Get The Gringo and Rambo: Last Blood director, Adrian Grünberg joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about his new film,The Black Demon. The killer shark movie stars Josh Lucas as an oil company employee struggling to protect his family from a megalodon shark after they become stranded on a disused oil rig. An entertaining horror-thriller, The Black Demon plays around with the genre's tropes, as well as adding a little bit of mysticism into the plot. Films like Get The Gringo (also known...

City University of New York lecturer and film historian James Kenney once again joins the Movies In Focus podcast. The last time he was on the show he talked about discovering the original cut of Peter Bogdanovich’s Squirrels To The Nuts - and this time round he discusses Gee Malik Linton’s surrealist religious drama, Daughter Of God. Starring Keanu Reeves and Ana De Armas, Daughter Of God was recut by producers - who removed almost forty minutes - and released it under the generic title of...

Running on HBO for seven seasons and 93 episodes from 1989 to 1996, Tales From The Crypt was a wonderfully ghoulish show that was based on Bill Gaines’ EC Comics imprint of the same name. Executive produced by Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill and David Giler, the show was a huge success due to its dark tales and even darker humour. From the second season onwards, Tales From The Crypt was produced by Gil Adler and A L Katz, a duo who oversaw the show's production and...

Japanese-American director Yoko Okumura makes a punchy feature film debut with Unseen, a new genre-bending comedy-thriller from Blumhouse Productions. Running a tight eighty minutes, Unseen stars Midori Francis as Emily, a woman escaping from a boyfriend who wants to kill her. Lost in the woods, and without her prescription glasses, she relies on the help of Jolene Purdy’s put-upon cashier, Sam to guide her to freedom by video call. Funny when it needs to be and brutal when you least expect...

Corey Deshon, the talented multi-hyphenate writer-director joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about his new film, Daughter. Daughter is an intense psychological thriller that stars Vivien Ngô as a young woman who is abducted and then inducted into a family as their new daughter. Casper Van Dien plays the mysterious Father, the man who will stop at nothing to keep his family unit intact. A small film with great performances, Daughter is a piece which plays with genre and expectations....

Released in the summer of 1991, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves was a monster success that grossed over $165 million at the US box office and more than $390 million globally - a number which made it one of the biggest hits of the year. The success of the film, along with the massive Bryan Adams hit, (Everything I Do) I Do It for You means that it still resonates today.  The classic Kevin Reyndolds directed adventure gives Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood plenty of swash and buckle alongside Morgan...

Manifest West is a coming of age survival drama starring Milo Gibson, Annet Mahendru and Lexi Kolker. A film about a family ditching civilisation and seeking a new life in the American wilderness, Manifest West is an incredibly timely movie which looks at family values, the broken economy and the search for a better way of life. The film’s writer-directors Joe Dietsch and Louis Gibson joined Niall Browne on the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about how the film came to be and the struggles of...

Sam & Kate is a heartfelt family dramedy from writer-director Darren Le Gallo. It’s a low-key piece, which features a collection of strong performances from its cast - Dustin Hoffman, Sissy Spacek, Jake Hoffman, Schuyler Fisk and Henry Thomas. They all manage to cover a wide range of emotions, delivering plenty of light-hearted moments amongst the very honest dramatic beats. Aside from the well honed screenplay, Sam & Kate is notable because it not only features the pairing of Hoffman...

This episode of the Movies In Focus podcast sees a pair of directors join Niall Browne to talk about their latest movies. First up is French filmmaker Romuald Boulanger who is discussing his new thriller On The Line. The film sees Mel Gibson star as a radio host whose evening show is thrown into chaos when he gets caught-up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a deadly caller. It’s a hugely enjoyable film with plenty of twists and turns which will keep audiences guessing right to the...

Director K. Asher Levin joins the Movies In Focus podcast to talk with Niall Browne about his horror-action-comedy Slayers. A very modern take on the vampire film, Slayers stabs its stake into the heart of everything from online influencers to QAnon conspiracy theorists. It’s an energetic and entertaining genre pic with committed performances from a cast that includes Thomas Jane, Kara Hayward, Jack Donnelly, Lydia Hearst, Malin Akerman, Abigail Breslin. During the course of the conversation...

Gerry Maguire, the Head of Irish Film London returns to the Movies In Focus podcast to discuss the 2022 incarnation of The Irish Film Festival London. The festival, which is now in its 11th year will take place in London from the 16 – 20 November 2022. Showcasing the best of Irish cinema, the festival opens with a gala screening of Frank Berry’s drama, Aisha at the Vue Leicester Square on 16 November and closes with Róise & Frank at the Riverside Studios on Sunday November 20.  With...

Steven E. de Souza, the acclaimed screenwriter and director joins Niall Browne for this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast. Mega hits and cult classics such as 48 Hours, Commando, Die Hard, The Running Man, Die Hard 2, Hudson Hawk, Streetfighter, Judge Dredd and Tomb Raider litter his filmography. That’s taking into account television shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, V and Tales From The Crypt. In this bumper-size episode, Steven talks about how...

This time around Irish filmmaker Andrew Baird joins Niall Browne to talk about his new film One Way.  A character based thriller which stars Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly), Kevin Bacon and Travis Fimmel, One Way is a piece which mainly takes place in one location - onboard a bus. Considering its limited scope, One Way is a film which is directed with a tremendous amount of flair and energy - and it must be given credit for featuring a strong performance by rapper-turned actor Coulson...

Actors, writers, directors and producers all have key roles in production - but one of the most important aspects in a film is the musical score - a score can literally make or break a film. Composer Lorne Balfe joins the Movies In Focus podcast about his work on the hugely acclaimed and massively successful Tom Cruise blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick. Balfe worked on the film’s music alongside the masterful Hans Zimmer and the legendary Harold Faltermeyer. Balfe started his career as...

At the tail end of 2021 Movies In Focus watched and reviewed Sonny Mallhi’s excellent horror, Hurt. On The surface it appeared that Hurt was just another film in the slasher genre - but it turned out to be much more than that, Yes, it was a horror film but it had rich characterisation and dealt with a lot of interesting themes such as fear, death, violence, loss, love, family, isolation and yes, hurt. Sonny got in touch, thanking me for my review and I invited him onto the Movies In Focus...

Premiering at the Venice Festival in 2014, She’s Funny That Way was the final narrative feature from the late Peter Bogdanovich. Starring Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn, Will Forte, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Aniston, the film was a screwball comedy which, while enjoyable, never truly felt like a cohesive vision from the master writer-director. And that’s because it wasn’t. Originally filmed as Squirrels To The Nuts Bogdanovich’s vision was compromised during post-production and after...

Since 1998, Bill Ramey’s Batman On Film has been the go-to website for the best news for Batman on the big screen.  It was founded in the wake of Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin as a way of ‘lobbying for the long-term continuation of the Batman film franchise and the production of quality Bat-Movies’. Batman-On-Film was there for the first rumblings of new Batman movie and the lead-up to what would become Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. The site then gained a huge following...

Over the last five decades, Australian director Phillip Noyce has shown that he really knows how to handle the thriller genre. Noyce first captured international attention with the acclaimed 1989 film Dead Calm. Starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane, the film is a close quarters thriller which still works incredibly well more than 30 years after it was first released. The success of Dead Calm brought Noyce to Hollywood, where he directed Rutger Hauer in the fun action film Blind...

Founded in 2010, the main aim of Irish Film London and the Irish Film Festival London is to champion Irish film and animation around the UK community. With patrons including Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell and Fiona Shaw, the organisation is not just a major force for Irish film in the UK, but it now has a strong global reach. In this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast, Niall Browne talks with Gerry Maguire, the Head of Irish Film London to discuss what it’s like running the organisation....

Adam Nelson has had an interesting career as a filmmaker. A life long film fan, Adam did a degree in film before moving into teaching the subject. His first short film as writer and director was The House Near Apple Park and he then went on to make first feature length film Little Pieces. Critically acclaimed, Little Pieces won the Best Independent Feature Film award at the Dorking Film Festival 2015 and was nominated for a National Film Award in the Best Drama category in 2016. Adam’s...

Filip Jan Rymsza is a Polish filmmaker who has had a varied career in the business. In 2018 he helped spearhead the completion of The Other Side Of The Wind, the final film from Orson Welles, as well as producing Morgan Neville’s They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, a documentary which detailed the making of Welles’ film. Filip’s latest release is Mosquito State, a thriller which he produced, directed and co-wrote. A clinically precise piece of filmmaking, Mosquito State is a psychological...

Phillip Escott, the founder of Fractured Visions joins this episode of the Movies In Focus podcast. Fractured Visions is a UK distribution company and film festival which has a keen focus on genre cinema.  Phil discussed his boutique DVD and blu-ray label and talked about his film selection process as well as how he goes about sourcing elements like negatives and the work that goes into creating a wide selection of wonderful extras. It’s a fascinating - and little talked about - aspect of...

Writer and journalist Abbie Bernstein is the author behind many great film and television books such as The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road, Godzilla King of the Monsters, and The Cabin in the Woods: Official Visual Companion. A Los Angeles resident, she writes for such titles as Assignment X, Fangoria, and Buzzy Mag. Her latest work is Master Of Horror: The Official Biography of Mick Garris, a book which looks at the life and career of the iconic horror writer-director, Mick Garris. It’s a...

Filmmaker Mick Garris has ticked nearly every creative box that there is in the industry. From his career beginnings working in the Star Wars production office through to his work on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories to his many Stephen King adaptations including the smash television mini-series The Stand and The Shining. He’s also the creator of the ground-breaking Masters of Horror television series and the host of the brilliant podcast, Post Mortem. Mick is a man with a lot of great...

Film producer Gemma Bradley joins this episode of the Movies In Focus Podcast. Gemma is an independent filmmaker who has produced the urban thriller Brother’s Day and the recent science fiction film Black Box. I’ve known Gemma for well over 20 years. She’s the younger sister of my best friend Robert who was sadly killed by a drunk driver in the year 2000.  Funded largely through a Kickstarter campaign, this low budget film’s location setting and claustrophobic use of space has echoes of...