THE KNOCKING (2023)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Joonas Pajunen and Max Seeck
Finnish folk horror The Knocking (Koputus) finds three adult siblings — irritable and secretive elder brother Mikko (Pekka Strang), troubled middle sister Maria (Inka Kallén), and freer-spirited youngest sibling Matilda (Saana Koivisto) — holing up at the home they experienced traumatic events in as youngsters after they inherit the land. Mikko is keen to sell with no regard to what will happen to the wooded area, Maria is against it, and Matilda holds the deciding vote. What they don’t know at first is that their deceased mother’s protection of the property — which seemed like superstition to her husband, who also wanted to sell the land — holds dark secrets that have not forgotten the three siblings. Cowriters/codirectors Joonas Pajunen and Max Seeck have invested their supernatural chiller with palpable dread. The drama they have created for the siblings is riveting, which makes the horror elements of The Knocking all the more meaningful. The three actors all give top-shelf performances. The deliciously weird third act may work better for some viewers than others, but I found it to be intriguing, with a final wallop that pays off a mystery hinted at early in the going. The Knocking is sylvan horror of the highest order. Watch for a closing credits stinger.
HOSTILE DIMENSIONS (2023)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Intensity: 🩸🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Graham Hughes
Writer/director Graham Hughes delivered an insightful take on exploring internet addictionthrough a horror lens in his 2020 feature debut Death of a Vlogger, and he follows that film up with his new feature Hostile Dimensions, an intriguing fright-fare take on alternative realities. Filmmakers Ash (Joma West) and Sam (Annabel Logan) want to make a sophomore effort more wide-reaching than their first, which was about teddy bear manufacturing. What begins as an investigation into the disappearance of a popular graffiti artist through a door in an abandoned building becomes a surreal and increasingly dangerous journey for the two documentarians and those with whom they come into contact. Hughes starts off with a lighter tone — a surprising gag with a creepy cloth panda features early on — but ratchets up the chills and eeriness throughout the running time. Combining found footage cosmic horror with science fiction elements, Hughes takes viewers through diverse alternate worlds as his two main protagonists question reality as well as their life choices. West and Logan have fine chemistry together, making their work and friendship relationships quite believable, and making their characters easy ones for whom to root for positive outcomes.
The Knocking and Hostile Dimensions screened as part of the 2023 Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, which ran August 24–28 in London. For more information, visit https://frightfest.co.uk/.