Harry Dean Stanton Archives

Alien (1979)

Rating: ★★★★★

May 2, 1999Alien Nasty on a Spaceship

One of the most influential films on this site, producing a host of sequels and making the careers of all involved. At heart, a simple monster on a spaceship film, it is made into a classic through Ridley Scott's relentless suspense and H.R. Giger's design work

Director: Ridley Scott

Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, …

Category: Science Fiction

2 May 199914 January 2026 by Roog

Deathwatch (1980)

Rating: ★★★½

Jul 6, 2001Future Media Obsession with a Dying Woman

Quietly understated French SF film set in a future where all illness has been abolished and a woman becomes a media sensation when she is diagnosed with a terminal condition

Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Actors: Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, Max Von Sydow

Category: Science Fiction

6 July 20014 July 2020 by Roog

Escape from New York (1981)

Rating: ★★★★

Jul 5, 2002Action/New York as a Future Prison

One of the key films from John Carpenter with Kurt Russell giving his best ever performance, a slick exciting action film that imagines a future Manhattan Island having been transformed into a lawless prison

Director: John Carpenter

Actors: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau, …

Category: Science Fiction

5 July 200219 October 2025 by Roog

Christine (1983)

Rating: ★★★

May 4, 2001Evil Car/Stephen King Adaptation

John Carpenter takes on Stephen King’s novel about an evil car and a boy’s relationship with it with dynamic results. The film is made by Carpenter’s slick direction and a series of sensational effects set-pieces

Director: John Carpenter

Actors: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, William Ostrander, …

Category: Horror

4 May 200118 July 2025 by Roog

Red Dawn (1984)

Rating: ★

Jan 11, 2003Communist Invasion of the USA

Ridiculous red-blooded, flag-waving film in which the Soviets invade the USA and a group of high-school teenagers maintain a lone guerilla campaign

Director: John Milius

Actors: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Powers Boothe, …

Category: Science Fiction

11 January 20031 February 2023 by Roog

Repo Man (1984)

Rating: ★★★★

Feb 2, 2003Gonzo Punk Film

Alex Coz's surreal cult film with Emilio Estevez as an L.A. punk working as a repo driver who gets wound into the hunt for a car with radioactive aliens in the trunk

Director: Alex Cox

Actors: Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Sy Richardson, Olivia Barash, …

Category: Science Fiction

2 February 200316 September 2021 by Roog

Uforia (1985)

Rating: ★★★

Jan 27, 2001UFO Religion

Appealingly eccentric comedy set in the American Midwest where supermarket cashier Cindy Williams gains a cult following after preaching that the UFOs are coming

Director: John Binder

Actors: Fred Ward, Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton

Category: Science Fiction

27 January 200122 December 2025 by Roog

Dream a Little Dream (1989)

Rating: ★★

Nov 6, 2024Bodyswap Film

One of the forgotten entries in the mid-1980s spate of bodyswap comedies where elderly Jason Robards finds himself in teenager Corey Feldman’s body. This suffers from a very confused script

Director: Marc Rocco

Actors: Corey Feldman, Jason Robards, Meredith Salenger, Corey Haim, …

Category: Fantasy

6 November 202424 January 2026 by Roog

Wild at Heart (1990)

Rating: ★★★★★

May 22, 2001Surreal Disturbed Road Movie

One of David Lynch's finest films, with lovers Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern on the run in a road movie that travels through deranged places of the mind and explodes with crazy energy

Director: David Lynch

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Diane Ladd, …

Category: Fantasy

22 May 200126 January 2020 by Roog

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Rating: ★★★

Nov 6, 1999Twin Peaks Prequel

David Lynch's cinematic prequel to his cult tv series critically divides people. Charting the last days of the doomed prom queen Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee gives a tour-de-force performance

Director: David Lynch

Actors: Sheryl Lee, Chris Isaak, Ray Wise, Moira Kelly, …

Category: Horror

6 November 19995 July 2026 by Roog

Never Talk to Strangers (1995)

Rating: ½

Feb 24, 1999Psycho-Sexual Thriller

A tawdry erotic thriller copy of Basic Instinct where psychologist Rebecca De Mornay is drawn in to become involved with possible stalker Antonio Banderas

Director: Peter Hall

Actors: Rebecca De Mornay, Antonio Banderas, Dennis Miller, Harry Dean Stanton, …

Category: Horror

24 February 199929 May 2026 by Roog

The Green Mile (1999)

Rating: ★★

Dec 24, 1999Miracle-Healing Death Row Inmate/Stephen King Addaptation

Frank Darabont had a hit with the Stephen King adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. Here he makes another King adaptation about a Death Row inmate with healing powers

Director: Frank Darabont

Actors: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Doug Hutchinson, David Morse, …

Category: Fantasy

24 December 19995 July 2026 by Roog

The Pledge (2001)

Rating: ★★★½

Jan 19, 2001Psycho-Thriller

Slow and subtle Sean Penn directed thriller where Jack Nicholson plays a retired detective haunted by a child murder case

Director: Sean Penn

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright, Aaron Eckhart, Sam Shepard, …

Category: Horror

19 January 200126 March 2024 by Roog

Inland Empire (2006)

Rating: ★★

Aug 17, 2007Surrealism

David Lynch's last theatrical films and probably the most divided of Lynch's films. Another delve into cryptic surrealism that arrives at no clear plot destinations or clues about what is going on

Director: David Lynch

Actors: Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Harry Dean Stanton, …

Category: Fantasy

17 August 200720 April 2026 by Roog

Alice (2009)

Rating: ★★★

Feb 17, 2011SF Version of Alice in Wonderland

Following on from his reworking of The Wizard of Oz in Tin Man, this is a tv mini-series where Nick Willing rather fascinatingly reinterprets Alice in Wonderland in SF terms

Director: Nick Willing

Actors: Caterina Scorsone, Andrew Lee Potts, Matt Frewer, Kathy Bates, …

Category: Fantasy, Science Fiction

17 February 20117 November 2025 by Roog

Rango (2011)

Rating: ★★★★

Mar 13, 2011Animation/Talking Animal Western Homage

Gore Verbinski makes an eccentrically different animated homage to the Western, all cast with talking animals. The animation comes from Industrial Light and Magic and is quite unlike any other animated film.

Director: Gore Verbinski

Actors: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, …

Category: Fantasy

13 March 201121 February 2025 by Roog

The Avengers (2012)

Rating: ★★★★

May 4, 2012Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up

The culmination of one of the most ambitious cinematic exercises ever conducted, with Marvel weaving storylines through several films to finally merge here with flawless regard. The characters get far more depth than in all of their previous films

Director: Joss Whedon

Actors: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, …

Category: Science Fiction

4 May 201224 November 2025 by Roog