The Magician (1926)
Aug 11, 2020Evil Sorcerer
Considered a lost classic of silent cinema for many years, this is a film loosely based on occultist Alesiter Crowley and was considered a daring work that delved into taboo areas
MGM
London After Midnight (1927)
Jul 6, 2003Vampires/Whodunnit
A lost film from the great silent actor Lon Chaney [Sr] who would undergo great physical makeup transformations for his role. This also has the distinction of being the first Hollywood-made vampire film
The Unknown (1927)
Jul 14, 2000Love and Amputation
Classic, wonderfully twisted Tod Browning film with Lon Chaney as an armless circus performer who lusts for Joan Crawford
The Mysterious Island (1929)
Jul 5, 2016Underwater Adventures/City of Merpeople
The first film adaptation of Jules Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The original book is a desert island adventure story; the film throws all that out and has a story about Captain Nemo encountering a race of merpeople
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Jun 18, 2012Jungle Hero
The first of the Johnny Weissmuller films and where the cinematic Tarzan was essentially formed. The film changes Edgar Rice Burroughs conception in many ways but is a superbly exciting adventure in its own right, while the Tarzan/Jane romance is played with an oddball sweetness
The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
Feb 8, 2000Super-Villain
Boris Karloff plays the super-villain Fu Manchu, giving a performance of calculating evil in a film of great pulp thrillers
Freaks (1932)
Nov 12, 2002Human Deformities
Shock film in which director Tod Browning depicts the lives of the deformities at a circus, casting real-life freaks in the roles. This was banned for many years before being discovered as a cult classic
Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
May 25, 2008Jungle Hero
The second and very best of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, this has an incredible sense of adventure and even a surprising eroticism for the era
Mad Love (1935)
Nov 1, 2000Mad Surgeon/Possessed Hands
The Hollywood remake of The Hands of Orlac, a classic with Colin Clive as a pianist who believes he is possessed after receiving hands transplanted from a killer. With a fascinatingly demented performance from Peter Lorre
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Apr 8, 2001Vampires/Whodunnit
Dracula director Tod Browning reteams with Bela Lugosi in a remake of the silent London After Midnight. A vampire film that has much atmosphere but is ruined by a ridiculous ending
Tarzan Escapes (1936)
Aug 15, 2010Jungle Hero
Third of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, the point where the formula of the series started to kick in
The Devil-Doll (1936)
Aug 28, 2001Miniaturised People/Revenge Drama
Tod Browning film in which Lionel Barrymore is an escaped convict who disguises himself as an old woman where he takes revenge using people shrunken to the size of dolls
Night Must Fall (1937)
Feb 1, 2001Psycho-Thriller
Gripping psychological thriller in which a niece suspects that Robert Montgomery who has charmed her aunt may be a psychopathic killer
Topper (1937)
May 12, 2004Ghost Screwball Comedy
A deliriously frothy screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as two socialites killed in a crash who then haunt the car's new owner. Several sequels followed.
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Apr 7, 2001Miser's Redemption
A fine classic cinematic adaptation of the oft-filmed Charles Dickens tale about the redemption of a miser, starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge
On Borrowed Time (1939)
Mar 30, 2002Man Captures Death
Unique light fantasy film in which aging Lionel Barrymore manages to imprison Death in a tree in his backyard
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Sep 4, 2012Adventures in a Magical Land
An indisputable classic fantasy … a gorgeous sparkling fantasy that made full use of Technicolor in an era dominated by black-and-white and is told in such bold and earnestly heartfelt tones that it becomes the nearest we have to a piece of genuine American mythology
Tarzan Finds a Son (1939)
Jun 6, 2009Jungle Hero
Fourth of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, the point where John Sheffield's Boy enters the series because the Hays Code required that Jane could not get pregnant
Strange Cargo (1940)
Jan 3, 2001Jesus Christ Aids Devil's Island Escapees
One of the strangest films of the 1940s, featuring Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and others as a group of Devil's Island escapees who realise during the course of their journey that one of the company is Jesus Christ
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941)
May 9, 2001Evil Personality Within Unleashed
Version of the Jekyll/Hyde story starring Spencer Tracy and with Ingrid Bergman as the dancehall girl he liaises with. This has been made in the vogue for Freudian psychology so the transformation is tricked out with dubious symbolism
Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941)
Feb 13, 2009Jungle Hero
Fifth of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films and a thoroughly ordinary run through of the by now well-established formula of the series
Cabin in the Sky (1942)
Jan 9, 2003Afterlife Comedy/All Black Musical
This was Hollywood's first film featuring an all-Black cast, a musical in which enjoys from both Heaven and Hell come down to engage in a war over a man's soul
Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942)
Dec 27, 2007Jungle Hero Comes to Civilisation
Sixth of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, this takes Tarzan out of the jungle to civilisation and is mostly played for comedy
A Guy Named Joe (1943)
Jan 7, 2000Man Becomes Guardian Angel
Classic 1940s afterlife fantasy with Spencer Tracy as a pilot killed in action who is sent back as a guardian angel. This works fantastically well due to a great character arc and a sharp Dalton Trumbo script
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Feb 3, 2001Ghost Comedy
Amiable comedy adapted from an Oscar Wllde story with Charles Laughton as a ghost condemned to walks the family castle for his cowardice. Contains much Wartime comedy about the clash between British and American cultures
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Jul 29, 2002Eternally Youthful Libertine
Adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel about an unaging libertine starring Hurd Hatfield. This is regarded as a classic but reads as fairly melodramatic and tame today
Angels in the Outfield (1951)
Mar 11, 2001Angels Aid Baseball Team
An amiable venture into the light fantasy films that were popular during this era., Here angels come down and intervene to aid a baseball team on a losing streak
Brigadoon (1954)
Sep 6, 1999Musical/Timeslipped Village
The film adaptation of a hit musical from Alan Jay Lerner and Fredreick Loewe in which Gene Kelly discovers love in a village that exists outside of time in the Scottish highlands
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Jun 20, 2002Alien Artefacts/Monster from the Subconscious
A classic of 1950s SF that creates one of the most well remembered screen robots. An uncredited adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, there are few other films that devote so much attention to creating a sense of wonder
Village of the Damned (1960)
Mar 12, 2000Telepathic Alien Children
Classic adaptation of the John Wyndham novel about the women in a sleepy English village being impregnated and producing emotionless alien children with vast psychic powers. This translates the paranoia of US alien invasion films with considerable effectiveness
Atlantis, The Lost Continent (1961)
Sep 3, 2000Adventures in Atlantis
George Pal was one of the top genre producers of the 1950s. Here he aims to emulate the Cinemascope Biblical spectaculars of the day albeit with an SF spin but this ends up one of his lesser works
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
Dec 19, 2002Brothers Grimm Anthology/Biopic
Anthology of Brothers Grimm stories from George Pal where the brothers are wound in as characters. The film’s effectiveness is killed by Pal pitching everything down at a mawkish and simple-minded level
Tarzan Goes to India (1962)
May 12, 2015Jungle Hero
The best ever Tarzan films were the series made in the 1960s, which abandoned the cutsie elements of the earlier efforts. This comes with an emphasis on pure spectacle and adventure that is visually amazing
Children of the Damned (1964)
Jan 8, 2001Telepathic Children
The sequel to Village of the Damned, this makes the mistake of humanising the cold alienness of the children and taking their side against humanity, losing much of the stark effect of the original
The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Dec 19, 2002Space Age Comedy
Comedy where Doris Day is a NASA employee drawn into spy shenanigans. It feels as though Day has been cast in a Jerry Lewis role and the whole film is nothing more than a series of slapstick set-pieces
Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)
Apr 26, 1999Underground Communist Invasion
A British film that jumps into a full flight Reds Under the Bed hysteria concerning the discovery of Communist Chinese saboteurs building a vast network of tunnels beneath the USA
The Power (1968)
Apr 1, 2003Psychic Supermind
The second-to-last film produced by the legendary George Pal, concerning people hunted by a psychic supermind
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Mar 9, 2001Vampire Hunter Comedy
Roman Polanski misfired with this vampire comedy intended as a spoof of Hammer Films. Beautifully produced but comedy is not Polanski's forte and the film seems to consists of much slapstick running around
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Apr 26, 2001Stargate/Amok AI/Human Evolution/Space Mission
The greatest science-fiction film ever made? Stanley Kubrick goes against all convention – the film is slow, has no clear story and reaches an enigmatic ending and yet it is a work of brilliance, both visually and in terms of effects technology
The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)
Nov 20, 2000Journey into Absurdist Realm/Animation
Chuck Jones, the director of numerous Warner Brothers cartoons, adapts a popular children's book that comes with a dizzying array of surreal visuals and puns
House of Dark Shadows (1970)
Dec 2, 2000Dark Shadows Movie
The first film based on the cult Gothic tv soap opera Dark Shadows, this is designed to highlight the series breakout character of Jonathan Frid's vampire Barnabas Collins
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
Jun 3, 2015Dark Shadows Movie
The second and better of the films spun off from tv’s Dark Shadows. At last the show gets production values and atmosphere that do it justice, although the series cult figure of Barnabas Collins does not appear
Night of the Lepus (1972)
Apr 3, 2002Giant Rabbits Amok
A film with a premise - giant killer rabbits - that is sunken entirely the failure to make a series of photographically enlarged rabbits look threatening
Westworld (1973)
Dec 24, 2001Android Amusement Park Amok
A hit for novelist Michael Crichton who made his directorial debut here. Themes of machines going amok run throughout Crichton's work and here he comes up with the ingenious idea of a Western simulation playground using androids that proceed to turn against the humans
Doc Savage – The Man of Bronze (1975)
Dec 14, 2001Pulp Superhero
The final film from legendary 1950s SF producer George Pal, an adaptation of the celebrated 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage. Alas, this is given the campy unserious tone of tv's Batman, which utterly wrecks the show
Logan’s Run (1976)
Feb 2, 2003Dystopian Future
Dystopian SF mounted on a big budget by people that don't have a clue what they are doing. This creates one of prettiest depictions of the future of any film of this era but it is only a surface deep depiction
Demon Seed (1977)
Feb 15, 2000Computer Wants to Have Sex
Adaptation of an early Dean R. Koontz novel about an A.I who imprisons a woman in her own home with the intention of impregnating her. A variant on Rosemary’s Baby conducted far more tastefully than you might think
Coma (1978)
May 22, 2001Medical Conspiracy Thriller
Flush from the success of The Andromeda Strain and Westworld, Michael Crichton directed this medical conspiracy thriller, which returns to the fear of science themes that runs throughout his work
The Formula (1980)
Apr 23, 2014International Thriller/Hunt for a Nazi Fuel Substitute
Dull big-budget thriller about Nazi fuel formulas and Big Oil conspiracies. This seems intended as a copy of The Boys from Brazil centred around George C. Scott and Marlon Brando trying to out over-act one another
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Apr 14, 2001Greek Mythology Adventure
This would be the last of the films made by stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen where he turns his creations towards conducting another Greek Mythology adventure. With an all-star cast playing the Greek gods.
Poltergeist (1982)
Sep 5, 2002Haunting
Debate will always rage as to whether this was directed by Tobe Hooper or executive producer Steven Spielberg. It doesn't alter the fact that it is a superlative rollercoaster of a ghost story that doesn't always make sense but pulls its effects off flawlessly
A Stranger is Watching (1982)
Jun 12, 2001Kidnap Thriller
The film that Sean S. Cunningham went on to direct after the huge hit of Friday the 13th. Though sold as a horror film, this is more of a kidnap thriller
Brainstorm (1983)
Mar 28, 2018Memory Recording Device
Highly ambitious film for its day, this concerns a memory-recording device that manages to accidentally record the experience of someone dying. Well worth seeing today, including being one of the first films to depict the internet
2010 (1984)
May 5, 20012001: A Space Odyssey Sequel
2001: A Space Odyssey did not need a sequel but this fits the bill surprisingly well. A warmer and much more human film than Stanley Kubrick made, this has some of the very best effects of its era.
Red Dawn (1984)
Jan 11, 2003Communist Invasion of the USA
Ridiculous red-blooded, flag-waving film in which the Soviets invade the USA and a group of high-school teenagers maintain a lone guerilla campaign
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
Oct 19, 2002Haunting
Sequel to Poltergeist that without Tobe Hopper in the director's seat is an unimaginative by-the-numbers effort
Poltergeist III (1988)
Nov 1, 2002Haunting
The third of the Poltergeist sequels, which moves the locale to an apartment building and is better than its predecessor thanks to a series of eerie mirror effects
The January Man (1989)
Mar 26, 1999Serial Killer Thriller
A completely ridiculous thriller with Kevin Kline playing a fireman-detective who is tracking a serial killer. It is hard to tell if it was intended as a comedy but it managed to attract an impressive cast list
Delirious (1991)
Mar 18, 2005Writer Trapped Inside a TV Soap Opera
Comedy in which John Candy wakes up inside the world of the tv soap opera he writes. This feels like it misses most of the possibilities inherent in its idea
Species (1995)
May 28, 2003Alien Sex Fiend
Slick and rather silly copy of Alien that conceptually cross-hatches it to emerge as essentially Basic Instinct with tentacles
Stigmata (1999)
Sep 11, 1999Possession/Catholic Conspiracy
This seems caught between offering an earnest theological debate about Catholicism and being a standard possession film. The results are not entirely uninteresting
Hannibal (2001)
Feb 11, 2001The Silence of the Lambs Sequel
The immediate sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. Anthony Hopkins is back but Jodie Foster is not. Ridley Scott takes the director's chair and creates a slick film but it lacks the compulsive grip the original held
Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Apr 15, 2001Girl Rock Group's Adventures/Cartoon in Live Action
A live-action film based on the animated tv series about a girl rock band who originally appeared in Archie comics, this gets buried under its own efforts to be cutely ironic
Red Dragon (2002)
Nov 1, 2002Hannibal Lecter Prequel
Following the success of the Hannibal Lecter films, Dino de Laurentiis smartly repackaged Thomas Harris's earlier novel as a Hannibal Lecter prequel
Carrie (2002)
Nov 22, 2004Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Adaptation
TV mini-series remake of the Stephen King novel, which restores many aspects of the book not in the 1976 film. Unfortunately, Brian De Palma has been replaced by a tv director who regards it as just another assignment
Rollerball (2002)
Nov 12, 2002Ultra-Violent Sport
Remade, the 1975 dystopian film about future sports is stripped of any of its big message (even of its future setting) and is turned into no more than a formulaic action film
Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Aug 20, 2003Martial Arts Fantasy
Painfully derivative US-made attempt to jump aboard the popularity of Wu Xia following The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are talented people involved who should have known better
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Jan 7, 2006Magical Nanny
Emma Thompson written and starring adaptation of a series of children's books comes across as a lesser copy of Mary Poppins. A film that feels like it should have been more than it ends up being.
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
The Initiation of Sarah (2006)
Sep 8, 2009Occult War Between Rival Sororities
A remake of the 1978 tv movie about occult rituals in a girl's sorority house. This is a film that feels directed and written without any real involvement by those responsible.
Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Apr 2, 2006Psycho-Sexual Thriller
Sequel to Basic Instinct made fourteen years later. Sharon Stone vamps her way across the screen but the heated sexuality of the original has been watered down to a lukewarm whimper
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Apr 3, 2010Time Travel Comedy
A raucous and vulgar, if at times undeniably funny, comedy where John Cusack and three friends use a hot tub at a resort that causes them to travel back in time to the 1980s.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Dec 20, 2011Serial Killer Thriller
David Fincher's English-language remake of the Swedish film is capably made but a lesser shadow of something that worked perfectly the first time. In particular, Rooney Mara is no substitute for Noomi Rapace
Zookeeper (2011)
Jul 24, 2011Talking Zoo Animals Offer Romantic Advice Comedy
Animals in a zoo offer schmuck zoo keeper Kevin James romantic advice based on their mating behaviours. The premise runs out of steam soon in, the rest is an irritating smartass CGI talking animals comedy
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Dec 14, 2012Epic Fantasy Adventure
Peter Jackson returns to J.R.R. Tolkien and epic-sized adventure in the first of his Hobbit films. The visual sweep is there but the film feels over-extruded and over-burdened by its own self-importance.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Dec 14, 2013Epic Fantasy Adventure
The Hobbit became Peter Jackson's equivalent of the Star Wars prequels and this is the weakest work he has produced under the J.R.R. Tolkien banner. Five picaresque chapters of the book are extruded into bloated set-pieces
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Dec 20, 2014Epic Fantasy Adventure
After two bloated and over-padded Hobbit films, Peter Jackson finally gets it together and produces what everyone was expecting him to deliver, even if it means dragging one battle scene out to last an entire film
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)
Feb 22, 2015Time Travel Comedy
Why we needed a sequel to Hot Tub Time Machine is a big question. Essentially, Back to the Future Part II meets The Hangover, all this does is wind the original's amiable coarseness up by a factor of ten
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021)
Aug 27, 2021Martial Arts/Action Film
Part of the attempt to reboot the G.I. Joe film series into a shared universe, this is a kinetically driven martial arts film
Dark Harvest (2023)
Oct 30, 2025Small Town's Deadly Halloween Run
David Slade seemed a promising directorial name several years ago with works like the charged Hard Candy, before making Twilight films and being lost in tv. Here he returns with a film set around a small town’s deadly Halloween rituals