Heavy Metal (1981)
May 3, 2000Adult Animation Anthology
Cult animated film that adapts several stories from the adult fantasy comic-book Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. These vary but in its better moments that has a trippy cult hallucinatory quality
Vlasta Vrana
The Blue Man (1985)
May 7, 2000Astral Killer
Canadian-made horror from the heyday of the VHS era about psychic vampires terrorising people via astral projection in order to steal their bodies
Scanners II: The New Order (1991)
Nov 5, 2000Psychic Powers
The first of a series of poorly made sequels to David Cronenberg's Scanners. Cronenberg's ideas have been stripped down to no more than a series of head-exploding effects
Relative Fear (1994)
Dec 13, 2002Autistic Child Psycho-Thriller
Routine variant on the psycho child theme, which heads into rather dubious territory when it leads us to think a series of killings are being conducted by an autistic child
The Breakthrough (1994)
Jun 20, 2000Scientifically Exploring the Afterlife
A film about the scientific efforts to explore the afterlife, this suffers from too many good ideas and not enough of the effects needed to convey its journey
Reaper (1998)
Jul 2, 2005Psycho-Thriller
Chris Sarandon is a writer who becomes embroiled in solving a series of murder that mimic his own books. An okay set-up that rarely moves beyond the unfolding of cliches
Eternal Revenge (1999)
Apr 6, 2004Woman Takes Revenge on Men
A bland Canadian police procedural with detective Alexandra Paul investigating a woman who is killing the men who bullied and harassed her
Believe (2000)
May 24, 2000Children's Ghost Story
A children's ghost story that is written with uncommon depth and care and directed with reasonable effect
Matthew Blackheart (2002)
Dec 31, 2002Monster Hunter
Film about a monster hunter from the 1940s thawed out in the present-day. This appears to have been made as a tv pilot
WarGames: The Dead Code (2006)
Aug 13, 2009Teen Hacker Thriller/Amok A.I.
WarGames was a thriller that was way ahead of its time; this sequel is no more than video fodder exploiting recognition factor that reduces the original to hacker movie cliches in a technically ill-informed and incoherent plot
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2008)
Oct 31, 2008Evil Personality Within Unleashed
Modernised version of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story starring Dougary Scott. The principal novelty here is that the bulk of the story takes place in a courtroom as Hyde is placed on trial for murder
Territories (2010)
May 21, 2012Rogue Border Guards Torture Tourists
An appealingly politicised variant on the Backwoods Brutality film in which two rogue US border guards decide to set up their own home Guantanamo Bay … not Torture Porn but an effectively brutal study on the effect of torture
Upside Down (2012)
Jul 28, 2013Two Worlds with Gravity in Opposing Directions
The frustration of a film that has a scientifically nonsensical premise - two planets where gravity is oriented in opposing directions - that is also surprisingly imaginatively made. This creates some genuinely amazing visuals and designs of the two worlds and showing the people on them interacting
The Sacrifice Game (2023)
Dec 22, 2024Hostages at a Girl’s School/Occult Rites
Jenn Wexler directs a film about thugs taking over a girls’ boarding school that pleasingly subverts your expectations of everything it is going to be at every turn