The Hawk (1993)
Jan 5, 2003Wife Believes Husband May Be a Serial Killer
BBC produced film with Helen Mirren as a housewife who believes her husband might be a serial killer. Despite promise, this never digs in like a good thriller should
Clive Russell
Fatherland (1994)
Apr 17, 2001Alternate History/Nazi Rule
Disappointing film version of Robert Harris’s excellent novel depicting an alternate history where the Nazis won World War II. On screen, the book is watered down and given an upbeat happy ending
The Mists of Avalon (2001)
Apr 2, 2006Revisionist Arthurian Legends
TV mini-series based on Marion Zimmer Bradley's book that offers a revisionist take on the Arthurian legends, telling the story through the eyes of the women of the saga
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Jan 1, 2010Sherlock Holmes vs Black Magic
Guy Ritchie's reinvention of Sherlock Holmes seemed a miscalculated disaster in the offing. It doesn't radically reinvent the basics but emerges passably well
Book of Blood (2009)
Jun 15, 2012Haunted House/Clive Barker Adaptation
A Clive Barker adaptation taken from the name of his story collection. While not uninteresting, it emerges as a haunted house story that eschews genre cliches for an everyday approach and never quite delivers its punches
The Wicker Tree (2011)
Mar 5, 2012Pagan Religion
Sold as a sequel to The Wicker Man, although works as more of an update and expansion of its themes. Received a muted reception but is a not entirely uninteresting film, if nowhere near the league of the original
Outpost: Black Sun (2012)
Aug 3, 2016Nazi Zombies
Outpost was a solid and reasonably effective rehashing of the Nazi zombie theme; this was the first of two sequels. The first had a formula that seems difficult to mess up but this does – it's over half the film before we get zombies after which we get Just the Same As Before and little more
Dracula (2020)
Jan 18, 2020Dracula Adaptation
BBC mini-series retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula that deconstructs and widely expands on sections of the book to create something relentlessly modernistic, sometimes in ways that take you aback