Goodnight Mommy (2022)
The Austrian Goodnight Mommy was one of the most effective horror films of recent years. This is the toned-down English-language remake starring Naomi Watts as the mother
Dune Drifter (2020)
Modestly well made low-budget planetary survival film about a pilot crashlanded on a hostile world. An entire space opera that was shot in the director’s apartment during the Covid-19 lockdown
Plague (2014)
A standout Australian-made zombie film that breathes some life into an overworked genre, focusing on the tensions among the survivors as they try to fend off the dead while at siege on a farm
Phobias (2021)
Another horror anthology with each episode from a different directors, united around the wraparound theme of stories being told by patients in a strange psychiatric facility
Peter Rabbit 2 (2021)
The first Peter Rabbit film was an abomination that trashed Beatrix Potter’s genteel stories. It made this site’s Worst of 2018 list. This is a sequel
Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted (2022)
Fascinating documentary about the life of cult producer Gerry Anderson, the creator of puppet shows like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet et al. Made by Anderson’s son Jamie
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
George Miller of Mad Max fame makes a fantastical and charming film where djinn Idris Elba appears to Tilda Swinton
The Munsters (2022)
Rob Zombie conducts a big-screen remake of The Munsters and surprisingly enough makes his best film yet
The Masque of the Red Death (1989)
Disappointingly, not an adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story but more of a Poe-themed slasher film about a masked killer dressed as the Red Death
The Rambler (2013)
A man just out of jail leaves his wife after an argument and starts hitch-hiking. And then things start to get really weird
Royal Jelly (2021)
Film with a bizarre concept where a teenager girl is recruited into a human beehive
Warning (2021)
An anthology film that has been intended in the same vein as tv’s Black Mirror, offering a series of dark reflections of technological changes
In Search of Tomorrow: A Journey Through ’80s Sci-Fi Cinema (2022)
A documentary that comes with great affection for the SF films of the 1980s and covers these, along with interviews with key people, although leaves quite a number of blank spots in works it does not cover
The Invitation (2022)
A woman discovers she is related to an aristocratic family but sinister secrets lurk. The film hangs on a big twist that is extremely obvious to anyone who has seen enough horror films
Beast (2022)
A survival horror film where Idris Elba is on a trip to Africa only to be hunted by a rogue lion. Decently produced, this never works as well as you expect it would have
Devil’s Triangle (2021)
An adventure potboiler from The Asylum about the crew of a plane who pass through the Bermuda Triangle to end up in Atlantis just as the Atlanteans prepare to declare war on the surface world
The Hands of Orlac (1960)
The third film and least version of the classic horror story about a pianist who receives hands transplanted from a murderer and is driven mad believing they are possessing him
Apples (2020)
This is a strange and not particularly accessible deadpan Greek-made film where people are affected by a plague of amnesia. Similar to early Yorgos Lanthimos
Cryptozoo (2021)
Adult animated film set in a zoo for cryptozoological animals, this has a great premise and eye-poppingly psychedelic visuals
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
The fourth of Marvel’s Thor films, where director Taika Waititi gets the balance of humour down much more successfully than he did in the previous film
Pinocchio (2022)
The first of two Pinocchio adaptations of 2022, Here Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis delivers a live-action remake of the Disney animated film
Marionette (2020)
Film about a psychiatrist dealing with a boy who appears to be able to cause things to happen. All before things get really weird
Wait, Wait, Don’t Kill Me (2020)
Film about a virus that causes people to become dehydrated and turn into zombies
Armageddon Tales (2021)
An anthology of short films from three different directors set in the world after the collapse of civilisation
Bleed With Me (2020)
A film where a girl goes to stay with her girl friend at a cabin in the woods but thinks her friend might be drugging her and taking her blood
The Spine of Night (2021)
Surprisingly good animated sword and sorcery film, made with a darker edge and definitely not for children
Dashcam (2021)
Director Rob Savage made a splash with the Zoom horror film Host. His second film here is an insanely crazed horror film that is shot from the point-of-view of a dashcam
The Ledge (2022)
A thriller that sells itself to you with its premise where a woman who witnesses a murder and then must face the killers while trapped on a tiny ledge on a mountainside
Ape vs. Monster (2021)
The Asylum’s mockbuster version of Godzilla vs Kong that features a giant-sized chimpanzee and gila monster facing off against one another
Darkest Day (2015)
An ambitious low-budget variant on 28 Days Later featuring some excellent effects, where a man wakes up with amnesia to find zombies have overrun society
Hunted (2020)
Solidly effective Belgian film about a woman fleeing through the woods from a killer who wants to make snuff movies. One of several films about people hunted in the woods to come out around the same time
Dark Spell (2021)
Work of Russian horror that heads into pleasingly dark places as a woman enacts a love spell to bring her boyfriend back to her where you just know that something horrible is going to happen
DC League of Super Pets (2022)
Superheroes have overrun screens. It is starting to seem a little too much when we now get an animated film about animal superheroes who form their own Justice League
Nope (2022)
Jordan Peele seems to have arrived at the same position that M. Night Shyamalan was in in the early 2000s. In his third film as director, he makes a film about UFOs that becomes a baffling scratch of the head
Samaritan (2022)
Sylvester Stallone is surprisingly well cast an aging superhero forced to come out of retirement
Lisa (1989)
Gimmicky thriller about teen girls making prank phone calls who end up calling and then becoming the target of a serial killer
Lathe of Heaven (2002)
This was the second film adaptation of conceptually ingenious Ursula Le Guin novel about a man whose dreams change reality around him whenever he wakes up
Fried Barry (2020)
A South African variant on a film like Starman where a man is inhabited by an alien and stumbles through a series of encounters on the seedier side of life
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020)
In the best tradition of George Romero’s Martin, a kitchen sink vampire film focused around a family trying to protect a sickly sibling
Umma (2022)
Undeniably effective ghost story where Sandra Oh plays a woman who is haunted by the ghost of her abusive traditional mother
Swan Song (2021)
SF film in which a terminally ill Mahershala Ali has a clone copy created to take his place but then begins to have second thoughts
The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus (1962)
An early film from prolific exploitation director Jess Franco, one that comes with some beautifully Gothic photography in its tale of a hooded killer
The Gestapo’s Last Orgy (1977)
One of the notorious 1970s Nazisploitation films, this Italian-made entry is one work that crosses way over taboo lines and makes for extreme watching
Thou Shalt Not Kill … Except (1985)
Film made by several Sam Raimi associates about a crazed cult with Raimi making an acting appearance as the cult’s leader. This wades in much gory enthusiasm
Re-Elected (2020)
Horror comedy about an attack by the zombies of resurrected former US Presidents
The 8th Night (2021)
A South Korean possession film that creates a fascinatingly outlandish and original plot by dropping the usual cliches to instead draw on Buddhism to create its own mythology
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
The cutely nonsensical Minions have become a pop culture phenomenon. Here we get more of them, although this is more as a Gru origin story
Day Shift (2022)
An enjoyably entertaining film featuring Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco as vampire hunters. This plays out as a comic buddy film mixed with a series of wildly charged action scenes
Gremlin (2017)
Technically not actually a film about gremlins but about a goblin creature that emerges from a box where it will kill a person unless they pass it on to someone they love
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)
This has been construed as a modern-day vampire western with tongue planted in cheek. From Anthony Hickox who made a series of OTT horror films during this period
Replace (2017)
Undeniably creepy film co-written by Richard Stanley about a woman with a skin condition who finds she can only return to normal by stealing the skin from others
Jungle Run (2021)
This was The Asylum’s mockbuster copy of Disney’s Jungle Cruise and is a similar kind of adventure film. However, this proves far more entertaining than what you expect
Antidote (2021)
Horror film where Ashlyn Yennie wakes up in a hospital filled with sinister happenings including people being maimed and then regenerated
Prey (2022)
The seventh film in the Predator franchise. This received some of the best reviews of any film in the series and comes with the unique idea of pitting Native Americans up against a Predator
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022)
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are resurrected in a new animated film that feels like a watered-down fix designed for Ritalin-deprived youth
The Being (1983)
The first film from Jackie Kong, who made the hilarious Blood Diner, concerning a cheesily ridiculous atomic mutant monster loose in a small town
The Hive (2014)
This comes with an interesting idea about an infection that links all the infectees together into a gestalt of shared memories even if the delivery is uneven
Parallel (2018)
From Isaac Ezban in his English-language debut, a cleverly and pleasingly contorted film where a group of friends discover a mirror that leads to a parallel timeline
These Streets We Haunt (2021)
An eccentrically oddball comedy in which a man discovers that his strange roommate may be a comic-book super-villain. Made independently but with a dry wit that is hard to resist
Martyrs Lane (2021)
Director Ruth Platt creates a beautifully subtle and delicate ghost story
Where is Anne Frank (2021)
Beautifully affecting animated film from Ari Folman in which the imaginary companion in Anne Frank’s diary comes to life in the present day
Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021)
Worthwhile film that has a strong vibe of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village about a post-US Civil War town that comes under attack by mysterious creatures
Megalodon Rising (2021)
The Asylum make a sequel to their earlier giant prehistoric shark film Megalodon
The Manor (2021)
Barbara Hershey plays an aging woman who moves into a retirement home. The film then develops an edgy paranoia about possibly supernatural happening around her
Ten Minutes to Midnight (2020)
This is almost a female version of Vampire’s Kiss. Caroline Williams lets all stop go is an aging rock dj at a radio station who receives a bite from a vampire bat
Hunter Hunter (2020)
A solid and well-made film that creates quite a reasonable tension as a family that live in the woods deal with a lurking wolf. What is going on sits in an interesting state of ambiguity.
The Midwich Cuckoos (2022)
The third screen adaptation of John Wyndham’s book, previously filmed as Village of the Damned, this gives the story an update in some interesting ways
The Black Phone (2021)
Scott Derrickson delivers an eerie film from a Joe Hill story about a child who is abducted and imprisoned by a serial killer but then receives message from beyond the grave on an old telephone.
The Retreat (2021)
The Backwoods Brutality film given an LGBT spin where a lesbian couple run afoul of backwoods rednecks
Flight 666 (2018)
A halfway reasonable film from The Asylum where passengers in the midst of a plane trip realise part way through that their flight is haunted
The Boys Next Door (1985)
This caused quite a shock when it came out, a Penelope Spheeris film with Charlie Sheen and Maxwell Caulfield as two teenagers who feel they have no future and go on a killing spree in Los Angeles
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Darkly funny comedy where two girls in high school conduct a series of murders to create publicity for their true crime blog
Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022)
Green Lantern is a classic comic-book character but his screen presence were damaged by the Ryan Reynolds film. This conducts a severe reset of the character’s continuity
Lightyear (2022)
A spinoff from Pixar’s Toy Story films that gives Buzz Lightyear a film all of his own. A likeable if fairly routine space adventure but aargh the rewrites to series continuity
Noah’s Shark (2021)
An entry in the gonzo killer shark film fad from Mark Polonia, this has some undeniable amusement to its title mash-up as a team go in search of Noah’s Ark, which somehow has killer sharks involved
Keep Watching (2017)
A Found Footage film about a family who finds everything they do is being filmed by hidden cameras before their home is invaded by masked figures
Offspring (2009)
A strong and at times quite brutal film about a town that is terrorised by attacks from a feral cannibal family. The controversial The Woman was a better-known sequel
The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films (2014)
A documentary about Cannon Films and legendary producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. This one was authorised by Golan and Globus and makes interesting comparison to Electric Boogaloo
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
This was the sixth film in the Jurassic Park/World franchise and offers very much a return to the familiar. It at least also shakes several familiar things up
Hawk & Rev: Vampire Slayers (2020)
An appealingly witty comedy where two losers set out to become vampire hunters with fumblingly inept results. Written and played with a snappy, sarcastic appeal
Cats Kill (2017)
Low-budget psycho film where Cat who lives in the Catskills decides she wants to hunt tourists from the big city
Dark Floors (2008)
Film created by Finnish heavy metal performer Mr Lordi that takes place in a hospital that seems to exist in a haunted twilight zone
Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991)
One of the great deliberately ridiculous horror comedy titles of all time. The film itself telescopes down to an ordinary police procedural with no pharaohs, just an Egyptian serial killer
Jade Dynasty (2019)
Ching Siu-Tung, director of classic Wu Xia films like A Chinese Ghost Story, returns to wow us all again after an eight years absence with another film of breathtakingly dreamy visuals
Red 11 (2019)
Robert Rodriguez made his first film for $7000 and repeats the same here to show anyone can do it. The result is a wild, mind-bending work loosely based on his own experience as a human test subject in drug trials
Men (2022)
Alex Garland has become a must watch name since Ex Machina and Devs. Here he ventures into an intriguing mix of folk horror and gender politics
The Found Footage Phenomenon (2021)
A documentary charting the history and varying permutations of the Found Footage film, conducting an in-depth examination of the key films and players
The Demented (2013)
Another in the vast horde of zombie films of the 2010s concerning a group of friends gathered for a party as a terrorist biowarfare attack turns the locals into zombies
Wicked, Wicked (1973)
Very unique psycho film that takes place in split screen with the killer seen on one side of the screen and the victims and pursuing detective on the other
Mad at the Moon (1992)
This is a film filled with enormous possibilities in its set-up – a Western where Mary Stuart Masterson plays a woman who gets married only to find that her husband is a werewolf
Skull: The Mask (2020)
Brazilian film about a possessed skull that inhabits a man to lay a gore-drenched trail across the city
Alone (2020)
Survival thriller in which a woman is abducted by a man but affects an escape where she must then make a harrowing run through the woods while pursued by him
Crimes of the Future (2022)
A 79 year-old David Cronenberg returns with one of his best films, a synthesis of his major themes in an extraordinary and perverse look at a future where surgery has become performance art. This site’s best film of 2022.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Doctor Strange was one of the better MCU films. Here Sam Raimi takes over in the director’s chair. This readily delves into multiverse themes but requires a major crash course in a plethora of Marvel tv series to follow
Wolves at the Door (2016)
Another film about the Manson Family murders, this focuses on the Tate-Folger crime scene. It adheres to the fact general but twists them so it now operates more as a home invasion film
The Majorettes (1986)
An entry in the slasher film made by several alumni from the original Night of the Living Dead. Someone is killing the girls of the high school’s cheerleading squad
Dark Encounter (2019)
A modestly effective film about UFOs and alien abductions. This follows familiar paths to other films but is conducted with a quite reasonable degree of atmospheric
Delirium (2018)
Blumhouse film that stars Topher Grace as an asylum detainee who is released to home detention and may or may not be hallucinating seeing figures inside the house
Army of Thieves (2021)
Prequel to Army of the Dead set around the character of the German safecracker as he is dragged into conducting an impossible heist
Mad God (2021)
Phil Tippett, creator of effects on Star Wars and Jurassic Park, creates a unique, unclassifiable stop-motion animated film set in an industrial nightmare world