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2025 Horror Anniversaries: Part Two

The Descent (Directed by Neil Marshall, 2005) 

Very rarely does a film like The Descent come around, with the horror being comparable to one hundred minutes of pure fright. This British film comes from the mind of horror auteur Neil Marshall, who delivers an experience that is known for managing to scare the wits out of even the most hardened of viewers. The Descent follows six lifelong friends who have made a habit of going on adrenaline-fuelled trips. For their latest excursion, they embark on a caving adventure, however, once inside the uncharted cave they discover an army of humanoid creatures who they must battle against to survive.

Every box is ticked: gnarly creatures, the dark, twisted group dynamics, betrayals, heights and injuries all make an appearance. Yet, there is one element that surpasses the rest, the claustrophobic caves. The film showcases tight caves, where the women have to squeeze themselves through the tiniest of gaps just to get to another narrow tunnel. It’s a seemingly neverending cycle of torture that still daunts, intimidates, wrecks, shocks and scares stiff twenty years on. 

Final Destination (Directed by James Wong, 2000) 

The franchise responsible for making people terrified of log trucks, alongside pretty much every potentially dangerous concept such as bridges, planes, race tracks and so forth is soon to have six films to its name, but it all began twenty-five years ago with the original Final Destination. The premise follows a group of teens who cheat death after experiencing a catastrophic premonition before they are due to take off on a plane. However, rather than remaining unscathed from the incident, death begins coming after them one by one.

Prior to writing the script with fellow writer Glen Morgan and eventual director James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick conceived the premise as an unsolicited idea for an episode of the TV series ‘The X-Files‘. However, rather than being submitted to the network, Reddick was convinced to develop the forty-five minute episode into a feature-length film. The result of the script is extremely theatrical, very seriously toned, and alert to its own sternness of a subject matter, yet at the same time, its melodramatic flair makes it somewhat of a comfort watch, where the predictable, formulaic nature of death chasing down each character makes for great repeat viewing. 

Ginger Snaps (Directed by John Fawcett, 2000) 

The matter of lycanthropy has never been so angsty in John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps. This werewolf tale follows Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and her sister Bridgette (Emily Perkins), who together have a strange obsession with death, often photographing themselves as they stage various methods of killing. Their curiosity about the macabre soon becomes a reality after Ginger is bitten by a werewolf on the night of a full moon. Soon, Ginger becomes more than a hormonal teenager as she sports a growing tail, sprouts hair and develops a ferocious appetite for violence.

Ginger Snaps possesses the capacity to be analytically torn apart and devoured as a piece of metaphorical heavy cinema, with the film often being written about by many academics, namely Barbara Creed in her Monstrous Feminine theory. Creed posits that Ginger Snaps can be read as a recreation of the adolescent woman as an animal, akin to a feral beast equipped with all the bodily changes for a monstrous affair. Whether you absorb the film as an interpretive experience, or as pure entertainment, Ginger Snaps is a killer horror through and through. 

Scary Movie (Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000) 

Although the iconic satirical slasher Scary Movie is due to turn twenty-five years old this summer, the Wayans brother production is largely, minus a few dated moments, still as hilarious today as it was at the start of the millennium. The two decades before Scary Movie was inundated with slasher films, to the point where metafictional cinema and media had pulled reign and both celebrated and parodied the influx, with Scary Movie being a key example of such cinema. Just a few pieces that are spoofed throughout the film include ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, ‘Scream’, ‘The Shining’, ‘Friday the 13th’, ‘Halloween‘, ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’.

Unlike many horror films, Scary Movie solely thrives on its humour rather than the scares, with every scene brimming with raunchy, vulgar moments of shockingly daring, slapstick-like and at times crude laughs. This bold take was seen as a bit too tasteless for some of the bigger news outlets reviewing the film upon its release, yet for many, the obscenity is what makes the film excel. The film ended up spawning five sequels, the latter of which was only recently announced, but the anticipation is already making waves, particularly as the Wayans are set to return and write the screenplay. 

Misery (Directed by Rob Reiner, 1990) 

Misery, an adaption of Stephen King’s novel of the same name (1987), is said to be one of King’s favourite cinematic recreations of his many books. The reasons as to why this is the case are countless, as Misery well and truly flourishes in every category. Firstly, the acting is excellent, with Kathy Bates winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, which is a feat in itself when one considers that the Oscars is renowned for commonly overlooking the horror genre in its selection. One of the many other reasons for its golden reputation is that the film is genuinely suspenseful, with Reiner actively creating scenes awash with nail-bitingly tense moments of sheer fright, terror and blinding anticipation.

A pivotal example of Misery’s brilliance is when Bates’ character, Annie Wilkes, who has been holding novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) restrained and hostage, takes a sledgehammer to her captive’s ankles, smashing them to smithereens. The snapshot of Sheldon’s ankles making a ninety-degree angle is shown, but the moment is deliberately and incredibly brief, with Reiner focusing on showing the raw reactions of both the characters instead of the gore. Ultimately, it is Misery’s adept ability to convey strong emotional tension that makes it still a supreme classic horror film thirty-five years on. 

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985) 

Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is an obvious, undefeated champ, and commonly agreed upon as the best entry in the lengthy franchise, yet its sequel ‘Freddy’s Revenge’ does have its gleaming moments that have led to its contemporary cult status forty years on. The second telling of Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund) follows teenager Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton), who has recently moved into the former property of Nancy Thompson, who years prior suffered a disastrous fate at the hands of the ‘Springwood Slasher’ himself. Soon, Jesse begins to experience horrific nightmares of Krueger, leading to a deadly fight for survival.

Upon its release, reviews were in the grey, with the film being continuously compared to its predecessor. Despite the initial murky critical reception, Freddy’s Revenge has become a glorified entry in the Elm Street series, with the film’s surrounding dialogue revolving around matters such as homoeroticism, sexuality and repressed desires. 

The Changeling (Directed by Peter Medak, 1980) 

The Changeling follows John Russell (George C. Scott), a New York composer whose car becomes stuck in the snow whilst travelling in the mountains. Whilst calling for help in a nearby phone booth, he witnesses a truck collide with his wife and daughter, brutally killing them both. Grieving from the loss of his family, he moves to Seattle, renting a grand mansion that has been supposedly vacant for over a decade. Although John is all alone, he begins to experience strange phenomena as the house reveals itself to be haunted.

The Changeling is known to be quite the terrifying feature, with the film being the quintessential ghost story. Creaky doors, loud sudden noises and supernatural apparitions all make themselves known throughout, with each act becoming embroiled with layers of haunting lore. Yet, the archetypal spooky elements are far from being monotonous, as The Changeling is filmed in such an atmospherically captivating way, with some truly mystifying cinematography, detailed sound design and a commendable, believable performance from Scott. 

Peeping Tom (Directed by Michael Powell, 1960) 

Carol Boehm plays Mark Lewis, a serial killer whose modus operandi is unsuspecting women who he murders using a concealed blade hidden in his camera equipment, filming his victims as he murders them. In Peeping Tom, the camera that Lewis uses becomes a weapon, capturing the look of pure fear in a person’s eye as they realise that the man before them is actually a savage and a sadistic killer.

It is incidents such as these that led to the film becoming harshly received upon its release sixty-five years ago. Various countries sought for the film to be censored and reprimanded due to the shocking nature of the film. One of these restrictions lasted for twenty-one years, with Finland outright banning the film. Peeping Tom’s historical legacy is rich with explorations surrounding the film’s portrayal of voyeurism, which is used as a lens, traversing issues such as the human psyche, alongside the voyeuristic gaze that cinema itself withholds. 

Psycho (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) 


One of the most iconic horror films of all time turns sixty-five years old this Autumn. Psycho is a lesson in suspense, particularly in thanks to the filmmaker behind the camera, the one and only Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The film’s direction, unnerving legendary score, unsettling set design, stark lighting and tremendous performances have helped propel Psycho to its acclaimed position and cement the tropes that still linger in the genre to this day.

The film’s uncanny ability to startle does not simply lie in its technical elements, with Psycho additionally taking heed of its dark atmospheric aura and tone to draw viewers in only to cruelly punish them at the hands of its anxiety-inducing plot. For instance, the film makes use of its psychological motives, both through the narrative itself, and through the way Hitchcock pulls off some of the greatest plot twists of all time.

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Ten of the scariest jumpscares in horror

  1. The Lawnmower – Sinister (Scott Derrickson, 2012)

Sinister has a brilliant and justifiable setup for many jumpscares to ensue, with Ethan Hawke’s character discovering a box of Super 8 films revealing a plethora of families’ grisly deaths. Many of these evil tapes are shown, showcasing drownings, hangings, and a string of other cruel fates. However, one tape, in particular, is still wedged in the back of many viewers’ minds twelve years on. The lawnmower tape displays an unknown person (later revealed to be a child!) grabbing a red lawnmower from a dark shed before mowing over grass in the pitch-black night, with the only morsel of light coming from the glow of the recording flash. Sounds of white-noise-like fuzziness play ominously over the confusing scene before the camera’s warm glow shows a person bound to the ground as the mower lashes over them with a fierce suddenness accompanied by an ear-drum bursting screech. The scene is an exercise of the classic jumpscare, brimming with brutally loud sounds and a terrifying image, yet it does not feel archetypal and expected; instead, the setup combined with the payoff is exactly how a quick jumpscare should be done.

2- Clown mask – Hell House LLC (Stephen Cognetti, 2015)

Is Hell House LLC one of the best horror films of the last decade? It might be a bold statement considering all of the fantastic films to come from this period. Yet, many a contemporary horror fan would state that Stephen Cognetti’s contributions are undeniably superb, mainly thanks to his filmography’s ability to turn every morsel of screentime into a bone-chilling expedition of great extremes. A scene in testament to this is the ‘What’re you looking at?’ scare, where a member of the haunted house comes across a demonic figure, believing it to be his friend dressed up in an eerily creepy clown suit. The true horror of the scene comes from the audience’s knowledge that this figure is not a friendly familiar but a hellish being donned in a black and white fairground suit and mask. We feel the tension bloom as the cast member comfortably stands beside his supposed friend and casually talks to it. It is not a scene where loud screams blare, or a monster leaps out. It is a simple setup with an excellent culmination to the terrifying film. 

3- Camera closeup – Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (Jung Bum-shik, 2018) 

The South Korean footage horror entered screens with immediate success, coming in first at the box office on the same day of its release. Its ‘must-see’ reputation grows yearly, with the film now being one of the highest-grossing films in the country, just behind the classic A Tale of Two Sisters (2003). Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is somewhat of a slow burn, taking its time to build trepidation before unleashing its ferocious force onto the unsuspecting viewer. There are countless incidences where you will find yourself watching the screen between peaked fingers over the eyes, but the one scene that continuously creeps up on jumpscare compilations is the ‘ultra-close up shot’. In traditional found footage fashion, the firsthand camera, in this instance, comes from the fisheye lens on a GoPro, which is mounted to the head of its user. The user in question experiences possession by a malicious spirit, turning her mouth into a menacing grim, complete with black irises and an air of pure wickedness. The intensity of the fright primarily originates from the twisted complexion that the fisheye lens provides; it’s an image straight from the uncanny valley, especially when paired with the unhuman odd squealing noise that the character makes. 

4- The first appearance – I Am a Ghost (H.P. Mendoza, 2012)

I Am a Ghost remains criminally underrated despite its truly nightmarish conclusion. Describing the film can come across as a disservice. Nothing happens for the majority of the film. There are no grand acts of terror, and a monotonous routine takes precedence for the most part. However, this stagnantness is where the horror excellence shines. I Am a Ghost follows a woman from an indeterminable era in a large Victorian house, all by herself, as she goes about her daily routine of waking up, making breakfast, walking around the house, and so forth. However, something is off, a stringent atmosphere become apparent, but the force of strain is revealed ever so delicately and subtley. Yet, when the clock strikes and the realisation hits, we are met with an ungodly reign of terror in the form of a chilling creature-like demon whose appearance is a psychical shock in terms of its sheer spectacle but also an emotional jolt due to the sudden interruption into the banal, mundane tone that was at play for the majority of the film. 

5- Night vision – The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)

The Descent’s unbreakable reputation still stands today due to Neil Marshall’s impeccable timing of frights, scares and gore galore. The night vision scene occurs deep under an unknown cave system amidst columns of sharp, pointed stalactites and hundreds of animal bones. Darkness prevails, and panic sets in for the spelunking group, who are becoming increasingly aware of their entrapment. Their access to night vision only provides a feeble attempt of sight, but what it does pick up is a daunting image of the humanoid creature known as a ‘Crawler’ standing over them, waiting to catch their prey. Upon discovery, all hell breaks loose, and the group’s tortuous journey to their gruesome deaths begins. It’s everything one could wish for in a jumpscare – disquieting tension, limited vision, an almighty scream and a powerful scare.

6- Car window – Smile (Parker Finn, 2022)

A common conception about contemporary horror cinema is that they are predictable with one too many jumpscares. And whilst that sentiment may ring slightly true, there are plenty of films which exercise an abundance of jumpscares with brilliance—an example of this being Smile. Parker Finn’s feature debut’s standout scene, which took many by surprise, is the ‘car window’ snippet. The jolting clip shows a woman running to a car window, only for her torso to fill the car window, and her neck to seemingly contort and hang low, pushing her twisted expression into the glass and showcasing an awfully horrid smile.

7- ‘The Mother’ – Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022)

The payoff from Barbarian’s ‘big’ jumpscare is all in the buildup, which takes up the majority of the first half of the film. Whilst details will be kept sparse, throughout Barbarian we are unsure as to who or what will go wrong, who to trust and when the horror will unfold. Meaning that the grand reveal of the mysterious titular creature behind all the terror is all the more effective. What also propels this particular Barbarian scare to gold status is how it changes the film’s method of horror. The likes of Smile and Sinister use quick scares to retrieve a response. Meanwhile, Barbarian and I Am a Ghost utilise a general sense of devilment to entice a reaction. Barbarian often employs atmospheric dread to create fear, making this unforeseen monstrous appearance all the more frantic.

8- I Saw Her Face – The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002)

Gore Verbinski’s adaption of the Japanese classic Ringu (1998) is an example of a remake done right. There are countless instances where the film takes us on a frightening ride, but there is one scene that stands out amongst them all – the infamous ‘I Saw Her Face’ extract. During a somber funeral service for a young girl hit by the tragedy of The Ring’s lore, the victim’s mother tells of her heartbreak and sudden death of her daughter. The scene is one of solemn and tenderness, mourning the sadness of a life lost, however, in an attack of complete sporadicalness the camera cuts to the girl hunched dead inside a closet, mouth gaping open, eyes drooped and bruised skin. Brutal, bold and beyond bone-chilling.

9- The Haunting of Hill House (Mike Flanagan, 2018)

Mike Flanagan is the ultimate horror connisseur, what with being a known avid horror fan, which continuously shows through his extensive filmography. Although The Haunting of Hill House is not a film but mini-series, it truly is a cinematic masterpiece. The show as a collective nails the art of a jumpscare. It features scenes of brief, sudden thwacks with booming sounds providing plenty of nerve jolting attacks to the senses. On the flip side, there is an equal amount of long, dreary, shocks that unnerve as much as they panic. Whilst there are too many scenes to pin the precise focal point, a few masterly frights include every appearance of the Bent Neck Lady and the ‘car scare’.

10- Hide and Clap – The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013)

To set the scene, a mother and child are playing the hide and clap game, which is akin to a Marco-Polo, hide and seek activity. In an attempt to locate the hider, the seeker (the mother) follows the claps, leading her to the entryway of the basement. Now in complete darkness with only a small glow lighting up her face, she waits for the next clap, only for the silence to be broken by a clap from right behind her. Loud screams and panic ensues, but the real reaction comes from the slow buildup, shivering in anticipation waiting for a clap to appear out from knowhere and cut the unbeliviably thick tension.

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Horror Legends – Neil Marshall

neil marshall

Neil Marshall, born and bred in Newcastle has long held a reputation for being both implausibly daring in his work and a true genre filmmaker. Over the past 20 years of his career, Marshall has managed to produce nothing but original work that tours every spector of horror and fantasy, exploring grizzly ghouls and monsters to folklore and sci-fi escapades. It can certainly be said that Marshall is the film version of a globetrotter. And within his first-rate range, he never misses a beat, creating cult classics and award-winning flicks. 

Marshall’s broadening work demands attention, it’s clear to see that blood, sweat, and tears have gone into his films, warranting a dedicated and acclaimed reception from audiences and critics alike. He even earns himself a ‘splat pack’ badge, joining the likes of Rob Zombie and Eli Roth in the stand for creating superbly nasty movies.

Now, Marshall is directing the upcoming rip-roaring action-horror The Lair which surrounds a group of half-human, half-alien creatures being let out on the loose and the fight to demolish them before they demolish the world.

After graduating from film school Marshall went on to work as a freelance film editor, working with Keith Bell (fellow film school graduate). In 1998 the pair worked on a low budget action-thriller Killing Time, which utilised everyone on set, with even Marshall venturing out of editing and contributing to the action coordination and choreography. The passion and vocation that everyone had in just trying their best to create something, inspired Marshall and Bell to say ‘you know what’ and get their own film rolling. This film which started out as a could-be pipeline dream ended up being one of Britain’s most hallmark horror’s, kicking the genre into a new era and generating a fantastic auteurship for Marshall. This film is Dog Soldiers! 

Dog Soldiers (2002) 

A routine training exercise in the Scottish Highlands for a small squad of British soldiers turns deadly when they are violently attacked by a group of vicious werewolves. Left without any form of transport or communication the team is forced to hide out in a remote farmhouse to wait for the full moon to disappear, little do they know the werewolves will stop at nothing until every one of them is dead. 

A whole twenty years have passed since Dog Soldiers was released, but the time has only made it richer, marinating a full-bodied horror that gushes enough blood to satisfy gorehounds, whilst also layering an intense narrative that unveils the inner terror of self-destruction and how internalised fears flourish to become a united enemy with the larger threat at hand, which in this case is werewolves. 

Incidentally, although Marshall delves into the context and demands of human nature, the actual layout of the lycanthropes themselves is simple but ultra efficient. An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981) both excel in highlighting the whole point of metamorphosis and what it means to transcend the boundaries between man and animal, however, rather than thrive in the actual transformation itself, Marshall uniquely opts for displaying a rooted story of the werewolf being the enemy, and that’s it. There’s no flamboyance of creating a ‘curse’ around the creatures. At the heart the film is a war horror infused with these beasts that are capable of being terrifying enough without having a tinseltown backstory. 

Infusing this basis of soldier vs. monster set within the emotional confounds of a military cladding is the whole idea of anonymity. The aforementioned lack of humanity regarding the werewolves immediately forms a hierarchical structure that makes the creatures ultra ruthless. There is no sense of empathy lingering behind the claws and fur, nor is there an opportunity for the viewer to sympathise with the beast. Alternatively, they are barbaric and cruel, willing to rip into every muscle because of their natural hunger for flesh. It’s quite scary to think that this feral ferocity is bared with no holding back.

 Brilliantly juxtaposing this nameless violence is the natural curiosity one feels towards the soldiers. As with any film exploring a small group of people, there is that certain dynamic where some individuals are favoured more than others. If this was any ordinary group we could easily be angered at any displays of chauvinistic masculinity and toxicity, instead, their experience of being in the military begs us to take a deeper look at how their anger is formed and why some characters are cruel and almost as barbaric as the villain at hand. The macho bravado archetype slowly dissolves, showing that ego fuelled swashbuckling, which usually saves the day in action horror, isn’t enough to fight off these evil monsters. 

Taking a step back from the emotive reasonings, it’s vital to look at why this film stands out and has kept its place as one of the most important werewolf films of the 21st century. The amalgamation of utilising the stereotypes of soldier characteristics to make the werewolves seem even more brutish is ingenious. It forces the viewer to dial into their own fearlessness, amping up the adrenaline and making this a film they’ll remember and feel incredibly immersed in. 

The Descent (2005) 

After a tragedy strikes a group of friends they decide to gain back their bond by going on a caving trip into the Appalachian Mountains. Everything is going smoothly until they realise that the cave they ventured into is not only undiscovered but is also plagued by hungry creatures. 

The Descent is Marshall’s second film and another horror. But rather than dilly-dally around in the same territory, Marshall spared no expense and created something that no one expected, shocking the world of dark cinema and shaping one of the best horror films to come from the 2000s, if not of all time. 

Originally The Descent’s most iconic factor, the all-female cast, was not initially planned, with a mixed lineup being considered in the first instance. Marshall rethought this element after he noticed that within horror women were highly underrepresented. This created a rare level of dimension that many films at the time wouldn’t dare venture into. Each character, no matter how minor, is fully fleshed out in the way that you could picture their lives outside of the film, they aren’t just paid professionals reading lines, they are ‘real’. Massive respect has to be dealt to Marshall for working in a collaborative way with the performers to develop multi-dimensional personas. Whilst filming the crew and cast would explore alternative ways in which their lines could be acted out, allowing for a sense of gritty realness to be exposed in the character’s manners, furthering their evolution from victims to fighters. In fact, in the DVD extras for The Descent Marshall calls this method of filmmaking the “flaky pastry” principle. 

Whilst the internalised dramatics and pathos for the narrative rely heavily upon the group of misguided cavers, what is essentially one of the most indispensable factors has to be the film’s own boogeymen- the Crawlers. 

The humanoid animals lurking amidst the caves have become known as Crawlers. Their grotesque slimy skin instantly repulses, creating a cringy curdingly feeling that makes you feel so grateful that you’re not one of those explorers who met their end down in the tunnels. The creature’s gnarly stature is monstrous as it is, but the bulk of the Crawlers innate creepiness derives from their unique ‘human-like’ qualities. The Crawlers were basically cavemen who never left the cave. They never evolved into people as we know it, they stayed lurking underground. Most distinctively, their superhuman traits aid them in adapting to life below the surface, including acute hearing and scent tracking, they can climb any rock and function flawlessly in the dark. To some extent, The Descent uses a very old but very effective moral tale, the women have come down into the Crawlers territory and their reaction is simply defensive. 

The inherent reaction stimulated by the caves is one deeply connected to an intrinsic fear, claustrophobia. By nature, the threat of being trapped and restricted is totally triggering, alerting this unlearned panic that will get under the skin of every single viewer. To make matters worse the cave itself is littered with human scraps and bones, which gives the environment its own unique gothic architecture. Indeed, the setting is bone-chilling as a result of the clever set design. The more solid walls of the caves were made from mouldings of real cliff faces, creating the backdrop for many scenes. Whilst the drippy ceiling hangers made from foam and spray paint gives off the impression of stalactites, the mineral formation that manifests underground. The polystyrene based shapings remain impressive to this day, but with budget constraints, the production could not afford to build miles of alcoves, in reality there were only six structures built, but due to retexturising, colouring, and deceptive lighting, the impression of endless caverns was executed.

The Descent is a true horror. Every single scene is daringly dark and terrifying, with the nightmare-fueled creatures and unforgiving ethos becoming almost as panic provoking as the extremely claustrophobic caves. 

Doomsday (2008) 

In 2008, the Reaper virus was unleashed in Scotland, taking over its host and making them homicidal. The government is unable to contain or create a cure for the virus, forcing British officials to create a 30-foot wall isolating the country. Fast forward to 2035 the supposed obsolete virus is found in London, leading a team to travel over the border in hopes of finding a cure. Along their journey, it is revealed that the Scottish survivors have been divided into two teams: a group of medieval knights, and a tribe of deadly bandits.  

After the success of Dog Soldiers and The Descent Marshall began attracting the attention of major studios offering big and bold budgets to create something fantastical, rare, and boisterous, and let’s just say that Marshall certainly delivers. 

Marshall is very open about his admiration for 1980s cinema having grown up during that period. During the late 1970s / early 1980s classic films such as Mad Max (1979), The Warriors (1979), and Escape From New York (1981) thrived in painting picturesque landscapes dominated by ferocious rebellions and dusty grounds, accompanied by starkly gruesome politics that were formed thanks to apocalyptic style tragedies and disasters. Just like these classics, Marshall encapsulated that old-school dystopian vibe that aimed to be completely obscure to the audience whilst also being stylistically captivating. 

The separation between Scotland and England and the virus work together in providing a thought-provoking plot device, as well as generating a devilishly delicious setup for utter mayhem to ensue. The road to destruction is grim from the very start. After crossing the border the team is met with aggression and terror, especially when it’s unveiled that the ‘living’ have turned into ravenous cannibals, revelling in the anarchy they started. Marshall has stated that Doomsday is not a horror, but it is filled with horrific things and an abundance of meaty gore.

The sci-fi elements work in harmony within the post-apocalyptic confinements that purposefully leave the audience bewildered. Upon its release, questions arose regarding ‘plot holes’. In actuality, there is literally no need for Marshall to go into the science of the virus or explain the character’s actions. The capabilities of sci-fi allow for rules and laws to slide, with Marshall forming the theologies and world order to his taste, creating a land that is blatantly irrational and rightly beyond anything explainable. 

Doomsday is deliberately frenzied, pushing a sense of hysteria onto the viewer. The Reaper virus is akin to the likes of the Rage virus in 28 Days Later (2002) in the way that they cause its victim to become mindless animals. 

Through this a contagious force of energy is thrust onto the viewer, getting their adrenaline pumping at all the chaos and violence. And this said ‘chaos’ comes in by the boatload. The manic society formed behind the border have these epic battles and circus-esque performances that really do perplex and amaze, especially when the tribe’s jukebox is filled with 1980s bands like Fine Young Cannibals, Adam Ant, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. 

The land explored within Doomsday is murky and filled with death, but the atmosphere on-screen and generated off-screen is electric and memorable. The creative freedom seen within Marshall’s filming is off the charts, allowing for every weird and wonderful thought to be expelled, making Doomsday a standout film. 

The Reckoning (2020) 

After her husband dies during the Great Plague, Grace Haverstock (Charlotte Kirk) is unjustly sent to be placed in the hands of England’s most feared witch-hunter Judge Moorcraft (Sean Pertwee). Despite her pleads of innocence, she experiences unbearable levels of emotional abuse and psychical torture at the hands of Moorcraft and his fellows. During her imprisonment, the endless trauma is not the only thing Grace has to fight as she battles against her internalised demons as the devil himself worms his way into her mind.

Whilst all of Marshall’s work remains individualistic from one another, The Reckoning exudes such sheer amounts of distinct personality that forces the film to seriously stand out from many films released in 2020. 

Marshall acted as executive producer on Edward Evers-Swindell’s Dark Signal (2016), a highly underrated British indie horror. Evers-Swindell announced to Marshall that he had been working on an idea for a new film surrounding witches, particularly focusing on the element of ‘are they, aren’t they?’ when it comes to the witch prognosis. Along with Kirk, Marshall began exploring the history of witch hunts and soon became very interested in giving this idea a full backbone. Amid the excitement of Marshall getting back into his horror roots he started to come to terms with the reality of witch hunts and the fact that they never really ended, they just take place in new shapes and forms. 

Folklore and fables have been at the heart of horror for many years, whether it’s the damning crusade that accompanies the old tale legends or the possibility that something dark exists, people crave bygone lore. As everyone knows, the existence of the witch trials were very much a real thing with women being socially ostracised and sentenced to death at even the most trivial of matters. The truth behind these hunts surrounds the deeply embedded misogyny and prosecution of the other that bared itself within the seeds of society. The Reckoning combines both the real tragedy of witch history and the essence of old traditions to fabricate a film drenched in thoughtful performances and immersive backdrops. 

The characters of both Grace and Moorcroft encapsulate the push and pull relationships with period pieces. It’s easy to dissect who’s the protagonist and who’s the villain in many horror films, but in The Reckoning a rare standpoint of neutrality is slightly integrated to keep the viewers on their toes, abandoning formulaic storytelling in favour of sewing together a vibrant film brimming with dynamic personalities. 

From an aesthetic standpoint, the vibes of a grimy, blemished society are strongly portrayed. To create a believable period film every stop needs to be pulled out and no stone left unturned. And Marshall does just that. The set pieces have a texturized nature that aids in the catalysation of key plot points. Grace’s experiences of otherworldly exploits are stunningly melodramatic within its stylization, creating surreal imagery that is both untouched and theatrical. 


The Reckoning serves as an exciting point in Marshall’s career. At this point he has explored all sorts of monsters and the darkest depths of society, leaving a signature within cinema that ventures into every territory.

Neil Marshall’s new action horror ‘The Lair’ is currently in post production and due for release in 2022/23.

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