Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Devino and Yohe presumably collaborated on an equal basis throughout the production, but there's such a gulf in quality between the first and second halves of their film that it plays like both halves were made by different filmmakers... Review

The result is a film that passively documents a horrible little man on his way to becoming a horrible big man with very little to stop him along the way. Donner just doesn't seem to realise how dark and depressing this material really is. Review

Despite its more solemn tone, Who Saw Her Die? is unmistakably a giallo. Review

Kane captures the ethereal emptiness of Los Angeles in a way not seen in horror cinema since Thom Eberhardt's unsettling supernatural thriller Sole Survivor... Review

Where Hostile Dimensions falls down is ironically not in the FX or visual departments, as you might expect, but in its writing. The characters never quite feel real, often reacting to terrifying and bizarre scenarios in far too casual a manner. Review

But perhaps the biggest problem here is how the comedy is integrated. It only really becomes a comedy in the splatstick sequences. Review

In space no one can hear you scream, but your fellow cinemagoers might hear you snore during Romulus. Review

Hall doesn't simply use her dialogue to dole out plot points, with much of the storytelling coming from her actors' faces, their expressions often contradicting their words. Review

Evoking prior works of American fiction isn't enough to make Skincare stand on its own, and we're left to settle for surface thrills as the film never quite explores its characters or themes with enough depth to make it anything more than a mildly entertaining time-passer. Review

There simply isn't enough to keep horror fans engaged, and with its preference for lore over gore, The Curse Begins is a bit of a bore. Review

The Instigators' biggest problem is its complete lack of stakes. Neither of the two protagonists seem to care whether they get caught or killed. Review

By the end of Tuesday's exasperating two-hour run time you might be yearning for a release from this mortal coil yourself. Review

What really dogs Trap's second half is the amount of plot contrivances that just don't hold up to scrutiny. Review

Good One is a patient drama whose tension sneaks up on you. Review

It's frustrating that Consumed fluffs its lines in this regard as there's a more interesting film to be mined from the idea of a sick person being targeted by an entity specifically because of their affliction. Review

The movie develops into a well-meaning look at a young man trying to make the most of his life but it's rather pedestrian in how it conveys this. Review

Inheritance tells its story with machine-tooled precision, but it's recognisably human in its emotional messiness. Wilson, James and Garces have left an impressive calling card with this zippy but sensitive tale of familial strife. Review

The film's one asset is Kirk, who fully commits to the part and as she previously displayed in The Lair, is every inch the convincing action heroine. Review

Hennig and Murphy will no doubt get more work from this, but the audience is left to wonder how they might fare with more substantial material. Review

As Bernard, Nelson delivers a knockout performance, the sort that would prompt a boxer to immediately retire because they suspect they'll never be this good again. Review

There's barely enough material here to hold our interest for a 20 minute short, making Divinity a largely insufferable experience. Review

Sometimes we might feel like we want to retreat to some metaphorical home planet, that maybe there's another world that's a more comortable fit, but we're stuck here on Earth with humans and all their flaws. The only way to survive is to make peace with the fact that sometimes hell is other people, but other people can also be heavenly. And sometimes they make movies as endearing as Sky Peals. Review

It won't develop a Reservoir Dogs or Usual Suspects cult following, but as a rare post-Tarantino ensemble crime thriller that plays its scenario with a straight face, Detained is worth interrogating for 97 minutes. Review

What makes the film's later scenes so devastating is the intoxicating nature of the early scenes as Owen and Maddy bond over their favourite show. Review