5 things to watch this weekend – 16 to 18 August

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwide, including BFI IMAX

Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien franchise with Prometheus in 2012 must have seemed like a no-brainer to studio executives looking to reboot a franchise that had been cryogenically frozen since Alien Resurrection (1997). But Scott proved intent on answering questions no one had asked, delivering an Alien movie without the alien: a po-faced rumination on the origins of everyone’s favourite face-hugger. An apologia by way of fan service followed with Alien: Covenant (2017), but audiences had already checked out, and plans for a third prequel from Scott were iced. Enter Fede Alvarez – who has skin in the reboot game following Evil Dead (2013) – and a cast of bright young things that includes Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny. The trailer promises a back-to-basics approach – a haunted-house-in-space thrill ride that returns the franchise to its horror roots.

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwide

Continuing the strong line in doleful neo-noir procedurals that have been coming out of China in recent years, this third feature from director Wei Shujun arrives in cinemas following some good word-of-mouth out of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Set in the 1990s, it follows a detective in Jiangdong province, on the trail of a possible serial killer. So far, so Memories of Murder (2003), but Wei’s strategies become increasingly disorienting as the mysteries deepen, and Zhu Yilong’s investigator spirals towards obsession and madness. The Super 16 cinematography adds grit and texture, and Wei certainly knows the value of a dark, rainy night.

Where’s it on? Blu-ray

British filmmaker Michael Reeves was just 25 years old when he died of an accidental overdose in his Knightsbridge flat. His masterpiece, the still-shocking folk horror film Witchfinder General (1968), had been released the previous year. It was only Reeves’ third feature film. The past few months have seen all of Reeves’ extant work receive the boutique home video treatment. Witchfinder received a 4K upgrade back in March, while his debut – the Barbara Steele-starring Eurohorror Revenge of the Blood Beast (1966) – was released by Raro Video two weeks ago. Now, 88 Films have completed the set with their beautiful edition of The Sorcerers. It’s a sci-fi doozy starring Boris Karloff as an elderly hypnotist who, with the help of his wife, takes over the mind and body of Reeves regular Ian Ogilvy to murderous ends. A kind of psychedelic riff on Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), the film’s cinematic virtuosity amply demonstrates that Witchfinder was no one-off.

Where’s it on? MUBI

Piotr Szulkin was one of the great visionaries of Polish science fiction filmmaking, but he’s hardly a familiar name, even among dedicated cinephiles. Hopefully, that’s due to change with the recent restoration of his major works—four films informally known as either the “Apocalyptic Tetralogy” or the “Tetralogy of Doom” – all of which land on MUBI this weekend. Potent allegories of life under Communist rule wrapped up in hyper-stylised genre packaging, Szulkin’s future-noirs are darkly comic satires of everything from religion to the state-sponsored propaganda machine. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but Ga-Ga: Glory to Heroes—starring the great Jerzy Stuhr, who died last month – is the funniest of the four. Loosely based on Pasolini’s short film La Ricotta (1963), it finds a criminal shipped off to another planet, where the local population encourage him to commit a minor infraction of their strange laws, so he can be publicly crucified for their entertainment, and thus branded a hero.

Where’s it on? Blu-ray

While Kevin Costner was busy hoovering up all the press for his high-profile return to the director’s chair with Horizon: An American Saga, another western from an actor-turned-director quietly came and went from UK cinemas. While Costner clearly had the mythic qualities – and the epic scope – of the American frontier foremost in his mind, Viggo Mortensen had humbler ambitions, crafting a settler western of resounding emotional power. Mortensen – who also wrote the nonlinear screenplay and composed the score – stars alongside Vicky Krieps as a pair of immigrants who set up home together on the outskirts of a small town. There’s a greedy businessman (Danny Huston) and a sadistic villain (Solly McLeod) to amplify dramatic tension, but Mortensen mostly eschews genre ritual for something more contemplative and inhabited. Krieps, especially, is outstanding in a film that looks less to Ford, as Costner did, for inspiration, and more to the pastoral likes of The Emigrants (1971) and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970).