Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
The third of the films devoted to Marvel’s miniature superhero. This ventures into multiverse themes works well when it comes to introducing the MCU’s big new super-villain who ended up never happening
Brian and Charles (2022)
At contrast to all the serious films being made about A.I, and androids, this is a wonderfully charming and really quite eccentric comedy where a man builds a robot out of junk
Curse of Mesopotamia (2015)
This sold itself as the first Iraqi horror film, which it isn’t quite (more accurately a film made by an expatriate), although it is rooted in the mythology of the region
Gappa the Triphibian Monster (1967)
This was a fairly crappy and terrible Japanese monster movie from a rival company seeking to copy the success of Toho’s Godzilla films
Night Hair Child (1972)
Quite a perversely charged film about a psychopathic child with voyeuristic tendencies
Spiritwalker (2020)
A conceptually intriguing cross between the bodyswap film and the South Korean gangster film
Glorious (2022)
Film with a literally off-the-wall premise in which Ryan Kwanten is trapped in a rest stop bathroom with a Lovecraftian deity that speaks through a glory hole in the next stall
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
Guy Ricthie makes a spy action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is far more absurdly entertaining than anything you expect it to be. Hugh Grant steals the day as the super-villain of the show
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Superlatively moody and well written film that winds a young Edgar Allan Poe into an occult murder mystery
Zombie Hunter (2013)
Post-apocalyptic zombie action played with a tongue-in-cheek comic-book tone. Plus Danny Trejo as a badass zombie-hunting priest
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)
The first film appearance of one of the great super-villains of pulp fiction. This was a silent film version with Warner Oland cast in the title role, making a rolypoly Fu Mancu in contrast to some of the other great actors in the part
The Barcelona Vampiress (2020)
A visually extraordinary True Crime film based on the story of a Spanish woman who may or may not have abducted and killed a string of children in the 1910s
Hellhole (2022)
This Polish film starts out seeming like a possession film set in a monastery but rather pleasingly keeps turning all the expectations on their head with increasingly wilder effect
65 (2023)
This seemed to have a lot of promise in its set-up of Adam Driver crashlanded in Earth’s prehistoric past fighting off dinosaurs
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Shazam! was one of the more enjoyable DCEU superhero offerings, placing a light-hearted spin on the superheroics. This is the sequel
Embrace of the Vampire (2013)
This is a Canadian-made remake of the Alyssa Milano-starring erotic vampire film The Nosferatu Diaries: Embrace of the Vampire. For some reason, this is now minus the erotica and emerges as tepid
Kaw (2007)
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
Abby (1974)
A Blaxploitation copy of The Exorcist – so blatant that it was sued for copyright infringement. Worth seeing for its entertaining absurdities including the climactic exorcism held on a disco dancefloor
Things Heard & Seen (2021)
Ghost story that seems to be intended to play to a more literary level than most of its contemporaries
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
James Cameron finally delivers his sequel to Avatar. Nothing could quite repeat the same phenomenon a second time but this does well with Cameron taking the opportunity to show more depth to his alien world
Resurrection (2022)
Rebecca Hall gives an extraordinary performance of disturbed psychology as a woman dealing with a man from her past who may have eaten her child
All Hallows’ Eve (2013)
From the director of the Terrifier films, a horror anthology in which a babysitter and kids sit down to watch a mysterious videotape on Halloween night. The first screen appearance of Art the Clown
Deadly Skies (2006)
Very low-budget film about an impending asteroid collision. Possibly the first LGBT disaster movie depending on which version you see
It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman (1975)
This is possibly the most bizarre entry in the history of the cinematic Superman – a filmed adaptation of Superman Broadway musical. This has to be seen to be believed
Fascism on a Thread: The Strange Story of Nazisploitation (2019)
A documentary that charts the lurid and frequently distasteful phenomenon of the Nazisploitation film that emerged as a mini-genre in the 1970s
Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (2023)
A revival of the Kirk Cameron starring Biblical End of the World films and a sequel to the Nicolas Cage starring reboot. Directed by and starring your favourite internet troll Kevin Sorbo
Boston Strangler (2023)
Produced by Ridley Scott, a new true crime work about the Boston Strangler killings that is told through the eyes of Keira Knightley as the journalist who broke the case
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)
Yes, someone made a horror version of the much loved children’s character. Imagine The Texas Chain Saw Massacre where Leatherface has been replaced by Winnie-the-Pooh
Quarantine LA (2013)
Zombie film with a party of survivors trying to make it through a zombie-infested L.A. to safety
The Ghost Galleon (1974)
The third of the Blind Dead films about the zombies of blind Knights Templar. This is set aboard a ghost ship at sea and is said to have later influenced John Carpenter’s The Fog
Found Footage 3D (2016)
An absolutely hilarious parody of the Found Footage film about a film crew trying to conduct a shoot in a haunted house. This comes with mind-spinning levels of meta-fiction
The Exorcism of God (2021)
A possession and exorcism film from Mexico, this draws on the same tired and overly worn clichés that have been around since The Exorcist but offers some interesting twists
You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
An absolutely extraordinary work of Folk Horror about a young witch who learns the ability to inhabit the bodies of others
Cocaine Bear (2023)
Very loosely based on a real-life incident, this is an Animals Attack film about a rampaging bear wired on cocaine. Director Elizabeth Banks makes a play for darkly funny humour
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)
DC Universe Animated film that is adapted from an Elseworlds story that offers up an alternate 1920s version of Batman who is fighting up against H.P. Lovecraft entities
Dam Sharks! (2016)
Another gonzo killer shark film, this concerns sharks who have invaded a river and built a dam to trap human prey. Everything comes with an amusingly sarcastic sense of humour
The Tempest (1998)
A retelling of the Shakespeare play, which had been updated to the midst of the American Civil War with some interesting results
A for Andromeda (2006)
A tv movie remake of a classic 1960s BBC serial where astronomers pick up messages from space that gives instructions for the construction of a body for themselves
Survival of the Film Freaks (2018)
The title suggests a work about film fans facing the end of the world but this is actually a documentary about the cult film phenomenon
Matriarch (2022)
A wonderfully creepy Folk Horror film in which Jemima Rooper returns to her home town after many years and finds very strange things happening
Diabolik: Ginko Attacks (2022)
The 2021 Diabolik was a witty and stylish revival of the cult Italian comic-book about a masked super-thief. This was the first of the sequels, albeit with a different actor playing the title role
Shin Ultraman (2022)
Reboot of the old Japanese superhero series, conducted with the epic scale, mass destruction and dazzling effects of the more recent Godzilla films
Rise of the Gargoyles (2009)
A Syfy Channel monster movie that seems made with a smidgen more care than their usual B movie output
The Duel (2000)
A Wu Xia film from Andrew Lau, the director of the Infernal Affairs films, in which the two top martial artists in the world issue a challenge to a duel on the roof of the imperial palace
Ulysses (1954)
Lavishly made Greek myth adventure, an adaptation of The Odyssey with Kirk Douglas as Ulysses/Odysseus
Game of Death (2017)
Gore-drenched French-Canadian film where teens play a board game that forces them to kill a select number of people lest their heads explode
Final Cut (2022)
One Cut of the Dead was one of the freshest takes on the overworked zombie film in recent years. Here Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius conducts a French remake but misses the mark
The Kingdom: Exodus (2022)
Lars von Trier returns to finish off his haunted hospital saga The Kingdom after a 25 years absence, despite the death of several principals, and again milks the same darkly hilarious vein
We Have a Ghost (2023)
Christopher Landon, director of Happy Death Day and Freaky, makes a comedy about a family who turn the ghost in their house into a viral sensation
Asylum (2008)
From the director of Snakes on a Plane, a film about a co-ed university dormitory that used to be an asylum where students find that former horrors still lurk
Dolly Dearest (1991)
A copycat possessed doll film that came out in the aftermath of the Child’s Play films. A routine effort about an evil spirit uncovered in a Mexican mine that inhabits a child’s doll.
Psycho Shark (2009)
aka Jaws in Japan. A Japanese entry in the Gonzo Killer Shark Film fad
Horror in the High Desert (2021)
A modest Found Footage film that builds up an effective mystery about the disappearance of a hiker in the Nevada backwoods. Three sequels followed.
Luck (2022)
Disgraced former Pixar head John Lasseter makes a returns to animation for Skydance in an incredibly lightweight effort about adventures in the land of luck
Knock at the Cabin (2023)
An M. Night Shayamalan film concerning strangers who conduct a home invasion to force Dave Bautista and family to make a horrible choice to prevent their vision of the end of the world
5-25-77 (2022)
Forget The Fabelmans, this is a superlative autobiography of a filmmaker and the influence Star Wars had on his life. Neck-deep in fannish enthusiasm for the genre and the love of Super 8 filmmaking
Extremity (2018)
Horror film from the rising name of Anthony DiBlasi set around an extreme haunt, a Halloween horror show that pushes everything beyond people’s limits
The Invisible Man Appears (1949)
An obscure and little-seen but fascinating Japanese copy of The Invisible Man films wherein a scientist becomes an invisible man after taking his formula. Let down by weak effects.
Thr3e (2006)
Quite evidently modelled on Se7en even to the lookalike title, this is the novelty of a Christian serial killer thriller. The results are quite strange to say the least
Shark Side of the Moon (2022)
Another gonzo killer shark film from The Asylum, makers of Sharknado films, this features the entertaining absurdity of evolved humanoid Soviet sharks living on the Moon
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
Infinity Pool (2023)
Extraordinary Brandon Cronenberg film about a fictional country where those convicted of crimes can have clone copies executed in their place, leading to an tourist underworld where all crimes are permissible
House of Darkness (2022)
Neil LaBute conducts a vampire movie take on the war of the sexes that comes with a satisfying bite. Justin Long gets more than he bargained for when he accompanies the girl he picks up in a bar home
Strange New World (1975)
The third of the films based around Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II concept where a cryogenic sleeper awakes in a post-apocalyptic world
Stacy (2001)
A bizarre Japanese film about hordes of schoolgirl zombies
The Wizard of Gore (2007)
A remake of the cult Herschell Gordon Lewis splatter film about a stage magician who creates illusions of eviscerating people on stage
What Josiah Saw (2021)
This is a superbly written and directed work of Southern Gothic that consists of three interwoven tales that gradually expose dark family secrets
The Lair (2022)
Neil Marshall was a highly promising genre name a few years ago on the basis of The Descent. Here he returns with a film about soldiers facing alien hybrid monsters in Afghanistan
The Harbinger (2022)
A standout work concerning a demon that invades dreams and then erases all memory of the person in others. Shot during Covid lockdown and haunted by an incredible sense of isolation
Legion of Super-Heroes (2023)
Another of the DC Original Animated Movies. This deals with both the Legion of Super-Heroes and Supergirl, bringing them together in a mutual adventure
Yeti: A Love Story (2006)
Troma film about a group of trampers attacked by a Yeti only for one of the group to discover gay love with the Yeti
Chocky’s Children (1985)
The first sequel to Chocky, the classic mini-series about a boy with an alien invisible companion, this expands the concept out with the introduction of other children
Polaroid (2019)
Horror film about a cursed Polaroid camera that kills everybody that appears in one of its photos
Red Snow (2021)
This has the amusing idea of being a Martin for the Twilight era where a writer of vampire romances not at all modelled on Stephenie Meyer encounters a real vampire
Dual (2022)
Film in which a dying Karen Gillan has a clone made of herself only to make an unexpected recovery and be forced into a televised duel to death with the clone for ownership of her life
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
The MCU’s sequel to Black Panther. This offers the peculiarity of a work in which the superhero of the title never actually appears and is instead set around his absence following the death of Chadwick Boseman
Skinamarink (2022)
A considerable word of mouth hit, this generates a very spooky atmosphere with highly unusual shooting techniques
Me and Him (1988)
A comedy in which Griffin Dunne’s penis begins talking to him. Contrary to expectation, most of the film is PG-13 but some of the films attitudes and unfunny routines are fairly mind-boggling
Matchless (1967)
One of the numerous spy films of the 1960s, featuring Patrick O’Neal who goes into action with a magic invisibility ring
Spell (2020)
Bizarrely overwrought film in which a successful city lawyer is made prisoner by a backwoods voodoo priestess
Mortal (2020)
The director of The Troll Hunter returns with a stunningly shot film with Nat Wolff a mystery man found by police who demonstrates increasingly more godlike powers
Old Man (2022)
Lucky McKee, director of May and The Woman, makes a film about two men meeting at a cabin in the woods where secrets emerge amid psychological tensions between the two
M3gan (2022)
A horror film about an artificially intelligent children’s doll that resembles one of the Big Eyes paintings, which then proceeds to go full-on Terminator
Birdemic 3 – Sea Eagle (2022)
At one point, Birdemic had a bad movie cult that rivalled The Room. Whether we asked for it or not, this is a third film in the series. James Nguyen seems to think everybody has come for a lecture about Global Warming.
Infeccion (2019)
A zombie film from Venezuela in which a lone doctor struggles to survive after a train of mutated rabies spreads throughout the countryside. A solid entry in the genre.
Wyvern Hill (2021)
Low-budget British film about a mysterious killer lurking in the house
Requiem for a Vampire (1972)
The fourth of the works of arty vampire erotica from cult director Jean Rollin. Rollin has discovered more in the way of plot by this point, while the film has a beautifully dreamy fairytale-like quality
Moon Crash (2022)
The Asylum offer up a mockbuster copy of Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall that is far more entertaining than the original
Hatching (2022)
A fascinatingly creepy Finnish film in which a young girl adopts and bonds with a grotesque bird-like creature, which proves murderous at the same time as it starts to become more human-like
Jung_E (2023)
Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho turns his hand to making an SF film about the attempts to perfect an android soldier and the fight to complete and control it
Something in the Dirt (2022)
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have become must-watch directors in the last decade. This film, which was shot in their apartment during Covid lockdown, becomes the ultimate conspiracy theory rabbit hole
The Hazing (2004)
A low-budget film about a university hazing in a haunted house that goes wrong. This overspills with genre tropes to eventually arrive at an appealing ridiculousness
Gogol: The Beginning (2017)
The first in a trilogy of Russian dark fantasy films featuring the real-life horror writer Nikolai Gogol as an occult detective investigating a series of supernatural mysteries
Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972)
One of the early films from Lucio Fulci – the film that he always insisted was his best – concerning a series of child killings in a small town. Quite different to the sort of film Fulci became known for
Danger! Danger! (2021)
This is an enjoyable low-budget homage to the Indiana Jones film that comes with a number of knowing references to the genre and the addition of a clever time travel plot
Raven’s Hollow (2022)
Film that features a young Edgar Allan Poe fighting a supernatural menace known as The Raven
Bones and All (2022)
Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino sinks his teeth into making a film about cannibalism. Forget the Young Adult label the film was sold with, this is quite an impressive work
Orphan: First Kill (2022)
I was fairly ho-hum about the first Orphan but this is a sequel that entirely surprises you
Mt. Misery Rd (2018)
A strong contender for the worst Blair Witch copy AND the worst Amityville film ever made. This has the feel of a home movie made by a husband and wife and is laughably ridiculous in its failings
Anastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020)
Bizarre family film in which Russian princess Anastasia travels through time to the present day and discovers mall culture