Tideland (2005)
Feb 23, 2008Surreal World of Childhood Imagination
Bizarre but undeniably brilliant Terry Gilliam film about a young girl in the cornfields of the Midwest who builds a fantasy out of the sometimes disturbing things around her
Hanway Films
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
Harry Brown (2009)
Dec 14, 2010Aging Vigilante
A British version of Gran Torino featuring Michael Caine as an aging man who becomes fed up with youth crime in the neighbourhood and takes up arms to go all Charles Bronson on them
Black Death (2010)
Feb 20, 2011Mediaeval Journey to a Village of Witches
Powerful film from Christopher Smith set during the Middle Ages about a group on a journey to a village where a priestess can purportedly raise the dead. The film's skewering of faith in an unforgettable ending is stunning
Super (2010)
Jul 24, 2011Schmuck Tries to Become a Superhero
After Defendor and Kick-Ass all coming out within a short space of time, the superhero with no powers comedy was getting over-familiar but this outing from James Gunn still finds some new things and proves highly amusing
You’re Next (2011)
Aug 24, 2013Home Invasion Thriller
Adam Wingard directs a home invasion thriller in a similar vein to The Strangers. This is a film that strips everything extraneous away and simply lets Wingard go for broke and give the audience a brutal and intense workout – at which you cannot deny he succeeds most satisfyingly
The Guest (2014)
Nov 10, 2014Sinister Stranger
Adam Wingard thriller about a sinister stranger who inveigles his way into a household. This does well playing off the handsomely polished charms of Dan Stevens, less well when it turns into an a left field action film
The Devil’s Candy (2015)
Jan 30, 2018Heavy Metal Horror/Occult Brooding/Psycho Stalker
From Australian director Sean Byrne who made the splendidly twisted The Loved Ones, this starts out a heavy metal horror film that broods with occult imagery and a sense of bad things about to explode
The Limehouse Golem (2016)
Sep 25, 2017Victorian Serial Killer
This comes with a captivating tagline "Before The Ripper, fear had another name" and misleadingly suggests it is based on another true-life Victorian serial killer. This refuses to be the police procedural you expect
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
Mary Shelley (2017)
Nov 9, 2018Frankenstein’s Author Biopic
Biopic of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. This is a women-written and directed work so the film places an interesting feminist slant on her story meaning that she wrote the book less to address themes about science and hubris than because she was in an unhappy marriage
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
Seance (2021)
Aug 15, 2021Girls’ Boarding School Ghost Story
Adam Wingard’s regular scriptwriter Simon Barrett directs a revival of the girls’ boarding school ghost story. I had very high expectations of this
Timestalker (2024)
Jan 24, 2025Comedy/Romance Reincarnated Through History
Actress Alice Lowe directs/stars in a comedy about a woman who pursues the man she is infatuated with as both reincarnate through history