The Scarecrow (1982)
Feb 2, 2003New Zealand Gothic
Fine Coming of Age story set in 1950s New Zealand with John Carradine as a sinister stranger come to town
The New Zealand Film Commission
The Lost Tribe (1983)
May 6, 2003Mysterious Disappearance
Enigmatic New Zealand-made film that takes place in an incredibly haunted landscape about the disappearance of an anthropologist searching for a lost tribe
Death Warmed Up (1984)
Jul 3, 2002Mad Scientist/Zombie Splatter
The first horror film from New Zealand, a gore drenched effort about a mad scientist creating zombies. Directed by much energy even if it suffers a complete lack of plot
The Silent One (1984)
Dec 23, 2000Deaf Polynesian Boy Befriends a Sea Turtle
New Zealand made film about a deafmute boy in a Cook Islands tribe and his mystic communion with a sea turtle
Trial Run (1984)
Dec 13, 2002Feminist Slasher
Woman directed New Zealand horror film where Annie Whittle is attacked by a mysterious assailant
Mr Wrong (1985)
Dec 6, 2003Haunted Car/Stalker
New Zealand-made ghost story where Heather Bolton buys a second-hand car only to find it is haunted
The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988)
Jun 23, 2026Mediaevals Time-Travel to the Present
The hugely underrated Vincent Ward makes a film about Mediaeval pilgrims travelling through time to the present. Shot in an series of extraordinary images that show how bewildering the modern world would be to them
The Returning (1990)
Mar 26, 2002New Zealand Ghost Story
A New Zealand-made ghost story that hardly seems to have been seen by anybody. The film shuffles around cliches from 1970s ghost story tv movies but only dissembles them into an embarrassingly silly film where very little of substance is directed with a ludicrously overwrought intensity
User Friendly (1990)
Jul 3, 2010Eccentric Comedy/Statuette With Rejuvenative Powers
Oddball New Zealand-made comedy with various characters in pursuit of a statuette with rejuvenative properties
The Footstep Man (1992)
Jun 20, 2010Ghost Emerges from a Film
A New Zealand-made film where a sound effects artist is haunted by the ghost of a woman who steps out of a biopic about Henri Toulouse-Lautec that he is editing
Braindead (1992)
Jan 5, 2000Zombies/Splatter Comedy
One of Peter Jackson's early films, which is maybe the funniest zombie comedy ever made. This becomes a work of unparalleled genius in the glorious gore-drenched excesses it reaches for
Grampire (1992)
Nov 12, 2002Children's Vampire Film
New Zealand director David Blyth's children's film starring Al Lewis (the grandpa from tv's Te Minsters) as a grandfather vampire is a toothless oddity that fails to work
Jack Be Nimble (1993)
Aug 30, 2000Psychically Linked Brother-Sister
An over-the-top New Zealand-made Gothic horror with Alexis Arquette and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy as psychically connected brother and sister who set out on a quest to find their parents, killing all in the way
The Ugly (1997)
Nov 26, 2005Serial Killer
A New Zealand made serial killer thriller that emulates The Silence of the Lambs but becomes distracted by directorial effect
Saving Grace (1998)
Feb 18, 1999Contemporary Jesus
Uneven New Zealand-made film where a girl meets a mystery man who claims that he is Jesus Christ
The Price of Milk (2000)
May 15, 2001Kiwi Magical Realism
Quirkily eccentric and surreal New Zealand made comedy about a couple living on a farm
The Irrefutable Truth About Demons (2000)
May 9, 2001Pursuit by Satanic Cult
A New Zealand-made horror film with Karl Urban as an anthropology lecturer who debunks the occult who is targeted and forced to go on the run from a Satanist cult
Snakeskin (2001)
Jan 30, 2005Surreal New Zealand Road Movie
Melanie Lynskey stars in a New Zealand road movie that becomes a meta film interrogating the imagery of the American road movie
Whale Rider (2002)
Feb 17, 2003Maori Culture/Mystical Communion with the Whales
Magical Realist tale set among New Zealand's native Maori peoples concerning a young girl's cautious defiance of traditions
Nemesis Game (2003)
Dec 31, 2003Enigmatic Game/Reality Bender
Frustratingly enigmatic film where student Carly Pope is drawn into a game of mysterious clues where people are being killed
Perfect Strangers (2003)
Mar 2, 2004Abduction Thriller/Ambiguous Ghost
Very strange New Zealand-made film that starts out seeming to be an abduction thriller and then turns into an even stranger ghost story that we cannot be sure is happening or all in the heroine's imagination
River Queen (2005)
Feb 25, 2006Maori Wars Historical Epic/Precognitive Dream
Vincent Ward is one of the directors who should be granted more opportunities to make films. This is his least satisfying work, a troubled behind-the-scenes epic set during New Zealand's Maori Wars with some Magical Realist touches
Out of the Blue (2006)
Nov 10, 2006True Life New Zealand Killing Spree
Film based on a true-life shooting spree in the tiny nowhere New Zealand town of Aramoana
Black Sheep (2006)
Apr 19, 2007Killer Mutant Sheep/Splatter Comedy
An enthusiastically gore-drenched New Zealand comedy about mutant sheep, this favourably harkens back to the heyday of Peter Jackson's early splatter films
Perfect Creature (2006)
Oct 21, 2007Alternate World of Vampires
Conceptually ambitious New Zealand made film set in an alternate history where vampires live alongside humans
The Tattooist (2007)
Sep 1, 2007Cursed Tattoos
Incredibly tepid New Zealand horror film about an American tattooist who unleashes evil forces after he appropriates Samoan cultural tattoos
Dean Spanley (2008)
Mar 11, 2009Man's Previous Life as a Dog
Adaptation of a Lord Dunsany story, this has an appealingly eccentricity – a film told as a series of after dinner conversations about a man recalling his past life as a dog – that works with winning charms
Under the Mountain (2009)
Sep 22, 2013Twins vs Alien Nasties
Big screen version of a classic New Zealand children's story, directed by Jonathan King with an emphasis on gooey creature effects
The Vintner’s Luck (2009)
Aug 10, 2010Angel Aids Winemaker
Whale Rider director Niki Caro makes an uneven film about a 19th Century peasant who is inspired to make wine by an angel
Fresh Meat (2012)
Mar 6, 2024Maori Cannibals Comedy
New Zealand comedy in which a teenage daughter discovers that her father Temuera Morrison is a modern-day Maori cannibal cultist. Everything is given a very broad playing
Housebound (2014)
Oct 11, 2014New Zealand Haunted House Comedy
An NZ-made haunted house comedy that runs through a frenzied array of genre plot devices, a couple of minor jumps and some easy middle-of-the-road laughs leaving you feeling there should have been more to it
Turbo Kid (2015)
Oct 23, 2015Retro 80s Parody of Post-Holocaust Films
There is a fantastically witty idea here – a low-tech parody of the 1980s post-holocaust film – but one that seems in search of an accompanying film. The film overspills with retro ephemera and stylistic jokes but I wish there had been more to it beyond the hook of the initial joke
Deathgasm (2015)
Oct 18, 2015Heavy Metalheads Unleash Demons/Splatter Comedy
Outrageous New Zealand-made effort that fondly recalls the 1980s splatter comedies of Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson et al. This often feels like former teen metalheads looking back and puncturing the pretensions of their youth
The Changeover (2017)
Mar 26, 2018Young Adult/Teen Witch's Journey
Adaptation of a book by NZ author Margaret Mahy. Mahy has a sublimely poetic turn of phrase in the writing but the film strips the book down to the point we get no more than a by-the-numbers Young Adult work
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Feb 13, 2021Gremlins on a Plane
Chloe Grace Moretz stars in a quite reasonable WWII-set story about gremlins amok aboard a plane
The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024)
Mar 1, 2026Psycho in a Retirement Home
Rather good New Zealand made horror film set in a geriatric home with Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow engaged in a series of psychological games as a stroke-impaired Rush tries to stop a murderous Lithgow