In stripping back the Dragon Tattoo story to its bare bones and keeping our attention purely on its central players, David Fincher has created a sleek, sparse and visually arresting adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s opening gambit. Despite being hampered rather than helped by the narrative of their source material, the immensely creative team do an admirable job – underpinned by a stunning performance by star Rooney Mara. The question is – is this story really good enough for them?

After the desolate wasteland of 2010 (The Crazies, and…?), 2011 has actually been a half decent year for horror movies: Kill List, Black Swan, Stake Land, Troll Hunter, Julia’s Eyes, Attack the Block (sort of), the first half of Insidious, the second half of Scream 4… But if early whisperings are to be believed, 2012 is going to be much better. LIST TIME.

When you think of film soundtracks what sort of names do you come up with? John Williams? Danny Elfman? Ennio Morricone, maybe? Well get with the times, guys! It’s all about the pop-star built soundtrack these days. Directors seem to be head hunting big name musicians – ever looking to fill their time in between throwing TV’s out of windows and stealing your girlfriends – to take over the musical reins of their films. They’re doing pretty well too.

But it’s not all terribly tragic news.

Yep. Didn’t see that coming, did you?