10 Rillington Place (1971)
Nov 17, 2010True-Life Serial Killer
One of the best true crime films, a chillingly good account of British serial killer Reginald Christie with an excellent Richard Attenborough in the role
John Hurt
The Pied Piper (1972)
Dec 3, 2019Fairytale Adaptation
The first dark adult fairytale. Before this, fairytales on film had been in the realm of Disney. This roots the familiar tale in an historical reality surrounded by the Black Death, The Inquisition and Anti-Semitism
The Ghoul (1975)
Aug 17, 2002Deformity in the Attic
Latter day Anglo-horror film from Freddie Francis that assembles many Hammer regulars in a story where Peter Cushing keeps a cannibalistic son on his country estate
Spectre (1977)
Oct 21, 2007Occult Investigators
Another unsold Gene Roddenberry tv pilot, this would have made for a potentially worthwhile series involving Robert Culp and Gig Young as occult investigators
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Dec 17, 2000Epic Fantasy/Animation
Way back before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi made this not uninteresting animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien. The film was not a success and Bakshi failed to return to complete the second part of the story
The Shout (1978)
Apr 6, 2010Enigmatic Stranger With Supernatural Powers
A film of fascinating ambiguities that stars Alan Bates as a mystery man who appears to John Hurt and demonstrates a killing shout he learned among the Aborigines
Watership Down (1978)
Apr 7, 2003Animation/Talking Rabbit Quest
Neglected today, this adaptation of Richard Adams' classic novel about a quest among rabbits was one of the finest animated films of its era. This is frequently heartbreaking and touches on darker emotions that Disney and most other family films regularly sanitise.
Alien (1979)
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
The Plague Dogs (1982)
Mar 13, 2011Animation/Talking Escaped Lab Animals
Almost completely ignored at the time of its release, an animated masterpiece where Martin Rosen, the director of Watership Down, adapts another Richard Adams about two escaped laboratory animals. This has an incredible and at times dark emotional range far away from Disney
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
May 8, 2002Dystopia
Superb adaptation of the George Orwell novel that was actually shot in the months and year that the book takes place. Orwell’s future is imagined as a bleak post-War dystopia given life by a superlative cast
The Black Cauldron (1985)
Sep 1, 2000Disney Animation/Sword and Sorcery
Forgotten Disney animated film that was not a success at the time it came out. It seeks to tell an epic fantasy tale in the J.R.R. Tolkien vein but ends up falling too much in the shadow of Star Wars
Three Dangerous Ladies (1988?)
Apr 30, 2020Horror Anthology
Very obscure horror anthology re-edited from episodes of a Canadian tv series featuring names like John Hurt, Charles Gray and Keir Dullea.
Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
Aug 25, 2002Time-Traveller Meets Frankenstein and Mary Shelley
Roger Corman disappointed with his return to the director's chair after twenty years. He adapts a Brian Aldiss novel about a time-traveller meeting both Mary Shelley and Dr Frankenstein
King Ralph (1991)
May 7, 2000American Slob Becomes the King of England Comedy
A comedy where the Royal Family is wiped out and vulgar American nightclub singer John Goodman inherits the crown. Much comedic play between American vulgarity and British ceremony ensues.
Dark at Noon (1992)
Jun 3, 2001Village of Miracles/Surrealism
Incomprehensible surrealism from director Raul Ruiz about a doctor sent to investigate a village where miracles occur with commonplace regularity
Monolith (1994)
Jan 19, 2001Cops vs Body-Hopping Alien
Ridiculous action film produced at the peak of The X Files popularity about two detectives against a body-hopping alien and sinister government agency
Thumbelina (1994)
Jul 6, 2000Animated Fairy-Tale
Animated film from Don Bluth, an insipid adaptation of the fairytale that eventually bogs down as a comic picaresque (*)
Contact (1997)
May 25, 2009Communications from Space
Carl Sagan's novel about SETI is inflated into a big budget film determined to impress even though the story did not need it. Sagan's interesting debate about religion and science is emasculated so as not to offend any religious groups
Lost Souls (2000)
Oct 13, 2000Demonic Possession
Steven Spielberg's regular cinematographer Janusz Kaminski takes the director's chair and conducts a modest and effective revival of the 1970s occult/Anti-Christ film
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Nov 18, 2001Young Wizard
The first of the Harry Potter films. The first is the weakest and lumbers due to being placed in the hands of the perpetually banal Chris Columbus who allows visual effects wow and simplistic emotional cues to dominate
The Alien Saga (2002)
Aug 4, 2013Documentary About the Alien Series
Documentary about the making of the Alien series (although only covers the first four films). Contains some fascinating behind-the-scenes footage and anecdotes, interviews and cut material
Hellboy (2004)
Jul 5, 2004Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
The first of Guillermo Del Toro's adaptations of Mike Mignola's comic-book about a demon superhero. Not as good as the sequel, the film's ace in the hole is Ron Perlman in the title role
The Skeleton Key (2005)
Aug 20, 2005Voodoo
Kate Hudson becomes a care-aid on an old Southern mansion and finds voodoo at work. Director Iain Softley piles on the Southern atmosphere but only strains at horror effect
Valiant (2005)
Jan 7, 2006Animation/Talking Carrier Pigeons
Amiable British animated film set amongst the Allied Resistance during World War II, all cast with talking carrier pigeons
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Aug 17, 2007Killer with a Hyper-Acute Sense of Smell
An extraordinary Tom Tykwer film starring Ben Whishaw as an 18th Century man who has a hyper-acute sense of smell
V for Vendetta (2006)
Apr 2, 2006Graphic Novel Adaptation/Totalitarian Future England
Adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel with a script from The Wachowskis. Moore's repudiation aside, this is a fine and literate work that retells the story of an anarchist trickster and potently politicises it for the era of the George W. Bush.
Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron (2007)
Aug 13, 2009Demon Superhero/Animation
The second of two animated Hellboy spinoffs, this renders what might have been impressive superheroics had they been conducted in live-action down at the level of children’s animation
Outlander (2008)
Jan 8, 2011SF Version of Beowulf
Retelling of the epic legend of Beowulf in SF terms where Grendel becomes an alien monster
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
May 25, 2008High Adventure/Alien Artefacts
The fourth of the Indiana Jones films, returning after a 19 year gap to general disappointment. Largely a film about Indy getting old, this tries but the action scenes pale against what the series was in its heyday
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
Oct 9, 2008Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
In the second and the best of his two Hellboy films, Guillermo Del Toro expands the first out with an amazing menagerie of eccentric and offbeat creatures, while Ron Perlman is again on winning form in the title role
The Limits of Control (2009)
Aug 13, 2009Cryptic Assignment/Surrealism
Cryptic and baffling Jim Jarmusch film with Isaach De Bankole as a mysterious assassin who passes through a series of enigmatic and surreal conversations
Ultramarines (2010)
Jul 10, 2011Animation/Wargame Adaptation/Space Marines vs Demonic Forces
Animated film based on the popular fantasy wargame. The set-up is a fascinating mix of SF and mediaeval religion but the plot rehashes Aliens without much payoff and the animation is B-budget
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)
Nov 17, 2010Young Wizard
The penultimate chapter in the Harry Potter series surprisingly strips out most of the effects and is much slower, more character driven, while moving the saga towards an epic conclusion
Immortals (2011)
Nov 19, 2011Greek Myth
A venture into Greek myth retelling the story of Theseus and the labyrinth. Tarsem Singh, a director with a visually extraordinary eye, lavishes everything on the sets and costumes. One film of the 3D overkill fad that needs to be seen in 3D
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
Jul 15, 2011Young Wizard
I've never been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series but the final chapter rounds out the boy wizard saga in rousing style, mounting an epic-sized battle and finding characters depths that hold some of the best writing of the series
Melancholia (2011)
Nov 20, 2011Depression and the End of the World
Lars von Trier’s exploration of his depression continues in this nihilistic end of the world film. It is bleak and relentless but the characters are opaque in their motivations. Somehow I prefer von Trier back in agent provocateur mode
Labyrinth (2012)
Jan 20, 2014Cross-Historical Search for the Holy Grail
Christopher Smith is an underrated genre director but his first venture into tv is disappointing cross-historical quest for the Holy Grail story that reads like warmed over Da Vinci Code
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Apr 26, 2014Vampire Film
Individualistic indie director Jim Jarmusch tackles the vampire film. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastically well paired as the two bored title lovers. Beautifully filmed but, typical of Jarmusch, one where not a lot happens
Snowpiercer (2013)
Jul 19, 2014Train Containing the Last Survivors of Humanity
One of the most original science-fiction films of recent years. Set aboard a train where the last survivors of humanity circle a frozen globe, this is less an action film than something like Runaway Train turned into a unique conceptual breakthrough story, all rent through with a fierce parable about social revolution
Hercules (2014)
Jul 26, 2014Greek Mythological Hero's Ordinary Exploits
Dwayne Johnson starring Hercules film that just wants to be a big dumb cartoon without a brain cell in its body. This takes the interesting approach that Hercules was an ordinary man whose exploits were all down to PR