A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in October 2025

This month featuring, among others, Brides, Dead of Winter, Good Boy, Tron: Ares, Sketch, The Last Sacrifice, Depeche Mode’s “M”, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birbs and the Rocky Horror doco.

Brides (2025), Nadia Fall – I thought this was an interesting attempt to change the narrative around why young Muslim girls and teenagers would flee the UK to go to Syria, with strong performances from the two leads. It also had an unexpected dinosaur interlude, a cute goat, and Arthur Darvill off of Doctor Who in it for a bit. I got terrible battery anxiety on the girls’ behalf though – where were they charging their phones?

Dead of Winter (2025), Brian Kirk – Emma Thompson makes for an unlikely action hero in this, which is well-paced and, considering it is a violent thriller, has a remarkable melancholy running through it.

Somehow this screenshot of Thompson from the movie reminds of the famous viral tweet from @youngvulgarian about Ted Cruz: “How does Cruz always look both happy and sad? ‘I like lasagne but it’s not what I ordered’, his face says”. Look at her face again.

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror (2025), Linus O’Brien – Well this was certainly one way to find out you’ve been pronouncing Susan Sarandon’s name wrong your whole life. I found it really quite moving as Richard O’Brien, Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn et al are all at rather fragile ages to be looking back at the intensely fun cult phenomenon they created. I’m going to a sing-a-long version of the original movie next month.

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl (2025), Taylor Swift – I’m fascinated by her as a cultural artefact, had an amazing experience when I saw her live last year, so held back from listening to the new album until I got it all in one go during this odd mix of behind-the-scenes doco and lyric videos with intros explaining each song. It is not her greatest work this time around, is it?

The Appointment (1982), Lindsey C Vickers – An odd one this, with a backstory of having been effectively “lost” for decades, a slow suspense supernatural thriller with an emphasis on the slow, with an apparent desire to let the interpretation of what was happening all be in the eye of the beholder.

[Samantha Weysom and Edward Woodwardwoodwardedwood in The Appointment]

Tron: Ares (2025), Joachim Rønning – One of the younglings showed interest in the trailer of this so I took him along and it was perfectly fine – a Blade Runner-esque plot in a Tron-world with bonus Gillian Anderson, Nine Inch Nails and a motorbike chase sequence that was pure Grand Theft Auto:Tron. Plus Jared Leto getting to flex all of his acting chops by playing a personality-free and expressionless AI.

[An animated gif of every expression Jared Leto showed in this movie]

Fear No Evil (1981), Frank LaLoggia – A fun but baffling movie that occasionally made me wonder if the person editing it had actually read the screenplay. This was a Bar Trash screening by Token Homo at Finsbury Park Picturehouse.

[Stefan Arngrim in Fear No Evil]

Good Boy (2025), Ben Leonberg – I just loved this – a supernatural horror suspense movie, but essentially from the POV of the dog, with the dialogue and human interactions just background noise as Indy tries to keep his owner safe, bless him.

[He really is a very good boy]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Miloš Forman – I saw this once on telly in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and it left a real impression on me. Not sure you’d make it quite the same way today, but it is just a stone cold classic, isn’t it? Louise Fletcher is exceptional in playing one of the sexiest, most sadistic bullies of all time.

The Birds (1963), Alfred Hitchcock – I saw this on telly a long time ago too. It is a shame that some of the VFX shots have aged poorly, but I am always struck how it is sort of two movies in one – the psychosexual drama of the Brenner household, and the gradual escalation of the war of the birbs. Seeing it made me dig out the original short story by Daphne du Maurier that it is based on, which has an entirely different setting and characters, but is also really gripping over 20 or so pages.

Altered States (1980), Ken Russell – Compellingly batshit. I honestly can’t think what else to say. A Bar Trash screening by Token Homo at Beer Merchants Tap, Hackney Wick.

Musik starring Frances Barber (2025), written by Jonathan Harvey and Pet Shop Boys, directed by Terry Johnson – Not a film, but theatre. An hour long tour-de-force one woman show from Frances Barber as she tells a fictional life story woven around real cultural icons and events, but with a self-absorbed acid wit. And occasionally bursts into songs written by Tennant/Lowe.

[Frances Barber in Musik]

Perfect Blue (1997), Satoshi Kon – Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the ride watching this, but rather like recent Doctor Who finales, I’d struggle if you asked me to explain the plot back to you, although it was definitely quite prescient about toxic internet fan culture.

I was amused that the BBFC title card cited “sexual violence, strong violence” as reasons for making it an 18, fair enough, those can be triggering and the sexual violence scenes were unpleasant to watch. But it also cites “nudity”.

Nudity?

You know these are drawings, right?

I imagined some poor Victorian gentleman quitting the theatre with a fit of the vapours – “Quick! Someone call the Peelers! That man has drawn a woman’s boobies!”

As it was made in 1997 there was a delightful scene where one of the characters was explaining how to get online to the “world wide web” and visit a “homepage”, complete with beautifully rendered Apple packaging and the nostalgia rush of seeing someone open up Netscape Navigator.

An American Werewolf in London (1981), John Landis – I’d never seen this before at all, and it’s great isn’t? What a cast. Brian Glover! Rik Mayall! John Woodvine (who only recently died and who I know best as the Marshal of Atrios from 1979 Doctor Who story The Armageddon Factor)! Gorgeous Jenny Agutter (who is the first woman I can remember having a crush on after seeing her in Logan’s Run and thinking “Hang on … girls … they suddenly seem interesting”)!

Sketch (2024), Seth Worley – This was fantastic. It has the vibe of an 80s family adventure movie like The Goonies, and a plot reminiscent of Doctor Who’s Fear Her if Fear Her had a budget or was any good.

[Bianca Belle and Kue Lawrence in Sketch]

Depeche Mode: M at BFI IMAX (2025), Fernando Frias – I feel like Depeche Mode have been trying to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle of 101 on most tours since. The concert stuff was well shot and enjoyable. The in-between bits about the Mexican culture around the theme of death, well, OK, that’s what you decided to do. But also me and my friends were some of the few people doing the Never Let Me Down Again hand-wheeling in the cinema, and COME ON, LET’S HAVE FUN.

The Last Sacrifice (2024), Rupert Russell – Really enjoyed this and felt like master of my domain because I pretty much recognised every movie clip and every contributor from past documentaries having nicked them into m-orchestra videos along the way. I personally needed a trigger warning about Tim Stanley appearing as a talking head in it, but lovely to see clips of Wendy Padbury – Zoe from 1960s Doctor Who – on the big screen.

[Wendy Padbury in Blood On Satan’s Claw, which featured in this doco]

Read more of my one-line spoiler-free reviews of everything I’ve watched in the cinema.