The Reflecting Skin (1990)
Jan 8, 2001Surreal Vision of Disturbed Childhood
A dark Coming of Age story set in a surreal depiction of the midwest populated by what might be vampires and angels
BBC Films
The Hawk (1993)
Jan 5, 2003Wife Believes Husband May Be a Serial Killer
BBC produced film with Helen Mirren as a housewife who believes her husband might be a serial killer. Despite promise, this never digs in like a good thriller should
The Trial (1993)
Feb 22, 2005Bureaucratic Nightmare World/Kafka Adaptation
All-star adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel that gets a far better sense of the book's black ironies than the previous Orson Welles version
Gods and Monsters (1998)
May 1, 1999Genre Director Biopic
Biopic of James Whale, director of the Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein. Whale’s movies are used to echo a tale of friendship between the aging gay Whale (Ian McKellan) and his straight gardener (Brendan Fraser)
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
The Wyvern Mystery (2000)
Mar 20, 2010Gothic Thriller
BBC tv adaptation of Gothic potboiler by J. Sheridan Le Fanu with newlywed wife Naomi Watts facing an evil squire and mad women in a big gloomy house
Doctor Sleep (2002)
Dec 12, 2004Hypnotist vs Occult Killer
Here Nick Willing makes an initially promising film but this becomes a disjointed muddle involving hypnotism, serial killers and occult conspiracy. Not to be confused with the Stephen King adapted film
Code 46 (2003)
Jun 24, 2007Dystopian Future
A standout Michael Winterbottom film set in a fascinatingly detailed and well conceived future dominated by genetic laws where Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton conduct an illicit affair
Match Point (2005)
Jun 21, 2006Murder and Conscience
One of Woody Allen's strongest films in years, a London-set work about conscience and murder over which the spirit of Dostoevsky hangs
Scoop (2006)
May 27, 2007Journalistic Tips from the Afterlife
One of the more forgettable Woody Allen comedies with Scarlett Johansson as a journalism student who gets tips from the afterlife
The Children (2008)
Dec 21, 2015Children Start to Kill Adults
Rather well-made British entry where two families at a Christmas get-together find their respective children have inexplicably turned against them with murderous results. This draws the tensions out to a sustained siege with undeniably effective results
Valhalla Rising (2009)
May 31, 2011Mystical Viking Film
A Viking film from Nicolas Winding Refn. Rather than being made in the sense of any historical film this is almost a mystical arthouse work, a work haunted by the austerity of its primal landscape
Salvage (2009)
Dec 24, 2014Mass Insanity Outbreak
A modestly effective British variation on the mass insanity outbreak film. The film has one of the best out of the blue openings of any film one has seen in some time and is good at finding a kitchen sink realism, less so when it comes to explanations for what is happening
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
Nov 17, 2010Time-Travelling Science-Fiction Fans
Science-fiction fans go time travelling in this British film that offers a good many wry fannish in-jokes mixed with a modestly clever time travel scenario
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
Nov 14, 2009US Army's Psychic Warfare Division Comedy
Film based on the supposed Psychic Warfare Division of the US Army. Based on a non-fiction book, this is played by director Grant Heslov as a broad farce and sits on an uncertain line as to whether the powers are real
Tormented (2009)
May 7, 2018Bullied Schoolkid's Retribution From Beyond the Grave
The first film from Irish director Jon Wright who subsequently made films Grabbers and Robot Overlords concerning a bullied schoolkid who comes back from the grave to kill his tormentors,. Not as polished but what a cast of unknowns
Repo Chick (2009)
Dec 31, 2009Repo Man Sequel
Alex Cox sequelizes his off-the-wall cult hit Repo Man but only turns it into an amateurish, meandering effort that is only trying to be wacky and cultish
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Jan 31, 2010Nuclear Conspiracy Thriller/TV Series Remake
A film remake of one of the great tv series of the 1980s. A complete betrayal by the original’s director Martin Campbell that strips all the politics and simply makes it into a Mel Gibson revenge film
Perfect Sense (2011)
May 26, 2014World Where People Start Losing Their Sensory Perceptions
Remarkable film set in a world where people start to progressively lose each of their senses. Much of the film works as a character drama rather than a catastrophe film but its portrait of how the world tries to cope in the aftermath of the loss of another sense makes for top-notch science-fiction
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Mar 6, 2012Psycho Child
Almost an arthouse variation of the evil psycho child thriller but one stripped of thriller tropes and told in terms of an alternately striking and hauntingly elliptical tableaux of impressionistic images
The Awakening (2011)
Jul 21, 2012Victorian Ghost Story
A classic British ghost story that produces an exceedingly haunted atmosphere at times, although falls apart in a highly contrived M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Dec 20, 2013The Making of Mary Poppins
Dramatisation of the prickly relationship between P.L. Travers, the creator of Mary Poppins, and Walt Disney during the making of the 1964 film. While the true story may have been cleaned up somewhat, this is a film of enormous charms that is largely made through a triumphant performance from Emma Thompson
London Road (2015)
Oct 19, 2015True-Life Serial Killer Musical
Film based on the true-life Suffolk Strangler. The filmmakers have uniquely interviewed the residents of the community affected and composed these into a musical, not to mention a quasi-mockumentary
In Fabric (2018)
May 31, 2021Cursed Dress
From Peter Strickland who is fast developing a cult name, this is on one level a horror film about a killer dress; on another level, it is a captivating film of textures and surrealistic deadpan humour
The Eternal Daughter (2022)
Dec 2, 2023Possibly Haunted Hotel
This received acclaim on the arthouse circuit. Tilda Swinton plays both the daughter and her mother who go to stay a hotel that may be haunted. Everything hovers in a state of ambiguity
The End We Start From (2023)
May 24, 2024England Devastated by Catastrophic Flooding
Jodie Comer is a new mother who travels through an England that has been devastated by catastrophic flooding. Not dissimilar to The Road but less bleak
Starve Acre (2023)
Sep 20, 2024Folk Horror
Another entry in the popular Folk Horror revival of the 2020s, this is a superb slow burn film that operates essentially as a British Pet Sematary