Science fiction cinema is often built directly on the foundations of the films that came before. That’s not to say that sci-fi screenwriters are thieves or plagiarists, but that there are themes, concepts, and messages that seem to pop up in “speculative fiction” since at least the 1930s. Even the best and most recent sci-fi films are clearly and openly beholden to earlier stories – which is why you see everyone on twitter yelling “copycat!” or “rip-off!” every time they notice something familiar in The Hunger Games, Snowpiercer, or Edge of Tomorrow.

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A great many horror films divide critics, but it’s rare that one divides the same critic. Two years ago, writer-director Nicholas McCarthy’s The Pact did just that: expanded from his own short film, it was seen by many as a classic “curate’s egg” movie – some of it was rotten, but parts of it were excellent. I thought it was a great deal better than most critics gave it credit for, and certainly proved a few things about McCarthy:

(1) he’s a better director than he is screenwriter;

(2) he knows how to direct actors, especially female ones;

(3) he can get new mileage out of old ideas;

(4) he can make a modest budget look like a million bucks;

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Can an entire film be ruined by a bad accent? The answer, it seems, is absolutely – as surely as one can be ruined by a stupid wig (think any recent John Travolta film) or misjudged age makeup (step forward, Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom). Only recently was I decrying the Gahdarfal Amearican airccent sported by Mark Strong (himself no stranger to dodgy hairpieces) in the otherwise enjoyable Mindscape, but now here’s an even bigger offender: in X Moor, Nick Blood may have finally done what is known in the business as a “reverse Dick van Dyke” – committing to celluloid the very worst American accent every perpetrated by a British actor. More

At first glance, “horror movie” and “musical” would seem like a terrible mix. Musicals are often a celebration of human emotions whereas horror films frequently try to evoke and provoke those unpleasant things that terrify us all. But of course there is the cult classic granddaddy called The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), which is not only a horror movie and a musical, but also a maniacal love letter to old-fashioned horror movies and musicals. (Brian De Palma’s 1974 film The Phantom of the Paradise also deserves a mention in this category.) More