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Inside No. 9 Series 7 Episode 1 Review: Merrily, Merrily

Inside No. 9 Series 7 Episode 1 Review: Merrily, Merrily
Warning: this Inside No. 9 review contains spoilers.

A stranded pedalo! Glorious. It’s taken almost 40 episodes, but Inside No. 9 has finally landed on the purest distillation of its ‘contained space’ concept. They will never better a pedalo. A pedalo is a punchline before you’ve even written a word, which is what makes it a divine backdrop for a script about grief, loss, regrets and the messiness of once-close friendships that have – literally here – drifted. Set this same story in a cabin or a car and it’s just bleakness and tension that takes a bittersweet turn. Set it on a pedalo and it’s all that plus the absurdity of a pedalo, which makes it very Inside No. 9.

‘Merrily, Merrily’ is very Inside No. 9 in its weird sandwich of paint-can shits, Judge Rinder gags and a vision of the afterlife as taken from Greek myth.
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 Series 7 Episode Guide: Air Date, Cast, Trailer

Inside No. 9 Series 7 Episode Guide: Air Date, Cast, Trailer
Warning: contains spoilers for Inside No. 9 series six.

In series six, Inside No. 9 pulled off a diamond heist, explored obsessive geek fandom, framed a cuckold in an international conspiracy, let a grotesque true crime bleed from reality to fiction and back again, made a deal with the devil, and killed Jesus. Where, one might well ask, next?

Anywhere it wants, is the answer to that question. The BBC Two anthology series can float from location to location, story to story, unhampered by the need to put down roots in any one place. Series seven brings half a dozen brand new films to screen, scored by composer Christian Henson, and each one as different as the last.

The official synopsis describes the new episodes as taking us “from the Welsh valleys to an abandoned house, from kidnappers to detectives, and from a day trip out in a pedalo to a public information film.
See full article at Den of Geek »

Una Stubbs Dies: ‘Sherlock’ Actress Was 84

Una Stubbs Dies: ‘Sherlock’ Actress Was 84
Una Stubbs, the English actress who played Mrs. Hudson in Sherlock to cap a half-century career in TV, theater and film, died today following an illness, her agent confirmed to Deadline. She was 84.

“Mum passed away quietly today with her family around her, in Edinburgh. We ask for privacy and understanding at this most difficult and sad of times,” a statement from the family read.

Stubbs was a stalwart of British TV and stage for six decades, breaking through in the 1960s with the film Summer Holiday, which starred Cliff Richard, before she landed the role of Rita Rawlings in the long-running sitcom Till Death Do Us Part; she also starred in the 1968 film of the same name. Stubbs also appeared with Richard and the Shadows in 1964’s Swingers’ Paradise.

Stubbs would go on to appear in Worzel Gummidge, The Worst Witch, Call The Midwife and many more series before portraying Mrs.
See full article at Deadline »

Una Stubbs, ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Till Death Us Do Part’ Actress, Dies at 84

Una Stubbs, ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Till Death Us Do Part’ Actress, Dies at 84
Una Stubbs, known for her roles in BBC’s Sherlock, EastEnders and the 1960s sitcom Till Death Do Us Part, has died. She was 84.

Stubbs’ sons Joe and Christian Henson and Jason Gilmore announced that the British star had died in a statement to the BBC. “Mum passed away quietly today with her family around her, in Edinburgh. We ask for privacy and understanding at this most difficult and sad of times.”

The British theater and screen star broke out in Cliff Richard’s 1963 film Summer Holiday before notably appearing in the 1966 sitcom Till Death Us Do Part as ...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter »

Inside No. 9 Series 6 Episode 5 Review: How Do You Plead?

Inside No. 9 Series 6 Episode 5 Review: How Do You Plead?
Warning: this Inside No. 9 review contains spoilers.

Having met his servants in ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’ and ‘The Harrowing’, it was only a matter of time before Old Scratch turned up on Inside No. 9. This series has always had one cloven hoof dipped in the fantasy-horror genre, so it’s ripe for a visit from the devil himself.

‘How Do You Plead?’ was a choice vehicle, both for the character, and for Sir Derek Jacobi, whose guest performance was perhaps the best this show has had.. Here, Jacobi played Mr Webster, a dying barrister whose term was about to expire on the Faustian contract he’d signed in 1972. Reece Shearsmith played his kindly nurse with the unusual name of Urban Bedford, whose soul Webster attempted to sacrifice in his stead.

Speaking of names, though the full title of Jacobi’s character was never spoken, his initial ‘D’ must have stood for Daniel,
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9: the ‘Simon Says’ Scene That Almost Went Too Far

Inside No. 9: the ‘Simon Says’ Scene That Almost Went Too Far
Warning: contains spoilers for Inside No. 9 series 6 episode 2 ‘Simon Says’.

From exsanguination to decapitation, Inside No. 9 episodes have never shied away from grisly murder, and so far, series six is no different. Opener ‘Wuthering Heist’ was a bloodbath, while follow-up ‘Simon Says’ gave us a total of four deaths – two faked and two real.

One of the real ‘Simon Says’ deaths was made to feel all the more authentic for filming choices made by director Guillem Morales. After Simon (Reece Shearsmith), the scheming fan of a fantasy TV series, blackmails its writer Spencer (Steve Pemberton) into remaking the show’s unpopular finale, a misunderstanding leads to Spencer smothering Simon to death.

Speaking on the weekly BBC Sounds ‘Inside Inside No. 9’ podcast, which also includes great insights from the show’s musical composer Christian Henson, the co-creators describe Morales’ intention with the smothering scene. To contrast with the heightened, lavishly scored fake murder that precedes it,
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 Series 6 Episode 2 Review: Simon Says

Inside No. 9 Series 6 Episode 2 Review: Simon Says
Warning: contains spoilers for Inside No. 9 series 6 episode 2.

The online petition to ‘Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers’ currently has over 1.8 million signatures. Despite the series having ended two years ago and HBO politely declining the opportunity to bin its $100m first attempt and have another go, people continue to add their names. Call it love or call it entitlement, some fans can’t move on.

That’s the context for ‘Simon Says’, a dark story about the writer of a fictional fantasy TV epic with a famously unpopular ending. When fans Simon and Gavin (Reece Shearsmith and Nick Mohammed) blackmail Spencer Maguire (Steve Pemberton) into remaking the season seven finale of The Ninth Circle, they unexpectedly end up starring in finales of their own. After their scheme goes badly wrong, Maguire murders one, and then kills the other to cover his tracks.

With its heightened tone, scheming power-grabs,
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 Series 5 Episode 6 Review: The Stakeout

Inside No. 9 Series 5 Episode 6 Review: The Stakeout
This Inside No. 9 review contains spoilers.

Inside No. 9 Series 5 Episode 6 Review: The Stakeout

There are limits. Whatever Time Lord technology Inside No. 9 uses to pack its 30-minute episodes fuller than a foie gras goose, there isn’t always room for everything.

Take ‘The Stakeout’. It managed to cram police procedural, car chase, meta-commentary, comedy, poignancy and a supernatural rug-pull into the precise amount of time it used to take Mad Men’s Don Draper to light and smoke a single cigarette, but that left no space to explain why and how the application and training process to become a volunteer Special Constable might be undertaken by… a vampire.

(Even if not specifically referenced on the Met’s ‘precluded occupations’ list, would vampirism not at least present a hurdle come, say, the medical?)

An explanation for the how is imaginable. Perhaps Special Constable Varney (as he identified himself on the Oscar
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 series 4 episode 4 review: To Have And To Hold

Louisa Mellor Jan 23, 2018

A wedding photographer’s tired marriage comes under the microscope in yet another tremendous Inside No. 9 episode. Spoilers ahead...

This review contains spoilers.

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4.4 To Have And To Hold

Until now, it was the the dehydrated peas – the way they inflate and bob around in that jellified slick of floating miscellany. After To Have And To Hold, there’s a new reason to sicken at the thought of a Pot Noodle.

We should have seen it coming. After all, this unsettling story announced its game two minutes in. “The picture on the box bears no resemblance to the actual jigsaw,” explained Adrian, a middle-aged man seated at his kitchen table, snapping little cardboard pieces into place. The clue was there: what you see is very much not what you get. Not with Adrian, and not with this episode.

What we saw, until
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 series 4 episode 3 review: Once Removed

Louisa Mellor Jan 16, 2018

Inside No. 9 winds back the clock in a cleverly structured episode that keeps the audience guessing. Spoilers ahead…

This review contains spoilers.

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4.3 Once Removed

The best Inside No. 9 episodes are the ones that, as soon as the end credits arrive, make you want to rewind and watch again from the start. (The very best—last week’s included—are so poignant you need a bit of time to walk the dog to the Spar, buy a Twix and feel your feelings before that’s even an option.)

Once Removed does that job for us. The episode starts at the end, rewinds ten minutes, rewinds another ten minutes, then another, then a final time, until we finish at the beginning of the story: a motorbike pulls up to a well-appointed rural house on a hill.
See full article at Den of Geek »

Inside No. 9 series 4 episode 1 review: Zanzibar

Louisa Mellor Jan 2, 2018

This comedy farce written in verse shows that custom cannot stale Inside No. 9’s infinite variety. Spoilers…

This review contains spoilers.

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4.1 Zanzibar

In series one’s The Understudy, Inside No. 9 gave us an updated take on Macbeth. Here, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton put their own twist on Shakespearean comedy with an episode set entirely in a hotel corridor and written entirely in iambic pentameter, the clever sods. Regular brilliance clearly wasn’t presenting these two enough of a challenge.

It’s a challenge they pull off with relish. The writing’s smart and self-aware (“Like this iambic foot, I’m stressed, you’re not”) while the gags are a bawdy delight. Shakespeare never rhymed ‘bum’ with ‘Magnus Magnusson’, but you know he would have done,
See full article at Den of Geek »

Daily Dead’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide & Giveaways: Day 2 – More Black Friday Deals, Movie Box Sets, Hallmark Ornaments & More!

Happy Black Friday, everyone, and welcome back for Day 2 of Daily Dead’s fourth annual Holiday Gift Guide! Once again, our goal is to help you navigate your way through the horrors of the shopping season with our tips on unique gift ideas, and we’ll hopefully help you save a few bucks over the next few weeks, too.

This year’s Holiday Gift Guide is being sponsored by several amazing companies, including Mondo, Anchor Bay Entertainment, DC Entertainment, and Magnolia Home Entertainment, who have all donated an assortment of goodies to help you get into the spirit of the season. Daily Dead also recently teamed up with Texas-based artist Dustin Pace of Duddy in Motion to create an amazing Stranger Things print (see below) that all of our giveaway winners will receive with our amazing prize packs that feature a collection of items, including movies, graphic novels, the Duddy in Motion Stranger Things print,
See full article at DailyDead »

Tales Of Halloween 4-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray / DVD Release Details & Cover Art

Epic Pictures Group has a special season treat for horror fans this fall: a four-disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray / DVD release of their Tales of Halloween anthology film.

Scheduled for a September 13th release, the Tales of Halloween Blu-ray / DVD is brimming with ghoulish goodies, including a CD of the movie’s soundtrack, video diaries, exclusive short films from Neil Marshall and Lucky Mckee, and much more:

Press Release (via Rama’s Screen): Los Angeles, CA – August 10, 2016 – Epic Pictures Group announced today that they will release a limited edition Blu-Ray and DVD collector’s set of Tales of Halloween on September 13, 2016. “Certified Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes, the horror anthology film which brings together an all-star lineup of horror heavyweight directors and actors, premiered to strong critical acclaim at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival. Epic Pictures Releasing, the Us distribution division of Epic Pictures Group, released the film in theaters
See full article at DailyDead »

Tales Of Halloween – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Available On iTunes October 23

Aleph Records will release the Tales Of HalloweenOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack exclusively on iTunes on October 23, 2015.

The film is a horror anthology featuring original music by Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring), Michael Sean Colin (Killjoy Goes To Hell), Christopher Drake (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns video games), Christian Henson (The Devil’S Double), Bobby Johnston (Wristcutters: A Love Story), Jimmy Psycho (The Jimmy Psycho Experiment), Sean Spillane (Jug Face), Edwin Wendler (Unnatural), and Austin Wintory (Dark Summer).

The film features main titles by legendary composer Lalo Schifrin (The Amityville Horror), whose son Ryan Schifrin directed one of the segments.

“This film is our love letter to the holiday of Halloween. And to have a main title from the man that wrote the Academy Award nominated score for The Amityville Horror is setting the bar even higher,” said Ryan. “What makes Tales Of Halloween really special is that you have one
See full article at WeAreMovieGeeks.com »

Soundtrack Round-Up Vol.8

The jukebox soundtrack to Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a healthy mix of old pop standards (The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice), ‘80s hits (Wang Chung – Dancehall Days) and modern alternative rock (Frank Black – In The Time Of My Ruin). Not much else needs to be said except that this collection of songs gives an easygoing but occasionally melancholy feel which, given the film’s title, I would imagine is rather appropriate.

Ronen Landa’s score for The Pact is an understated, moody affair, full of sinister thrums and oddly reminiscent of Alien in its penchant for creeping tension, though it never seems to fully reach a satisfying crescendo. The 9-minute Apparitions, however, is a welcome exception to this rule and sets the hairs on the back of your neck going without attempting to overpower any narrative (I haven’t seen the flick
See full article at Nerdly »

Review: 'Wild Bill' Is An Immensely Likable Directorial Debut From Dexter Fletcher

This is a reprint of our review from the BFI London Film Festival last year. "Wild Bill" opens in the U.K. today.

For whatever reason, directorial debuts by British character actors tend to lean towards the gritty kitchen-sink drama; Tim Roth, Gary Oldman and, more recently, Paddy Considine have all broken their filmmaking cherry with uncompromisingly tough, bleak subject matter. Considering that it involves abandonment, council estates and the risk of being taken into care, one might be forgiven for expecting the same from Dexter Fletcher's first film, "Wild Bill." But then, Fletcher's best known for being one of the central quartet, alongside Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng and Nick Moran, in Guy Ritchie's debut "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," and for appearing frequently in  's pictures, so could Fletcher have turned out some kind of guns and geezers movie instead?

But of course, Fletcher has had a long diverse career,
See full article at The Playlist »

FrightFest 2011: The Last Post Review

Directed by Axelle Carolyn, The Last Post is an emotional ghost story confidently told across eleven minutes. Opening with shots of an elderly lady, Colette (Jean Marsh), struggling to move about her sparse nursing home room, the film then rarely leaves this one room, the contained story unfolding slowly around this central character.

A wise choice perhaps as it is good to see a short film embracing the constraints of the format and telling a relatively simple story. The story is more of a romantic themed piece than one may expect from the kind of shorts usually seen in FrightFest’s short film showcase and it is a welcome break from the more showy, gory and often a little empty shorts that often dominate horror festival short film line ups.

Early in the film Colette begins to see a ghostly figure, seen first in a blur in the background, but
See full article at HeyUGuys »

Gast Waltzing Scoring ‘Hysteria’

Gast Waltzing has recently scored the British romantic comedy Hysteria. The movie directed by Tanya Wexler stars Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones. Christian Henson (the Devil’s Double, Black Death) has written additional music for the film. Sarah Curtis (Her Majesty Mrs. Brown), Judy Cairo (Crazy Heart) and Tracey Becker are producing the comedy, which centers on the invention of the vibrator in Victorian London. The story follows a young doctor treating cases of Hysteria who struggled to establish himself while confronting the gutsy daughter of his boss. The project is arguably Waltzing’s highest profile scoring assignment to date. The composer previously scored the 2008 comedy drama Jcvd starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Hysteria will premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. No domestic release date has been set yet.
See full article at Film Music Reporter »

Weekly Film Music Roundup (July 29, 2011)

Three new movies are opening wide this weekend:

Opening in most theaters is the sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens directed by Jon Favreau, produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Paul Dano and Sam Rockwell. The film’s music is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. A soundtrack album featuring the composer’s score is now available to download on iTunes and will be released on CD on August 16. To check out the details of the album, visit our soundtrack announcement.

Also opening wide is the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love. directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, written by Dan Fogelman and starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei. Christophe Beck and Nick Urata composed the movie’s score. A soundtrack album featuring twelve songs from the film has been released on Watertower Music. To listen to audio clips and learn more about the soundtrack,
See full article at Film Music Reporter »

Soundtrack Review: The Devil’S Double

What would it be like to be the son of Saddam Hussein? Even more troubling, what would it be like to be that son’s look-a-like? The Devil’S Double takes this idea to extreme levels with Dominic Cooper taking on the challenge of playing both Hussein’s actual son, Uday Hussein, and his doppelganger, Latif Yahia. Composer Christian Henson (Sanctified) takes up the task of creating the score for a world in which the stakes are always high and there are no rules. Henson unquestionably rises to the challenge, composing a score that is interesting, upsetting, and immersive.

Read more on Soundtrack Review: The Devil’S Double...
See full article at GordonandtheWhale »
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