Timeslip (1955)
A British quota quickie with a fascinating central idea of a scientist who has slipped several seconds out of phase in time and can answer questions before they are asked
Bluebeard (2009)
Catherine Breillat, a director known for her full-on explorations of sexuality, takes on an adaptation of the French fairytale about a multiple wife murderer
Assassin 33 A.D. (2020)
A faith-based film that comes with a great hook where a time-traveller seeks to go back and kill Jesus, eliminating Christianity from history
Ash (2025)
The rapper turned filmmaker Flying Lotus directs a copy of Alien with an amnesiac crewmember of a ship landed on a hostile planet where the crew are hunted by an alien nasty
Death of a Unicorn (2025)
A film about the modern discovery of a unicorn, this seems designed to shatter any cutsie notions about unicorns and instead becomes a work about greed and where the unicorns become vicious and monstrous. An A24 film produced by Ari Aster
Heart Eyes (2025)
This is a film that manages to be both a slasher film and a romantic comedy, two genres that do not at all seem to go together but are made to with undeniably appealing results
Croczilla (2012)
The late 2000s brought a spate of giant crocodile amok films that included some really good efforts like Rogue and Black Water. This is a belated entry from China, featuring some surprisingly good CGI effects
Supercroc (2007)
An early mockbuster from The Asylum, a copy of 2007’s crocodile amok films with a giant 100-foot-long crocodile heading towards Los Angeles
Bad Johnson (2014)
Sometimes you shake your head and wonder how a film got greenlit. In this case, we have a comedy where Cam Gigandet’s penis gains a separate life of its own, resulting in a Jekyll/Hyde film of sorts
Kamikaze 1989 (1982)
A detective thriller set in a near-future Germany. Arthouse director Rainer Werner Fassbinder plays the detective. This came out three weeks before Blade Runner prefigures what was later called Cyberpunk
Lowlifes (2024)
This starts out seeming like it is going to be a regular Backwoods Brutality film about a regular family threatened by hicks before expectations are abruptly turned on their head
Hotspring Sharkattack (2024)
A Japanese entry in the Gonzo Killer Shark film fad, an entertainingly demented effort with sharks invading a hot springs and emerging out of hot tubs. This has been greeted as a new cult movie
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
With Disney having remade most of their animated catalogue in live-action, other studios are now getting in on the act with this live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon
M3gan 2.0 (2025)
Sequel to the killer doll film M3gan that is a much better work than its predecessor. If the original was Child’s Play by way of The Terminator then this is the series’ equivalent of Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Nasty Rabbit (1964)
A legendarily awful spy movie where assorted characters run around a ranch in ethnic disguise trying to stop a Russian who is unleashing a rabbit that contains a deadly virus
The Flame Barrier (1958)
An odd mix of 1950s alien invasion film and low-budget jungle adventure as explorers in the wilds of Mexico encounter a glowing amorphous blob in the jungle
Life After Flash (2017)
A documentary about the making of the 1980 Flash Gordon and following the career of its star Sam J. Jones afterwards
Berlin Syndrome (2017)
A strong and worthwhile variant on the imprisonment thriller with Teresa Palmer as a tourist in Berlin who hooks up with a guy who proceeds to make her a prisoner in his apartment
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)
I was sold on this from the title. A droll Canadian (Quebec-made) vampire comedy about a vampire girl who cannot bring herself to kill and a suicidal teenager who becomes her willing victim
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
The Disney live-action remake machine continues with this version of the hit 2002 animated film about a cuddly malevolent alien creature. As with most of the Disney remake, the original looks flat in live-action
The Old Guard 2 (2025)
The Old Guard about a team of immortal mercenaries was a hit when it was released a few years ago. Now most of the principals reunite for a sequel
The Tank (2023)
A New Zealand-made monster movie where a venture down into an old water tank succeeds in disturbing an amphibian creature
Circle Line (2023)
A quite good monster movie from Singapore about people trapped down the disused brand of an underground railway line where they are hunted by a monster
Nightmare Sisters (1988)
An 80s Scream Queen film featuring Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer as sorority girls who become possessed. From director David DeCoteau
Natural City (2003)
Wrongly referred to as an adaptation of the original Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, this South Korean Cyberpunk film does homage many aspects of Blade Runner
24 Hours to Live (2017)
An action film variant on the thriller D.O.A. where Ethan Hawke plays an assassin who is resurrected from the dead and has 24 hours to bring down the corrupt corporation who betrayed him
Cinderella’s Revenge (2024)
A horror version of Cinderella where she gets to stab people with the glass slipper. This also features several modernisms where instead of a pumpkin coach, the fairy godmother conjures up Elon Musk to drive Cinderella to the ball in a Tesla
Cinderella’s Curse (2024)
From the people behind the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey films, a horror version of Cinderella. And yes, the glass slipper is used to stab people
Thunderbolts* (2025)
This offering from the MCU was one of the lowest grossing, but it a good deal more likeable than many other recent entries, emerging as a sort of earthbound Guardians of the Galaxy Lite
Bring Her Back (2025)
Australia’s Philippou Brothers made the word of mouth hit Talk to Me and return here with this equally creepy film with Sally Hawkins as a sinister foster mother
Linkeroever (2008)
A Belgian film about a girl who moves in with her boyfriend only to uncover sinister secrets in the basement as she investigates the disappearance of the previous tenant
Jug Face (2013)
A very odd Folk Horror film set among two backwoods hillbilly families whose lives are dominated by a pit in the woods they worship
Cathy’s Curse (1977)
From the great era of Canuxploitation, an entertainingly ridiculous film about a possessed child wreaking psychic havoc and an often absurd series of deaths against those who are mean to her
666: The Child (2006)
An early mockbuster from The Asylum that came out the same day as The Omen remake, this conducts a blatant copy of The Omen on a low-budget
Asterix and Obelix Vs. Cesar (1999)
The first of the live-action films based on the famous comic-books set during the Roman period, starring Gerard Depardieu who seems born to play the part of Obelix
Tune Into the Future (2020)
A documentary about Hugo Gernsback, the man who coined the term science-fiction and shaped the genre in its infancy
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (2023)
Billed as the Chinese Lord of the Rings, this is an historically-based fantasy film that tries to out-Hollywood Hollywood in terms of effects, design and costuming and looks stunningly epic in scale
The Ritual (2025)
A film based on what is said to be the most well-documented exorcism in US history. Al Pacino plays the exorcist
Long Distance (2024)
SF film with Anthony Ramos as survivor of a crashed ship who must make a journey across a hostile planet to find another survivor while low on oxygen
To the Solitary Me Who Loved You (2022)
Multiverse films are all the in-thing in superhero films right now. This anime is a treatment of multiverse themes far away from superheroics that works beautifully in its sophistication of ideas
Parallel World Love Story (2019)
Japanese film that has overtones of Sliding Doors as a man finds he leads two different parallel lives
The Loch Ness Horror (2023)
A low-budget Loch Ness Monster film, this does capably well for the most part but then bizarrely enough turns into an Alien-copy part way through
Planetquake (2024)
A B-budget disaster movie from The Asylum that concerns scientists trying to halt a vast ring of earthquakes that have been triggered around the world
Earthtastrophe (2016)
Syfy Channel disaster movie where Earth is suddenly transported into another Solar System amid cheap effects and an improbable time travel solution is sought to reverse this
It Lives Inside (2023)
A US-made film from an East Indian director who draws on his cultural background in the story of a girl haunted by a demon from Hindu myth
Subservience (2024)
Another android gone amok film with former sex symbol Megan Fox cast as an android nanny who starts defying her programming
Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)
A return to the Final Destination franchise after fourteen years, this comes with an undeniable sense of humour, producing a series of highly entertaining despatches to make the best entry in the series so far
The Assessment (2024)
An hilariously black, deadpan film set in a future as a couple undergo assessment for whether they are fit to be parents. This involves Alicia Vikander moving into the house and play-acting being a child with absolutely chaotic effect
The Mighty Gorga (1969)
A copycat of King Kong made on a budget of about $1.98 and featuring some pitiful giant ape effects
Empire of the Apes (2013)
When 20th Century Fox began their Planet of the Apes reboot series, director Mark Polonia quickly jumped in with his own Z-budget mockbuster take. Several sequels followed
The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead (1991)
Hong Kong horror/fantasy that appropriates the Evil Dead name for a wild plot about the manifestation of an ancient deity
Swarmed (2005)
A formula Syfy Channel killer bug film wherein a new experimental insecticide creates a horde of deadly genetically tinkered wasps that run amok through a small town
Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977)
A 1970s Animals Attack film as deadly tarantula spiders take over a small town
Incantation (2022)
The most successful Taiwanese horror film of all time, a Found Footage film about paranormal investigators who witness a ritual and are afterwards haunted by it
Dick Dynamite: 1944 (2023)
A gonzo parody of WWII heroics a la Inglourious Basterds with the addition of Nazi zombies, over-the-top splatter and some decidedly non-PC humour, this proves an enormously entertainingly comic-book of a film
The Shrouds (2024)
At age 81, David Cronenberg is still on great form with this perversely fascinating work about the development of a technology that places cameras inside graves to observe corpses as they decay
Clown in a Cornfield (2025)
The killer clown film has become its own genre niche since the remake of It, offering assorted wacky genre mash-ups. This is a better budgeted entry than usual from the director of the cult Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Incoming (2018)
An action film set aboard the International Space Station, which has been converted into a prison to house terrorists, who proceed to hijack it, turning the station into a suicide missile headed towards Earth
Box: Metaphor (2023)
Australian film about a future where people are imprisoned inside shipping containers, this suggests it is going to be something like another Cube
The House That Vanished (1973)
Spanish director Jose Larraz gained a small cult reputation for his work amidst the 1970s Anglo-horror cycle. This is a psycho film where a model is stalked after witnessing a murder
Skinwalker Ranch (2013)
A reasonably effective and spooky Found Footage film set around the unexplained phenomena at the real-life Skinwalker Ranch
A Werewolf in England (2020)
Director Charlie Steeds creates a modest film set in 19th Century England about people at an inn as it comes under attack by werewolves
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024)
Martin Scorsese produces and narrates a documentary about the directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who made some of the most exquisite colour films of the Wartime era
Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
The Predator series continues. Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Prey, makes an animated offering that tells three stories of encounters between human and Predator in different eras of history
Until Dawn (2025)
The film adaptation of the popular videogame where a group enter a lodge and become caught in a timeloop where they face horrors and are killed and then resurrected to face them again
Alpha Girls (2013)
A blatant copy of The Craft where a new girl gets wound up into occult rites going on in a sorority house. Featuring porn star Ron Jeremy as a Catholic priest
Tentacles (1977)
One of the more absurd of the Animals Attack films that sought to cash in on the success of Jaws concerning a giant octopus on the attack
You Can’t Kill Stephen King (2012)
You have to admit the title gets your attention but this is otherwise a slasher film of sorts about a group in search of Stephen King’s home
Apex (2021)
Another of the last films that Bruce Willis made before his mental deterioration forced him to retire. A variation on The Most Dangerous Game where Bruce plays a bad-ass facing hunters with his bare hands
A Million Days (2023)
An ambitious film yet a;; contained within a single house, set on the eve of a space mission where the commander realises that the A.I. has started going wildly off-book
Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler of Black Panther fame makes a smart and intelligent vampire film set in the American South during the 1930s. This was a considerable awards, audience and critical hit.
Fountain of Youth (2025)
Guy Ritchie makes an adventure film that pays homage to Indiana Jones and a host of other works concerning the quest for the Fountain of Youth. A superficial film killed by its constantly distracting flip banter
Assimilate (2019)
A body snatchers film, shot partially as Found Footage where teens shooting a video make the discovery that people in their town are being replaced
Black Noise (2023)
A team of mercenaries arrive on an island on a retrieval mission only to find everybody has been turned to dust and a mysterious piercing noise that causes them to hallucinate
The Last Train (1999)
A British tv mini-series where a group of people in a regular train carriage go into suspended animation and emerge fifty years later to find a devastated world
Miracle in Milan (1951)
One of the classics of the Italian Neo-Realist period, a charming whimsy about homeless people who built a shantytown
Wildling (2018)
Bel Powley gives a great performance as a wild child introduced to civilisation for the first time before it is discovered she is a wildling creature
Monolith (2022)
The title monolith is a cheat, this is however a creepy Australian film about a series of ultra-mysterious objects
A Minecraft Movie (2025)
A live-action film based on the popular
Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)
Follow-up to the R.L. Stine-based Fear Street films of a couple of years back, this conducts a not bad homage to the 1980s slasher film and gets the period setting right
Archenemy (2020)
An interestingly odd film where a videographer looking for a story investigates homeless man Joe Manganiello’s claims to being a superhero, which may or may not be true
Code 8: Part II (2024)
The Canadian-made Code 8 was one of the few non-comic book adapted superhero films of recent years. This is a sequel where a bigger budget has been afforded to the superheroics
Ferpect Crime (2004)
A black comedy from Alex de la Iglesia about murder and rivalry in a department store, where the killer becomes advised by the ghost of those he has killed
First Born (1988)
A standout tv mini-series that updates old mad scientist clichés into the era of Jane Goodall as scientist Charles Dance creates a human/gorilla hybrid child and tries to raise it as his own son
Haunting of the Queen Mary (2023)
A ghost story that takes place between two eras set aboard the real-life cruise liner Queen Mary, this conducts a variant on the ghost ship story with some reasonable effect
The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee (2024)
A documentary about horror legend Christopher Lee covering his life and principal films. Supposedly narrated by Lee who is represented by a voice imitator and animation
Snow White (2025)
The live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White comes surrounded by controversy on every side and served to make it a critical and box-office flop that left doubt over the future of the Disney remake industry
Jackpot! (2024)
This comes out like a comedy version of The Purge almost, where a future California lottery awards the winner millions if they can avoid every other person trying to kill them
The Last Shark (1981)
One of several Italian exploitation copycats of Jaws. This has the reputation as the film that was such a blatant ripoff that Universal sued to stop its release
Red Water (2003)
B killer shark films where environmentalists, oil rig workers and drug dealers converge on a Louisiana river where a shark lurks
Iron Girl: Ultimate Weapon (2015)
A Japanese film about a cyborg-enhanced bounty hunter chick, the second in a series. This is sort of like RoboCop but played with a much more softcore focus
Judgment Day (1998)
Coming out the same year as Deep Impact and Armageddon, this was another oncoming asteroid collision film – one that has been bizarrely crosshatched with a ‘hood drama
All Fun & Games (2023)
Teenagers in Salem are forced to play a game where their lives are forfeit and they become possessed by a cursed knife dating from the witch trials
In My Mother’s Skin (2023)
An extremely good Filipino film about a family abandoned at the end of WWII where the only recourse seems to be the children trusting a malevolent fairy
The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
An adult and frequently horrific retelling of the Cinderella story from the Ugly Stepsister’s point-of-view
Black Eyed Susan (2024)
From the extraordinary and underrated Scooter McCrae, a dark and very disturbing film about the development of a sex robot for men who like to beat and abuse women
History of the Occult (2020)
Argentinean horror film about a tv interview with a black magician where things then proceed to start going wrong. Shot in a dense black-and-white and claustrophobic mock-up of an old tv show
Pussy Cake (2021)
An Argentinean film where the four members of a girl rock band are forced to deal with a zombie outbreak
Tykho Moon (1996)
Film from Enki Bilal, a celebrated comic-book creator in France, about the noirish goings-on and in-politics on a lunar colony
OK Connery (1967)
With the success of the James Bond films in the 1960s, someone had the idea of casting Sean Connery’s younger brother Neil in a spy film