WATCH: The Last Supper [1995]

 It's a shame that Stacy Title's macabre tale of homicide gone awry is not up there on everyone's viewing list. It is also a shame that this seems to be the director's only prevalent work. It oozes with originality and asks that question 'If you could prevent Hitler from killing millions by killing him before he became evil, would you?'.

The Last Supper features several familiar faces, the fresh-faced Cameron Diaz, Annabeth Gish, Sleepers' Ron Eldard, Courtney B Vance and Jonathan Penner as five post-grad friends who live together in a quiet part of Iowa finishing their Masters studies. As tradition, every Sunday one of the housemates invites a guest over for dinner with the prime focus being a discussion on belief encompassing all sociological branches.

WATCH: World War Z [2013]

Difficult is the task of ridding yourself of previous knowledge of a printed novel before venturing into its screen adaptation. Not as taxing, however, with Marc Forster's adaptation of the best-selling Max Brooks novel of the same name. Stranger Than Fiction [2006] is one of my favourite films of the past ten years and I was interested to see how this zombie horror would translate onto the big screen. I had a lot of unrealised faith in Forster before I had started, having thoroughly enjoyed Finding Neverland [2004] and Quantum Of Solace [2008] - a Bond flick that I found emotionally taxing on our spy hero compared to most reviewers' opinions on it being a weak entry in the series.

After a harrowing look at the current nihilistic state of the world interspersed with ravenous animals in the opening credits we are invited to the home of the Lanes (Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos). Brad Pitt takes the lead role of Gerry Lane, a former UN employee - his exact job description never revealed but hinted at as being in the field in some manner - who is now a stay-at-home father to watch his children grow up. The casting here distracted me from paying attention to the story, Brad Pitt just doesn't look like he has aged. Maybe a little tired around the eyes, but Mireille's casting makes him look a lot younger than he is depicted. That's not a negative remark on Mireille's age whatsoever, but Pitt does look somewhat of a toyboy.

LISTEN: Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks [2013]

With sprawling electro-fist pumpers strewn across an eclectic eighth album, Nine Inch Nails have returned with Hesitation Marks on the latter eve of first single Come Back Haunted. A taster, if you will, back then of what to expect from Trent Reznor's industrial tour-de-force. It would be naive to suggest that Reznor is the only driving member of the band but here again, as made evident from 2008's The Slip, each individual has a part to play. This album is meant to be played loud. Nine Inch Nails, similar to Tool, want you to not just listen, but feel the very strength behind their works.

WATCH: Carrie [1976]

To get myself in the mood for its impending horror remake, I took to a viewing of Brian De Palma's Carrie starring Sissy Spacek in the titular role, featuring a delightfully terrifying turn from Piper Laurie as Margeret, Carrie's hyper-religious mother. A definite theme here then, what with Mrs Carmody from The Mist, with Stephen King and his employment of fanatics throughout his work. One thing is certainly clear to me, this is not a horror - at least, not by today's standards. It is definitely a psychological thriller with lashings of the paranormal. However, these lashings are infrequent opposite to how the paraphenalia attributing to the film's cult status would suggest.

It reminds one of the unnerving feeling that The Shining (another King) delivered. Whereas that movie orbited around isolation, hauntings and mental breakdowns, here we see a girl who, timid and bullied, deservedly gains the telekinetic powers she uses to wreak havoc in the film's savage finale.

WATCH: Snowtown [2011]

I seldom approach films with the subtitle 'Based On A True Story' or 'Inspired By Real Events'. However, there was something about Justin Kurzel's debut Australian feature-length, based on the 1999 Barrel Murders of Snowtown, Adelaide wherein eight bodies were found dismembered in barrels. Snowtown is bleak, depressing and has a colour palette that blurs between faded candy coatings to dirty tapwater. The actors are sweaty and their hair greasy. But these aren't bad points, these are a gloriously rendered series images from Lucas Pittaway's introductory monologue as Jamie, right through to this hard story's bitter end. It branches from an ambiguous sexual abuse incident involving Jamie, his younger brothers and a male neighbour. While his mother Elizabeth (Louise Harris) is out on a date, the neighbour photographs the boys naked. Ambiguity hangs in the air during this scene, as any molestation is only hinted at when we see the neighbour sit down at the kitchen table naked in the aftermath.

WATCH: The Mist [2007]

Frank Darabont and Stephen King have a definite rapport with onscreen pairings, similar to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, they just work well. So much so that King, who is said to be difficult to please when it comes to film adaptations of his work, thoroughly enjoyed the devastatingly bleak ending that The Mist delivers. Darabont's interpretation, while the CGI looks comparatively dated, hits all the right notes when it comes to human struggle, survival and desperation. Touching on familiar tones like xenophobia, religious extremism and suicide in a world that has lost control without any explanation as to how or why before the body count starts racking up.

Using familiar faces to those who have seen the Darabont-produced The Walking Dead, and an excellent star-making turn with Thomas Jane, the delivery of this tale of survival in enclosed spaces is perilous and harrowing to endure. But that's what makes it a powerful watch. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is a successful graphic artist who lives with his wife and son in familiar King-territory Maine. A violent thunderstorm uproots a large tree in the garden and the boathouse. Drayton, who is on previously unfriendly terms with his neighbour, Brent (Andre Braugher), set aside their differences as a means to help each other out by taking a trip to the local store now that Brent's car is completely destroyed.

WATCH: Only God Forgives [2013]

Nicolas Winding Refn once said that he would direct Only God Forgives upon the completion of Valhalla Rising, his Viking-era purgatorial venture, but did otherwise at Ryan Gosling's request to complete Drive. I wish Refn hadn't listened. Ryan Gosling's character in that wonderful film is a completely different kind of anti-hero in this Eastern cowboy film. With its very seductive imagery and taboo themes spread across a blue-and-red neon filmscape, Only God Forgives is a lot of style and very little to get to grips with.

It is very beautiful, the emotion captured in Gosling's face when he has very little to no dialogue can speak volumes. My only reasoning for its want to have been directed before Drive is that mainstream audiences have since identified with Drive and Gosling as a Refn favourite. It is no secret that Gosling is definite eye-candy and was somewhat of a anarchic rockstar in Drive. To deliver this outing will leave a bit of an odd taste in the mouth of that audience.

WATCH: Paranormal Activity [2007]

Handheld horrors don't bode too well with me. There are, however, some fantastical gems that shine through in this densely-filled sub-genre. Some of my favourites have been, and not including the sequels of, REC and The Blair Witch Project. They captured the claustrophobic nature of a handheld viewpoint; that you ultimately cannot see what is going on in some instances and the cries of the characters onscreen can be agonising to bear when the terror is unseen. A lot of handheld films force a perspective on you, using unnatural movement that doesn't feel human.

Paranormal Activity excuses this completely as it uses a fixed-point perspective throughout most of the film. I admittedly scoffed upon seeing main character Micah (Micah Sloat) show us his camera in the mirror of his house. This isn't a mini-DV, this is a full size Sony HDR. But through little snippets of conversational dialogue with his fiance, Katie (Katie Featherston), we understand that he has very good reason for his purchase. A natural tech-head anyway, the young couple are plagued by a mysterious presence in their home so they hope to catch it all on camera.

WATCH: Evil Dead [2013]

My earliest horror film memory was of Nightmare On Elm Street when Tina was dragged up the walls, screaming. My second was of Pennywise the Clown pulling a little boy down a drain. Somewhere along the way was the memory of a girl being raped by branches in the woods. That was what I remembered from Evil Dead. A bit of background and some refreshing new views on this comedy-horror franchise; it certainly is difficult to view a remake of a film without having seen or having prior knowledge of the previous entries in the series. Back then, I thought Evil Dead was cheesy, outdated but certainly had a story to tell, buckets of fake blood and horrifying creatures of the night. All with a low-budget but cinematically unnerving to watch. Today, I still think Evil Dead is cheesy and certainly prefer the second installment in the series for its cleaned up appearance while still delivering a story, comedy-horror and memorable moments. The dead hand, laughing furniture, dancing dead girlfriend and chainsaw hand are keynotes in horror cinema history.

WATCH: Synedoche, New York [2008]

I am a real sucker for multi-layered films that encompass all areas of human emotion. Donnie Darko made me feel this way, Vanilla Sky is a culprit and so are many of John Hughes' rite-du-passage movies. Synecdoche, New York is a fantastical tale which covers the human map of emotion without faltering into repetition or bum-numbing shiftiness for the viewer. Familiar with only Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine and a very early viewing of Human Nature, I was excited to see Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut - and for this review, it is the third viewing. It's a visual masterpiece of life imitating life and the constant questions of our morals. It's a brave piece but one that does not feel out of place when viewed alongside Being John Malkovich. With that in mind, and several dozen more motifs and metaphors tacked on, this is a life-spanning adventure of achieving an unrealised lifetime goal, even if it is not yet known. It's also with this film that I noted Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of the most invigorating actors of all time.

WATCH: Oblivion [2013]

I've noticed I have a habit of referencing previous works or franchises that I feel a director's work reminds me of. I also have a habit of spotting subliminal (intentional or otherwise) symbology throughout these works. With that in mind, I'll try and be as obvious as possible. Oblivion is full of blue skies, glorious technology and tectonically sculptured greys and browns. It's also full of intentional nods to sci-fi favourites 2001: A Space Odyssey and Moon as well as current-gen console game Enslaved (can you tell I was lying about not referencing franchises?). There were particular shots throughout the final act that reminded me strongly of imagery such as the Starchild and HAL-9000.

WATCH: A Field In England [2013]

 I watched A Field In England with three friends. In the silence that dawned on us after the uninterrupted viewing on Film4, it eventually broke. "I feel like I should be on something," I uttered. They nodded in agreement. But then it wasn't paraphernalia I wanted to be high on, I was already high on the intense low-key visuals that Ben Wheatley and his team had just staggered us with. Shakerspearian-cum-Chaucerian dialogue littered with 'fuck' and 'cunt' expletives framed an intense mindwarp in 17th-Century England in the midst of a distant and echoing Civil War.

WATCH: Pacific Rim

Humourous title aside, Pacific Rim had me questionable at best before I had seen the damn thing. From hearing American audiences prefer the appeal of Grown-Ups 2 I felt a wee bit disheartened. Regardless, after seeing the extended trailer and falling in love with the set design in Hong Kong I came away the complete opposite. Fantastically content. ILM have done an amazing job bringing the hulking piloted mechs known as Jaegers to life. The beautiful thing here is they look functional. Cranks, gears and pistons operate some of the more experienced mechs while being retrofitted with sleek interiors akin to Minority Report. Jets rocket to life when maneuvering the hulking robstrosities in every pivot and turn. The difference with previous robot shows like Transformers is that this doesn't look a mess, even through the battering thunderstorms and crashing waves. I felt like I couldn't quite catch the punches landed between Autobot and Decepticon and, although this is mechs versus monsters, you catch every devastating blow thanks to the spectacular camera work.

PLAY: The Last Of Us

This review has spent a long time sitting in my head, festering and decaying, erstwhile being lit by a fading summer sun as specks of dust dance around in the invisible breeze. Immersion is the best angle a game can take and Naughty Dog's latest offering shovels it in leaps and bounds.

The Last Of Us tells us the story of Joel, a smuggler in the year 2033, living in a world run by martial law where civilians are housed in Quarantine Zones in the now ruined USA. Towering walls make up these QZ's littered with lookouts and checkpoints, marched through by soldiers securing the perimeter and ensuring residents are safe by any, including brutal, means necessary. Joel has experienced firsthand the emotional backlash this new crumbling world can deliver as shown in a harrowing prologue that you play.

PLAY: State Of Decay

There were two games this year that I've been very much anticipating since their announcement. One was The Last Of Us; a post-apocalyptic survival game from my favourite developer, Naughty Dog. The other was State Of Decay, an independently developed game focussing on the survival aspects in a world torn apart by the zombie apocalypse. Undead Labs aim was to bring a zombie game unlike previous worn out shooters of current and last gen; a fully immersive experience giving the player challenges based around the finite resources left when the dead walk the earth.

WATCH: Star Trek Into Darkness

Why oh why can I not look at anything to do with re-whatever'ed Star Trek and not find myself whistling the dance mix of the Lost In Space theme tune? My experience with Star Trek started from a young age, coming home from school to catch either The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and eventually Voyager a teatime on BBC2 when The Simpsons wasn't on. Not so much a Trekkie but a Treklite, I ventured forth most evenings Picard, Riker and his strange chair-mounting to worlds unseen. Eventually, the original films and The Original Series had my eyes peeled with one film being particularly memorable.

WATCH: Fast And Furious 6

I'll come out now and say I am not a huge fan of full-on action films, and while at the time I'd like to think Fast 6 changed my mind, I've had time to let the engines cool and focus on what I had witnessed. I'll also confess that I have not seen any of the Fast franchise from Tokyo Drift onwards. This, I feel, did not hinder my viewing. How hard could it be to follow the story of a group of illegal street racers and ex-cons? Very, as it goes.

LISTEN: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Oh man. That's what went through my head when I heard the disco force behind the opening stretch of Random Access Memories, french disco funk duo Daft Punk's latest delivery. The sexed up jazzy strums and popping bass features heavily throughout, with electronic vox that soar into electronic sounds padding out beautifully eerie choruses delivered by guest performers giving a more than adequately produced album.