Robert Thicknesse on Opera ● ON THE FACE ...

Dracula-inspired gothic sludge with a surprisingly human heart

Taking as many guises as his names, the Prince of Lies turned at times into a man-devouring ogre, a mutant medley of claws, horns and wings, or the brooding rebel that lit the imagination of Romantic painters, as Carla Passino discovers

Dir Dean Puckett, UK 2025 On digital platforms Folk horror has been a thing for a long time, but it’s an over-used term these days. In film terms it appears to mean something heavily influenced by Wit

GAZPACHO

ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,