Asteroid (2021)
We have had numerous films about asteroids and meteors about to strike the Earth. This is played as a comedy where a man buys his dream home only to find it is ground zero for an oncoming comet strike
Meteor (2009)
A TV mini-series where a meteor is about to collide with the Earth. Assorted well-known faces fight through the chaos and Disaster Movie formulaic perils to prevent this
Azur and Asmar (2006)
Next to Hayao Miyazaki, Michel Ocelot is the greatest animators of all time but one of the least widely recognised. Here he conducts a beautifully made Arabian fairytale
Blackout (2023)
Larry Fessenden is a strong genre force as director, producer and sometimes actor. He has covered most major horror themes in his films. Blackout was his take on the werewolf film
IF (2024)
Ryan Reynolds and director John Krasinski combine to make a film about imaginary companions, an appealingly quirky effort where a young girl befriends a large furry invisible creature
The Primevals (2023)
A fascinating lost world/alien lizard people stop-motion animated film that has been in production for a record 56 years, eventually pieced together and released by Charles Band several years after its creator’s death
The Happy Ghost (1984)
A popular Hong Kong hit in its day where a schoolgirl gains a ghostly scholar as an invisible companion, resulting in a series of slapstick sequences. Several sequels followed
Pretty Ghost (1991)
One of a popular spate of 80s/90s Hong Kong ghost comedies where a man gets the aid of an annoying ghost girl as he pursues the woman of his dreams
The Return of Chandu (1934)
A serial based on Chandu the Magician, a popular radio superhero who wielded magical and mystical powers. Featuring Bela Lugosi in the title role
Ten Little Indians (1989)
An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel/play And Then There Were None that relocates the story to an African safari and takes more of a horror movie focus
Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006)
A hardcore and irredeemably nasty film, this has the aesthetic of a snuff movie and features lots of scenes of victims tortured and vomiting
Murder-Set-Pieces (2004)
A psycho film about a serial killing photographer who stalks Las Vegas, this goes way out of its way to offend people but collapses under its determination to be edgy
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
An almost unclassifiably strange film about fandom for a weird 1990s tv show, this seems to be heading for David Lynch territory and becomes an allegory for trans identity
Sasquatch Sunset (2024)
A sublimely eccentric concept for a film that follows a family of Bigfeet in the wild over the course of a year. There are no humans in the film, not even any dialogue. One of my Top 10 of the year
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II (2024)
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey offered a horror version of the much loved children’s character. This is more of the same with a bigger budget
Don’t Look Away (2023)
Horror film from regular Canadian genre director Micheal Bafaro about a group of friends who enact a curse in which they are pursued and killed by a mannequin come to life
Brain Freeze (2021)
A Quebecois (French Canadian) zombie film about the residents of an island being turned into zombies by a fertiliser used on the golf course
Cafe Flesh (1982)
An adult film that gained a critical respectability when it came out, an avant garde work set in a future where the populace has become impotent and the handful unaffected perform sex in clubs for paying audiences
Ghostwatch (1992)
Classic BBC live broadcast tv special where a camera crew investigate a haunted house. Cited as one of the first Found Footage films, this does some ingenious things blending fact and fiction and messing with its audience
Corrective Measures (2022)
Another of the last films made by Bruce Willis before his retirement. This one has a watchable central idea and is set around the idea of a prison for super-villains even if Bruce is not up to much
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
The Strangers was one the sleeper hits of the 2000s. This is the first chapter in a three film reboot. On the minus side, it has been handed over to Renny Harlin, who should be on any worst directors list
Tarot (2024)
A horror film based around the phenomenon of tarot cards, a surprise that nobody has done so before
Hornet (2018)
An Asylum mockbuster aimed to exploit the release of the Transformers spinoff BumbleBee. This has the unique distinction of being a Transformers-type film shot as Found Footage
Robot Revolution (2015)
Micro-budgeted SF film where a nanoswarm is accidentally released, taking over an apartment building and reprogramming technology
Zombies on Broadway (1945)
A Bela Lugosi comedy in which two inept press agents are ordered to obtain a zombie for the opening of a club
Hunt Club (2022)
A variation on The Most Dangerous Game that comes with a nasty feminist agenda where women are hunted by men who feel a disappearing sense of entitlement
Hunting Ava Bravo (2022)
A decent variant on The Most Dangerous Game with a woman forced to survive with her bare hands while pursued by a hunter, this places emphasis on the psychological interplay between hunter and hunted
The Singing Detective (1986)
One of the most extraordinary works ever made for tv. From the pen of Dennis Potter, a mini-series that blends film noir, meta-fiction and autobiography
Fear the Invisible Man (2023)
A modest and quite good low-budget adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, which adheres more faithfully to the Wells novel than the recent high-profile film
Civil War (2024)
Alex Garland is one of the most interesting creative names out there in the genre at the moment. Here he offers a frightening depiction of a near future USA collapsed into civil war
The First Omen (2024)
Did the world ask for a prequel to the events of The Omen, explaining how Damien was born etc? It’s not an issue that has given me sleepless night, but it is a question the film sets out to answer anyway
Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969)
One of the films from Z-budget director Al Adamson, who should be a rival for Edward D. Wood Jr in the bad movies stakes. This resurrects Count Dracula in the present-day, living in a castle in the California desert
Pig Killer (2022)
A film based on true-life Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton who fed his victim’s bodies to his pigs
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
A follow-up to Godzilla vs Kong, this tries to offer more of the same but suffers another ridiculous script. This ended up being overshadowed by the acclaim that the Japanese-made Godzilla: Minus One received
Abigail (2024)
From the duo behind the Scream reboot films, a thriller about the kidnap of a young girl in the vein of From Dusk Till Dawn that abruptly pivots to become a vampire film
Girls School Screamers (1985)
Catholic schoolgirls are being killed in a big old haunted house. This was unable to find a release in its original form whereupon it was bought up by Troma, given a much more sensationalistic title and released with extra gore scenes
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
CarGo (2017)
A mockbuster from The Asylum released to take advantage of Pixar’s Cars 3, this is actually a much better film that you expect it to be
Suicide Girls Must Die! (2010)
A horror film made by the alt modelling website Suicide Girls where several girls go away for a modelling shoot only for something to cause them to start disappearing
Night Teeth (2021)
This comes with an interestingly large canvas wherein an innocent chauffeur is drawn into wars between secret vampire clans that run Los Angeles
An American in Austen (2024)
A modern girl pining for the perfect man is transported back into the world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice where she ends up disrupting the story
Unseen (2023)
A film with an ingenious premise where a nearly blind woman must rely on a total stranger to guide her by her phone through the woods while avoiding a pursuer
The End We Start From (2023)
Jodie Comer is a new mother who travels through an England that has been devastated by catastrophic flooding. Not dissimilar to The Road but less bleak
Death’s Roulette (2023)
A Mexican-made variant on one of the Saw films where a group of diverse people are locked into a room and must select one of their number to die otherwise everybody will be killed
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, reuniting that film’s mix of new and classic cast. However, this becomes a plotting juggle that is often straining to find somewhere to include everyone
1984 (2023)
A new adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. In this case, the film was shot in Russia and imagines the world as a full-on dystopian future quite unlike any of the previous film versions
The Ghost of Yotsuya [Parts 1 and II] (1949)
One of a number of films based on the most famous of all Japanese ghost stories. This is a adaptation made in the neo-realist style of the period that was released in two parts
Titanic 666 (2022)
An offering from The Asylum where a replica of the Titanic sets sail only to be beset by the ghosts of those who sank aboard the original ship
Tokyo! (2008)
Directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho make an anthology of strange and surreal tales that take place in Tokyo
Support Group Olympus (2021)
A film about the Greek gods trying to get by in the present-day where they are suddenly all required to attend a support group
Dampyr (2022)
A comic-book adaptation about vampire wars in a modern East European war zone. A slick Underworld-styled vampire action film that has some interesting ideas going on inside it
Godzilla Minus One (2023)
The 33rd Japanese Godzilla film and the one to receive the greatest acclaim of any in the series so far, including the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. This takes the series back to the beginnings
Humane (2024)
David Cronenberg’s daughter Caitlin makes her directorial debut with a film set around a family dinner in a future where the world has decided to euthanize the world population by twenty percent
She Freak (1967)
A horror film made as homage to the classic Freaks, this is a fascinatingly sordid work set during the vanished era of the carnival sideshow
Sharkula (2022)
Z-budget filmmaker Mark Polonia makes another of his entries into the gonzo killer shark film. This is a companion piece to his Sharkenstein – yes, a work about a vampire shark!
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
Greaser’s Palace (1972)
An Acid Western was a Western made with a psychedelic trippiness. Directed by Robert Downey Jr’s father, this is a surreal work about a Christ-like visitor in a zoot suit who turns up in a Western town
In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)
A follow-up to the documentary about the 1980s horror film, this deals with some of the lesser-known and overlooked works that were not covered the first time around
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two (2024)
The second part of the epic three film animated adaptation of the classic DC Comics title Crisis on Infinite Earths concerning a battle across the DC multiverse
Late Night With the Devil (2023)
This conducts a perfect simulation of a 1970s tv talkshow with David Dastmalchian as a host who tries to expose/debunk a demonic possession before things go wrong live on air
Where the Devil Roams (2023)
The Adams Family have made a series of striking horror films in recent years. This is an impressive work set around a circus, a cross-country murder spree and dark magic
Futuresport (1998)
This borrows the basics of Rollerball and concerns a futuristic sports game played aboard hoverboards. Cocky player Dean Cain decides a showdown with terrorists must be settled over the outcome of a game
Thoughtcrimes (2003)
This comes with the undeniable influence of the then recent Minority Report in its story about a telepath recruited by law enforcement
Teenage Exorcist (1991)
Written by and starring 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, this offers an occasionally amusing comedy take on the possession and exorcism film
VFW (2019)
Joe Begos makes a homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 with a group of war veterans in a bar in an ultra-violent siege against a horde of crazed drug addicts outside
Simulant (2023)
Another in the spate of recent A.I. films of the 2010s/20s. Here one can buy android replacements for one’s late spouse but someone is hacking and causing them to go rogue
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon was intended as a two-part space opera saga. This first half emerged watchably and this is Part Two
Immaculate (2024)
A horror film where Sydney Sweeney stars as a virginal nun who appears to be experiencing an immaculate conception. This is only a slightly better version of The Nun
The Rise of the Beast (2022)
Low-budget British film about environmental protestors pursued by a genetically engineered giant ape
Kong Island (1968)
This has nothing to do with King Kong and is an adventure film that features a female Tarzan and a mad scientist creating an army of mind-controlled gorillas
The Diabolical Dr Z (1966)
An early film from Jess Franco in which an exotic dancer is turned into a mind-controlled assassin who lures and kills victims with her six-inch long fingernails as part of a revenge scheme
Corruption (1968)
Peter Cushing plays a surgeon who devises an advanced technique to restore his wife’s burn-disfigured face – only to find he must kill to maintain it. An Anglo-horror effort that borrows the basics of Eyes Without a Face/Les Yeux Sans Visage
Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever (2012)
A documentary about the slasher film, which interviews various directors and actors behind the films about the genre’s origins and rules
The Lurking Fear (2023)
Another low-budget H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, this abandons all but the bare bones of the story to create a work about abominable experiments lurking in the halls of an abandoned asylum
Dune Part Two (2024)
The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune, this delves more deeply into the world of the Fremen, although starts to diverge more from the book
Apocalypse Clown (2023)
Not another killer clown film as you might initially assume, but a really funny Irish comedy about a group of dysfunctional clowns in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation
Yakuza Weapon (2011)
Another Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film about a Yakuza heir who is blown apart by rivals and then rebuilt with cyborg attachments
Breaking Wind (2012)
A parody of the Twilight series, which feeds the films through the vulgar and sophomoric gags of the Scary Movie type film parody
The Necromancer (2018)
A modestly effective film about a group of deserting soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars who enter a haunted forest
Loop Track (2023)
Quite good New Zealand made film about mysterious happenings during a hike into the bush, where what is happening is kept in a state of careful ambiguity
Carnifex (2022)
A monster movie that takes place as a documentary crew are trying to study the wildlife displaced by the Australian bushfires
Secret Headquarters (2022)
A kid makes the discovery that his father is a superhero and he and his friends amuse themselves with the cool gadgetry in his secret headquarters, before being required to defend it against a villain
If You Were the Last (2023)
A space film set aboard a NASA space mission as two stranded astronauts debate whether to surrender to mutual attraction. In contrast to realistically grounded efforts such as Gravity, The Martian et al, this is a comedy
Netherworld (1992)
One of the better films from Charles Band’s Full Moon Productions set amid voodoo rites in the American South and creating an atmosphere of exotic/erotic mystery
Kamikaze (1986)
An early film written/produced by Luc Besson concerning a scientist driven crazy by tv announcers who invents a device that can kill people as they appear live on tv
The Pale Door (2020)
Weird Western where a group of outlaws on the run end up in a town of witches
Needle in a Timestack (2021)
Solid time travel film about a man who struggles to find a way back to his love as her ex keeps changing the timeline so she doesn’t leave him
House Red (2022)
Intriguing and well made film where two tourists seeking to patch up a troubled relationship volunteer at am Italian vineyard – only to find sinister things going on
Imaginary (2024)
A largely routine Blumhouse film where a woman’s return to her childhood home ends up awakening her imaginary companion who has now turned sinister
Status Update (2018)
Light fantasy comedy in which a teenager gets a magical cellphone that causes whatever he types into his status update to come true
Hellphone (2007)
A French film about a teenager who buys a demonic cellphone and is able to use it to enact comeuppances against the people in his life. A 976-Evil for the cellular era
Cosmic Voyage (1936)
An early Soviet-made film that does an extraordinary job in depicting the launch of a rocket to The Moon. Fascinating to see in terms of its incredible ambition and the things it gets right
The Undead (1957)
An early Roger Corman film that stirs a fascinating mix of elements involving hypnotic regression, witchery, time travel and appearances from The Devil
Tales of the Uncanny: The Ultimate Survey of Anthology Horror (2020)
A documentary that charts the history of the horror anthology in considerable depth, including conducting a survey on the best anthologies and individual episodes
Diabolik Chi Sei? (2023)
The third of the new series of films based on the cult Italian comic-book about a masked super-thief. This entry goes back to offer us a Diabolik origin story
Kill Her Goats (2023)
You could maybe coin the term Folk Slasher for this low-budget film where girls are pursued by chainsaw wielding figures in goat-headed masks. Painfully bad on all counts.
Dario Argento Panico (2023)
A documentary that interviews Dario Argento, now in his early eighties, along with his family and those around him, where he discusses his life, films and career
Kill and Kill Again (1981)
From they heyday of the 1970s martial arts film, karate champion James Ryan must reunite the old gang to take on a super-villain who wants to enslave the world with a mind control drug derived from potatoes
Mysterious Island (1951)
A serial adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic survival story about escapees aboard a hot-air balloon who wash up on a desert island. To the regular story, this sees fit to add hostile natives, pirates and invading aliens from Mercury
Plurality (2021)
Taiwanese film in which multiple personalities are implanted into a prisoner’s body, one of which is a serial killer, in an effort to find a missing child