protean depravity

"We're learning to love the things that we hate", sang New Model Army's Justin Sullivan in the early 90's, and presumably still does so today. While Sullivan condemns politically numbed people, consumerism, and a Huxleyan kind of artificially happy society, this year's Fantasy Filmfest Nights ascribed this phrase a more individual notion and made it this year's focus, it seems like, at least for the few movies I saw. I was a little sick this weekend and still am a bit, so not very ideal, but in between bouts of nausea I could force myself to go see at least the minimum amount I planned on seeing. Family; the sacrifices we make, the things we gain, the boxes we need to fit into, the roles we have to play, the ways we have to bend and warp our ways to fit in, what's good for us, what's at stake for us if we don't comply - all these were themes explored during this year's Nights. Let's take a look at the films.

The 2026 film festival season ends with Fantasy Filmfest Nights this upcoming weekend, but that's no reason to despair because there are lots of fun screenings that can keep you busy until the next big festival. Except for the last Fantasy Filmfest screenings and the Final Girls in March, my film year was really nothing to brag about, and I didn't really see many films that left an impression on me. I hope that will change in the coming months, so let's take a look at some of upcoming film showings and unscheduled titles which give me hope that this year might still turn out to be a good cinematic year.

I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time now and have been postponing, then came the FFF White Nights, and then Berlinale, and also lots of work, and yada yada yada, and it's kind of late, but finally here I am scribbling something, because I don't want to keep putting off reviewing this movie to the point that it's too old to be relevant, and the second part of the 28 series, The Bone Temple, deserves it. It is such, such a good film all around. Let's analyze it then! (OBVIOUSLY SPOILERED REVIEW)

As I've written before, this year's Berlinale was a bit frustrating and not all that amazing, but I was able to watch a couple of films nonetheless (even though most of them at the Uber Hall which is cold, and too big, and uncomfortable). I don't want to complain too much, though, I was still able to see nice films, just not super good ones. So this year there's no winner since none of the pictures struck me as great or wonderful or whatever. Here's a short overview of my film haul.

...because that's when Berlinale starts again!

I have been spending this last weekend mostly at the Fantasy Filmfest White Nights, and this year is the most movies I have seen during White Nights ever, a personal record! I was thinking that the really good movies were reserved for the Nights section in April and the main festival in September, but, wow, was I wrong... A shout-out to the organizers and the Zoo Palast crew, the festival was amazing as always, and a heart warming highlight in this dark, cold and icy winter. I put the films in the order of my personal delight, ranking from least to most, with the movie at the bottom of the page being my favorite of the festival. It doesn't mean that the lower ranking movies are bad or not worth watching, on the contrary, in this year's White Nights selection there wasn't one movie that wasn't worthwhile, but I will explain for each movie why they didn't make my personal best. The good news is, they all made it into the top ten! I missed two films and saw seven from ...

  Welcome to part three of Cult Classics! It seems like cults are everywhere right now; in the independent news, in conspiracy theories, in media we consume, in movies we watch... Whether an organized group of powerful extremists controlling our lives really exists, or it is the mere paranoid fear thereof mirroring into horror fiction, it is worth to take a look at this phenomenon and the way it is represented in recent horror movies. In this installment we'll study the cults in The Void (2016), Last Shift (2014), Kill List (2011), The House of the Devil (2009) and Martyrs (2008). The titles are linked to their respective imdb pages for full film information and stills. I do presuppose that you watched the movies discussed here, so I will only give the shortest plot summary. It would make sense to watch the movies before reading my cult descriptions, as I SPOILER EVERYTHING. I also decided to add an additional part 4 to this series as I ended up finding more cults that ...

Let's start the year 2026 with the hope that these empty cinema seats will be the only places to witness horrors and that horror will stay strictly confined to fiction. And the first opportunity to fill those seats will be during the upcoming film season - our first station is the  Fantasy Filmfest White Nights  on January 24 and 25, which is like a mini winter break weekend for horror fans. I usually only watch a couple of films during the White Nights, but this year I feel like 2025 wasn't that great of a year for horror, and I feel somewhat starved for more movies. So I decided to take a leave from Hammett on that Saturday and to watch all the films on the first day, and three films on Sunday. Let's take a look at the trailers and talk about them, in order of their appearance at the FFF.

Here we are again, standing at the end of the year, taking a last look back before moving on. Moving on has been the motto for the entire last year, honestly, as I feel like I was standing before a heap of shards and rubble from the year before and decided to completely concentrate on myself and, fitting the Chinese year of the snake, shed my skin, I let go - I removed many many things that are unnecessary and superfluous in my life, and focused on my healing and well-being, but also let older things back in that I feel are important to who I am and that I have been neglecting. So overall I feel good about myself and this past year. Of course, everything around the world is still going south and the rage that ensues from watching stupid politicians and death and destruction and fear makes it hard to find inner balance. I have no idea where the world is heading and I'm not very optimistic nor very enthusiastic to find out but there's nothing else to do but go with it. There'...

It is almost the end of the year again, ugh... Almost time for the end of the year post, but not quite. Before we look back at my reading year and choose the best books of the year, let's see what's going on in and around Berlin in terms of events and films. Let's also take a first little peek at the upcoming Fantasy Filmfest White Nights, which, this year, is scheduled for the end of January. But there's a lot going on before and after, so let's see...  First off, next Wednesday, December 10th, 8pm, there's a screening at the Odeon cinema of the horror documentary  Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages . The appealing visuals suggest a quasi-serious, silent movie which uses brief episodes to explore witches. I've got my ticket already and I'm very excited for this! If you always wanted to meet the science fiction author Charles Stross, you can have your chance on Thursday, December 11th at 7.30 pm, because he will be at the  Otherland for a Q&A , seemi...

Welcome to part two of Cult Classics! It seems like cults are everywhere right now; in the independent news, in conspiracy theories, in media we consume, in movies we watch... Whether an organized group of powerful extremists controlling our lives really exists, or it is the mere paranoid fear thereof mirroring into horror fiction, it is worth to take a look at this phenomenon and the way it is represented in recent horror movies. In this installment we'll study the cults in Son (2021), Midsommar (2019), Hereditary (2018), Mandy (2017) and The Ritual (2017). The titles are linked to their respective imdb pages for full film information and stills. I do presuppose that you watched the movies discussed here, so I will only give the shortest plot summary. It would make sense to watch the movies before reading my cult descriptions, as I SPOIL EVERYTHING.

Let us, for a brief moment, shift our focus to one of Berlin's most interesting film curators in the field of independent cinema: Eli Lewy. When she's not planning one of the many Final Girls Berlin events, she has her own thing going and is orchestrating numerous projects, all in Berlin. Here are two of her projects, two film series that might interest you guys, one ongoing and the other starting in December.

Cults! It seems like they are everywhere right now; in the independent news, in conspiracy theories, in media we consume, in movies we watch... Whether an organized group of powerful extremists controlling our lives really exists, or it is the mere paranoid fear thereof mirroring into horror fiction, it is worth to take a look at this fear and the way it is reflected in recent horror movies.  A cult is a group of people who have an unusual, even abnormal or extreme, socially deviant religious or spiritual, in any case a numinous belief, combining a set of particular elements such as  devotion to a particular person or object,  rituals and practices, a secret or forbidden  knowledge that they either covertly use to gain advantages in life, or are chasing the opportunity to put into use to reach their goal. And as is well known, knowledge is ultimately power . In  Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems,  Alexandra S...

Are you still hanging on to the dated (and frankly, creepy) Oktoberfest, the fest of the drunks doing drunk things? Well, there's so much better fests and events in Berlin, and you needn't be drunk to endure them - in October alone we have not one but two indie genre film fests going, plus Halloween screenings, plus an author's evening with Samanta Schweblin who will present her new book (And it's possible another author will be presenting her new book at the Otherland, but I'll announce that when it is certain!). Let's take a look at what's coming up!

For the first chapter of the second book in the series A Short Story Lover's Guide to Stephen King , I thought I'd do something quirky and combine it with my dormant column Based on Books since Skeleton Crew  opens with The Mist , a short story (or rather novella) as masterly written  by Stephen King  as legendarily adapted to film by director/writer/producer Frank Darabont. Straight up from the start, some useful multimedia links; a good audiobook narration , a ZBS radio drama , and  some fun fan art . There is a TV series somewhere too, but I'm personally not crazy about series/serializations, so you need to find where to stream it yourself. I WILL SPOIL EVERYTHING SO READ THE BOOK, WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE READING AND DON'T BLAME ME! 

Another September has come, another Fantasy Filmfest has ended with nothing left behind but the memory of more or less awesome films and a week-long escape into other worlds (and, in my case, with a DVD set of a film I miraculously WON at the FFF! More about it under my review for Sweetness ⬇). I watched twelve feature films in total (I walked out on one of them because it was getting very late and I was worrying I might miss my last train as it was a week day), nineteen short films, of which three were animated and three stop motion. Let's see which ones I saw and my personal winners of this year's Fantasy Filmfest (There is an official winner of the festival you can find on their website  when they are through with every city on their program.)

As with each of my film reviews, I will talk spoilers for sure, so go and watch the movie first, then come back and let's discuss this film!   So we're in the middle of the Fantasy Filmfest fever with lots of great sounding movies coming our way, but there have been lots of good horror movies showing in regular movies too, and it's time I address them in a series of posts here.  Weapons is the first movie I want to discuss because I was smitten with it, although I would not give it the 100% it allegedly got on Rotten Tomatoes.   We start off with a mystery; at 2.17 am on a given night, all children from one single class at Maybrook Elementary School disappear, except for one little boy, Alex. They just wake up in the middle of the night, open the door and make that Naruto run for an unknown place. (I have to say at this point that I don't get this running gesture, the Naruto run, and it's one of my critique points that it looks just a little bit ridiculous, but ulti...

  The 39th edition of  Fantasy Filmfest is just around the corner (3.9 – 10.9. in Berlin) and if you haven't gotten a festival pass (I know I haven't!) the tickets for the movies will be available from August 22nd, that is next week. So it was about time to draw a roadmap to have an overview of the screenings and weed out those that will be shown regularly while highlighting those I will probably not have a chance to see somewhere else. The reason I didn't get a festival pass is (I know I announced I'd go full program, but changed my mind) that even though the FFF announces on its website that the rows for the pass owners are reserved for them, there are a lot of pass owners who fill empty seats with their backpacks and coats and other stuff, and there's nothing more terrifying for an introvert to walk around the room, ask if the seat is empty and if yes, could they please put their stuff away, (possibly endure a side eye or two) and then sit next to that person yo...

Sure, I'll gladly play the broken record again and let me not miss another opportunity to express my despondency over the weather this summer, which has been five hot days and raining cats and dogs on all of the other time. I swear at some point I will move somewhere warmer, but not yet. Not as long as there are such great things going on as in this summer so far (just not good weather).

  The summer was turbulent so far, in terms of both the weather and all the fun things you can do with lots of amazing films, concerts, events, readings all around... And it doesn't look like that's going to change in the near future, so let's keep on looking at some of the stuff a horror fan can do in and around Berlin this summer.