A porn shoot in a remote Texas location goes awry. Smart, effective late 70s-set horror that’s playful, gleeful, and respectful of the genre in equal measure. Nods along the way to everything from Psycho to The Shining via Texas Chain Saw Massacre while doing its own thing: X continues West’s mastery of the slow burn.
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A wife helps her husband escape jail: a chase and media circus develops as they cross Texas to be reunited with their child. Excellent road movie/crime drama hybrid with comic and bittersweet touches, and full of directorial promise. Loads to recommend here.
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Gentrifiers seeking to invest in a Texas ghost town provoke the residents. Uneven belated sequel, taking the 2018 Halloween as inspiration. Some gleeful gore and a couple of sly gags and visual moments, but Leatherface is entirely justified here, and huge chunks of the movie have neither sense nor logic.
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The purge extended in near-future Texas, a group makes a run for the Mexico border, pursued by murderous vigilantes. While a few changes are rung in the dystopian franchise‘s fifth outing, it lacks the focus of earlier, better instalments, and descends into well-meaning preachiness at times.
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Detectives struggle with a series of murders. Based very loosely on real-world unsolved crimes, this noir-ish thriller can’t decide whether to go for procedural or for obsessive cop angst. It tries both, and so doesn’t gel. Decent performances from an up-and-coming cast and an OK look make this a not-uninteresting curio though.
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A young woman is targeted for termination; an augmented soldier is sent as a protector. This alt-timeline sequel (ignoring all but the first two films) is for series fans only. Some OK action, nice ideas and good jokes, but no purpose, some handwavey plotting, and too much weightless CG tomfoolery instead of grounded mayhem.
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Seven members of a Texas militia meet at their headquarters in the aftermath of a mass shooting. Excellent and absorbing single-location thriller, which wears its touches of Pinter lightly. A hugely impressive debut feature; highly recommended.
Nerdy colleagues band together after co-workers become murderous via a weaponised energy drink. Okay-while-its-on comedy-horror with a Larry Cohen-esque conceit and a whiff of The Belko Experiment. No real surprises or scares, but some nice lines and action details.
Two retired lawmen are recruited to hunt down and kill Bonnie and Clyde. Handsome but slow period thriller that can’t quite make up its mind if it wants to go for drama or action. Well-played, though, with a great Thomas Newman score, evoking Road To Perdition.
Graver enlists Alejandro once more; this time to start a war between cartels. A focus on people trafficking rather than drugs second time around; terrifically stylish and well-executed, if flirting with some reactionary ideas.
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