Andrew Carroll

1 week ago | headstuff.org | Andrew Carroll |Andrew Carroll

“What is Jerusalem worth?” asks Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom) towards the end of Ridley Scott’s 2005 crusader epic Kingdom of Heaven. “Nothing,” replies Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), Sultan of the Muslim forces. He then smiles before adding “Everything!” Distilling thousands of years of bloodshed into just two lines of dialogue Scott and screenwriter William Monahan mine pathos and relevance from an exceptionally violent and intolerant period of history.

Jul 29, 2024 | headstuff.org | Andrew Carroll

Moby Dick ends – spoilers for a 150-year-old novel – with its obsessive Captain Ahab pulled into the drowning deep by the object of his vengeful pursuit. The crew of The Blair Witch Project are a much smaller crew than that of the Pequod, but their goal and obsessive leader are much the same. Moby Dick was not the Great American Novel of its time and was only recognised as such much later on.

Jul 22, 2024 | headstuff.org | Andrew Carroll

I was five years old when Silent Hill came out in 1999, far too young to play Konami’s survival horror masterpiece let alone understand it. It would be fifteen years before I dared try Resident Evil, Silent Hill’s older, goofier and more successful rival. Ever since I have yearned to play it but never knowing the means until now. With my recent use of emulators I have been reliving my childhood with games like Burnout 3: Takedown and The Simpsons: Hit and Run.

Apr 22, 2024 | headstuff.org | Andrew Carroll

“You breathe, you move, you make one sound and I’ll snatch the life right out of you.” So says John Creasy (Denzel Washington) an ex-soldier and CIA operator turned burnt-out bodyguard for Lupita ‘Pita’ Ramos (Dakota Fanning). What drives a man to this point? That’s not really a question Man On Fire, Tony Scott’s scuzzy, kinetic 2004 action film, is interested in answering.

Mar 11, 2024 | headstuff.org | Andrew Carroll

It’s a word salad of a title, but Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person does exactly what it says on the tin. A coming-of-age dark comedy more than a serious vampire horror, Ariane Louis-Seize’s film is a sweet and charming exploration of what it means to be a member of the bloodthirsty living dead all while maintaining an all too human conscience. What this film lacks in scares and arterial jets it makes up for in character and comedy.