Getting too hot in the sunshine? Well I’ve got a couple of chillers for you this week that are bound to send cold shivers down your spine. Whether it’s angry reptiles or haunted (light)houses that float your boat - enjoy!
Best new film on Sky Cinema
Crawl
The list of movies about creepy creatures from the deep is a long one. There’s Jason Statham fighting a super shark in The Meg, nineties J-Lo serpent shocker Anaconda, Kelly Brook battling biting beasties in Piranha 3D (whilst she was wearing a bikini, obviously), plus beach babe Blake Lively fending off a Great White with a taste for surfer girls in The Shallows. It’s that last film that the latest entry into the genre, CRAWL, most resembles. Don’t expect deep meaning: it’s just a battle to survive.
Watch Kaya Scodelario in Crawl
The aquatic predators, in this case, are alligators and the film tells the story of Florida student Hayley (The Maze Runner’s Kaya Scodelario), a swimming champ who goes in search of her dad during a category five hurricane. Big mistake. When he’s found injured in the basement of their old family home, Hayley soon discovers that they’re not alone. Local gators have made use of the rising water levels and are now crawling around with only one thing on their mind: what’s for dinner.
CRAWL is an enjoyably wet and swampy, low-budget horror: muddy, messy and packed with gruesome kills and suitably squelchy sound FX, with Kaya Scodelario giving an excitingly physical turn that reportedly left her bruised and battered every night after filming. The fact that - bar a little bit of father/daughter bonding - there’s not an awful lot to it is also the film’s strength. CRAWL has no delusions of grandeur, just old-fashioned tension. And yes, at under ninety minutes long it’s also seriously snappy.
CRAWL [15] is new to Sky Cinema
Best new film on Amazon
The Lighthouse
Robert Pattinson moves even further away from his pouty Twilight years with this latest chiller from filmmaker Robert Eggers, whose eerie horror film The Witch made a star of Anya Taylor-Joy a few years back. Looking wonderfully weatherbeaten and speaking with a frankly indeterminate accent, R Patz is simply making the most awesome movie choices right now.
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star
THE LIGHTHOUSE is set in late 19th century coastal New England, with salty sea dogs Willem Dafoe and Pattinson assigned 4 weeks work together tending the remote building. Unsurprisingly, loneliness quickly ensues and the two men, isolated and disturbed, find themselves fighting a slow descent into madness.
WATCH: The Lighthouse trailer
Shot in retro monochrome and full of surreal imagery (watch out for the seagulls), THE LIGHTHOUSE is The Shining meets Moby Dick - a study of masculinity in confinement that clearly won’t be everyone’s swig of rum. But even haters will surely relish Pattinson more wonderfully weird than ever, plus Dafoe as a shouty Captain Birdseye with relentless flatulence. Weird, yes - but this is a tale that knows how to get into your head. Mesmerising.
THE LIGHTHOUSE [15] is out to buy on Prime Video now
Coming soon
The Old Guard
The mighty Charlize Theron returns to her butt-kicking ways in this new action movie from Netflix, telling the story of a super-secret, super-human group of mercenaries. Based on the comic book of the same name, THE OLD GUARD co-stars Matthias Shoenaerts and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It hits the streaming service in July.
WATCH: The Old Guard trailer
This article contains affiliate links, which means HELLO! may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. More information.