Ben wheatley

The Daleks aren’t going anywhere, but with massive Whovian Peter Capaldi’s Dalek story out of the way, they’ll hopefully go on hiatus for a while and take their tiresome plot retreads with them, leaving behind the significant structural and character-based improvements demonstrated here. It would seem many of the season eight premiere’s most prudent choices are here to stay; only two episodes into the Twelfth Doctor’s tenure, there’s already a lot to be excited about.

Hyena, the second feature from London-born director Gerard Johnson, opens with a slow motion raid on a neon-blue nightclub. The four men who carry it out are inebriated – a mixture of drink and drugs – and meet wordlessly en route in a small, plain car. When they park in an alleyway and pull on police gear, your first instinct is that they’re faking it, putting on masks. But it transpires that they really are policeman, just the kind that employ violence indiscriminately and abuse their authority to take a cut from local gangs.

The day began as all days should probably begin: with a sold-out crowd taking shots of Jack Daniels to ward off the cat flu. The day ended as all days should close: with an exceptionally lively and entertaining martial-arts film made by a group of passionate people who know how to kick ass. Yes, Day …

The increasingly prolific Ben Wheatley returns to screens a little under a year since his gallows-humour effigy Sightseers. Like a talent possessed, he seems like a filmmaker anxious to capitalise on his growing cult recognition and harness larger and more challenging material, a successful strategy that has give him a growing fanbase on both sides of the pond.

This bank holiday weekend, Empire Leicester Square is once again haunted by the annual Film4 Frightfest. Five days, three screens and a few dozen premieres, debuts, sequels and rereleases – there should be plenty to keep horror aficionados safe from the holiday sunshine. It all kicks off with Thursday night’s premiere of The Dead 2: …

Anyone reading this likely knows that the end of summer portends a few important milestones in a moviegoing year, chief among them the proliferation of film festivals in locations as diverse as Venice; Toronto; Telluride; and, of course, Austin, Texas. Yes, we’re just over 5 weeks away from Fantastic Fest 2013. Today, the organizers announced …

Rather surprisingly given its small budget and lack of household, or in some cases even recognizable names, Ben Wheatley’s Kill List made quite a critical splash when it was released two years ago. The follow up to his rather porous debut Down Terrace, the story of two hitmen, three targets and an escalation from moody …

A Field in England Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Amy Jump UK, 2013 Since his impressive debut Down Terrace (2009), Ben Wheatley has managed to establish himself as one of the most promising young directors in the UK today. The black and white (English) civil war-era A Field in England is both delightfully eccentric and …

Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, and Amy Jump United Kingdom, 2012 With grim determination, the new film Sightseers plays one blackly comic note on repeat for about 90 minutes. The film attempts to argue, in a slightly unique fashion, that maybe we all have a sociopathic nature tucked away …

Kill List Written by Amy Jump & Ben Wheatley Directed by Ben Wheatley United Kingdom, 2011 Jay and Gal are not your typical protagonists. They are as offensive as they are loyal, and as boorish as they charming. It would seem to destine Kill List for failure when so much of the film is banked …

Fans of Ben Wheatley’s brutally tense thriller Kill List may be a bit surprised by his new film, Sightseers. It is a film without tension and without terror. It’s just a charming little comedy about life, love, and serial murder.

Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe & Ben Wheatley (with additional material from Amy Jump) 2012, UK Either Ben Wheatley is a boiling pot of pent-up rage, or he is the complete opposite and thus finds perverse pleasure in humouring the rage fantasies and violent tendencies of the frustrated working-class …

To say that none of the 40 + films on our staff-voted list is universally beloved is putting it mildly; but then, that’s the nature of polls like these. Every year we’ve run this poll, there’s been a runaway winner; this year, the top film crossed the three-hundred-point threshold, a first here at Sound On …

  25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …

2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …

Spring Breakers – Opening Sequence Having been at TIFF this month, attempting to select favorite scenes without going entirely overboard– well, it may not exactly be as drastic as Sophie’s choice, but that is the first label that comes to mind. Spring Breakers is one of many very strong showings from Toronto this year, and …

Fantastic Fest is over but that doesn’t mean we should stop promoting the incredible line-up of movies programmed. It has become a Sound on Sight tradition that once the event has finished, we post a festival wrap-up highlighting our favourite films. Here are the top three picks from four of our writers. You can check …

Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Screenplay by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe, and Amy Jump 2012, UK Ben Wheatley just keeps making great movies. Furthermore, they keep getting better. Continuing in the naturalistic direction of his first two film’s while softening the sharper edges, Sightseers is Wheatley’s prettiest, funniest, and most mature film yet. If it …

Sightseers Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Steve Oram, Alice Lowe & Ben Wheatley (with additional material from Amy Jump) 2012, UK Either Ben Wheatley is a boiling pot of pent-up rage, or he is the complete opposite and thus finds perverse pleasure in humouring the rage fantasies and violent tendencies of the frustrated working-class …

Every thirty days, I like to post a list of my favorite films I’ve recently watched. Here are the best films I’ve seen throughout the month of September. This list is based on movies theatrically released here in Canada, and I do not include what I have seen at film festivals. **** #1: We Need …

Kill List Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump 2011, UK A detailed discussion of Kill List risks spoiling a singular and thrilling adventure. But if you are the type that relishes the feeling of leaving a theatre shaken and disconnected from reality, listen: I’ve got a film for you. Kill …

Kill List Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump 2011, UK A detailed discussion of Kill List risks spoiling a singular and thrilling adventure. But if you are the type that relishes the feeling of leaving a theatre shaken and disconnected from reality, listen: I’ve got a film for you. Kill …

——————— Down Terrace Directed by Ben Wheatley A good movie that could very easily have been a great one, Down Terrace, a very black comedy with a dash of arthouse ambition, has all the ingredients necessary for a truly distinctive feature but bungles the proportions, making for a peculiar viewing experience – one worth partaking …