Christopher Symonds

After the epidemic of remakes, reboots (or as the cynic might say, ‘we’ve milked this cow in its current incarnation as much as we can, so here’s a new version!), there is something truly ‘amazing’ in...
As a lifelong DC comic reader, it was merely an ancillary knowledge of Marvel characters I was aware of. But Thor I was familiar with, and in a cinematic world damn curious as to how to make a blonde-...
There are plenty of examples in film history of now revered classics not finding their audience upon first release. With so many ‘top’ lists having Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in them, and the reverenc...
An American Werewolf in London has never been equalled for this reviewer in the 31 years since its release. No werewolf film since has come close to matching its combination of scares and offbeat humo...
Being an Australian, I remember American history not being a voraciously covered subject in school or of enormous interest to the general population thereafter. But there are some events that transcen...
Tom Holland’s 1985 vampire in your neighbourhood jaunt was a really enjoyable, of its time, funny and scary composite of a movie. It has a cult following, and in many people’s eyes, is a classic from...
Having grown up with horror movies from a really inappropriate age and finding them a delight, each and every one, there was one I’d been urged to watch and never got around to in my youth. My mother,...
By 1992 the renaissance of Disney’s theatrical animation output was in full swing. The Little Mermaid spear-headed things, Beauty and the Beast continued it, and added the distinction of being the fir...
When Battlestar Galactica ’s highly successful reboot came to an end in 2009, it was with a heavy heart that fans all around the world bade them goodbye in a satisfying ending. Unlike many shows, this...
Neil Jordan has entered the vampire genre a total of three times now, none with more plaudits than when he assembled a mega-watt cast for Interview with the Vampire . Now, nearly twenty years after th...
Kevin Costner’s highly successful version of the English tale of Robin Hood took much flak for his appalling attempt at a British accent (in those few lines he did actually attempt it). But decades be...
It’s a tough order to do a slasher movie these days and bring anything remotely original to the subgenre after decades and thousands of attempts. Scream tried the self-aware approach to great acclaim,...
DC’s animated movie onslaught continues with another adventure from the Man of Steel. This time out, fan favourite Brainiac is headed to earth to procure a city for his shrunken city collection, and t...
A small little underdog of a movie: it’s hard to believe but that’s exactly what Silence of the Lambs was. It was a film nobody wanted to make. Gene Hackman, who had paid for half the rights, bowed ou...
With a billion dollar franchise like Twilight to her name it was inevitable that Stephanie Meyer’s other works would quickly find their way to the big screen. According to those in the know, Meyer qui...