Contributions from Anton Bitel | Little White Lies

Contributor Anton Bitel

Distressed young person pressing face against bars of a crib or cot.
Home Ents

Discover the deranged melodrama of this maternal horror

by Anton Bitel

Ted Post’s 1973 film The Baby takes the notion of the dysfunctional family to a whole other level.
Woman in purple cardigan holding a cup, standing in a bar or cafe interior.
Review

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

by Anton Bitel

Eli Roth’s latest offering is a Harry Potter-fied version of a 1950s haunted house horror.

3
Anticipation
3
Enjoyment
4
In Retrospect
Partially covered wrinkled white and brown feathered bird with green foliage.
Home Ents

Discover the ferocious insanity of this cult Japanese horror

by Anton Bitel

Teruo Ishii’s Horrors of Malformed Men contains one of cinema’s most straightforwardly stark raving villains.
Man in a red-lit room, wearing a beige jacket and shouting.
Review

Upgrade

by Anton Bitel

A man finds himself aided in his quest for revenge by an unusual piece of tech in this slick thriller from Leigh Whannell.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
3
In Retrospect
A man holds a white mask to his face, obscuring his expression. The image is in high-contrast black and white.
Home Ents

Discover the ethical outrage of this erotic Japanese drama

by Anton Bitel

Akio Jissôji’s celebrated – and controversial – This Transient Life boldly challenges social convention.
Man with outstretched hands amidst wooden beams
Home Ents

Discover the grainy depravity of this notorious cannibal horror

by Anton Bitel

Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox fully deserves its reputation as one of the genre’s toughest watches.
Woman with long, dark hair wearing glasses and a blue top, reacting to a power tool blowing her hair back.
Home Ents

Discover the co-ed carving thrills of this classic ’80s slasher

by Anton Bitel

Shot in a real abandoned asylum, Richard Friedman’s gore-fest shows a subgenre in microcosm.
Two people, a man and a woman, stand in front of an American flag mural.
Review

The First Purge

by Anton Bitel

This Purge origin story presents a timely dystopian vision of America’s class, race and culture wars.

3
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
4
In Retrospect
A man with a serious expression sitting at a table, holding what appears to be a document or book in his hands.
Home Ents

Discover the Lynchian mysteries of this backwoods meta-horror

by Anton Bitel

Resolution, from filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, is a true original.
Two people, a man and a woman, with windswept hair standing on a boat against a grey sky.
Review

Adrift

by Anton Bitel

Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin play a young couple lost at sea in Baltasar Kormákur’s survival romance.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
3
In Retrospect