The Watchers (2024)
M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana directs a film of her own. Say what you will about nepotism, it is a really good film
Under Paris (2024)
Xavier Gens makes an undeniably entertaining big-budget film about killer shark amok in the Seine
Deep Space (1988)
An enterprising B-budget copy of Alien from prolific director Fred Olen Ray, this amusingly transfers the basics of Alien down to Earth and replaces the crew of the Nostromo with Charles Napier as a tough, grizzled LAPD cop puzzling over a series of bizarre deaths
Bullets, Fangs and Dinner at 8 (2015)
A low-budget independent vampire film set around a group of vampire hunters trying to bring down the master vampire – the local Catholic priest
The Black Room (1935)
A stylishly made historical horror where Boris Karloff plays an evil heir to a European province who seeks to gain power by masquerading as his good twin brother
Marrowbone (2017)
Film about children hiding in big old house of secrets following the death of their mother. Filled with all manner of fascinating secrets and twist revelations
Zombie Town (2023)
An adaptation of an R.L. Stine book, a work of safe anodyne horror about zombies trapped inside a film overrunning a town
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
45 years on, George Miller returns with a fifth entry in his Mad Max saga, a prequel to Fury Road and an exhilarating action piece that makes a welcome return to his post-apocalyptic junkyard world
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
The twelfth film from Hayao Miyzaki at age 82, a quasi-autobiographical if a slightly less classic work. A renaissance of many Miyazaki themes as a boy follows a heron though into a strange fantasy otherworld
Barbarian Queen (1985)
One of a series of low-budget sword-and-sorcery films of the 1980s. This predates both Red Sonja and Xena with its depiction of a fierce warrior woman. Produced by Roger Corman
Dragon Knight (2022)
Quite a decent low-budget epic fantasy film from promising Scottish director Lawrie Brewster. This manages to do imaginatively and create a reasonable suspension of disbelief on modest resources
Otis (2008)
Film about a big overweight psycho who abducts girls and makes them enact a fantasy of being a cheerleader. Produced by one of the directors of The Blair Witch Project
Asteroid (2021)
We have had numerous films about asteroids and meteors about to strike the Earth. This is played as a comedy where a man buys his dream home only to find it is ground zero for an oncoming comet strike
Meteor (2009)
Disaster TV mini-series where assorted well-known faces fight through the chaos to prevent an impending meteor strike
Azur and Asmar (2006)
Next to Hayao Miyazaki, Michel Ocelot is the greatest animators of all time but one of the least widely recognised. Here he conducts a beautifully made Arabian fairytale
Blackout (2023)
Larry Fessenden is a strong genre force as director, producer and sometimes actor. He has covered most major horror themes in his films. Blackout was his take on the werewolf film
IF (2024)
Ryan Reynolds and director John Krasinski combine to make a film about imaginary companions
The Primevals (2023)
A fascinating lost world/alien lizard people stop-motion animated film that has been in production for a record 56 years, eventually pieced together and released by Charles Band several years after its creator’s death
The Happy Ghost (1984)
A popular Hong Kong hit in its day where a schoolgirl gains a ghostly scholar as an invisible companion, resulting in a series of slapstick sequences. Several sequels followed
Pretty Ghost (1991)
One of a popular spate of 80s/90s Hong Kong ghost comedies where a man gets the aid of an annoying ghost girl as he pursues the woman of his dreams
The Return of Chandu (1934)
A serial based on Chandu the Magician, a popular radio superhero who wielded magical and mystical powers. Featuring Bela Lugosi in the title role
Ten Little Indians (1989)
An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel/play And Then There Were None that relocates the story to an African safari and takes more of a horror movie focus
Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006)
A hardcore and irredeemably nasty film, this has the aesthetic of a snuff movie and features lots of scenes of victims tortured and vomiting
Murder-Set-Pieces (2004)
A psycho film about a serial killing photographer that stalks Las Vegas, this collapses under its determination to be edgy
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
An almost unclassifiably strange film about fandom for a weird 1990s tv show, this seems to be heading for Lynchian territory
Sasquatch Sunset (2024)
A sublimely eccentric concept for a film – one that follows a Bigfoot family in the wild over the course of a year
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II (2024)
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey offered a horror version of the much loved children’s character. This is more of the same with a bigger budget
Don’t Look Away (2023)
Horror film from Canadian genre director Micheal Bafaro about a group of friends who enact a curse where they are pursued and killed by a mannequin
Brain Freeze (2021)
A Quebecois (French Canadian) zombie film about the residents of an island being turned into zombies by a fertiliser used on the golf course
Cafe Flesh (1982)
An adult film that gained a critical respectability when it came out, an avant garde work set in a future where the populace has become impotent and the handful unaffected perform sex in clubs for paying audiences
Ghostwatch (1992)
The classic BBC live broadcast tv special where a camera crew investigate a haunted house. Cited as one of the first Found Footage films, this does some ingenious things in blending fact and fiction and messing with its audience
Corrective Measures (2022)
Another of the last films made by Bruce Willis before his retirement. This one has a watchable central idea and is set around the idea of a prison for super-villains even if Bruce is not up to much
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
The Strangers was one the sleeper hits of the 2000s. This is the first chapter in a three film reboot. On the minus side, it has been handed over to Renny Harlin, who should be on any worst directors list
Tarot (2024)
A horror film based around the phenomenon of tarot cards, a surprise that nobody has done so before
Hornet (2018)
An Asylum mockbuster aimed to exploit the release of the Transformers spinoff BumbleBee. This has the unique distinction of being the first Transformers-type film shot as Found Footage
Robot Revolution (2015)
Micro-budgeted SF film where a nanoswarm is accidentally released, taking over an apartment building and reprogramming technology
Zombies on Broadway (1945)
A Bela Lugosi comedy in which two inept press agents are ordered to obtain a zombie for the opening of a club
Hunt Club (2022)
A variation on The Most Dangerous Game that comes with a strong feminist agenda where women are hunted by men who feel a disappearing sense of entitlement
Hunting Ava Bravo (2022)
A decent variant on The Most Dangerous Game with a woman forced to survive with her bare hands while pursued by a hunter, this places emphasis on the psychological interplay between hunter and hunted
The Singing Detective (1986)
One of the most extraordinary works ever made for tv. From the pen of Dennis Potter, a mini-series that blends film noir, meta-fiction and autobiography
Fear the Invisible Man (2023)
A modest and quite good low-budget adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, which adheres more faithfully to the Wells novel than the recent high-profile film
Civil War (2024)
Alex Garland is one of the most interesting creative names out there in the genre at the moment. Here he offers a frightening depiction of a near future USA collapsed into civil war
The First Omen (2024)
Did the world ask for a prequel to the events of The Omen, explaining how Damien was born etc? It’s not an issue that has given me sleepless night, but it is a question the film sets out to answer anyway
Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969)
One of the films from Z-budget director Al Adamson, who should be a rival for Edward D. Wood Jr in the bad movies stakes. This resurrects Count Dracula in the present-day, living in a castle in the California desert
Pig Killer (2022)
A film based on true-life Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton who fed his victim’s bodies to his pigs
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
A follow-up to Godzilla vs Kong, this tries to offer more of the same but ended up being overshadowed by the huge acclaim that Godzilla: Minus One received
Abigail (2024)
From the duo behind the Scream reboot films, a thriller about the kidnap of a young girl in the vein of From Dusk Till Dawn that abruptly pivots to become a vampire film
Girls School Screamers (1985)
Catholic schoolgirls are being killed in a big old haunted house. This was unable to find a release in its original form whereupon it was bought up by Troma, given a much more sensationalistic title and released with extra gore scenes
The Mistress (2022)
This starts out seeming like another haunted house film before developing some conceptual reversal twists of the first M. Night Shyamalan-esque order
CarGo (2017)
A mockbuster from The Asylum released to take advantage of Pixar’s Cars 3, this is actually a much better film that you expect it to be
Suicide Girls Must Die! (2010)
A horror film made by the alt modelling website Suicide Girls where several girls go away for a modelling shoot only for something to cause them to start disappearing
Night Teeth (2021)
This comes with an interestingly large canvas wherein an innocent chauffeur is drawn into wars between secret vampire clans that run Los Angeles
An American in Austen (2024)
A modern girl pining for the perfect man is transported back into the world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice where she ends up disrupting the story
Unseen (2023)
A film with an ingenious premise where a nearly blind woman must rely on a total stranger to guide her by her phone through the woods while avoiding a pursuer
The End We Start From (2023)
Jodie Comer is a new mother who travels through an England that has been devastated by catastrophic flooding. Not dissimilar to The Road but less bleak
Death’s Roulette (2023)
A Mexican-made variant on one of the Saw films where a group of diverse people are locked into a room and must select one of their number to die
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, reuniting that film’s mix of new and classic cast in a plot that is often straining to find somewhere to include everyone
1984 (2023)
A new adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. In this case, the film was shot in Russia and imagines the world as a full-on dystopian future quite unlike any of the previous film versions
The Ghost of Yotsuya [Parts 1 and II] (1949)
One of a number of films based on the most famous of all Japanese ghost stories. This is a adaptation made in the neo-realist style of the period that was released in two parts
Titanic 666 (2022)
An offering from The Asylum where a replica of the Titanic sets sail only to be beset by the ghosts of those who sank aboard the original ship
Tokyo! (2008)
Directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho make an anthology of strange and surreal tales that take place in Tokyo
Support Group Olympus (2021)
A film about the Greek gods trying to get by in the present-day where they are suddenly all required to attend a support group
Dampyr (2022)
A comic-book adaptation about vampire wars in a modern East European war zone. A slick Underworld-styled vampire action film that has some interesting ideas going on inside it
Godzilla Minus One (2023)
The 33rd Japanese Godzilla film and the one to receive the greatest acclaim of any in the series so far, including the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. This takes the series back to the beginnings
Humane (2024)
David Cronenberg’s daughter Caitlin makes a directorial debut with a film set around a family dinner in a future where the world has decided to euthanize the world population by twenty percent
She Freak (1967)
A horror film made as homage to the classic Freaks, this is a fascinatingly sordid work set during the vanished era of the carnival sideshow
Sharkula (2022)
Z-budget filmmaker Mark Polonia makes a companion piece to his Sharkenstein – yes, a work about a vampire shark!
Mississippi River Sharks (2017)
An appealingly tongue-in-cheek killer shark film with sharks attacking along the Mississippi
Greaser’s Palace (1972)
An example of the Acid Western, which combined the Western with psychedelic trippiness. Directed by Robert Downey Jr’s father, this is a surrealistic work about a Christ-like visitor in a zoot suit who turns up in a Western town
In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)
A follow-up to the documentary about the 1980s horror film, this deals with some of the lesser-known and overlooked works that were not covered the first time around
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two (2024)
The second part of the epic three film adaptation of the classic DC Comics title
Late Night With the Devil (2023)
This conducts a perfect simulation of a 1970s tv talkshow as a demonic possession occurs live on air
Where the Devil Roams (2023)
The Adams Family have made a series of striking horror films in recent years. This is an impressive work set around a circus, a cross-country murder spree and dark magic
Futuresport (1998)
This borrows the basics of Rollerball and concerns a futuristic sports game played aboard hoverboards. Cocky player Dean Cain decides a showdown with terrorists must be settled over the outcome of a game
Thoughtcrimes (2003)
This comes with the undeniable influence of the then recent Minority Report in its story about a telepath recruited by law enforcement
Teenage Exorcist (1991)
Written by and starring 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, this offers an occasionally amusing comedy take on the possession and exorcism film
VFW (2019)
An ultra-violent homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 with a group of veterans in a bar at siege against a horde of crazed drug addicts outside
Simulant (2023)
Another in the spate of recent A.I. films of the 2010s/20s. Here one can buy android replacements for one’s late spouse but someone is hacking and causing them to go rogue
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon was intended as a two-part space opera saga. This first half emerged watchably and this is Part Two
Immaculate (2024)
Horror film where Sydney Sweeney stars as a virginal nun who appears to be experiencing an immaculate conception
The Rise of the Beast (2022)
Low-budget British film about environmental protestors pursued by a genetically engineered giant ape
Kong Island (1968)
This has nothing to do with King Kong and is an adventure film that features a female Tarzan and a mad scientist creating an army of mind-controlled gorillas
The Diabolical Dr Z (1966)
An early film from Jess Franco in which an exotic dancer is turned into a mind-controlled assassin who lures and kills victims with her six-inch long fingernails as part of a revenge scheme
Corruption (1968)
Peter Cushing plays a surgeon who devises an advanced technique to restore his wife’s burn-disfigured face – only to find he must kill to maintain it. An Anglo-horror effort that borrows the basics of Eyes Without a Face/Les Yeux Sans Visage
Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever (2012)
A documentary about the slasher film, which interviews various directors and actors behind the films about the genre’s origins and rules
The Lurking Fear (2023)
Another low-budget H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, this abandons all but the bare bones of the story to create a work about an abandoned asylum
Dune Part Two (2024)
The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune, this delves more deeply into the world of the Fremen, although starts to diverge more from the book
Apocalypse Clown (2023)
Not another killer clown film as you might initially assume, but a really funny Irish comedy about a group of dysfunctional clowns in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation
Yakuza Weapon (2011)
Another Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film about a Yakuza heir who is blown apart by rivals and then rebuilt with cyborg attachments
Breaking Wind (2012)
A parody of the Twilight series, which feeds the films through the vulgar and sophomoric gags of the Scary Movie type film parody
The Necromancer (2018)
A modestly effective film about a group of deserting soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars who enter a haunted forest
Loop Track (2023)
Quite good New Zealand made film about mysterious happenings during a hike into the bush, where what is happening is kept in a state of careful ambiguity
Carnifex (2022)
A monster movie that takes place as a documentary crew are trying to study the wildlife displaced by the Australian bushfires
Secret Headquarters (2022)
A kid makes the discovery that his father is a superhero and he and his friends amuse themselves with the cool gadgetry in his secret headquarters, before being required to defend it against a villain
If You Were the Last (2023)
A space film set aboard a NASA space mission as two stranded astronauts debate whether to surrender to mutual attraction
Netherworld (1992)
One of the better films from Charles Band’s Full Moon Productions set amid voodoo rites in the American South and creating an atmosphere of exotic/erotic mystery
Kamikaze (1986)
An early film written/produced by Luc Besson in which a scientist invents a device that can kill people on tv
The Pale Door (2020)
Weird Western where a group of outlaws on the run end up in a town of witches
Needle in a Timestack (2021)
Solid time travel film about a man who struggles to find a way back to his love as her ex keeps changing the timeline so she doesn’t leave him
House Red (2022)
Intriguing and well made film where two tourists seeking to patch up a troubled relationship volunteer at a vineyard – only to find sinister things going on