The Morrigan review – spirit of pagan demon queen unleashed in Irish burial chamber horror

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Archaeologists blunder into an ancient and unwittingly release a vengeful monster – with predictable and conventional results In Irish folklore, the Morrígan is a powerful goddess of death and war. This horror movie imagines her as an actual historical figure: a pagan queen massacred with her followers by Christians. A quick scene at the start of the film shows the dirty deed. The Morrígan’s rage against misogyny has screamed down through the centuries – so it’s a shame the film frames her not as a feminist icon but a highly conventional horror movie nemesis; a malign vengeful female to be crushed and destroyed. There is nothing to punch the air about in the end. Saffron Burrows plays an archaeologist called Fiona who has been repeatedly passed over for tenure at her US university. When Fiona presents her radical theory that the myth of the Morrígan may have a basis in real life, her slippery colleague Jonathan (Jonathan Forbes) is made the lead on the dig. Fiona is forced to bring al...
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Bad loser: how Fair Play unravels the delusion of the ‘good guy’

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The conversation-starting Netflix thriller shows a seemingly supportive man unravel when his fiancee starts outearning him

In the beginning, Emily and Luke are golden. They’re ambitious and imminently wealthy young professionals, dressed in the sleek monochromes of quiet luxury. They’re so in love that they can’t even make it through a wedding without pawing at each other. When a bathroom tryst gets derailed by her period blood, it’s a silly prelude to their rushed engagement, a mess of passion and, in the new Netflix thriller Fair Play, an omen of pain ahead.

The caustic debut film by the writer/director Chloe Domont sets up a model relationship in a rarefied and ruthless space. Emily (Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke’s (Alden Ehrenreich) love has all the hallmarks of something incipient and promising – they share an apartment, a bed, a lifestyle. But by dating each other, they are breaking company policy at the cutthroat Manhattan hedge fund where they both work. Their attraction thrives on secrecy – they barely acknowledge each other at the office, then have sex on the floor at home – as much as the other’s perceived shrewdness at navigating the type of workplace where boilerplate HR trainings occur in view of an employee beating a monitor with a golf club.

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