Phil Hoad
Verified
As seen in:
Medium,
MSN,
MSN Ireland,
MSN New Zealand,
MSN Singapore,
MSN UK,
Yahoo Entertainment,
The Guardian,
Yahoo Canada,
Yahoo News Malaysia
and
Reporter. Critic. Peripheral dude
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Phil Hoad
Hollywood AI-listers: is the technology ready to rival flesh-and-blood film stars?
‘Don't fear the dead – and don't fear me.” An exact facsimile of a young Val Kilmer, not quite dead and not quite alive, utters that baiting line in the trailer for the new western As Deep as the Grave. Director Coerte Voorhees knows exactly what he is doing – this is an AI-created version of the late actor, approved by his family but bringing with it a heap of controversy about whether such technology could make flesh-and-blood thespians redundant.
Hollywood AI-listers: is the technology ready to rival flesh-and-blood film stars?
‘Really, really scary’ … AI actor Tilly Norwood. Computer-generated: Particle6 ‘Don’t fear the dead – and don’t fear me.” An exact facsimile of a young Val Kilmer, not quite dead and not quite alive, utters that baiting line in the trailer for the new western As Deep as the Grave.
Vampire Carnival review – it’s Twilight at the fairground as abs run wild in pointy-toothed tug of war
‘Does this whole Edward Cullen act actually work?” A distinct Twilight feeling is in the air in this initially enlivening vampire flick, with willowy twentysomething mortal Gemma (Nell Verlaque) caught in the middle of a pointy-toothed tug of war between tender Italian hunk Sebastian (Alvise Rigo) and her bad boy ex Eric (Kieron Moore). When she strolls with her friends into a hot vampire carnival, the ab count nearly outdoes the haemoglobin one.
Ghost in the Cell review – Indonesian prison-slasher-satire contains the most unhinged punch-up in decades
Ghost in the Cell review – Indonesian prison-slasher-satire contains the most unhinged punch-up in decades Mon, 19 October 2026 at 8:00 am UTC Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Enjoyable blend of camp and politics … Ghost in the Cell. Photograph: Come and See Pictures Given the 2020s horror boom, Indonesia's prolific Joko Anwar – who has worked more often in that genre than any other – should be better known.
Ghost in the Cell review – Indonesian prison-slasher-satire contains the most unhinged punch-up in decades
Enjoyable blend of camp and politics … Ghost in the Cell. Photograph: Come and See Pictures Given the 2020s horror boom, Indonesia’s prolific Joko Anwar – who has worked more often in that genre than any other – should be better known. Using horror for social commentary, as Anwar has done often in the past, this prison-slasher-satire features the kind of scabrous broadsides against injustice you see in Bong Joon-ho’s films, and Park Chan-wook’s recent No Other Choice.
Ghost in the Cell review – Indonesian prison-slasher-satire contains the most unhinged punch-up in decades
Given the 2020s horror boom, Indonesia’s prolific Joko Anwar – who has worked more often in that genre than any other – should be better known. Using horror for social commentary, as Anwar has done often in the past, this prison-slasher-satire features the kind of scabrous broadsides against injustice you see in Bong Joon-ho’s films, and Park Chan-wook’s recent No Other Choice.
Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned review – Brontë horror do-over is part Dracula, part Jeeves and Wooster
Grisly fate … Ross Townsend-Green as Mr Lockwood in Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned. Photograph: Courtesy of EMRJ Entertainment Where pornography once trod, horror has now become the genre that infiltrates and apes all others. With a host of out-of-copyright cartoon characters recently grave-robbed for not-so-fresh IP, now classic literature is apparently fair game for a gruesome glow-up, in this case, Emily Brontë’s regular GCSE-botherer.
Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned review – Brontë horror do-over is part Dracula, part Jeeves and Wooster
Where pornography once trod, horror has now become the genre that infiltrates and apes all others. With a host of out-of-copyright cartoon characters recently grave-robbed for not-so-fresh IP, now classic literature is apparently fair game for a gruesome glow-up, in this case, Emily Brontë’s regular GCSE-botherer. But Becca Hirani’s laboured reworking makes the book’s gothic subtext crashingly, jugular-spurtingly textual.
The Girl in the River review – forensic psychologist police procedural thriller plays like noir parody
This small-town police thriller sets its stall out intriguingly, with a murder that seems actively begging to be solved. The perp chose to dump his victim – the 14-year-old daughter of a local political bigwig – into a part of the Mississippi River where she was likely to resurface, and from a highly visible bridge.
France’s other schools problem – the teens violently smashing up their old primaries: ‘They think it’s not worthy of respect – so they trash it’
Like most French primaries on Wednesdays, Marcel Pagnol school, in the eastern suburbs of Lyon, was shut on 19 June 2024. But at 6.30pm that evening, two boys turned up late for school – by two years. Former pupils there, the 13-year-olds struggled to break through the crispy lattice of the front-door window with a garden fork and a broom. Using a window-breaker, they finally created an opening large enough to force their way in without hurting themselves.
France’s other schools problem – the teens violently smashing up their old primaries: ‘They think it’s not worthy of respect – so they trash it’
Sun, October 11, 2026 at 5:00 AM UTC Illustration: Retouch by GMN Imaging and Getty The phenomenon of pupils wrecking equipment and setting fire to classrooms predates the current crisis. Is it rooted in poverty, social media peer pressure – or just plain boredom? Like most French primaries on Wednesdays, Marcel Pagnol school, in the eastern suburbs of Lyon, was shut on 19 June 2024. But at 6.30pm that evening, two boys turned up late for school – by two years.
Can Ali G: Who Iz I? save character comedy cinema?
For a man whose campaign slogan was once “Keep it real”, Ali G has his work cut out in the reality of 2026. The big dog of Da West Staines Massiv was the character with whom Sacha Baron Cohen carved out his own niche of gonzo-gotcha comedy in the late 1990s – and now he's back with new film, Ali G: Who Iz I?
Who Iz I? save character comedy cinema?
; ; ; Continue reading More for You ; ; ; Continue reading More for You
Can Ali G: Who Iz I? save character comedy cinema?
Last man standing in a noble tradition … Morgana Robinson as Julie and Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G in Ali G: Who Iz I? Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios/courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios For a man whose campaign slogan was once “Keep it real”, Ali G has his work cut out in the reality of 2026. The big dog of Da West Staines Massiv was the character with whom Sacha Baron Cohen carved out his own niche of gonzo-gotcha comedy in the late 1990s – and now he’s back with new film, Ali G: Who Iz I?
Just Play Dead review – Samuel L Jackson and Eva Green punch up switchback crime caper
Having shot five films since 2020, 82-year-old Martin Campbell is a certified member of the post-retirement director's club that includes Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen et al. Samuel L Jackson (a mere 77) sports his worst hairdo since Jackie Brown – a grey, crimped ponytail with an undercut – in this overworked crime caper, though he is on positively cuddly form by his standards.
Crushed review – Steve Oram is priestly lead in harrowing Bangkok-set child-abduction thriller
‘He’s American, a little bit overweight, sweaty, a little bit camp, creepy.” As far as descriptions of border-hopping paedophiles go, this seems a little on the nose.
Heresy review – feminist folk horror summons something scary in the woods with supply of fresh blood
Before fertility tourism, the only option for your average medieval serf struggling to conceive was heading to the nearest foreboding woods and summoning weird, antlered dryads. Or so it seems from Didier Konings’ short but memorable folk-horror debut, in which wide-eyed villager Frieda (Anneke Sluiters) flees into the trees after escaping an attempted rape by local butcher Gelo (Léon van Waas). He has already told her, after scoffing a pig foetus, that he likes his meat weak and defenceless.
Legend of the White Dragon review – Power Rangers alumni back for more in low-budget superhero retread
Despite featuring a clutch of Power Rangers graduates, including Jason David Frank , who died in 2022, this crowdfunded effort is beholden to a more recent action tradition.
Whisper of the Heart review – Studio Ghibli deep cut is pep talk on how to live the artistic life
While 2013’s The Wind Rises and 2023’s The Boy and the Heron saw Hayao Miyazaki break his wizard’s staff, artistically speaking, this lesser-known Studio Ghibli cut from 1995, based on his screenplay, shows he was dwelling on creative responsibilities from early on. Featuring a typical Ghibli protagonist on the brink of adulthood – aspiring schoolkid writer Shizuku (voiced by Yōko Honna) – this teen romance doubles up as an earnest pep talk on how to commit to the artistic life.
Goody Goody review – intriguing natural childbirth horror lurches into demonic occult blowout
Conception, pregnancy and childbirth are defining human experiences, and so remain perennial themes for horror, from Rosemary's Baby to the Alien franchise to Prevenge . Occupying a no-woman's-land between life and death, they're innately anxiety-inducing, perhaps making it harder for film-makers to supply a truly individual take.
Goody Goody review – intriguing natural childbirth horror lurches into demonic occult blowout
Conception, pregnancy and childbirth are defining human experiences, and so remain perennial themes for horror, from Rosemary’s Baby to the Alien franchise to Prevenge. Occupying a no-woman’s-land between life and death, they’re innately anxiety-inducing, perhaps making it harder for film-makers to supply a truly individual take.
Lenore review – incel’s obsession with online influencer turns into anatomy of dislocated digital-age mindset
If the parasocial phenomenon is a kind of hell, then Max Wren, protagonist of this Australian digital-age psychodrama, resides in the ninth circle. Self-barricading in a basement room surrounded by screens, working on a documentary about the object of his disaffection (an enigmatic influencer called Lenore), this obsessive shut-in makes Eminem’s Stan look like the Dalai Lama.
Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream
If horror happens in the dark, the midnight movie showing was once the perfect way of gauging the genre's health. But those days may be over. "When we were a film club, our first ever cinema screening was Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer in 2003, and it was full," says Pedro Souto, co-director of Lisbon's horror-centric MotelX festival. "But you don't have that many people at midnight any more.
Better Go Mad in the Wild review – boozing, bantering hermits impart their spiritual wisdom
Narrated by a slaughtered bull, this extraordinary film takes the less-travelled path in charting the daily life of a pair of Czech twins a long way off conventional routes themselves.
The Last Bath review – self-mortifying nun struggles with profoundly uneasy sexual awakening
A sharp, self-abnegating performance from Anabela Moreira elevates this passionate – largely in the religious sense – Portuguese debut, which is only now arriving in the UK after festival screenings dating back to 2020. As senior nun Josefina, she wears a permanent cowl of careworn melancholy, suggesting a woman for whom, even after she is summoned to look after her bereaved 15-year-old nephew Alexandre (Martim Canavarro), holding the world at arm’s length is standard practice.
In the Shadows of Nuremberg review – trial-adjacent thriller aims to be Russian answer to Saving Private Ryan
Taking place in the wings of the Nuremberg trial, this Soviet-side political thriller, first released back in 2023, features a scene in which the crowd turns on a boa-draped Hollywood floozy in town to entertain the troops.
Parasomnia review – sleep-schedule horror conjures up a succubus on the loose in waking nightmare
Sleep has been part of the horror genre repertoire since The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and the anxieties around it are spiking as the “ sleep economy ” becomes a thing. This ambitiously structured gore fest about a woman suffering from waking nightmares comes with an all-black cast, but race isn't a central preoccupation here.
Bel review – the powerful life force and haunting absence of a traumatised singer-songwriter
; ; Continue reading More for You ; ; ; Continue reading More for You
Parasomnia review – sleep-schedule horror conjures up a succubus on the loose in waking nightmare
Sleep has been part of the horror genre repertoire since The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and the anxieties around it are spiking as the “sleep economy” becomes a thing. This ambitiously structured gore fest about a woman suffering from waking nightmares comes with an all-black cast, but race isn’t a central preoccupation here.
Bel review – the powerful life force and haunting absence of a traumatised singer-songwriter
Instead of an artist in a booth, a lone amplifier plays the music of singer-songwriter Beldina Odenyo for a cluster of microphones to pick up during the posthumous recording of her debut album. It is a haunting encapsulation of the absence and presence at the heart of Louise Lockwood’s documentary, which makes a commendably thorough exploration of the mental illness that led to Odenyo killing herself in November 2021, and its roots: exile, loss and racism.
The Secret Woman review – Claes Bang is dastardly gaslighter in Danish amnesia thriller
Adapted from the 2017 novel by Anna Ekberg (actually a male writing duo), this thriller from Denmark chucks in a bit of everything into the mix: hygge lakeside melodrama, manor-house gothic, and Nordic-noir corruption. But this franticness can’t disguise that it’s a dopey and facile thriller that, despite capable performances, plumbs neither its characters’ depths nor hits thematic pay dirt. It also merits a stiff investigation from the plotting police.
The Visitor review – existential Lithuania-set homecoming drama leaves everything in limbo
At one point in this Nordic-Baltic homecoming film, Danielius (Darius Šilėnas) refuses an invite for beachfront karaoke, preferring to watch from behind a polythene partition. At another, a neighbour glimpses him exercising across the courtyard, through the window of the flat in an end-of-summer Lithuanian resort that Danielius is trying to sell.
On Different Grounds review – Cupid’s-conspiracy romcom brings Nollywood and Bollywood together
It’s a stretch for this Nigerian romcom to bill itself “the first Nollywood-Bollywood collaboration” based on the fact that it features, in Nimesh Diliprai Desai and Vineet Raina, two fringe Indian players on a sprawling wedding-invite list.
The Hounds Gate Haunting review – a ghostly critic lurks in the stalls in this suspenseful spooker
Where Quentin Dupieux’s 2023 theatre hostage-taking comedy Yannick pointed out that inside every punter is a critic, this no-frills British mockumentary suggests that if artists aren’t literally haunted by their reviews, then their inner critic might be just as deadly.
49 Miles More review – screwball East Anglian road caper makes a smart left turn
Doug, the incessant funster played by Gregory Fung in this jaunty but finally poignant buddy comedy, joins the likes of The Hangover’s Alan Garner as the nightmarish BFF most likely to give you an aneurysm. After losing a round of bagsy, childhood pal Max (Reece Henderson) is saddled with chaperoning Doug to their annual lads’ night out, taking place in, of all places, Orford, Suffolk.
RL Stine’s Pumpkinhead review – horror from Goosebumps writer has kid confined inside large fruit
Adapted from a 1999 short story by Goosebumps’ RL Stine, this kid-proofed piece of midwestern folk horror borrows merrily from The Wicker Man, Stephen King and Tim Burton. Rattling those influences around in its horn of plenty, it rigs up a taut enough plotline about a New York family arriving in the suspiciously fecund farming outpost of Redhaven. But, even given the horror-lite nature of the enterprise, it doesn’t stake out sufficient fresh territory of its own – until it’s too late.
Ancestral Visions of the Future review – visceral cine-memoir is a haunting return to Lesotho
Here is a captivating stream of consciousness film about exile, roots and identity by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, director of the lauded 2019 activism story This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection. It’s ostensibly a cine-memoir looking back from the vantage point of present-day Berlin to his upbringing in Lesotho, narrated by Mosese’s dense, literary-grade voiceover. But there’s something propulsive and prophetic about the accompanying hyper-vivid images from rural and urban life.
A Child of My Own review – barely believable true crime tale of desperation and delusion
This cheekily inquisitive docudrama by Chilean director Maite Alberdi features a unique variation on the long con, and one with a precise duration: nine months. After suffering three miscarriages and under pressure from her husband and in-laws to give them a child, Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza (aka Ale, and played by Ana Celeste in re-enactments) decides to fake her next pregnancy.
A Child of My Own review – barely believable true crime tale of desperation and delusion
This cheekily inquisitive docudrama by Chilean director Maite Alberdi features a unique variation on the long con, and one with a precise duration: nine months. After suffering three miscarriages and under pressure from her husband and in-laws to give them a child, Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza (aka Ale, and played by Ana Celeste in re-enactments) decides to fake her next pregnancy.
This Tempting Madness review – watchable psychological suspense offers Mexican standoff of gaslighting
It is fair to say that spending your time doodling ouroboroses and picking open your surgical scar probably indicates you are not in a fantastic frame of mind. These are coping mechanisms for Mia (Simone Ashley) after she wakes up, at the start of this capable psychological thriller, from a coma resulting from falling several storeys of an airport building. A safety net is luckily there to catch her – but she remains in mental freefall.
The Ribbon Hero review – do-gooder princess battles giant flying earwigs in update of classic yarn
First-time director Yûki Igarashi should hit the jackpot here: the first big-screen adaptation for decades of Princess Knight, a seminal postwar manga series from Astro Boy genius Osamu Tezuka.
A Dairy Story review – giving cows and calves a happier life through progressive farming
A new addition to the ranks of neo-rural cinema that is getting its hands dirty with the realities of the modern countryside, this mellow Scottish documentary lauds the emerging practice of cow-and-calf farming. It focuses on Rainton Farm in Dumfries and Galloway where, instead of the dairy-industry norm of separating calves from their mothers a few hours after birth, owners David and Wilma Finlay allow them to stay together until the youngsters are five or six months old.
A Dairy Story review – giving cows and calves a happier life through progressive farming
Updated Mon, 27 July 2026 at 8:01 am UTC Mum’s the word… at Rainton Farm calves stay with their mothers for five or six months.Photograph: A Dairy Story. A new addition to the ranks of neo-rural cinema that is getting its hands dirty with the realities of the modern countryside, this mellow Scottish documentary lauds the emerging practice of cow-and-calf farming.
Mockbuster review – how to survive the nightmare of directing a terrible low-budget horror film
Career shock therapy … director Anthony Frith. Photograph: Publicity image ‘A bad movie is better than no movie” is the motto of this behind-the-scenes documentary, which charts director Anthony Frith’s quest to make his debut feature for ultra-schlock studio The Asylum; it doubles up as an affable salute to film-making savoir-faire. Stuck making corporate videos to support his young family, Adelaide-based Frith is in danger of letting his artistic ambitions atrophy.
Mockbuster review – how to survive the nightmare of directing a terrible low-budget horror film
‘A bad movie is better than no movie” is the motto of this behind-the-scenes documentary, which charts director Anthony Frith's quest to make his debut feature for ultra-schlock studio The Asylum; it doubles up as an affable salute to film-making savoir-faire. Stuck making corporate videos to support his young family, Adelaide-based Frith is in danger of letting his artistic ambitions atrophy.
Our Hero, Balthazar review – a darkly comic satire of incel culture and gun violence
‘I think it’s nice to be part of a community” is how Manhattan rich kid Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) justifies his favourite hobby: posting tear-soaked videos in which he sociopathically pretends to be one of the horde of American youth lamenting the national epidemic of gun violence.
From Greek epics to biblical blockbusters: the 20 best mythological movies – ranked!
Updated Thu, 9 July 2026 at 12:48 pm UTC Harry Hamlin as Perseus in Clash of the Titans.Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy Featuring the young Henry Cavill as a Theseus who barely gets near a labyrinth, this Hellenic “reimagination” bags precious little deep mythological significance. But visuals ace Tarsem Singh at least gives it a strikingly theatrical and oppressive look.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Phil
Contact Phil, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack