Otesanek (2000)
May 3, 2001Wooden Log-Baby Monster/Gonzo Surrealism
Hilarious Jan Svankmajer film about a mother who decides to treat a log as a child. Full of blackly funny humour before transforming into a macabre monster movie
Film 4
Vinyan (2008)
Apr 16, 2011Haunted Journey Into the Southeast Asian Jungle
The second film from Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz is an intensely haunted albeit enigmatic journey into Southeast Asian jungles in search of a missing child
Franklyn (2008)
Apr 27, 2010Interwoven Stories/Religious Dystopia
A fascinating series of interwoven stories, one of which is set in a religion-dominated dystopian future. An intriguing puzzle that arrives at a surprise left field ending
Hush (2008)
Oct 10, 2019Road Movie Psycho-Thriller
A British psycho-thriller that draws much from Steven Spielberg's Duel with its story of a motorist trying to rescue his girlfriend after she is abducted by a never-seen truck driver
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Jan 17, 2010Murdered Girl Looks on From the Afterlife
A film about a dead girl trying to stop her paedophile murderer from the afterlife. A grim story becomes a visual effects vehicle wrecked by Peter Jackson's overblown amateur hour symbolism
Chatroom (2010)
Jan 9, 2011Psychological Games on the Internet
English-language film from Ring director Hideo Nakata that finds a vibrant means to depict internet communication in a thriller about people meeting on a chatroom being wound into a series of psychological games
Attack the Block (2011)
Sep 9, 2011Alien Invasion on a British Housing Estate
A refreshingly original film that transplants an alien invasion story to a modern British housing estate where a group of young hoodlums become the first line of defence against the invaders
Under the Skin (2013)
May 10, 2014Mysterious Alien Visitor
Fascinating film with Scarlett Johansson as an alien visitor luring male hitchhikers. The film is beautifully made but frustratingly opaque in terms of explanations for what is happening. indeed, feels like a science-fiction film that has been stripped of any easy science-fiction handholds
High-Rise (2015)
Oct 17, 2015Residents of an Apartment Block Revert to Barbarism/J.G. Ballard Adaptation
Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel about the residents of a high-rise apartment block and their descent into barbarism. The film is rich with biting social allegory and is Wheatley's most accomplished to date
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)
Sep 28, 2018Romance with an Alien Visitor
Though the title seems more suitable to a book of pick-up lines, this is about a romance with an alien visitor set during the punk era. John Cameron Mitchell adapts a Neil Gaiman story but seems to have forgotten the comedy elements
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dec 31, 2017Curse Placed on a Man's Family
Yorgos Lanthimos trains his a bizarrely deadpan black humour to make a horror film where surgeon Colin Farrell finds a strange malady has afflicted his family unless he kills one of them in sacrifice
The Little Stranger (2018)
Apr 6, 2020Ghost Story
Adaptation of a ghost story from Sarah Waters, an author who usually specialises in literary Victorian lesbian bodice rippers. The ghost story is an overmined genre but this is a not uninteresting venture into the field