Secret Blades and Exiled Princes: The Symbols of Guillermo del Toro

Almost two decades before the titanic Robot vs Monster fights of Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro was making waves as the enfant terrible of the Spanish-speaking horror world. Considered by many to be the last true auteur (the right honourable Tarantino aside), del Toro cut his teeth with a combination of dark whimsy and explosive…

Pop Culture Purgatory: 5 TV and Movie Franchises Stuck in Development Hell

A rundown of the 5 biggest crimes in pop-culture history.

The 5 Biggest Butterfly Effects in Game of Thrones

Anyone who’s read and/or watched HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ has drawn one irrevocable conclusion; That universe is F*cked. Honestly, I’m not even sure F*cked is a strong enough word. There are so many things going wrong in King’s Landing that even when compared to the dirtiest, nastiest, Jamie-and-Cersie-in-Geoffrey’s-Tomb f*cking, incest consistently seems like the better…

Here’s why ‘Justified’ is the best show since the Sopranos

For those of you who are woefully, woefully unaware, here’s the fact; you need to watch Justified. I’ve been watching TV since 1993. I sat through the nightmarish fog of Rosie and Jim, where the BBC decided that children wanted nothing more than to watch satanic puppets on a riverboat. I was there for the…

The truly horrific subplot hiding in Beauty and the Beast

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, it’s time to admit it; Disney is for kids. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney. The films are fun, colourful and even though they slip just enough Blue humour under the radar to keep even the most joyless adults happy, morality tales and talking fish just aren’t for us anymore. Disney…

The insane hidden timeline that changes everything about the Terminator

In 1984, a leather-clad Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked Hollywood’s door in and started blasting, playing the baddest cybernetic killing machine ever seen on screen and forever changing the cinematic landscape. The Terminator was the first film to effectively bridge the gap between sci-fi and action that divided audiences since movies began. Action movies were no longer…

The horrifying implications of life inside a Groundhog Day

Does anyone still remember Groundhog Day? In case you don’t, it’s an absolutely classic piece of cinema created in a golden age where everyone respected Bill Murray and Harold Ramis was both alive and culturally relevant. Although movies like Freaky Friday and Big had already established clear ground rules for body switching, Groundhog Day was…

The Real Terrifying Story Behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Few films exist that are as universally beloved as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. The songs are fun, the sets are colourful and the food looked so damned delicious that we wanted to be the ones trapped in a single, middle-aged man’s sinister factory. But I had several questions and, in the process of…

Why Pokemon is darker than you remember

Following the international release of Pokemon go, everyone under the age of thirty has once again gone f*$&ing bananas for the world of virtual pocket monsters. Gamers are leaving the house, making friends in real life and patronising local businesses in order to catch these clever amalgamations of ones and zeros, and the app is…

5 great ways Feminism is sneaking into horror movies

Why is horror like pornography? Because women do it better. Hollywood hasn’t realised this yet, so horror is still a massive boy’s club. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of talent out there at the moment; James Wan and Mike Flanagan are redefining the genre (think Oculus, not Ouija), and The Visit was almost…

5 Things that HAVE to happen in Game of Thrones

It’s over. Done. Finished. Game of Thrones season six is officially over, and winter is well and truly here. After watching Jon come back from the dead, Dany burn the Great Masters and Ramsey Bolton get eaten alive we have to ask; what the f*$k is going to happen next? We learn Jon’s true name…

Why Jared Leto will (probably) disappoint as the Joker

Suicide Squad drops this August and, after Dawn of Justice, DC are going to need a BIG result to keep the ball rolling. They need to offer us a big, meaty, critical-and-commercial success of a movie. But we won’t get one. It’ll do well financially, of course. I’m going to see it, you’re going to see…