Mayhem (2017)
A cross between The Belko Experiment and George Romero’s The Crazies as workers in an office is infected by a virus that causes them to lose their inhibitions. Made with dark relish
Horror
The Maze (1953)
William Cameron Menzies built a standout genre reputation with films like Things to Come and Invaders from Mars. This is a haunted house film, albeit with a WTF ending
Me and My Mates vs. the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
An Australian zombie comedy. The basic premise sets a bunch of lads and their cheerfully Neanderthal, sexist, beer-drinking, sports loving ways up against the zombie apocalypse
The Meat Puppet (2012)
An interestingly twisted low-budget psycho film. Keith Collins is a disturbing central character, obsessed with seducing women, imprisoning them and serving up their flesh as meat
The Medium (2021)
A Thai possession film shot Found Footage. This takes place among very different cultural rituals, a welcome difference to the cliches of Western possession films, and builds up to something quite out there
The Medusa Touch (1978)
A film in which Richard Burton plays a patient in a coma in a hospital bed who seems to be able to will terrible things to happen with his psychic powers
Meeting Evil (2012)
A surprisingly good variant on The Hitcher with Samuel L. Jackson as a psychopathic stranger who takes hapless family man Luke Wilson for a ride leaving a trail of bodies
Megaboa (2021)
In the vein of their Mega Shark films and Mega Python vs Gatoroid, The Asylum make a monster movie about a giant-sized snake. Cheesy with a B movie competence.
Memories of Murder (2003)
An early film from Bong Joon-ho made before his international breakthrough, this is a true crime work about the investigation into a rural Korean serial killer
Men (2022)
Alex Garland has become a must watch director/writer since Ex Machina and Devs. Here he ventures into an intriguing if cryptic mix of folk horror and gender politics
Men Behind the Sun (1988)
One of the most extreme films ever made, a catalogue of the true-life atrocities and experiments on prisoners during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in WWII. Not for the faint-hearted
The Menu (2022)
An hilariously black comedy that works as a sublime satire of fine dining – with a nasty horror sting that lies underneath. An A-list cast who are all on top form.
The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
A clear attempt to copy Rosemary’s Baby made with extraordinary stylishness. Here Jacqueline Bisset believes that husband Alan Alda’s body has been stolen by a dead man
Mercy (2000)
One of the better copies of Basic Instinct with detective Ellen Barkin being tempted as she investigates a serial killer who is targeting women involved with a lesbian call girl
Mercy (2014)
Modestly creepy adaptation of a Stephen King short story about a boy who realises that his grandmother is a witch who made a deal with a backwoods entity
The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead (2018)
A Russian dark fantasy that was misleadingly titled as a mermaid film in English release. It in fact concerns an avenging rusalka water spirit who haunts a small lake
Messages Deleted (2010)
The last script from Larry Cohen, a playful work with Matthew Lillard as a screenwriting lecturer harassed by a killer only to find real-life doesn’t obey the same rules that screenplays do
The Messengers (2007)
The Pang Brothers, two of the most exciting genre directors in the world, have their distinctive style swallowed up in their bland US mainstream debut produced by Sam Raimi
Messiah (2001)
A strong and worthwhile serial killer thriller mini-series from the BBC with a killer who is targeting victims with the names and professions of the apostles. Several sequels followed.
Messiah of Evil (1973)
Film that has developed a cult reputation set in a seaside town where the dead are returning to life. The film has an unsettling nightmare ambience where things happen without any explanation
Metamorphosis (1990)
An Italian exploitation film intended to take advantage of the 80s makeup effects revolution as a scientist injects himself with an untested serum and transforms into a monster
Metamorphosis (2007)
A Countess Bathory film actually made by Hungarians (the area where Bathory lived historically). However, this promptly sinks into extremely bad movie territory
Methgator (2023)
Cocaine Bear proved a reasonable success and led to several low-budget copycats. The Asylum’s response was to give us Methgator about a drug-addicted giant alligator
Michael (2011)
Chilling portrait of a paedophile and the young boy he keeps locked in his cellar. The entire film is an astonishing exercise in calm and mannered understatement
Midnight (2021)
A standout South Korean thriller about a deaf girl who is pursued through the streets by a serial killer. Filled with some scenes of gripping seat-edge tension.
The Midnight Club (2022)
Mike Flanagan horror mini-series adapted from Christopher Pike’s book, this is set around a group of patients in a hospice who form a group to tell each other horror stories
The Midnight Hour (1985)
Classic Halloween tv special. As with most of its ilk, it places the focus on a light-hearted treatment where the monsters are no more serious than Halloween revelers
Midnight Mass (2021)
Mike Flanagan returns with his finest work to date. A mini-series that is effectively a Catholic version of Salem’s Lot and comes with some flat out great pieces of writing
The Midnight Meat Train (2008)
One of the best Clive Barker adaptations. Japan’s Ryuhei Kitamura brings a masterful assurance with the horror elements and does gore in astonishingly new and unrealised ways
Midnight Movie (2008)
A horror film about the screening of a lost horror film whose director is reputed to have killed people for real. Now the killer emerges from the screen to slaughter the attendees
Midnight Ride (1990)
A cheaply made Cannon Films release that plays out like an action version of The Hitcher, featuring a completely over-the-top Mark Hamill as the psycho
Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster had a word of mouth hit with Hereditary, which had him acclaimed a major new name. This was his follow-up, a fascinating dive into Folk Horror territory in the depiction of a pagan cult
Midwinter of the Spirit (2015)
Impressive British mini-series about a woman exorcist. This dispenses with the usual barf-bag theatrics and feels like the first theologically thought out work of its type and come with a superbly well-written story
Mikey (1992)
Routine psycho-thriller with Brian Bonsall as a child who murders his adopted families when they fail to meet his expectation. An amusing idea plays out with comic-bookish set-ups
Mill of the Stone Women (1960)
One of the films from the Italian Gothic cycle of the 1960s. It draws influence from Hammer Films and goes off at a strange tangent that is one part House of Wax, another part resurrection experiments
The Millennium Bug (2011)
The Y2K Problem was a now largely forgotten social apocalypse that never happened. This is a scratch of the head – a Backwoods Brutality film that abruptly jumps tracks to become a monster movie
Mimesis (2011)
This has an interesting premise where characters wake up inside a simulation of Night of the Living Dead and realise they are meant to play the people at siege from the zombie onslaught
Mimesis: Nosferatu (2018)
Sequel to Mimesis, which had people trapped in a simulation of Night of the Living Dead, where this time people are trapped in a recreation of Nosferatu
Mindhunters (2004)
Serial killer thriller from the perpetually terrible Renny Harlin. A variant on Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians, it promptly collapses into ludicrous plotting and an even more ridiculous string of deaths
The Minion (1998)
Low-budget action film with Dolph Lundgren as a modern-day Knights Templar tasked with preventing The Devil returning to Earth at the millennium
The Minus Man (1999)
A standout film featuring Owen Wilson as a genteel serial killer who draws victims in with his ease and friendliness. Directed by the co-writer of Blade Runner.
Mirror Mirror (1990)
A 1990s video release, which plays out as a variant on Carrie where a bullied teen girl enacts vengeance against her tormentors with the aid of a cursed mirror
Mirrors 2 (2010)
A sequel to Alexandre Aja’s Mirrors that abandons most of the basics of the first film and strips everything down to a series of gory, novelty deaths
Mirrors (2008)
Alexandre Aja film about haunted mirrors. However, Aja is more a director of physical horror and seems less attuned to the supernatural mood. Based on an earlier Korean film.
Misbegotten (1997)
From a Larry Cohen script, a side-splitting effort with Kevin Dillon as a psychopathic sperm donor who forcibly intrudes into the life of his baby’s mother
Misery (1990)
A classic Stephen King adaptation from Rob Reiner with writer James Caan imprisoned by psycho fan Kathy Bates, who gives a terrifying performance that won her an Academy Award
Miss Meadows (2014)
There is an irresistible appeal to the idea of Katie Holmes as a sweetly smiling Miss Manners dressed in Sunday Best who, in between correcting people’s manners and punctuation, is also a gun-toting vigilante
Miss Zombie (2013)
A remarkable Japanese zombie film about a family who adopt a zombie maid. This is shot kitchen sink style and becomes a study in the way her blank presence affects everyone around her
Mississippi River Sharks (2017)
An appealingly tongue-in-cheek entry in the gonzo killer shark film with sharks attacking along the Mississippi. From the incomparable Misty Talley
The Mist (2007)
One of the best Stephen King adaptations about people in a supermarket at siege from creatures in a mystery fog outside while fear and prejudice comes out. With one of the great unforgettable endings
Mr Crocket (2024)
A wonderfully grotesque and sinister film about a failed children’s show host who returns from Hell as a boogeyman come to snatch children away from bad parents. Think Death to Smoochy meets A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Mistress (2022)
This starts out seeming like another haunted house film before developing some conceptual reversal twists of the first M. Night Shyamalan-esque order
Mistress Frankenstein (2000)
The Frankenstein film, which deals with grave robbing and hideously scarred corpses, seems an unlikely choice for adult movie treatment. This is one of the offerings
Mockingbird (2014)
Bryan Bertino made the impressive The Strangers and this was his follow-up but it was held up so long in release that its originality was rendered everyday by others in the Found Footage genre
Modern Vampires (1998)
Richard Elfman film about chic vampires who have become an elite living in Hollywood. Despite promise and some interesting ideas, this is ruined by an atrociously overacting cast
Mold! (2012)
A very cheaply made film about a deadly mold amok at a laboratory. Notable only for some gory meltdown effects and the filmmakers’ laughable lack of knowledge about contamination procedures
Moloch (2022)
A Dutch-made Folk Horror film about the discovery of a witch’s body in a bog. This is a slow burn film that creates a mystery that eventually comes together with great subtlety
Mom & Dad (2017)
A captivating variant on the mass insanity film where parents are frenziedly driven to kill their children. As the murderous father, Nicolas Cage lets all stops go
Mommy’s Day (1996)
This was the sequel to Mommy, which featured Patty McCormack as a psychopathic mother who is released from jail and returns determined to get back her daughter
Mommy (1995)
Patty McCormack played a psychopathic child in The Bad Seed at age eleven. 39 years later, this is essentially a sequel where McCormack has grown up and become a mother
Mom’s Got a Date With a Vampire (2000)
Amiably silly children’s vampire film in which three kids struggle to prevent their mother as she goes on a date with a vampire. This take a juveniles approach with tongue planted in cheek
Mongolian Death Worm (2010)
This was a low-budget monster movie churned out for the Syfy Channel. Alas, this quickly slides down into being a tatty, indifferently made copy of Tremors
Mongrel (1982)
Incredibly shabby film about residents of a Texas boarding house being killed by a supernatural dog. From Robert Burns, the production designer for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Monk (1990)
An adaptation of a classic 18th Century Gothic novel about a priest who faces diabolic temptations in the form of a woman disguised as a novice monk amid much tortured guilt and damnation
The Monk (2011)
The Monk is a sordid classic of 18th Century Gothic literature, filled with crazed lusts and Catholic guilt and damnation. Here all the tortured sexuality has been watered down and the story stuffed as a costume drama
The Monkey (2025)
Osgood Perkins adapts a Stephen King story about a toy monkey that causes deaths whenever it is wound. Perkins goes into full-on Final Destination territory serving up bizarre deaths
Monkey Shines (1988)
A disappointing George Romero film about a paraplegic man’s psychic link with his monkey that then comes to enact his suppressed anger. A fine idea drowns in shrill characterisations.
Monster (1979)
An obscure 1970s film about a monster emerging from a Colombian lake but fails to be even remotely interesting, before being plunged into bad movie stakes by the ridiculous monster at the end
The Monster (2016)
A monster movie that consists of a mother and daughter cowering in a crashed car on a remote stretch of road. The effectiveness of the film comes in the incredibly raw emotional groundwork laid in the first half
The Monster and the Girl (1941)
Mad scientist film in which George Zucco transplants an executed man’s brain into a gorilla’s body whereupon the ape-man proceeds to exact revenge against those who wrongly convicted him
Monster Brawl (2011)
This has the mildly amusing idea of taking films like Dracula vs Frankenstein one step further and pitting various classic monsters against one another in a wrestling match
The Monster Club (1980)
Following the collapse of Amicus Films, producer Milton Subotsky went on on his own to make this horror anthology, the bread and butter of Amicus in their heyday. Though he brings in some major horror names – Vincent Price, John Carradine – the jokey tone failed to find any success
Monster (2003)
Patty Jenkins and Charlize Theron combine forces on their portrait of female serial killer Aileen Wuornos. In the role, Theron undergoes an amazing transformation that won her an Academy Award for Best Actress
Monster from the Surf (1965)
Another Z movie attempt to join the 1960s beach party movie fad – with the additions of cheesy monsters. This ends up being fairly ridiculous on all counts
Monster in the Closet (1986)
Monster movie parody that spoofs a number of classic films, including King Kong where it takes the title literally and the monster makes off with the hero, giving the film a certain LGBT relevance in its day
The Monster Maker (1944)
Mad scientist film from poverty row studio PRC with George Zucco in a Bela Lugosi role as a madman injecting his enemies with doses of acromegaly
Monster Mash (2024)
The Asylum conduct a monster bash – a crossover between the Famous Monsters – and actually do a modest and quite enjoyable job that pays affectionate homage to the characters
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)
Minor and largely undistinguished 1950s monster movie. The monster is a blatant copy of The Creature of the Black Lagoon and similarly has biologically improbable designs on the heroine. Routine on all accounts
Monster on a Plane (2024)
A couple of years before this, Germany made the standout Blood Red Sky about vampires loose on a plane. Conceived in a similar vein, this is an hilariously bad German film about a monster loose on a plane
Monster Party (2018)
This has an interesting premise where a trio of house burglars break into a mansion during a dinner party only to stumble into a support group for serial killers
The Monster Squad (1987)
Rather charming effort where the Famous Monsters – Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Creature – are revived and pitted against a group of kids. The film has a great deal of affection for the originals and the encounters are delightful
Monster: The Ed Gein Story (2025)
A tv mini-series based on true-life necrophile/grave robber Ed Gein. This embellishes the facts considerably but is one of the most outrageously out there pieces of tv watching you will come across
The Monster Walks (1932)
This was misleadingly sold as a monster movie and is otherwise an Old Dark House thriller, most of which is blatantly borrowed from The Cat and the Canary
Monstersdotcom (2003)
A video-released compilation of horror short films all set around the titular website, all of which are above average entries
El Monstro del Mar! (2010)
Australian exploitation homage that is like a collision between Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! and a monster movie. Low-budget but this has an authentic recapturing of the spirit of trash cinema
Monstrosity (1964)
An amusingly lurid Z budget film with an aging widow employs a scientist to use an atomic reactor to transfer her mind into the body of a younger woman
Monstrous (2022)
A film in which Christina Ricci fears her son is being drawn to a monster that lives in the lake. This all hangs around a very contrived twist ending
Morbius (2022)
Sony’s attempts to wring everything possible from the Spider-Man copyright in order to compete with the MCU continue with this film devoted to the Spider-Man vampire villain
More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead (2011)
Return of the Living Dead is regarded as a classic zombie comedy. This is a documentary about the making of it that interviews most of the cast and crew
Mortuary (2005)
Another effort in the sad slide into amateurishness that marked that latter years of Tobe Hooper’s career, a muddled effort set around a mortuary involving body-snatching fungus and deformed relatives
Mortuary Academy (1988)
Intended as a horror riff on the phenomenally popular Police Academy series, this sets a series of gags in as bad a taste as possible around the locale of a mortuary
The Mortuary Assistant (2026)
Based on a videogame, a film set at a morgue where a new assistant has to fight off supernatural forces and complete a series of rituals to prevent herself from becoming possessed
The Mortuary Collection (2019)
A horror anthology with a mordant sense of humour with Clancy Brown doing a great turn as an octogenarian mortuary attendant who tells several stories of the bodies he has tended
The Most Assassinated Woman in the World (2018)
A biopic of Paula Maxa, the real-life star of Paris’s Grand Guignol Theatre. The Grand Guignol specialised in plays depicting gory on-stage deaths and she was killed on stage an estimated 10,000 times during her career. Here the biopic elements are blended with a mystery in which she is targeted by a serial killer
Most Beautiful Island (2017)
Ana Asensio, a Spanish immigrant, writes, directs and stars in a story about a cash-strapped Spanish immigrant who is forced to seek employment in a secret society in order to make ends meet
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
The first and best version of the oft-told story in which shipwreck survivors are forced to survive with their bare hands while being hunted by a mad Russian aristocrat
The Most Dangerous Game (2017)
Remake of the oft-filmed story wherein a couple are forced to survive with their bare hands while hunted by a sportsman. This has been updated where hero John Hennigan is now a reality tv star
The Most Dangerous Game (2022)
A new version about the classic human bloodsports film where a group of shipwreckees are hunted across an island by a mad aristocrat
Motel Hell (1980)
A studio-backed attempt to enter the Backwoods Brutality genre ends up as an uncertain black comedy that fails to push the envelope anywhere near what its models do
Moth (2016)
A Hungarian-made Found Footage horror film with vague claims to being about the Mothman. This only goes where The Blair Witch Project trod before, although subverts it in a twist ending