Ahead of National Cinema Day on Saturday (3 September), our film guru - Tameside Radio presenter Alex B Cann - has been to see Orphan: First Kill and Fisherman's Friends: One And All...

It's hard to believe it's been thirteen years since the first Orphan film. I found it a pretty effective, chilling horror back in 2009, and Esther is certainly not someone you'd want to be shut in a room with. She'd be about as welcome as Annabelle the scary doll from The Conjuring, which came out a couple of years later. It wasn't a film I expected would inspire a prequel, but here we are.

The most remarkable achievement of this second film is that Isabelle Fuhrman is now a lot older, but with some clever camera work & a brilliant central performance, she convinces us she is still the malevolent monster from the first film. We obviously know she'll survive until the end, as we see Esther being adopted by a new family in the 2009 film, but Julia Stiles from 10 Things I Hate About You has a lot of fun in the second half of this prequel toying with Esther once she has discovered her secret. The opening scene in the Estonian psychiatric facility really sets the tone effectively, and it's fair to say Esther has met her match with the wealthy woman who she chooses to be her mother. Not everyone in the family is as switched on though, leading to a lot of tension around the dinner table.

It's difficult to say too much more without giving away key plot points, but if you like a gory, chilling horror, I'd definitely recommend this one. It doesn't rely solely on cheap jump scares (although there are a couple of those), and it's a shame it hasn't done better in the Box Office chart, perhaps not helped by being available on new streaming service Paramount+. It deserved more, I think, but you have another week to catch it at Cineworld Ashton until Thursday 8 September.

I also forgot to mention the sea shanty paradise Fisherman's Friends: One And All in last week's column. Nice and naughtical, but not particularly mould-breaking or memorable, would be my summary. In fact, the word 'nice' sums it up well. Nothing wrong with it at all, and it's a pleasant way to spend two hours, with those lush Cornish coastal views, but is it a sequel the world was crying out for? I'm not so sure. Even that strange time during lockdown when Nathan Evans' Wellerman was the most played song on the radio is now a memory, a bit like a ship on the horizon, and I think they've perhaps overfished the waters when it comes to telling this tale. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, but I wouldn't rush to catch this one on the big screen.

This week, I'm watching The Invitation, Beast and a reissued E.T. in IMAX. It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since I was mesmerised by Spielberg's alien adventures at York Odeon, but much like his bicycle in the sky, time flies by!

Let me know if you've seen anything good, at the cinema or on streaming. It's alex.cann@questmedianetwork.co.uk.

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM. 

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