Film Talk: The Room Next Door leads different selection for the season of fright

Granted, a couple of old favourites from the slasher shelf are being wheeled back out for a bit of silver screen gory glory - Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street to name but two. Though generally speaking, this All Hallows’ Eve is not set to see the ghouls and goblins coming out of Hollywood in droves.

Instead this week, we have Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore leading the charge in what director Pedro Almodovar has certainly fashioned as a heartstring-tugger as opposed to a throat-opener.

With a supporting turn from John Turturro, The Room Next Door puts the heavyweight talent team-up of Swinton and Moore in a tale of old friends reconnecting in bittersweet circumstances.

Drawing inspiration from the Sigrid Nunez novel, What Are You Going Through, this one is in fact Almodovar’s first feature-length flick shot entirely in English and is likely to draw the eye of film fans for this if for nothing else.

Something for the kids, this week also sees Rebellious drop - an animated tale of a princess and an unlikely hero that is sure to get all fans of the classic Disney formula revved-up. Except (twist) this isn’t a Disney!

And for the slightly bigger kids among us, the third and final chapter in the Venom trilogy - The Last Dance - is finally here. With the immortal Tom Hardy reprising his role as Eddie Brock, we can expect plenty of symbiote sass, belly laughs and flamboyant flashes of the most terrifying grin in the land (eat your heart out Smile 2).

It’s a different end-of-October cinematic smorgasbord to be sure, but does it sate our hunger? Bon appétit...

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (UK 12A/ROI 15A, 107 mins)

Released: October 25 (UK & Ireland)

Pedro Almodovar’s first full-length feature shot entirely in the English language draws inspiration from Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through to navigate the divisive issue of euthanasia through the eyes of two female friends.

The Room Next Door unfolds as a heightened melodrama and provides Tilda Swinton with an eye-catching central role as a former war correspondent, resigned to the tightening grip of inoperable stage three cervical cancer.

Julianne Moore plays her morally conflicted gal pal and travelling companion on the journey towards eternal slumber.

So much potential brilliance on screen and behind the camera but something vital, an emotional connection to characters in crisis, is lost in translation from Spanish to English.

Almodovar’s scripts are usually so nimble and spry but here, portentous dialogue (“There are lots of ways to live inside tragedy”) limps from trembling lips and draws attention to disparate, mannered performances.

“I think I deserve a good death,” Martha (Swinton) coolly informs author friend Ingrid (Moore), outlining a plan to spend her final weeks in a rented property near Woodstock with a euthanasia pill obtained illegally on the dark web.

While Martha awkwardly articulates her desire to stay in control (“Cancer can’t get me if I get me first”), a distraught but compliant Ingrid seeks comfort in the company of mutual old flame Damian (John Turturro), who likens his energetic bedroom antics with Martha to “having sex with a terrorist”.

The Room Next Door keeps us at arm’s length from vital conversations about the humane termination of life on request.

Swinton and Moore are compelling but they are trapped in their respective orbits with no visible gravitational pull towards each other.

REBELLIOUS (UK PG/ROI PG, 94 mins)

Released: October 25 (UK & Ireland)

The pen is mightier than an enchanted sword in the fantastical computer-animated adventure Rebellious.

Subtitled Mission Royal Rescue, the latest wholesome yarn from filmmaker Alex Tsitsilin, director of the Frozen-lite Snow Queen franchise, elevates a sensitive young man with a passion for reading to a swashbuckling saviour of kidnapped princesses by virtue of his knowledge of the laws of physics.

“I read about them in my architecture books,” proudly beams the dreamboat to an accomplice as he applies mathematical theories to the construction of a catapult to target the weak spot of a dam and flood an arid valley.

Animated Disney princesses have been a clear influence on Tsitsilin’s earlier work and the inspiration continues here.

Culturally diverse damsels abducted in an opening storybook montage are modelled on Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and other protagonists bear striking resemblances to Jasmine from Aladdin and Tiger Lily from Peter Pan.

A facially expressive white horse, ridden by the bookworm beau, shares a stable with Maximus from Tangled. Scriptwriters Analisa LaBianco and Jeffery Spencer insist on spelling out characters’ internal thoughts and every pedestrian step of the plot in expository dialogue.

Thus, the strapping bibliophile loudly voices his distress about being separated from his unnaturally small-waisted fiancee (“Losing the girl you love to a maniacal sorcerer is a fate worse than death!”) and the same hunk remarks aloud on the resilience of Mother Nature as lush green flora visibly sprouts around him.

Headstrong and outspoken Princess Mina (voiced by Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) has been raised by her father, the King (David Wills), on superstitious tales of an evil sorcerer named Kezabor (Pete Zarustica), whose terrifying dragon snatches unmarried girls of royal heritage from their chambers.

Mina has little time for folklore or outdated patriarchal traditions such as her father choosing her a husband from three potential suitors, Rogdai (Matt Giroveanu), Kabir (Anthony Sardinha) and Fa Chan (Brian Kim).

“I want to lead the kingdom and be with the man I love,” coos the princess shortly before she accepts a bungled marriage proposal from bookworm best friend Ronan (Dan Edwards).

The King ultimately gives his blessing to their nuptials but Kezabor’s dragon Nahina (Vanessa Johansson) materialises on the wedding day to spirit Mina away.

The King promises his daughter’s hand to her rescuer and the three suitors mount trusty steeds while Ronan heads on foot into the Impassable Forest.

Contrary to its title, Rebellious politely submits to fairy tale conventions and follows the recent trend of spirited princesses, who problem-solve their own salvation rather than waiting for a dashing prince.

Visuals are richer and more detailed than the linear storytelling, which leaves nothing to personal interpretation or inference. Tsitsilin’s picture delivers a moderately happy ever after.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (UK 15/ROI 15A, 110 mins)

Released: October 25 (UK & Ireland)

Kelly Marcel writes and directs this third and final chapter of an anti-hero trilogy.

Investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and symbiote Venom go on the run from authorities and detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), who hosts a destructive symbiote named Toxin.

Venom is an outcast from his alien race, the Klyntar, and said extra-terrestrials travel to Earth to track down and destroy the symbiote. The vast military forces commanded by Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are also in pursuit.

Relentlessly hunted by both worlds, Eddie and Venom face devastating choices to stay together in the most literal sense.

THE FRONT ROOM (UK 15/ROI 15A, 95 mins)

Released: October 25 (UK & Ireland)

A happy home doesn’t necessarily include older relatives in a psychological battle of wills directed by brothers Max and Sam Eggers. Norman (Andrew Burnap) receives a telephone call confirming the death of his estranged father and he reluctantly attends the funeral with heavily pregnant wife Belinda (Brandy).

The couple are still grieving a stillborn son but they look forward to the birth of a daughter, who they intend to name Fern.

At the funeral, Norman’s fervently religious stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter) offers the couple a deal: a sizeable inheritance in exchange for allowing her to move into their home and caring for her until she dies.

Norman accepts and Solange takes over the front room, which was supposed to be a nursery for Fern.

Belinda becomes increasingly frustrated by Solange’s influence over Norman and she resorts to desperate measures to reassert control over her dangerously divided household.

DAHOMEY (UK PG/ROI G, 68 mins)

Released: October 25 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

In 1892, French colonial troops plundered thousands of treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey, known today as the Republic of Benin, situated on the west coast of Africa between Togo and Nigeria.

In November 2021, 26 of these priceless historical artefacts were returned home from Paris following a display at the Musee du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Documentary filmmaker Mati Diop dramatises this reunion in an award-winning meditation on cultural identity, intercut with footage of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin sharing their thoughts about appropriation and restitution.