Horror Specialist · Horror & Body Genre
Priya is Celluloid's resident horror expert, covering everything from elevated A24-style horror to body-horror extremity.
64 reviews published on Celluloid
★★★★½
Rudy Sofyan's Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (2002) endures as a defining romance landmark from Indonesia, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) endures as a defining war landmark from Germany, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Kleber Mendonça Filho's Bacurau (2019) endures as a defining action landmark from Brazil, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (2000) endures as a defining thriller landmark from Japan, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name (2017) endures as a defining romance landmark from Italy, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★★
Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988) endures as a defining drama landmark from Italy, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
The longest-running theatrical romance in Indian history — DDLJ defined a generation of Bollywood love stories.
Essential viewing — among the finest films in Indian cinema.
★★★★½
José Padilha's Elite Squad (2007) endures as a defining action landmark from Brazil, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Worth watching for context — influential even where opinions split.
★★★★½
Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (1995) endures as a defining drama landmark from France, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Mouly Surya's Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017) endures as a defining western landmark from Indonesia, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
M.T. Fuad's Naga Bonar (1987) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Indonesia, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Kunle Afolayan's Phone Swap (2012) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Nigeria, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Kangana Ranaut's breakout turns heartbreak into liberation with wit, charm, and genuine surprise.
Essential viewing — among the finest films in Indian cinema.
★★★★½
Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (1991) endures as a defining drama landmark from China, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Rajamouli's blockbuster became a global phenomenon and redefined scale for Indian cinema.
Essential viewing — among the finest films in Indian cinema.
★★★★½
Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run (1998) endures as a defining action landmark from Germany, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
India's definitive masala western — endlessly quoted, remade in spirit, never surpassed.
Essential viewing — among the finest films in Indian cinema.
★★★★½
David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) endures as a defining war landmark from United Kingdom, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★★
Lana Wachowski's The Matrix (1999) endures as a defining sci-fi landmark from United States, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996) endures as a defining drama landmark from United Kingdom, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★☆
David Dastmalchian's unhinged talk-show host and a retro broadcast frame give familiar possession scares a genuinely unsettling new angle.
Smart, stylish, and finally terrifying.
★★★½☆
Leela Varghese's gleefully lo-fi animated romp turns a breakup rescue mission into giddy sci-fi comedy that never outruns its sincerity.
Messy, horny, sincere — and proudly so.
★★★★☆
Jeremy Workman turns an absurd Rhode Island squat into a sharp, affectionate critique of consumerist sprawl and DIY ingenuity.
Funny, smart, and sneakily subversive.
★★★★★
Charlie Polinger transforms a 2003 swim camp into a nightmare of cruelty and shame — Joel Edgerton anchors a debut that critics call near-perfect.
Queasy, precise, and unforgettable.
★★★★½
Joel Potrykus turns a Michigan-woods suicide pact into deadpan comedy that collapses into genuine grief — shoestring craft, full-strength devastation.
Bleak, funny, and finally heartbreaking.
★★★★★
Park and Crossingham needle smart-home gadgetry and AI anxieties without losing stop-motion's cozy handmade charm—Wallace and Gromit still deliver.
The year's best family film is also its smartest tech satire.
★★★★☆
A tender queer romance and a genuinely inventive horror hook make this Sundance breakout one of the year's sharpest debuts.
A striking, angry, tender debut.
★★★☆☆
The gang from Mount Madyopuro returns for a sequel that's warmer and more polished than the original, even if it rarely surprises.
Familiar, but reliably fun.
★★★½☆
A notorious prison becomes a pressure cooker of gore, gallows humor, and institutional rot in Joko Anwar's most purely entertaining film in years.
Splattery, savage, and a lot of fun.
★½☆☆☆
A promising Anatolian folk-horror premise about a djinn-communing healer collapses under flat pacing and cut-rate scares.
Interesting folklore, forgettable execution.
★½☆☆☆
A serial-killer thriller with real ideas about the roots of violence gets buried under a wildly inconsistent villain performance and a script that can't support its ambitions.
Interesting premise, sloppy execution.
★★½☆☆
Prilly Latuconsina's farewell to Risa Saraswati delivers scattered scares but buckles under four films' worth of ghost lore.
Nostalgic, but narratively overstuffed.
★★☆☆☆
A promising folklore premise about Central Java's most feared stretch of road gets buried under too many competing ideas.
Atmospheric setup, muddled follow-through.