Swamp Thing (1982)
Dec 16, 2000Mutant Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
Wes Craven makes a film based on the DC Comics character but reduces the mood of the original to something cartoonish. One of Craven's worst films
Ray Wise
Twin Peaks (1990)
May 5, 2003Smalltown Weirdness/Murder Mystery
David Lynch's dive into the dark underbelly of smalltown weirdness became the cult tv series of the 1990s. This is the slightly re-edited pilot issued for theatrical release internationally, which offers an ungainly wrap-up to the proceedings
The Rift (1990)
Dec 28, 2004Submarine Encounters Monsters Underwater
A cheap submarine adventure/underwater monster encounter from Spanish director Juan Pique Simon that was intended as a copy of James Cameron’s The Abyss
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
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
Dead End (2003)
Sep 25, 2014Haunted Backroads Journey
This starts out seeming like a Backroads Brutality film with an innocent family being attacked after taking a side road detour, only to end in increasingly stranger supernatural territory
Jeepers Creepers II (2003)
Feb 10, 2004Backroads Pursuit by a Monster
This was Victor Salva's first sequel to his hit Jeepers Creepers. This is an intensely uncanny and much superior work to the first that heads into outlandish places
Superman: Doomsday (2007)
Oct 31, 2008Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
A condensed animated adaptation of the top-selling DC comic-book of all time The Death of Superman that comes with some massively exciting animated action set-pieces
One Missed Call (2008)
Sep 3, 2009Haunted Cellphone Calls
Probably the worst among the mid-00s fad for English-language remakes of Japanese horror films. Takashi Miike's original is reduced to affectless CGI pop-up scares
Infestation (2009)
Sep 25, 2024Giant Bug Invasion
A throwback to the 1950s giant bug film, a humorous effort with a group of people trying to survive in the aftermath of an insect invasion. From Mel Gibson’s production company, no less!
Chillerama (2011)
Jun 23, 2012Horror Parody Anthology/Drive-In Homage
In the same vein as Grindhouse, four filmmakers have come together to make an anthology of spoof horror films that homage the drive-in tradition. Good taste is left well behind and the results are both outrageous and funny
Rosewood Lane (2011)
May 18, 2017Sinister Paperboy
Victor Salva is one of the genre's more underrated directors and his films are filled with incredibly eerie jumps. Here Rose McGowan finds her life terrorised by a malevolent paperboy possibly of supernatural origin
X: First Class (2011)
Jun 5, 2011Comic-Book Superheroes/Origin Prequel
An X-Men origin story that serves as the occasion to recast the series with younger actors. This works far better than the previous two films, integrating the characters in a strong story, although is quiet at the superheroic action
Excision (2012)
Dec 26, 2012Alienated Teenage Girl
Darkly subversive film about an alienated teenage girl, this digs its teeth into family values and depicts the uncomfortableness of puberty. On the other hand, this is only rarely the horror film others have reviewed it as
Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012)
Apr 9, 2013Libertarian Political Fantasy/Ayn Rand Adaptation
The second film from Ayn Rand's libertarian fantasy. This gets more into the meat of Rand's ideas (wherein the wealthy decide to ignore an undeserving world) and is even more ridiculous than the first film
The Aggression Scale (2012)
Sep 15, 2013Home Invasion Thriller
I always maintained that when you stop looking at it in terms of G-rated slapstick, Home Alone was an incredibly violent film – this is Home Alone reconceived as an ultra-violent modern home invasion thriller
Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End (2013)
Feb 23, 2015The Biblical Rapture
One of a number of faith-produced films we have had since the late 90s that concern themselves with the arrival of The Rapture - this one even spawned a trilogy. This is passable if you can palate the relatively light sermonising and at least better written that the Left Behind films
Big Ass Spider! (2013)
Mar 28, 2014Giant Spider
Giant spider film that seems to be aiming for the same gonzo territory the killer shark film has of recent. Instead we get an average B movie with some good effects and a line of comic banter that falls flat in the delivery
Digging Up the Marrow (2014)
Feb 29, 2016Found Footage/In Search of a Secret World of Monsters
Adam Green, director of the Hatchet films, makes a Found Footage film about the search for an underground world of monsters. The monsters, when seen, are quite imaginative
Suburban Gothic (2014)
Oct 27, 2014Middle-Class Satire/Haunting
From the director of Excision, another film that satirically digs its claws into middle-class values but there is the feeling we have seen all of this before and the film fails to provide anything funny. Added to this is a barely scary ghost plot the film occasionally remembers to get back to
The Lazarus Effect (2015)
Feb 28, 2015Experiments in the Resurrection of the Dead
The experiment to bring someone back from the dead has been trod many times before and this Blumhouse production only rehashes it in tired and unimaginative ways
Night of the Living Deb (2015)
Jul 7, 2017Zombie Comedy
This rather appealingly plays out as a sex-reversed version of Shaun of the Dead with Maria Thayer as a slightly clueless woman who ends up in the midst of the zombie apocalypse with the guy she spent the night with. Thayer gives a winning performance and the humour is smart and witty
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
Aug 6, 2016Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
Adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel, one of the most famous comic-book titles of all time. The notoriously cranky Moore need have no reason to shun this film version, which recreates his work right down to preserving his dialogue and replicating the set-up of individual panels
To Your Last Death (2019)
Nov 20, 2020Animation/Brutal Survival in an Office Building/Alien Game
Animated film that is gore-drenched and certainly not for children. Imagine The Belko Experiment conceived as a videogame where the heroine has to survive an office of people trying to kill her while aliens bet on the outcome
Tone-Deaf (2019)
Dec 28, 2020Wannabe Serial Killer Black Comedy
Dark, sardonic comedy where Amanda Crew rents a house to get away for a weekend only to face a murderous Robert Patrick. The humour is barbed and quite hilarious