{"id":226473,"date":"2025-06-30T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226473\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T11:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:15:11","slug":"killer-dolls-and-brexit-zombies-what-to-watch-and-do-this-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226473\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer dolls and Brexit zombies \u2013 what to watch and do this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of the appeal of the 2023 horror flick, M3gan<\/a>, was that its titular antagonist managed to be two of the scariest villains of the genre in one \u2013 a killer robot, and a child\u2019s doll come to life.<\/p>\n

After nine-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) tragically lost her parents, her roboticist aunt Gemma (Allison Williams of Get Out fame) brought M3gan home to help her niece with the traumatic transition. M3gan was to be Cady\u2019s teacher, playmate and above all, protector. In classic horror style, she soon embarked on a murderous rampage in the name of \u201cprotecting\u201d her ward.<\/p>\n

The film was an instant cult hit, dubbed a \u201ccamp classic\u201d thanks to M3gan\u2019s TikTok dance moves and determination to destroy the nuclear family.<\/p>\n

In M3gan 2, in cinemas from today, the filmmakers have leaned into that campiness even more. But, as horror expert Adam Daniel explains that doesn\u2019t completely neutralise the terror. Instead, it reformulates it, offering a cathartic release that makes the subject matter more digestible.<\/p>\n

Read more: From HAL 9000 to M3GAN: what film’s evil robots tell us about contemporary tech fears<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019re looking for more traditional jump scares, 28 Years Later has you covered. Danny Boyle has returned to the franchise with this instant-classic of the zombie genre, which muses on both post-Brexit Britain and our collective experiences of the COVID pandemic. In this film, Europe has contained a \u201crage virus\u201d to Britain. There are French boats on quarantine patrols, Swedish soldiers mocking remaining mainlanders and St George\u2019s flags burning.<\/p>\n

For COVID storytelling expert Lucyl Harrison: \u201cThe film ushers in a new age of \u2018Vi-Fi\u2019\u201d (that\u2019s virus fiction) \u201cwithout succumbing to pulpy pandemic storytelling\u201d. Ralph Fiennes offers a typically strong performance as the \u201cmad\u201d Dr Kelson, the only person determined to commemorate the virus\u2019s ever-mounting dead.<\/p>\n

Read more: The spectacular frenzy of 28 Years Later offers a new breed of pandemic storytelling<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

I confess, I\u2019m a bit of a baby when it comes to horror. So, I\u2019ll need to follow up any zombie fare with something a little more comforting. My choice for this week is The Ballad of Wallis Island, which romcom giant Richard Curtis has dubbed \u201cone of the great British films of all time\u201d.<\/p>\n

It takes place on the fictional Wallis Island, home to millionaire Charles (Tim Key), an almost obsessive fan of former folk-rock duo played by Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan. Invited to the island to play a private gig, they must face their musical and romantic past, all under the gaze of an ecstatic Charles.<\/p>\n

The film was made in just 18 days on a tight budget in a typical Welsh summer \u2013 a doctor was on hand to stop the actors getting hypothermia when they filmed in the sea. It reminded our reviewer of another British comedy classic, Victoria Wood\u2019s sitcom Dinnerladies, with its breadcrumb trail of slipped in details that provide laughter in the moment but which return to make the audience think twice.<\/p>\n

Read more: The Ballad of Wallis Island is a masterpiece of the extraordinary made ordinary<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

When Poor Things won the Golden Globe for best picture last year, director Yorgos Lanthimos thanked everybody, from the cast and crew to his hero Bruce Springsteen. But one person who didn\u2019t get a mention was Alasdair Gray, the Scottish artist and writer who wrote the novel the film was based on.<\/p>\n

Now Gray is rightly being celebrated at Glasgow\u2019s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The unseen paintings in the new show Alasdair Gray: Works from the Morag McAlpine Bequest come from a donation of works he made after the death of his wife in 2014.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the show include his original artwork for his novel Poor Things and the streetscape Gray called \u201cmy best big oil painting\u201d, depicting Cowcaddens in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Read more: Alasdair Gray: unseen artworks offer insight into a profoundly creative and original artist<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n

Pride month is coming to an end, but you can enjoy the movies in our Hidden Gems of Queer Cinema<\/strong><\/a> series year round. These articles highlight brilliant films that should be more widely known and firmly part of the canon of queer cinema. I\u2019d particularly recommend Saving Face (2004), complicated romcom that tenderly depicts the experiences of queer Asian people.<\/p>\n

Read more: Hidden gems of LGBTQ+ cinema: Saving Face is a complicated romcom that tenderly depicts the experiences of queer Asians<\/a> <\/strong> <\/p>\n

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of the appeal of the 2023 horror flick, M3gan, was that its titular antagonist managed to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[89256,85019,802,748,48891,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15,89257,89255],"class_list":{"0":"post-226473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-alasdair-gray","9":"tag-allison-williams","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-danny-boyle","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-violet-mcgraw","21":"tag-wallis-island"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114772031915521250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}