PICK OF THIS WEEK’S FILMS

HUNTER KILLER (12A) HALLOWEEN (18)

When mankind stands forlornly on the brink of annihilation, Paisley-born action hero Gerard Butler proudly steps forward to shepherd every man, woman and child back from the abyss. In the underwater thriller Hunter Killer, a rogue Russian admiral prepares to push the button on a third world war and Butler sails to our rescue as a renegade submarine captain, who repeatedly risks a court martial to perform outlandish manoeuvres hundreds of feet beneath the waves. Director Donovan Marsh charts a familiar course through breathless action sequences and threats of mutiny. Butler is steadfast as chaos unfolds around him and Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist makes one of his final appearances before his death from lung cancer as a stoic Russian submarine captain. Arne Schmidt and Jamie Moss’ script torpedoes subtlety and springs a few plot holes but largely keeps its head above water for two undemanding hours.

The bogeyman does exist and for decades he has taken the towering form of masked maniac Michael Myers in a series of gory thrillers, which began with John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 slasher Halloween. Director David Gordon Green and co-writers Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride casually disregard the nine films that followed for a comfortingly old-fashioned return to the scene of the original crime: the sleepy community of Haddonfield. Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprise their roles as ultimate survivor Laurie Strode and Myers for a climactic showdown that will appease fans of the series, set to the chilling strains of Carpenter’s repetitive synthesiser score. “What are we gonna do? Cancel Halloween?” despairs a sheriff (Omar Dorsey), who is on the trail of the knife-wielding maniac. Thankfully not, otherwise audiences would be denied one of the stronger instalments of the long-running series.

GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN (PG)

Terror creeps up when you least expect it. I felt its icy fingers slither down my back and tingle my spine about 20 minutes into Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween: the action-packed sequel to the 2015 family-friendly horror comedy based on the book series by RL Stine. Blood slowly drained from my face, my heart skipped a beat as a rasping voice echoed in the darkness of the cinema: “This film has been raised from the dead solely with box office takings in mind.” The first Goosebumps was laden with wicked tricks and treats including tour-de-force comic performances from Jack Black as author Stine and the voice of a demented puppet called Slappy, who unleashes monsters from one of Stine’s books on the unsuspecting pupils of Madison High School. Alas, Black is largely absent from Ari Sandel’s laboured follow-up, which unravels quicker than a mummy’s bandages in the fictional town of Wardenclyffe, where inventor Nikola Tesla once conducted his daring experiments with electricity.

FIRST MAN (12A)

Award-winning director Damien Chazelle takes one giant leap for immersive, nail-biting filmmaking in a thrilling dramatisation of the space race between America and the Soviet Union. Based on James R Hansen’s official biography of Neil Armstrong, First Man shoots for the moon and touches down beautifully by placing us alongside astronauts in their claustrophobic modules or next to nervous Nasa staff as they propel mankind into the great unknown. Handheld camerawork, unobtrusive special effects and dazzling sound design leave us stranded thousands of miles above terra firma in a similar fashion to Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, at the mercy of newfangled technology and Lady Luck. The tension is almost unbearable.

Chazelle masterfully encourages us to hold our breath and bite our nails down to the cuticle with bold visual flourishes and unshowy, powerhouse performances from Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy as the husband and wife at the epicentre of the 1969 lunar landing.

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (15)

At least one guest of a themed hotel, which straddles the state line between California and Nevada, checks out of their room in a body bag in writer-director Drew Goddard’s stylish 1960s-set thriller. Bookmarked into meaty chapters, Bad Times at the El Royale employs a fractured timeline and narrative sleights of hand to piece together an intriguing jigsaw puzzle of subterfuge, self-sacrifice and reckless abandon. Goddard was deservedly Oscar-nominated for his adapted screenplay of The Martian, and here he confirms a flair for snappy dialogue and