Tag: horror

5 Japanese Horror Film Recommendations
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Japanese horror is one of my favourite subgenres of film and I haven’t yet met a J-horror I actively dislike. From quiet, eerie films based on folkloric beings to intense cyberpunk body horror, there really is something for everyone. In this post, I highlight five Japanese horror films that I recommend to both beginners and fans of the subgenre. If you’ve already seen these, let me know what you think in the comments.
Table of contents
Dark Water

Dark Water (2002) is a supernatural film that follows Yoshimi’s attempts to start over following divorce. She rents a rundown apartment where strange events keep occurring, including a leak of unknown origin. Yoshimi catches glimpses of Mitsuko, a young girl who disappeared a year prior. Mitsuko’s ghost eventually leads Yoshimi to discover what happened to her.

The ending of Dark Water is one of the saddest I’ve seen which makes it such an effective horror. Rather than relying on jump scares, we have a ghost who feels angry about what happened to her and an ending that emphasises emotional torture rather than anything physical. The strong theme of motherhood and the sacrifices you have to make as a parent are also prevalent.

What makes Dark Water stand out is the use of colour. The greens, yellows and blues provide an amphibian hue to the scenes in the apartment block. This gives the illusion that everything is damp and underwater, making it feel suffocating. It’s therefore one of the most immersive Japanese horror films on this list.

A suffocating atmosphere. Image Source: Mubi

Audition

Takashi Miike is a veteran of Japanese horror and Audition (1999) is one of my favourite films in his extensive filmography. It’s adapted from the novel of the same name by Ryu Murakami. I will say that you should avoid this one if you find it difficult to handle animal abuse in films.

Shigeharu’s wife dies in hospital of an unknown illness and he later stages auditions for a fake television show. He does this to meet women who want to be actresses but his plan backfires on him when he meets Asami.

Despite being unable to get in touch with any of the contacts Asami has put on her CV, Shigeharu continues to see her. This will have disastrous consequences.

Asami wants someone to love only her. This is a problem for Shigeharu because he still loves his belated wife, his son and dog. This means they become problems standing in the way of her desires. As a result of the perceived affront, Asami punishes Shigeharu in some gory, uncomfortable scenes in true Miike style.

Takashi Miike is generally not a director for the faint-hearted but if you do enjoy Audition, he has a vast filmography. I admit that it’s largely hit or miss, but I’ve had fun over the years watching various entries from it, including The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) and Ichi the Killer (2001).

Shigeharu might be feeling regretful. Image Source: Variety

Tomie

Tomie (1998) is an adaptation of a Junji Ito manga of the same name. It follows photography student Tsukiko as she works with a therapist to remember her repressed trauma. In one of her sessions, she unconsciously says the name, ‘Tomie’ which means nothing to her on waking.

Later in the film, a detective visits the therapist with information about Tomie. According to him, she is an immortal succubus who is responsible for the suicides of several of her classmates.

Tomie, who can survive and regrow from just one body part, torments Tsukiko until there is a final stand-off at the end of the film. This isn’t one of the Japanese horror greats but it does have a dreamy atmosphere and excellent score. It’s therefore worth at least one watch, especially if you’re a J-horror completist.

Tomie vs Tsukiko. Image Source: Letterboxd

Tetsuo: The Iron Man

When I watched this film, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A salaryman is hit by a car after putting a piece of iron into his own self-inflicted wound which leads to a bizarre chain reaction. The man and the film in general largely explore the interactions between the soft flesh of the human body and the hard metal of iron.

Both the salaryman and the driver of the car become inexplicably bound to one another by the incident. The latter promises the former ‘a new world of metal’ and that does seem to be an accurate representation of what Shinya Tsukamoto creates with this film.

Tetsuo (1989) doesn’t have a typical plot with beginning, middle and end. Rather, it’s an amalgamation of chaotic events featuring the erotic, the confusing and the truly unbelievable. This isn’t one for the faint-hearted and you certainly shouldn’t watch it with your parents but it is an interesting example of cyberpunk body horror.

So metal. Image Source: IMDB

Battle Royale

I think Battle Royale (2000) might have been the first Japanese horror film I ever watched after reading the novel by Koushun Takami at my friend’s recommendation.

The film follows a class that has been randomly selected to participate in Japan’s yearly Battle Royale game. In this game, each class member must fight to be the last one standing. Cruelly, they must kill one another but some begin with overpowered weapons like guns and axes while others begin with useless items which alters the dynamic as the film progresses.

Loyalties are tested as previous friendships break down and fragile alliances are formed for survival. What happens in the end is surprising but which has inspired other dystopic media such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Last one standing. Image Source: Screen Rant

These are five films in one of my favourite horror subgenres but there are so many more to explore. Let me know if you would like a part two to this list or if there are any Japanese horror films you’d recommend ahead of the ones I’ve chosen here.

If you’d like to read more horror-focused posts, check out my Junji Ito double bill and my review on Shudder original film, Dolly (2025).
20th May 2026
Dolly (2025) Film Review: A Texas Chainsaw Massacre Wannabe

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Have you ever wanted to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) but much worse? If your answer is yes, then Dolly (2025) might just be for you.

Director: Rod Blackhurst

Running Time: 83 minutes

Rating: 🌟

Description

Dolly (2025) follows couple Chase and Macy as they go on a hike in a secluded wooded area. Chase intends to propose so he leaves his daughter Evy with her aunt. While he drops her off, Macy is in the car discussing her doubts on the phone. She is confident Chase is proposing but is unsure whether or not he’s right for her since she didn’t want to be a mother.

Once out in the woods, the pair stumble across a swathe of creepy dolls strewn across the floor and pinned to surrounding trees. Macy remains light-hearted and jokes about how the dolls look like herself and Chase. However, Chase fails to see the funny side and presses on further into the woods.

Eventually, they reach the viewpoint which is where Chase wants to propose. Just as he takes the ring out to bend on one knee, a mysterious tune emanates from inside the woods. Of course, Chase has to check it out since what else would you do if you heard a creepy noise coming from a creepy forest?

While looking for the noise, Chase finds a woman wearing a porcelain mask sobbing over a hole in the ground. He understandably asks her if she’s alright but comes to regret it when “Dolly” proves not to be friendly.

Later, when Macy eventually finds Chase, Dolly decides the hiker will make a good addition to her doll collection. What ensues is a twisted rollercoaster of cruel and tortuous scenes that fail to give the viewer a moment’s rest from the gore.

Time to leave or…? Image Source: Hooked on Horror

Review

I’m not sure what possessed Rod Blackhurst to make a film about women and motherhood but here it is. The two women we see throughout the majority of the film are horrific caricatures of female stereotypes. You have Dolly, who is supposed to be ugly and off-putting. She is compared with Macy who is beautiful but not very wise. This pitting of women against each other is uncomfortable to say the least.

Then you have the blatant ableism that’s present for the duration of the film. It seems clear that Dolly has some form of PTSD especially in the scenes with her father. However, there is no let up on the demonisation of her character. We get no backstory, no insight into how she became the way she is. She is one-dimensional and serves only one purpose – to beat the hell out of the other woman. I wasn’t sure why Dolly’s father was even there when he offers no further information about his daughter beyond that she’s a ‘monster’.

The decisions Chase and Macy make within the film are clearly to advance the plot and feel completely unrealistic. Would you go check out a random creepy noise in the middle of the woods you’ve just hiked through to propose to your partner? No, of course you wouldn’t. I don’t think anyone would, the decision is made purely so Macy can get kidnapped and spend the next hour being tortured.

Cruel torture is present through Dolly‘s entirety and I have to wonder whether this film is just poorly-hidden fetishism. There are several scenes where Macy is dressed up as a doll being beaten by various objects, including a paddle. I don’t see how you can read scenes like this in any other way. The violence is also completely gratuitous with no artistic flair or commentary on violence against women in general.

Pacing and structure are some other issues this film exhibits. Despite near constant action scenes, the eighty-three-minute runtime feels never-ending and I kept checking the time to see how long was left. Interspersed between the scenes of violence towards Macy are scenes of the somehow still alive Chase dragging himself through the woods. With the injuries he sustains, I imagine it would take longer than it does to reach the house Macy is kept in.

The film is on 16mm to mimic 1970s films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). In fact, it’s plain to see Blackhurst is desperate to go back in time and direct the notorious slasher. However, he doesn’t have the skills here to create something on the same level so it simply falls flat. Although I didn’t like Thrash (2026) either, it bewilders me that Dolly (2025) achieved a higher score on Letterboxd.

One of my main issues with Dolly is the ending, especially the twenty minutes leading up to it. For some reason, there is an Alice in Wonderland-type montage that is bizarrely out of place. It seems Blackhurst decides the solid hour of torture might border on too much for the average audience and starts trying to lighten the mood. Either that, or he is trying to add some last-minute style. Regardless, it doesn’t work and ends up just being somewhat confusing.

The reluctance to be a wife and mother that Macy displays at the beginning also goes out of the window at the first hint of trouble. This feels weirdly propagandistic, as though we are only going to avoid trauma if we go ahead and start making babies.

Soured milk leaves a sour taste. Source Image: Pop Horror

Recommendation or Regret?

I need to stop picking random films on Shudder, don’t I? Honestly sometimes they’re so good and then I end up getting two or three duds in a row and feel like never watching a horror film again. That’s obviously an exaggeration but Dolly is truly a terrible film.

I’m not entirely sure who I would recommend it to besides people who share Rod Blackhurst’s fetishes. The pacing, character choices, extreme violence and poor editing leave a sour taste in my mouth (not to mention the sour milk scene).

Let’s leave The Texas Chainsaw Massacre alone and try to come up with something original and exciting next time, please. The homages to seventies horror classics might have a time and place but this is certainly not it. Overall, a wannabe with little substance, disturbing fetishisation and some of the most absurd character decisions of all time.

If you’d like to check out more horror film reviews, try Bodycam (2025) and Thrash (2026).

18th May 2026
Bodycam (2025) Film Review

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Bodycam (2025) is a found footage film that pairs cops and demons with a horrifying result. But, is it a decent entry in the genre or one of the worst found footage films of all time?

Director: Brandon Christensen

Running Time: 75 minutes

Rating: 🌟1/2

Description

Two police officers go to a domestic incident at a house in the suburbs. They assume it’s what they consider to be a run-of-the-mill incident involving addicted people. However, once they arrive, things quickly get out of hand and carnage ensues.

Upon entering the house, they find a couple who appear to be under the influence of a substance. The mother is covered in blood and the father attempts to get help for his baby. Bryce, one of the police officers, mistakes this attempt and fatally shoots both the father and his baby.

Subsequently, Bryce pleads with Jackson to cover the incident up. His wife is pregnant with their first child and he doesn’t want to lose everything he’s been working for. Jackson is understandably reluctant and there are conversations about trust and duty.

A strange symbol in drawn in the house and in various places around the neighbourhood, often in blood. The suburb is reminiscent of LA’s ‘Skid Row’ with users and tents lined up down the pavements. Because of this, Bryce assumes these symbols are the product of someone’s high.

Local hacker Esposito agrees to erase the bodycam footage for Bryce. When she hears the mother in the footage mention ‘The Underman’ though, she changes her mind. She wants nothing to do with it and refuses to erase the camera, running out and leaving the pair to fend for themselves.

What follows is a battle of spirit between the police officers and ‘The Underman’. There is also some input from Jackson’s mother who is a priestess of the light. Despite her attempts to help, bloody scenes unfold and the ending is equal parts gross and disorienting.

Review

Initially, it seems that the film is critiquing police officers, which makes sense given the sheer amount of deaths they cause, especially in the USA. Yet, the jarring ending and descent into chaos pulls away from any possible commentary that might have been there.

Found footage films can be so incredibly hit-or-miss. This one starts off as something unique but devolves into one of the worst ones I’ve seen for some time. The sole use of bodycam and dashcam footage is fairly interesting. Yet, by the end, its sole purpose is to deliver one corny jump scare after another which ruins its effectivity.

There is a decent story in there but it loses against the supernatural storyline. The atrocious acting from some of the cast members also removed me from the setting. It made me all too aware I was watching a questionable found footage film I found on Shudder.

The low budget is plain to see, especially at the end with the makeup. Clearly, they have taken some inspiration from Slenderman in terms of story and costume. The result of this is just a bit weird. Rather than being a unique tale with its own quirks and intrigues, it’s riffing off a different folktale and it doesn’t even do it better.

Jackson’s mother, the priestess of the light, is the most interesting character. There seems to be an intersection between ‘The Underman’ and drug use. She talks about how Jackson scared the former because of his refusal to inject drugs, presumably heroin, into his veins.

Catherine’s daughter passed away due to addiction so she now spends her time trying to help other young addicted people to ‘see the light’. This could have been an interesting point but they don’t explore it in much depth. ‘The Underman’ apparently wanted Catherine because of her work against him but the story ends up being overly bland instead of reaching its full potential.

Some reviews have claimed Bodycam is also socially tone deaf and inappropriate considering the rhetoric surrounding ICE and police officers in the USA at the moment. I can understand this. Beside the couple of conversations the pair have about informing control, Bryce’s behaviour is not necessarily criticised in a concrete, human way. There is an incident with ‘The Underman’ towards the end of the film but this is supernatural rather than reality so the story doesn’t punish him in a way viewers can relate to.

The film’s sound is one aspect that is effective. Throughout, you only hear situational sounds, like talking, moving around the house and doors closing. However, when Bryce rushes home to try and protect his wife and unborn child, his wedding song plays. It then plays during a couple of integral points later in the film which amps up the atmosphere and makes it clear something unnerving is about to happen.

Recommendation or Regret?

I do think this found footage film had potential but it never managed to realise it. Rather, it is one of the worst found footage films I’ve seen and it’s unfortunate. Despite having a low budget, there’s more that could have been explored in terms of story, especially if they redirected the makeup budget which was not very well spent.

Although the film is only seventy-five minutes in length, it feels much longer as it begins to drag in the latter half. Found footage films are generally unpolished so I find it’s better if they’re pacy and efficient, which this one sadly wasn’t for the most part.

From time to time, I do watch random films on streaming services like Shudder and I don’t necessarily regret doing that. However, on this occasion, I regret the film I chose.

If you’re on a masochistic mission to watch every found footage film there is, then by all means, watch this one. On the other hand, if you’re a regular film viewer though, you can probably give it a miss.

If you want to read about more horror films, you can read my post on Upcoming Horror Releases for May 2026.

17th May 2026
Upcoming Horror Releases May 2026
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

We’ve been treated to some excellent horror so far this year but here are five more upcoming horror releases for May that I’m excited to see. Are any of these also on your radar?
Table of contents
Passenger

A young couple witnesses an accident on the highway and is subsequently followed by a demon named the Passenger. This demonic presence won’t stop hounding them until he claims both their lives.

Road trips, especially in remote places, are exciting but can take a turn for the terrifying. This film seems to capitalise on that fear of the unknown and the rational fear of road accidents.

The trailer promises stomach-churning make-up, horrifying road scenes and jump scares galore.

Image Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Corporate Retreat

Icebreakers are the worst part of any job but corporate retreats? They’re the icing on the cake.

This film is a dark horror-comedy that follows a group of young employees on a luxury corporate retreat. What begins as a team-building experience quickly descends into chaos as the retreat leader has other, bloody, ideas.

Out of this selection, I would say this is the one I’m least excited for but I’m still intrigued by the trailers.

Image Source: Bloody Disgusting

Saccharine

Most of us have tried a weird diet fad or two but medical student Hana takes it a step further. When she eats human ashes as part of a weight-loss craze, the ghost of the person she’s eaten begins to haunt her.

Recently, I’ve been enjoying media that considers the wellness industry and its various issues. From the trailer, Saccharine looks like it’s going to contain commentary about weight loss initiatives, fads and the rhetoric surrounding them.

From this selection, I’m definitely most excited about this one just because I’ve loved books like Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang and Rouge by Mona Awad that discuss similar topics.

Image Source: Variety

Backrooms

Backrooms is about what happens when a strange doorway opens up in the basement of a furniture showroom. This is an intriguing premise exploring liminality in a space that, to me, is already liminal. I have strong memories of being in furniture showrooms and carpet shops and feeling like I’d been lost to time.

Liminal spaces have become a popular theme in horror media, including Backrooms and Exit 8, a recent release that explores a similar premise.

Image Source: The Mercury News

Speed Demon

In Speed Demon, a nun who has lost her faith must perform an exorcism on a possessed passenger before disaster strikes the train. This intersection between horror and religion is one of my favourite themes in film.

Many of my favourites, including The Devils (1971) are older so it’s exciting to see a new release tackle similar themes and issues.

Image Source: Macabre Daily

How many of these films are you excited for? Will they make audiences faint in fear or be vague disappointments?

If you want to read about horror films that are already out, check out my reviews of Thrash and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.
14th May 2026
Junji Ito Film Adaptations Double Bill

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

This post marks the beginning of a new series I’m calling ‘Double Bill’ where I watch a duo of films that relate to each other. I’m not talking ‘horror films’ but rather a category that’s a little more focused. Today, we’re talking about two Junji Ito film adaptations that will have your head spinning, maybe literally.

Tomie

Director: Ataru Oikawa

Running Time: 95 minutes

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

The first film in this double bill, Tomie (1998), follows Tsukiko, a photography student, who is attempting to recover some forgotten memories associated with repressed trauma. During her visits with a psychiatrist, she uncovers the name of her former best friend. A name that may allow her to remember everything. That name is Tomie.

Meanwhile, Tomie’s head is regrowing a body in the custody of a recently escaped psychiatric hospital patient. Little does Tsukiko know that Tomie is growing fast and she’s out for revenge for an incident that occurred while the pair were at school together.

Later in the film, we meet a dodgy detective who is investigating Tomie and her seemingly supernatural nature. According to him, she is immortal and has lived several lives, causing men to fall dangerously in love with her. In the past, the detective says she has driven several of her classmates to suicide.

When Tsukiko and Tomie eventually meet once again, there are revelations which culminate in the finale. While she has been portrayed as an evil succubus who wants to use men for her own purposes, you could say Tomie is just your average high school student. She is self-conscious and curious but the Japanese educational and societal landscape does not allow for this in this time period.

With an excellent score and dreamlike images, Tomie feels like a relic, like an old home video lost to time. Although very much reminiscent of late 90s J-horror, it also possesses its own charm despite the tropes. The ending can also be read from a feminist perspective which is not necessarily what I expected but which I appreciated.

Don’t you just hate it when you turn into a spiral? Image Source: The Asian Cinema Critic

Uzumaki

Director: Higuchinsky

Running Time: 90 minutes

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Uzumaki (2000) is another film made in the late 90s/early 2000s J-horror period and based on a popular manga by Junji Ito. This one follows a town that has been cursed by spirals, causing people to become obsessed with the shape. Some people want to rid their bodies of spiral-shaped anatomical structures, some people want to collect spirals and some people become spirals themselves.

A pair of high school students resist the urge to run away to try and save the other inhabitants, including their parents. When this doesn’t go to plan, the spirals quickly take over, causing havoc and mayhem across the town.

While Uzumaki still has a fantastic score, dreamlike pacing and unique shots, it’s not quite as good as Tomie. The special effects are fun but also borderline laugh-out-loud and my eyebrows were raised for large portions of the film. It just didn’t have the same eeriness despite arguably being about a much more terrifying scenario. I certainly don’t know anyone who wants to become a spiral.

Although both adaptations lack some clarity, there’s a section in the middle of Uzumaki which is totally bizarre and doesn’t seem to make any sense. A detective goes to the library to research the spirals and a series of images relating to cults and symbols pop up on the screen. This is then presented as a huge and important finding. However, it doesn’t feel that revelatory and immediately loses any traction once that detective meets their spiral-related fate.

Horrifying film posters for Tomie and Uzumaki. Image Source: Wiki (Tomie) and Wiki (Uzumaki)

Recommendations or Regrets?

If I’d read the source materials, I think I may have harboured some disappointment because this seems to be the general theme amongst other people for whom Junji Ito is a favourite. However, because I watched these films with a separate perspective, I enjoyed them both for what they were.

While they are both somewhat cheesy and lacking in some clarity, they both feel like fever dreams that I’d want to keep returning to. The standout aspects of both were the scores and I’d quite happily listen to them both on their own without rewatching the films.

If you’re a fan of the 90s/early 2000s trends in J-horror, I’d recommend giving these two films a watch. Even if it’s just for the bizarre nature of them both, I think they’re worth adding to your watchlist.

11th May 2026
Disfigurement and Spectacle in Georges Franju’s ‘Eyes Without a Face’
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of contents
Introduction

Georges Franju’s Les Yeux Sans Visage, or Eyes Without a Face (1960), explored the topic of facial transplantation decades before it became possible in France. In the film, Christiane has a facial disfigurement following a car accident caused by her father. We see the people surrounding her treat her like a monster or like a wild animal in a zoo. Meanwhile, her father attempts to transplant the faces of beautiful women he kidnaps onto hers in a restorative manoeuvre that would simultaneously reward his scientific hubris.

In this essay, I will discuss how Georges Franju uses disfigurement as a spectacle in the film. As Norden (2007, p.127) states, ‘the facially disfigured person is the most hackneyed symbol in cinema and theatre, commonly standing for something that has gone dreadfully wrong’. In Eyes Without a Face, this intersection between disfigurement and visibility highlights how women are gazed at differently when they have a facial difference.

The hand reaches for the mask Christiane must wear. Image Source: Our Golden Age

Music

Jaunty music initially leads us into the film. This reminds me of the type of music you might hear at the circus. Overlaying Christiane’s misery with a cheerful tune highlights that disfigurement in this surgical context is fascinating. I would argue that Biernoff’s (2018, p.2) declaration, ‘this is the stuff of Gothic horror, grave robbers and Victorian freaks shows’ would apply to Franju’s film.

This is because of the relationship between spectacle and fainting. According to Biernoff (p.10), ‘surgical spectaculars were a theatrical phenomenon as well as a cinematic one’ bewteen 1897 and 1962 with the number of faintings viewed as ‘a measure of an evening’s success’. Earlier in the essay, Biernoff (p.7) acknowledges that ‘several members of the audience reportedly fainted’ during Edna’s facial removal scene.

There is no music or horrified expression when we see Christiane’s new face. We simply return to the regular male gaze with both her father and Louise commenting only on her beauty. There is no longer a fascination but rather a return to regular desire.

The jaunty music is often also playing when Louise is on-screen. This appears to be to remind us she is in and of herself a spectacle because of her disfigurement. Although we don’t learn much about the scenario, we know that Génessier also operated on her with a greater degree of success. She also wears a visual reminder in the pearl necklace around her neck like a dog collar.

Funereal Spectacle

When the police find the body from the beginning, Génessier falsely identifies it as his daughter. He does this in an attempt to bide himself more time to get the transplant right. However, he does this at the expense of Mr Tessot and his daughter, whose body it really is.

Once outside following the identification, Génessier gets into his car to avoid a barrage of questions and laments from Mr Tessot. His bright headlights briefly illuminate his unfortunate counterpart before quickly leaving him in darkness as he drives away. This is symbolic of Mr Tessot and his daughter’s removal from the spotlight so no one will look at or for her again. The camera’s gaze no longer sees her as her face has become Christiane’s.

Later, Génessier holds a funeral for his ‘daughter’. Génessier designs this funereal spectacle to trick the gaze and distract it from the socially ‘monstrous’ face of his daughter in reality.

Both Christiane and Louise are Génessier’s guinea pigs. Image Source: The Guardian

Christiane’s Mask

The only time we see Christiane’s real face is through the eyes of Edna, a stranger. She is visibly terrified, screaming and Christiane’s face is only showed to the audience slightly blurred. This emphasises that spectacle is appealing when it’s separate and safe, but otherwise is considered socially ‘monstrous’.

Christiane’s mask places a ‘safe’ barrier between the camera’s gaze and her face, but it is still horrifying. Kuntz (2012, p.263) suggests that ‘George Franju evokes horror not by giving an image to the face of violence but by forcing the violence to remain hidden behind a mask’. As such, the audience are aware of what lies beneath the mask and are equally horrified and fascinated.

Clinical Gaze

A woman in the crowd describes Génessier’s speech on ‘heterografts’ as ‘thrilling’. This delineates the fascination the average person may have had when considering complex surgeries like transplants. It may have seemed like something from science-fiction, hence the array of films released that explore this topic and adjacent topics.

The medical photographs evidencing Christiane’s facial deterioration further belies a fascination with surgery. Biernoff (2018, p.11) asserts that ‘…the photographs perform a clinical gaze that objectifies and ‘cadaverises’ its human subject’. This ‘cadaverisation’ is also in various scenes where Christiane is laying despondently on her chaise longue or the floor, getting closer to death each time something goes wrong.

Christiane is treated as an experiment in a similar manner to the dogs Génessier keeps. She is similarly confined to the house like the caged birds, evoking the image of animals in a zoo. Norden (2007, p.126) explains ‘…disabled movie/TV characters are typically created with a high degree of “to-be-looked-at-ness”‘ which this confinement is aligned with.

Although the painting of Christiane and her phone calls to her fiancé remind us she no longer fits into society’s accepted definition of a woman, the clinical gaze is still present due to her disfigurement and her father’s experimental surgeries.

Medical photography belies a fascination with the surgical. Image Source: Criterion Collection

Edith Scob

The actor who played Christiane, Edith Scob, explained the difficulty of acting without the use of her face. Since the mask was difficult to put on and began to crack when she talked, she had to remain silent while shooting scenes. She explained in a video on the Criterion Channel that she had to learn how to use her body language to act as her facial language was no longer available to her.

Conclusion

The spectacle in Eyes Without a Face serves to deflect, fascinate and horrify and it succeeds in these missions in various ways. Through the use of physical and auditory techniques, Georges Franju has emphasised his own, and the general fascination towards surgery in France at the time. Scob suggests the film was a ‘premonition’ of how the plastic surgery and facial transplant industries have developed. This makes you wonder what medical ‘miracles’ we see in science-fiction today might be only a few decades away from becoming reality.

Thank you for reading this essay. If you’d like to delve into another film essay, you can read about colonialist, imperialist and racist attitudes in Black Narcissus (1947).

Sources
1. https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/eyes-without-a-face
2. The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television, BRILL, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=556597.
3. Biernoff, Suzannah. “Theatres of Surgery: The Cultural Pre-History of the Face Transplant.” Wellcome Open Research [England], vol. 3, 2018, p. 54, https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.14558.1.
4. Theorizing Visual Studies : Writing Through the Discipline, edited by James Elkins, et al., Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=1101387.
5. https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/edith-scob-on-eyes-without-a-face
8th May 2026
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (2026) Review

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Directors: Weronika Tofilska, Axelle Carolyn & Lisa Brühlmann

Running Time: 371 minutes

Rating: 3 🌟 1/2

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: something very bad is going to happen if you marry your partner and they’re not your soulmate. Are you still sure they’re the one?

Description

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (2026) is a miniseries created by Haley Z. Boston and showcased on Netflix. It follows Rachel, who is engaged to the love of her life, Nicky in the lead-up to their perfect wedding. At least it should be perfect but nothing’s ever simple where love’s concerned, is it?

On their way to Nicky’s family home for the wedding, Rachel meets a mysterious character in a dive bar. He warns her that her fiancé might not be who she thinks he is. She believes he’s just another creep and quickly escapes. Once they arrive though, strange things keep happening and she realises there might be more to the strange man’s warning than she initially thought.

How do you know if the person you love is your ‘soulmate’? Is it worth taking the risk for a marriage certificate? Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen explores these themes in a fun, unsettling way.

Are you sure he’s the one? Image Source: NME

Review

At the beginning of this miniseries, I was glued to my screen. The suspense was strong, especially with the ‘abandoned’ baby in the car and the strange man in the bar. There was potential for any number of storylines to present themselves and I had fun trying to guess what was going to happen. However, as the show progressed, it became loose and lost its momentum. What was intriguing quickly became predictable and I believe that’s because of its length. It felt as though a solid screenplay had to have extras added to it because it needed to be longer. Largely filler and less killer and while I enjoyed the ending, I could see why many others didn’t.

Nicky’s family was extremely intense, creating some excellent, folkloric scenes. Gus Birney was particularly good as Portia and I know that because I wanted her to be quiet every time she was in a scene. The combination of overbearing and demanding makes you side with Rachel as soon as they arrive at the house and it only gets worse from there.

It is Portia who tells Rachel the story of the ‘Sorry Man’, a mysterious figure her older brother Jules saw when he was a child. According to Jules, he was exploring one day when he entered a house. When the owners of the house returned, he found himself trapped hiding under the bed. What follows was a bloodbath, one that he has never forgotten. The ‘Sorry Man’ becomes a haunting figure throughout the story with the sad explanation being revealed in one of the later episodes.

“Never marry a momma’s boy” or however the advice goes. Image Source: Marie Clare

One of the strongest aspects of the series is the use of lighting and colours to explore theming. The neon lights and blue dingy tinge of the dive bar. The stark white of snow against concentrated blood red. Often in horror films and shows, everything is extremely dark and one-dimensional but the visuals of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen are something different.

There were parts of the story that didn’t make any sense even to someone willing to suspend their disbelief. At one point, Rachel and Nell break into the records office to find marital information on Rachel’s ancestors. It seems unlikely they would manage to get in so easily, and unchallenged, whether it was a day off or not. Plus, it was far too convenient for me that all the records were simply there. I’ve personally had difficulty getting archived information about a relative one generation above.

Initially, I thought the show was going to take itself too seriously but it became the perfect mix of comedy and horror. Nell and Jules’ bizarre relationship dynamic added both tension and comic relief. Nell was certainly one of the best characters.

There’s nothing like true love. Image Source: The Playlist

Recommendation or Regret?

Despite feeling overinflated in the middle and the existence of several plot holes and flaws, I would still recommend this series if you’re a horror fan. The atmosphere was spooky but simultaneously a little fun, never taking itself too seriously. Marriage is an institution that many people still put all their faith in and it was interesting to see the creators explore an alternative message.

If you’re in the mood to read more horror reviews, check out this Junji Ito double bill.

7th May 2026