Into The Dark

Struggling to find her way after the recent death of her parents, Sophia Monet (Mischa Barton) finds that her life is turned around when she meets Adam Hunt (Ryan Eggold), a charismatic man who ignites Sophia’s sense of purpose. However, when Adam mysteriously disappears Sophia and Adam’s roommate Astrid, along with a couple of friends, frantically search the labyrinth of Adam’s dilapidated apartment high-rise building to try and find him but soon find themselves up against unseen paranormal forces that will stop at nothing to keep Adam from being found. Sophia must confront her personal demons and take an extraordinary leap of faith in order to bring him back.

Why we’re looking forward to this: There’s something about creepy brownstones that appeals to us, whether it’s due to a psychotic roommate as in Single White Female or a haunted hotel room like the one in 1408, and so the opportunity to go poking around in another spooky one is not to be missed.

Neither is the chance to see a well-crafted supernatural thriller, and the trailer for Into The Dark feels like a delicious hybrid of the aforementioned 1408 and the much underrated Silent Hill, as Sophia is pulled deeper and deeper into the darkness, guided by her dead father, and encounters all manner of strange and terrifying things that you wouldn’t want to find lurking in your apartment.

Into The Dark is out now on DVD.

The House at the End of Time

Thirty years ago, young mother Dulce was accused of murdering her husband and two children in their home. Despite her pleas that a malevolent force in the house was responsible for the killings, Dulce was sentenced to the maximum penalty of imprisonment for a crime she did not commit. Now, as part of her sentence, Dulce is sent back to her old home and the scene of the crime under house arrest, where she is forced to confront the horrifying memory of what happened there But this time around she’s determined to unravel the mystery that has haunted her so for long, and with the help of a local priest, give both her loved ones and her own spirits their much-needed peace.

Why we’re looking forward to this: The House at the End of Time is (apparently) the first supernatural thriller to be made in Venezuela, which makes it an interesting proposition in itself, but as is often the case with foreign language chillers there’s something about the movie that just feels creepy.

Here in The Cutting Room we’re partial to a good foreign language scare, having been brought up on the likes of Ringu, Audition, [rec], The Devil’s Backbone, and many more (including the vast and varied canons of Argento and Fulci), mainly because unlike most English language fright flicks which feature clean cut, familiar characters, they often feel slightly other worldly and somehow more disturbingly authentic.

The House at the End of Time is no exception as is evident from the trailer, which features an ominous house, dark rooms and corridors, and the requisite world weary priest and positively oozes with tension and malevolence.

The House at the End of Time is out on DVD on 11 November 2014.

RICHARD COSGROVE