Fido (2006)
May 19, 2010Domesticated Zombies Comedy
Charmingly droll film that posits an alternate version of the 1950s where zombies have been domesticated. This has a perfect sense of mood and admirable deadpan playing by all involved
Movie Central
Android Apocalypse (2006)
Dec 14, 2008Human-Android Relations
A variation on The Defiant Ones with a human and an android chained together but this fails to find anything to say either about androids or prejudice
The Marsh (2006)
Jan 1, 2009Haunted House
Okay ghost story in which Gabrielle Anwar rents a haunted farmhouse. Forest Whitaker turns up as a neighbouring occult expert
Kaw (2007)
Apr 12, 2023Killer Raven Attacks
A halfway reasonable Syfy Channel film with people under attack by treacheries of ravens. This homages The Birds, including featuring an aging Rod Taylor, to modest effect
Screamers: The Hunting (2009)
Jul 17, 2010Evolved Androids/Planetary Survival
Disappointing sequel to the modest original that does little but revisit and re-run the first film's scenario with little to add to it
The Phantom (2009)
Jun 26, 2011Comic-Book Superhero
A mini-series based on the classic comic-book masked hero but the attempts to modernise The Phantom for the post-Dark Knight era seem bizarrely awkward
Splice (2010)
May 22, 2010Genetically-Engineered Creature
A genetically engineered creature film from Vincenzo Natali, this ventures into some fascinating places but ultimately returns to Frankenstein science territory
Donovan’s Echo (2011)
Oct 21, 2011Precognition
Film about clairvoyance and predestination that owes much to Don't Look Now. Unfortunately, this reduces everything to the prosaic level of a tv movie thriller
The Philadelphia Experiment (2012)
Jun 4, 2013Time Travel Experiment Amok
This Syfy Channel production can't seem to decide if it is a sequel or a remake of the 1984 film. Michael Paré turn up in both versions but goes from being the hero to a menacing heavy. The original had its moments but this is generic and routine in all ways
Rufus (2012)
Apr 6, 2017Smalltown Vampire
Not that the title gives you any reason to expect it but this is actually a vampire film, one of the rare entries in a genre that is looking very anemic these days. An original and quite interesting smalltown take that resembles George Romero's Martin and Let the Right One In
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
A Little Bit Zombie (2012)
May 22, 2012Zombie Comedy
Amiable Canadian entry in the oversaturated market of the zombie comedy that emerges sort of as a Judd Apatow film with zombies and produces the occasional smile if few laughs
In Their Skin (2012)
Nov 8, 2012Home Invasion Thriller
Canadian-made home invasion thriller that reminds of Michael Haneke's Funny Games. A film that seems set to brutalise a middle class couple's sensibilities only to slip into utter tameness
Haunter (2013)
Mar 30, 2014Ghost Story
Vincenzo Natali tackles the ghost story, turning everything on its head in a series of mind-boggling twists. One of the few post-Sixth Sense films to take the film's big twist as its starting point and build from there
The Colony (2013)
Apr 11, 2013Grim Survival in a Frozen Future
This creates a fascinatingly different future - a world of grim survivalism amid a new Ice Age in the aftermath of Global Warming. The look of the film is fantastic, only to fritter it on an action focus and Mad Max cliches
Mama (2013)
Jan 14, 2013Two Feral Children and Ghostly Companion
A Guillermo Del Toro produced ghost story that fails to go anywhere. The promise of the film's trailer falls apart in the hands of a novice director who blows all of his scares
Ice Soldiers (2013)
Apr 16, 2014Revived Soviet Super-Soldiers
This Canadian effort about Soviet super-soldiers unfrozen in the present-day feels like one of a bunch of cheap direct-to-video copies of Universal Soldier that came out in the late 1990s
Hellions (2015)
Jan 10, 2016Masked Children Pursue a Girl on Halloween Night
The return of director of Pontypool should be anticipated. But this kills a near-foolproof premise – masked children come after a heroine on Halloween night wanting her unborn baby – with a pink lighting scheme