Mark of the Devil (1970)
Jan 12, 2012Historical Witch Persecutions and Tortures
Another depiction of the Middle Ages witch persecutions that becomes a catalogue of the cruelties enacted – Torture Porn way back before anybody ever invented the term
Udo Kier
Andy Warhol’s Dracula (1973)
May 6, 1999Splatter Dracula
Companion piece to Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, a duo of horror films sold with Andy Warhol's name for some reason. Dracula is revamped with a good deal of sex and gore but not uninterestingly so.
Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (1973)
Jun 3, 1999Splatter Frankenstein
An outrageous gore-drenched version of the Frankenstein story that frequently ventures into bad taste. Despite his name in the title, Andy Warhol had nothing to do with the film
Spermula (1976)
Jun 15, 2016Erotica/Women Alien Visitors
Rather of an oddity – a French adult film about women from the future that in the aftermath of Star Wars was re-edited to become a film about alien women visitors come to kill off the human species via sex. Often directed with an artiness that proves far more than you expect
Suspiria (1977)
Dec 5, 2000Witchcraft in a Girl's School
The work on which the cult of director Dario Argento was built. The film consists of a series of extravagantly arty deaths at a girls boarding school, although comes without any real plot connecting this
Dr Jekyll and His Women (1981)
Dec 18, 2012Erotic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adaptation
Retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from cult Euro erotica director Walerian Borowczyk. Not quite the erotic retelling one expects, this nevertheless conducts some radical revisions
Epidemic (1987)
Nov 30, 2001Filmmakers at Work/Plague/Hypnotism
Lars von Trier's second and most obscure film. Made on a shoestring budget, it is mostly about two filmmakers trying to make a film about a plague outbreak but does burst out into a fantastic shaggy dog ending
The Kingdom (1994)
Dec 16, 2001Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Danish tv mini-series co-directed by Lars von Trier set in a haunted hospital. This comes with a blacker-than-black sense of humour in its interwoven character strands plus moments that are genuinely eerie
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Jul 15, 2002Cyberpunk/William Gibson Adaptation
The first attempt to film the works of cult Cyberpunk author William Gibson met with very mixed success, nevertheless is a modest effort that does mainline the essence of Gibson’s world
The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)
Nov 1, 2000Living Puppet Boy
This was a live-action version of the popular story given a reasonable budget and where Pinocchio is brought to life with a blend of CGI and animatronics
Barb Wire (1996)
Nov 21, 2003Anarchic Future/Leather-Clad Bimbo
Enjoyably silly comic-book adaptation with a pneumatically-inflated Pamela Anderson playing the titular bounty hunter in an anarchic future. You cannot complain that this is a film that delivers exactly what it promises
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Dec 13, 1999Religion and Miracles
Stunning, emotionally raw work from Lars von Trier with Emily Watson as a wife in a small religious community who is driven to extremes of masochistic self-sacrifice in the belief she is saving her husband's life
The Kingdom II (1997)
Sep 30, 1999Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Follow-up to Lars von Trier's haunted hospital mini-series The Kingdom. The story is continued, although the plot seems rickety and either drops elements or veers off on other tangents as though it is being made up as people go along
Prince Valiant (1997)
Apr 27, 2003Sword and Sorcery/Comic-Strip Adaptation
The classic comic-strip receives a disastrous film adaption where director Anthony Hickox plays everything for campy silliness
Blade (1998)
Apr 18, 1999Comic-Book Vampire Hunter
Nobody knew it at the time but this was the beginning of the huge surge of Marvel Comics adaptations on screen in the 00s/10s. This distills the basics of the vampire hunter comic-book down into a smart, kinetic action film
Ice (1998)
Dec 16, 2009New Ice Age
A made-for-tv disaster movie about a new Ice Age. This uncannily prefigures the scenario of Roland Emmerich's big budget, high-profile The Day After Tomorrow
End of Days (1999)
Dec 1, 1999The Devil Returns to Earth at The Millennium/Action Film
Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on The Devil on the eve of the millennium. This is essentially The Omen and one of its ilk having been reworked as a mindless big-budget action and effects movie
The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1999)
Jan 8, 2011Living Puppet Boy
Sequel to the 1996 CGI The Adventures of Pinocchio, this is a shabby and drearily made piece of filler that unimaginatively shuffles around the basic elements of the first film without making an effort at all
Possessed (1999)
Oct 31, 2000Plague/Possession by the Devil
Early film from Danish director Anders Rønnow-Klarlund. This starts out as a plague outbreak drama and then does a bizarre mid-film twist to become a possession film
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Jan 19, 2001Making Nosferatu with a Real Vampire
This comes with the clever and uniquely original premise that asks what would happen if during the making of the 1922 Nosferatu actor Max Schreck turned out to be a real vampire
Critical Mass (2000)
Jan 18, 2004Action/Nuclear Power Plant Hijacking
Low-budget Fred Olen Ray action film is another variant on Die Hard with security guard Treat Williams foiling a terrorist hijacking of a nuclear power plant. For some reason this also includes reuse of footage from Terminator 2
Doomsdayer (2000)
Aug 25, 2009Action Film/Doomsday Weapon
A low-budget video-released action effort that attempts to copy the James Bond films featuring the hunt for a device that can trigger all nuclear reactors
Megiddo (2001)
Jul 4, 2004The Biblical End of the World
Sequel to the Biblical End Times/Antichrist film The Omega Code, this dispenses with preaching faith but still slips into absurdity
FeardotCom (2002)
Nov 28, 2004Ghosts on the Internet
Internet horror film that rehashes Ring with a haunted website instead of a tv broadcast. This suffers from a muddled concept where it is not at all clear what is happening.
Love Object (2003)
Mar 12, 2026Man’s Twisted Relationship with a Sex Doll
This could be Lars and the Real Girl the horror version where a sex doll comes to life (maybe?) and makes Desmond Harrington’s life a misery. A film that becomes quite twisted
One Point 0 (2004)
Dec 31, 2004Strange Apartment Neighbours/Reality Blurrings and Paranoia
This travels into very similar places to Roman Polanski’s The Tenant – a paranoid tale about a man surrounded by very strange apartment neighbours. Apart from adding some reality blurring SF twists to the mix, this does little more than churn cliches
Dracula 3000 (2004)
Aug 18, 2014Dracula on a Spaceship
There is undeniable interest to the idea of Dracula in the future but all we get is a standard Alien copy with Dracula on a spaceship. The acting and dialogue frequently enters into the absurd
Headspace (2005)
Apr 19, 2007Expanded Mental Powers and Demons
Modest and effective horror film about a teenager who starts to gains expanded mental abilities - but where this also appears to unleash monsters
BloodRayne (2005)
Mar 29, 2008Videogame Adaptation/Vampire War
Another Uwe Boll's videogame adaptation, this feels slung together from vampire film and sword and sorcery cliches. Among the badly mismatched casting, the most eyebrow raising is Ben Kingsley as the vampire villain
Halloween (2007)
Feb 13, 2009Slasher Film
Another inferior entry in the mid-00s fad remake of 70s/80s horror films. Whereas John Carpenter gave us Michael Myers as evil incarnate, Rob Zombie gives us Michael Myers as a misunderstood and unloved kid
Mother of Tears: The Third Mother (2007)
Oct 19, 2008Italian Occult Horror
After 27 years, Dario Argento finally rounds out his Three Mothers trilogy begun way back with Suspiria but the underwhelming results give all evidence of his having lost his mojo
Far Cry (2008)
Mar 9, 2011Videogame Adaptation/Super-Soldiers Amok
One of the worst of Uwe Boll's videogame adaptations. This consists of action sequences slung together with random indifference and badly mismatched casting
Metropia (2009)
Dec 4, 2024Near-Future Dystopia
Animated film set in a dystopian near-future Europe of constant surveillance where even people’s heads are monitored
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009)
Aug 27, 2012Madness and Matricide/True Story
As might be expected, a collaboration between Werner Herzog and David Lynch makes for an exceedingly strange film, involving matricide, mental illness and ostriches – and all apparently based on a true life murder. Very strange, if in the end it only produces a puzzled scratch of the head
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
The Theatre Bizarre (2011)
Aug 5, 2013Horror Anthology
A horror anthology featuring episodes from seven different directors. As with other anthologies, the episodes vary in quality, ranging between the so-so, the mostly quite good and one standout segment
Keyhole (2011)
Feb 7, 2012Surrealist Haunted House Film
A disappointment from Guy Maddin where he abandons his trademark surrealism and makes what feels like cross between a haunted house film and a 1940s crime drama by way of the French New Wave
Iron Sky (2012)
Aug 7, 2012Nazi Flying Saucers from the Moon
Finnish filmmaker Timo Vuorensola makes a conceptually wild film about invasion by Nazi flying saucers from the Moon. Stunning quality effects on a minuscule budget that rival the work of professional houses
The Editor (2014)
Oct 4, 2014Giallo Parody
A witty parody of the giallo film from members of Canada's Astron-6 collective who are proving themselves the masters of a certain type of movie spoof
The Forbidden Room (2015)
Oct 3, 2015Tapestry of Surreal Tall Tales
Guy Maddin has perfected a blend of silent movie stylistics and hilariously surreal melodrama. This is a Guy Maddin film on acid, a sumptuously madcap fantasia of visuals wound around a tapestry of tall tales
Downsizing (2017)
Feb 4, 2018Miniaturised People
Matt Damon gets shrunken to five inches tall in this effort from Alexander Payne, an award-winning director who usually makes films about men undergoing mid-life crises. The film has a cleverness but Payne often misses the possibilities raised
Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019)
May 18, 2019Nazi Moonbase/Alien Lizard People from the Centre of the Earth
Timo Vuorensola's follow-up to Iron Sky. It is hard to believe that a film with a premise that combines Nazis on the Moon with alien lizard people from the hollow core of the Earth could go wrong
Chompy and the Girls (2021)
Jan 28, 2022Gonzo Comedy/Other-Dimensional Entities
Hilariously bizarre film with people dealing with an entity that is man with a massive mouth that is intent on swallowing an army of identical little girls
The Kingdom: Exodus (2022)
Mar 11, 2023Haunted Hospital/Black Comedy
Lars von Trier returns to finish off his haunted hospital saga The Kingdom after a 25 years absence, despite the death of several principals, and again milks the same darkly hilarious vein