Pedro Pascal with a bent cigarette in his mouth

August 08 2026, 12:19

Freaky Tales

Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

Release year: 2024

Four tales set in an admirably accurate 1987 Oakland, California, held together by a through line of a cheesy TV advert for a cult-like group offering a course in Psytopics. The writer/directors were coming off the back of the billion-dollar grossing Captain Marvel in 2019, and for this they netted some big stars for essentially a super-stylised, low budget Pulp Fiction homage with a hint of Repo Man. And they don’t seem to have anything new in the works. Weird.

Pedro Pascal and Tom Hanks bring their acting chops and give some of the slight stories weight. Ben Mendelsohn is impressively gross and unpleasant as the police inspector also running a gang of rampant nazis, who blast through all four tales in a whirl of racist, homophobic, violent energy. The theme of the film seems to be how to use the neon-green power of Psytopics to fight injustice and kill nazis. The violence manages to be both cartoonish and unpleasantly realistic. It’s fun in places, but has a slow first half and suffers from a lack of narrative oomph.

I do admire the idea of making something to celebrate a place you grew up in, and then bringing in people who lived there at the time to collaborate on it. The filmmakers’ love of Oakland, rap music, the cinema as a social activity, basketball, eighties fashion, and video stores, is on full display. It’s clearly made with love.

All films in #AutumnShades2026...

Previous: I, Madman

The Complex

The countryside, the near future.

Gabrielle Hunter, husband Leo and son Stefan drive to a remote luxury retreat for a spring break at the invitation of new client Art Fisher, who will be there with his wife, Polly, and daughter Fleur. As Gabrielle’s family approach the retreat, their car hits a deer. Investigating, they discover it was dying already, from a bullet wound.

The two families settle in. Stefan falls into a relaxed companionship with Fleur, while Leo finds himself drawn to Polly. Gabrielle, meanwhile, has some unresolved issues around Art.

Off-grid and away from the Areas, Leo and Art jockey for position. Subtle shifts of power are magnified. Gabrielle and Polly have their own secrets. In the garden, the fruit and vegetables ripen too early, while an unidentified shooter continues to take down animals in the wood. Stefan and Fleur seek an escape route into a Virtual Reality darkened by the shadow of war.

The family holiday that already resembles a bad dream soon turns into a waking nightmare.

‘Captures the elusive nature of dreams and nightmares brilliantly. It's original, cinematic, and very clever.’ —Lucie McKnight Hardy

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