Haunted Mansion review - corporate craft

★★★ HAUNTED MANSION Talent almost compensates for hard sell in kids' horror comedy

Committed, racially aware talent almost compensates for hard sell in kids' horror comedy

A Disney theme park ride adaptation remake is a challenging place to make your mark, and the dumping of Guillermo del Toro for promising real, supposedly child-freaking scares dampens hopes further. Replacement director Justin Simien (Dear White People) at least professes himself a fan of the titular attraction, and with screenwriter Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation, Paul Feig’s female Ghostbusters) slips humanity into the corporate shilling.

Macbeth, Shakespeare's Globe review - uneven production of intermittent power

 MACBETH, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE Uneven production of intermittent power

Matti Houghton shines as a grieving, accusing, frustrated Lady Macbeth

That Shakespeare speaks to his audiences anew with every production is a cliché, but, like so many such, the glib blandness of the assertion conceals an insistent truth. The Thane of Glamis has had some success in life, gains preferment from those who really should have seen through his shallowness and vaulting ambition – he even says the phrase himself – and achieves power without really knowing what to do with it.

Robin Hood. The Legend. Re-written, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - no bullseye for new take on familiar characters

★ ROBIN HOOD. THE LEGEND. RE-WRITTEN, REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE New version of old story wastes talent and resources in a shambolic show

New version of old story wastes talent and resources in a shambolic show

After the pantos, the movies (epic, camp and animated) and the television series, is there anything new to be mined in the story of Robin Hood? Probably not, as this messy, misjudged show takes that hope and fires an arrow through its heart.

Blu-ray: Full Circle

★★★★ BLU-RAY: FULL CIRCLE Mia Farrow palely haunts in a resurrected, atmospheric London ghost story

Mia Farrow palely haunts in a resurrected, atmospheric London ghost story

Julia (Mia Farrow) stands jolting and shuddering, a butterfly pattern of blood on her blouse, shocking the ambulancemen on her doorstep. Her nine-year-old daughter Kate, who choked on an apple like Snow White before Julia cut her throat in a desperate tracheotomy, lies dead and unseen in the kitchen.

Infinity Pool review - it's like The White Lotus on bad acid

★★★ INFINITY POOL Brandon Cronenberg's nightmare journey into horror-tourism

Brandon Cronenberg's third feature is a nightmare journey into horror-tourism

Director Brandon Cronenberg has inherited his father David’s eye for the twisted and the sinister. After the creepy mind-meld dystopia of 2020’s Possessor, Infinity Pool finds Cronenberg turning his attention to horror-tourism. It’s like The White Lotus on bad acid.

Play Dead review - chills, thrills and stolen body parts

Patrick Lussier's thriller is low-budget but never cheap

The moral of this story is that if you’re going out to commit a robbery, don’t take your iPhone with you. This was the grave error committed by TJ (Anthony Turpel) and his friend Ross (Chris Lee), whose attempted heist was foiled by an angry shotgun-toting citizen. TJ managed to get away, but Ross – carrying the iPhone containing incriminating evidence of the pair’s guilt – was shot and left for dead.