansion.

But as Paloma's brain is inside wife's body, she slits his throat.

The end.

The Strangers: Chapter 3 - The scoop and digest

Renny Harlin's trilogy concludes.

Madelaine Petsch - Maya

Gabriel Basso - Gregory/Scarecrow

Ema Horvath - Shelly/Pin-Up Girl

Ella Bruccoleri - Jasmine/Dollface

Richard Brake - Sheriff Rotter

Summary

Sometime in 2021, a woman called Claire meets Shelly when checking into the Venus Motel.  Later that night, the Strangers kidnap and kill her.

Back in the present and immediately after the events of Chapter 2, Scarecrow and Dollface take Pin-Up Girl's body and drive away.

Oh, in a fit of rage, Scarecrow lays into Shelly's body with his axe, even though when camera pans shows no visible injury.

Maya takes refuge in a nearby church and Gregory shows up, who is actually Scarecrow.

After crashing Sheriff Rotter's car, Gregory bundles Maya into his pick up truck and she's taken to a sawmill, where she watches Gregory feed Shelly to a wood chipper. 

Meanwhile, Maya's sister Debbie, her husband Howard and their bodyguard Marcus arrive in town.

Gregory and Jasmine force Maya to join them, but will she make the cut?

Justice=Death=Redemption

Considering how negatively the first two were received, you'd think lessons would be learned, right?

Wrong.

God only knows what film was like beforehand, but weeks of re-shoots didn't alter 90 minutes of painful boredom.

Terrible trilogies include The Hobbit (2012-2014), Fifty Shades (2015-2018) and Halloween (2018-2022), but this is among the worst.

What is essentially flashback porn meanders towards a predictable climax where Maya fools Gregory into thinking that she loves him.

As they embrace, Maya stabs him with the knife he gave her after killing Howard and Debbie.

She finishes him off with axe and departs underground lair with his mask, potentially leaving door open for more.

Please don't.

Huntdown - Beyond the Bounty

Easy Trigger's stylish run-and-gun was released for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Switch in 2020.

Premise

In the 21st century where nations have collapsed, profiteering mega corporations provide protection and jobs to anyone who abides by their policies.

The alternative a criminal path. Street gangs engage in a constant power struggle against rival gangs and "authorities".

But there are some that have no interest in gang affiliations nor company citizenship.

Their title...

Bounty hunter.

Their only objective...

(Smashing into):

A gorgeous retro title screen.

Summary

After choosing Anna Conda¹, John Sawyer or Mow Man, whoever hooks up with Mrs. Rose "Wolfmother" from the Shimamoto Corporation, who offers a million dollar contract to 'restore order'.

¹Name is probably a nod to Marvel super-villain Anaconda (Blanche Sitznski).

Gangs

The Hoodlum Dolls - The Suburbs Sector

The Misconducts - The Underground Zone

The Heatseekers - The Industrial Complex

The No.1 Suspects - The Downtown Area

Concept is unashamedly The Warriors (1979), which 'inspired' 1990 video games New York Warriors and The Combatribes.

Miscellany

Club Sugar vs Sega

High pressure vs Back to the Future

Frank Castle aka The Punisher holds a bunch of Hunters hostage.

Axel Stone from Streets of Rage becomes a shop window mannequin.

Films

The passion burns brighter than a blazing inferno.

Snake Plissken - Escape from New York

Gizmo - Gremlins

Hans Gruber - Die Hard

Lil' Pounder is based directly on the Cobra Assault Cannon in Robocop.

I LIKE IT!

Cordell's Storage pays tribute to Matt Cordell of Maniac Cop fame.

Sonny Rooster emerging from monster truck mimics the T-1000 leaving the Cryoco tanker in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  

Multiples

Turning shit up to eleven.

Predator

Blain (self-professed sexual Tyrannosaurus) hogs the limelight.

Ain't got time to bleed.

Ol' Painless is the nickname for his Minigun.

The Running Man

Ben Richards garots Sub-Zero with razor wire.

Posters

Now showing at Royal Movie Theatre.

L-R: Aliens, Akira and The Thing² (1982)

²ntbcw 2002 video game sequel or 2011 film prequel of same name.

Just below mouthwatering triple-bill is the The Evil Dead's Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. 

Akira (again)

Kaneda (left) and his bike (right).

I understand why it was done, but scene is spectacularly inaccurate, as the guy walking downstairs to Haruki-ya isn't Kaneda, because he's already inside on the jukebox. 

Also, iconic transport is parked in an alley, rather than outside the front of bar.

For shiggles.

Skid is definitely one of cinema's coolest moments.

Blade Runner

Rachael

White Dragon Noodle Bar

Finally.

Deckard hangs tough while Roy Batty watches on

Even the dove flies away.

Now if you'll excuse me people, I'm off to watch attack ships off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams glitter in the dark near the Taanhäuser gate, before those moments are lost in time, like [clears throat] tears... in rain.

Time to go.

Iron Lung (2026) - The scoop and digest

Based on David Szymanski's 2022 video game of same name, YouTuber Mark Fischbach (better known as Markiplier), stars, writes, directs and funded feature debut.

Support includes Troy Baker (David) and Elle LaMont (Whisper).  Additionally, Szymanski plays a fictionalised version of himself.

Summary

An event called the Quiet Rapture causes all stars and planets to vanish, leaving only those on space stations or ships alive.

For his involvement in destroying Filament Station, a convict called Simon is forced to explore an ocean of blood on a desolate moon named AT-5, in a submarine nicknamed the "Iron Lung".

After his camera (revealed to be an X-ray device) picks up an alien skeleton, he starts to lose his grip on reality.

Insufficient privileges

Props to how this came to be, but passion project was fucking HORRIBLE.

If a guy making notes, clicking buttons and babbling bullshit inside a poorly lit tin can for two hours is your idea of fun, then you'll have a blast.

But I suspect most will claw their eyes out of frustration.

Was this designed for insomniacs? Apparently so, as it's capable of sending anybody to sleep.

Non-existent story has zero character development and nothing makes any sense.

Even out of morbid curiosity, heed my advice and DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.

Send Help - The scoop and digest

Sam Raimi's psychological horror thriller is scored by Danny Elfman and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.

Rachel McAdams - Linda Liddle

Dylan O'Brien - Bradley Preston

Edyll Ismail - Zuri

Xavier Samuel - Donovan Murphy

Chris Pang - Chase

Dennis Haysbert - Franklin

Summary

After becoming the new president of his late father's company, Bradley Preston invites survival enthusiast Linda Liddle to Bangkok to help finalise the company's impending merger.

En route, the plane suffers engine failure and crashes into the sea, killing everybody except Linda and Bradley.

Lowly employee and sexist boss must put their differences aside and work together to survive on remote island.

At first, things aren't too bad, but as time goes by - tensions run high.

No help is coming

 

Welcome back Sam Raimi.

Office Space, Cast Away, Triangle of Sadness and Misery? Yes to all.

Amidst the blood and vomit cannons, leads embrace unhinged mania with gusto, and benefit from a script that revels in pitch black humour.

Signature splatstick is handled with aplomb and a nightmare delivers a ghoulish jump scare. 

Linda goes hunting and kills a boar, covering her in blood.  Rest assured, quality of CG beast is way better than The Strangers: Chapter 2.

Here's the killer twist.

Linda claimed her husband was killed in a drink-driving accident, but she actually murdered him.

After adding Bradley's fiancée Zuri and hired boat driver to the body count, Bradley finds Zuri's corpse and hand exposed on the beach (a clever nod to Chrissie in Jaws).

R.I.P. Susan Backlinie.

Climax

Bradley flees to a deserted beach house that Linda took over weeks ago and takes a shotgun from her, which is unloaded.  She then plays golf with Bradley's head, thinking she's fucking Abby from The Last of Us Part II.

We smash cut nearly a year later to Linda being interviewed at a celebrity golf tournament about the upcoming film adaptation of her best-selling memoir.

She drives off in a flash car singing to her favourite Blondie song One Way or Another, giving the camera a chilling glance.

Ending is bound to polarise, but just go with it.