Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
Mar 21, 2001Horror Anthology
Film spinoff from the Tales from the Darkside tv series, this is an anthology of three horror tales, the result is a surprisingly slick and well made film
Julianne Moore
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
Dec 24, 2002Psycho Babysitter
One of the thrillers influenced by Fatal Attraction with Rebecca De Mornay giving an ice cold performance as a nanny who infiltrates a family seeking revenge for the death of her husband.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Aug 14, 2001Genetically Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
The first sequel to the massive success of Jurassic Park where Steven Spielberg returns to direct with a script that seems a mishmash of loose ends that only weakly rehashes the original
Psycho (1998)
May 1, 1999Psycho Remake
Over Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho, there hangs the single question of “Why?” The result seems a futile conceit, one only designed to infuriate those who regard the original in such high esteem
Magnolia (1999)
Dec 31, 1999Interwoven Stories/Unexplained Phenomena
From Paul Thomas Anderson, a series of interlinking stories and character sketches, featuring some great performances. Underlining everything is a fascination with the inexplicable and the works of Charles Fort
Hannibal (2001)
Feb 11, 2001The Silence of the Lambs Sequel
The immediate sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. Anthony Hopkins is back but Jodie Foster is not. Ridley Scott takes the director's chair and creates a slick film but it lacks the compulsive grip the original held
Evolution (2001)
Jun 8, 2001Rapidly Evolving Alien Lifeforms/Comedy
Ivan Reitman comedy that is essentially a rehash of his earlier hit Ghostbusters but where instead of ghosts he has a team investigating rapidly alien lifeforms at a meteor crash site
The Forgotten (2004)
Nov 8, 2004Erased Memories
Julianne Moore discovers her late son has been erased from photos and people's memories eventually leading her to an explanation involving mysterious aliens
Children of Men (2006)
Oct 31, 2006Infertile Future
Alfonso Cuaron film set in a near-future afflicted by an epidemic of infertility. Cuaron’s depiction of a dystopian world comes with a richness of casually layered detail that makes for a stark and powerful film
Next (2007)
Sep 9, 2007Precognition/Action Film
This adapts a Philip K. Dick story and then throws it out to make a generic action film with Nicolas Cage as a psychic. All the potential of its idea is lost amid a series of ridiculous plot twists
Blindness (2008)
Apr 17, 2010Plague of Blindness
A hugely underrated film that depicts the brutal collapse of society that occurs when the entire world is affected by a plague that causes blindness. Directed in strong and powerful images
Shelter (2010)
Mar 10, 2011Split Personality/Soul Transference
This starts out was as a film about multiple personality disorder with several scenes that catch your attention before it drifts into a muddle of confused supernatural themes
Carrie (2013)
Oct 26, 2013Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Remake
Another pointless 70s remake that replicates the 1976 Carrie almost scene for scene but misconstrues the material by a mile. Crucially, it comes without the sensational casting that made the original, nor a Brian De Palma at the helm
Seventh Son (2014)
Feb 8, 2015Epic Fantasy/Monster Hunter's Apprentice
An object lessons in how not to adapt a Young Adult series – take a book series about an apprentice witch hunter set in an alternate England and turn it a generic Lord of the Rings copy
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)
Nov 22, 2014Future Social Revolution
The third The Hunger Games film starts in with a more brooding complexity but with the book being split in two parts, the story feels more thinly drawn and comes to an abrupt end just when it starts to get interesting
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
Nov 28, 2015Future Social Revolution
The finale of the saga comes with a tough, gritty edge that make it the best directed of the series. On the other hand, it builds well only to arrive at an ending that goes oddly sideways and throws sympathies to the wind
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Dec 2, 2017Spy Film/Comic-Book Adaptation
Kingsman with its parody of gentlemanliness and action movie sensibilities, was the smartest of the modern spy movie parodies. This sequel has gone to the excesses of the Roger Moore Bond films in the space of one film
The Woman in the Window (2021)
May 22, 2021Psycho-Thriller
Slickly produced psycho-thriller that comes mired in controversy, featuring Amy Adams as an agoraphobe who maybe witnesses a murder.
Lisey’s Story (2021)
Aug 8, 2021Stephen King Adaptation/Secret Parallel World
Stephen King writes the script for a TV mini-series adaptation of what he considers to be his best book about a widow who discovers a secret parallel world