Raggedy Man (1981)
Sep 2, 1999WWII Smalltown Romance/Hick Psychos
Beautifully shot Sissy Spacek starring work of American nostalgia set in rural 1940s Texas that takes a turn into Southern Gothic in its last quarter
Henry Thomas
E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Dec 16, 2001Cute Alien
Perhaps the greatest children's film ever made, the story of the affection between a lonely boy and a stranded alien. Steven Spielberg paints in beautiful, tender emotions from the heart that can only not touch the most cynical
Cloak and Dagger (1984)
Apr 17, 2001Children's Spy Caper/Invisible Companion
Henry Thomas, then riding on the success of E.T., is cast as a kid with a love of spy games who, accompanied by his imaginary companion, is plunged into the midst of a real spy caper.
Frog Dreaming (1986)
Sep 5, 2002Monster/Aborigine Magic/Children's Film
Modest Australian-made children's film that imports Henry Thomas riding on the success of E.T. as a teen inventor finding a lake purported to contain a creature from Aborigine legend
Fire in the Sky (1993)
Nov 16, 2001Alien Abduction/"True Story"
Film based on a true-life claim about a supposed alien abduction. This probably won't convince anybody who does not already believe but it is undeniably a well-made film, at its most striking when we go aboard the UFO
Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006)
Dec 16, 2008Stephen King Anthology
TV mini-series that adapts eight Stephen King short stories. As with any anthology, the stories vary in quality but are generally quite reasonable
Desperation (2006)
Oct 20, 2009Stephen King Adaptation/Possessed Sheriff
Halfway reasonable Stephen King adapted tv mini-series. This has been placed in the directorial hands of King’s worst adapter Mick Garris who at least holds his worst tendencies in check
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)
Aug 6, 2019Australian Exploitation Cinema Documentary
Hilarious and entertaining documentary about the Australian exploitation film that flourished between the late 1970s and 80s. The film delves into an arena of forgotten films and tells their stories with a great deal of detail
Don’t Look Up (2009)
Jan 13, 2012Asian Horror Remake/Haunted Film Set
Fruit Chan conducts an English-language remake of a Japanese horror film. A confused and hokey effort about a haunted film set that is only centred around the provision of schlock effects
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Nov 12, 2016Ouija Board Unleashes Malevolent Spirits
Blumhouse's Ouija didn't get many good reviews but they proceeded with a prequel here. This is automatically the better film from the outset by employing Mike Flanagan, behind amazing works like Absentia, Hush and The Haunting of Hill House, as director, even if it comes out as one of Flanagan's lesser works
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Oct 15, 2017Woman Handuffed to a Bed/Stephen King Adaptation
Mike Flanagan tackles one of the most difficult Stephen King books from a logistics perspective – the book has only one character who is handcuffed naked to a bed for the duration – but pulls it off with great faithfulness
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Dec 22, 2018Haunted House
The original The Haunting is the finest ghost story ever made. One was sceptical that this remake as a tv mini-series of ten 50 minute episodes would come anywhere near that. Happily, Mike Flanagan proved me wrong.
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Feb 1, 2020The Shining Sequel
Mike Flanagan, one of the most exciting genre names in recent years, takes on Stephen King's book sequel to The Shining, managing the daunting balancing act of both adapting the book and turning it into a sequel to the Stanley Kubrick film
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Oct 24, 2020Haunted House
Mike Flanagan follows up the hit of The Haunting of Hill House with a mini-series that adapts another classic work The Turn of the Screw out into a similar kind of cross-generational ghost story. The results are extraordinary
Midnight Mass (2021)
Oct 9, 2021Vampires and Religion
Mike Flanagan returns with his best work to date. Effectively a Catholic version of Salem’s Lot, this comes with some flat out great pieces of writing
The Midnight Club (2022)
Oct 21, 2022Teenagers Tell Horror Stories
Mike Flanagan horror mini-series adapted from Christopher Pike's book, this is set around a group of patients in a hospice who form a group to tell each other horror stories
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023)
Oct 20, 2023Resurrection of the Dead
A sequel, or more correctly, prequel to the recent remake of the Stephen King novel. This has some legitimacy in that it is adapted from a story recounted in the book
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Nov 18, 2023Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
Mike Flanagan mini-series that expands on the story to incorporate a host of other Poe stories. More like another of Mike Flanagan’s cross-generational ghost stories by way of tv’s Succession with a lot of Poe-esque margin notes