Popular reviews

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  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus] ★★★★★ 15

  Leaves having fallen across the surface of a pond until the volume of the pond is mostly leaves.

  A frontal boundary having moven-in and broken-up on top of is likely cause for continued, but intermittent. A grey sort of day. A day to remain indoors. A day like every day. A day that every day could be.

  Voices from other rooms, unsummoned / No longer summer. An old script. A crow decomposing. A kettle on, a fevered.

  Rap once fore yes, Twice for no. Woolens from a drawer having been put away, unretrieved until now. Upon cessation, we could see our breaths co-mingling ever briefly.

  A foxing of the pages, let left out in the rain

  Leaves against the windowpane such that the windowpane is occluded.

  
  Phased thunder, the third of three

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 3

  Isolation, lurking madness, and brooding autumnal atmosphere permeate this dreamy remote manor creepfest. A slow burner that pulsates with an out of this world performance from Angela Pleasence and Polanski vibes a plenty, José Ramón Larraz’s Symptons is exactly my kind of mounting dread/mental dissolution atmospheric mystery jam, filled with the perfect mixture of half hidden secrets and sweat inducing curiousity. Haunting.

  Thanks Mondo Macabro!

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  Review by Tony the Terror ★★★★½ 10

  Really glad I decided to blind buy the region 2 blu ray of this because it’s definitely some of that real dark shit. A delightful slowest of burns with a spiral into madness set in the dead middle of fall in a beautiful creepy old Victorian mansion. It really just checks all my boxes.

  Angela Pleasance absolutely blew me away with her performance. It’s amazing how she can go from looking so pretty to so batshit crazy with the simple shift of a facial expression. The story isn’t necessarily super original in its sequence of events although it’s all done so well that it really doesn’t matter.

  Now if you aren’t into good atmospheric, moody, creepy, dark slow burns then there’s not much for you here. However, if that is your thing then let me tell you: I think this movie paired with Robert Altman’s Images on a crisp grey autumn day would be just about damn perfect.

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  Review by Bob McCully ★★★★ 10

  The Trouble With Helen. Serious slow-burn alert. Psychotically so. Tipping the knife at a glacial pace till the blood drips carefully across the creaking floorboards of this lakeside manor.

  Angela Pleasance owns this foggy piece with a meticulous performance as Helen, oozing a sad unhinged demeanour like a shy ghost. She invites her friend Anne to stay with her for a little visit. Helen and Anne, enjoying the beautiful nature all around them. Something feels off though. Helen is hiding something.
  Brady the groundskeeper, leaning into his leer, a crude ominous gaze. Sounds from the attic, time slowing down, who was the friend who came here last? Where is she now?
  A mystery unravels in Helen's mind while a nightmare…

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  Review by Slig001 ★★★½ 2

  The slowest of slow burning thrillers from director José Ramón Larraz. Symptoms takes place in a grand old house in the middle of a forest next to a lake. A young woman has come to stay with her friend...maybe not everything is as it seems. The film has absolutely heaps of atmosphere. The dreamy surreal nature fuses with the slow burning plot and creepy score to create something almost hypnotic. While the action on screen (for the first hour at least) is not essentially thrilling, the slowly burning dread that exists behind every sequence is ever present. Symptoms features a brilliant performance from Angela Pleasance who absolutely excels in the central role. The conclusion to the film is worth the…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black

  (Ultimately, the tension comes from sympathizing with Hannah so much and not wanting her to be hurt in any way. It's a grey sort of sympathy, obviously, but what she is up against is exploitation and isolation. I relate a little too much to the latter part and we all live under the yoke of exploitation. That this is presented in warmly autumnal hues and British country shadows suffuses this with an atmosphere that speaks of folk horror while at no point really engaging in traditional folk horror trappings. It simply wears the highlights of it, the scent of it. The psychological drama at the core of this is part thriller part slasher; the combination of flavors makes this a pleasing experience.)

  October count: 32/31

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 6

  Perhaps the most powerful thing about Symptoms is the way it renders the familiar unfamiliar. The film takes place within a very limited range of settings, with the great majority of it restricted to the house and the river, as well as its immediate surroundings. We come to know those places efficiently and comfortably, aided by the rhythmic return to the sound and image of a rowboat cutting through the river's water, and the recognizable rooms and angles in the home. Even the unsettling, recurring shot of the steep steps up the attic quickly becomes familiar, associated with night, sleeplessness, and uncertainty.

  Quickly, though, that uncertainty becomes pervasive. We realize we can't even be sure, really, that time is linear.…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★½ 1

  64

  A dusty old mansion, an approaching storm, a Fall setting, and a murder mystery. It's all you need, really.

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  Review by Jerry ★★★½ 2

  That spot by the river. The attic door.
  That spot by the river. The attic door.
  That spot by the river.

  Madness manifests itself in a hushed, brooding way sometimes, off hiding back in a lovely little house tucked away in a ripened forest. Like the burnt reds, pale oranges and amber yellows of leaves descended, it’s warmest where beneath the surfaces a coldness, an emptiness lies; the memories of a perceived betrayal and the guilt that haunts one which cannot be washed away. She’s not doing well.

                                         The attic door.

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  Review by Gentry ★★★★★ 2

  “The storm is getting closer.”

  The screw turned so far it breaks. Sapphic love as a tender and violent thing. The sharp smell of a leaf found in the woods is as cutting as the angles of Helen’s face; the lines on the side of her eyes when she smiles. Jean Seberg as Helen may have worked, but on a completely different level. Angela Pleasence brings a frail, yet frightening presence to the character. Her movements are mouse-like. Her features acute. Nothing is real, or all of it is. Helen foresees the end, at the beginning, as “something final in which I will be involved.” The film moves toward that conclusion like a falling leaf, eventually crunched underfoot.

  “Do storms frighten you?”

  ➡️ Blood Hunger: José Ramón Larraz Ranked

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  Review by Flynch ★★★½

  José Ramón Larraz (Vampyres, Black Candles) hat ein Gespür für Spannungsaufbau. 
  Beschaulich, nahezu romantisch, mit idyllischen Bildern wird langsam, aber sicher in den Wahnsinn abgetaucht, mit seltenen, aber dafür umso effektiveren Gewaltausbrüchen , aber leider auch mit einer Story, die von Anfang an klar war und einem nicht wirklich viel
  Überraschung zu bieten hat.
  Dennoch, ein stimmungsvoller Psycho-Gothic-Grusler mit toll verwunschener englischer Landsitzatmosphäre, pointierten Schockeffekten und einer, wenn man sich auf die Langsamkeit einlässt, starken Sogwirkung.

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  Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★½ 2

  I’m back with José Ramón Larraz and Symptoms is really the first fully formed movie of his that I have seen. It feels like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman. Or more precisely, a cross between Psycho and Persona. And I will say, it works really, really well. Granted, the movie takes a little to get going from a narrative standpoint. But the atmosphere is always there and it gets denser by the minute. The performances especially from leading actress Angela Pleasence are very strong. Cinematography, set-design and music are also spot on and help to create a very unsettling mood. At this point, I think that building tension and creating atmosphere are among the director’s biggest strengths.…