Summer Time Machine Blues (2005)
Witty and enormously clever Japanese time travel film. This readily homages Back to the Future but has a great deal of original fun of its own creating a series of hilarious temporal conundrums. One of the most entertaining films I have seen in some time
Summer Wars (2009)
Beautifully made Mamoru Hosoda film about a rogue A.I. taking over a social media network. A film that is also a heartwarming work about family togetherness
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
Sunshine (2007)
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland make a big serious SF film about a solar expedition, which works with great scientific rigour until the shows heads off at a tangent and falls apart in the latter third
Super (2010)
After Defendor and Kick-Ass all coming out within a short space of time, the superhero with no powers comedy was getting over-familiar but this outing from James Gunn still finds some new things and proves highly amusing
Super 8 (2011)
J.J. Abrams makes a homages to 8mm filmmaking and the films of his youth – you could easily imagine this as a Steven Spielberg-produced film of the era. On the other hand, after the obsessive secrecy in pre-release, the results emerge as underwhelming
Super Buddies (2013)
Excrutiatingly unwatchable live-action film in which trained animals have all been dubbed with smartass voices. In the nominal plot, a group of dogs gain superpowers, which becomes dragged out into a series of witless slapstick scenes, all overrun with agonisingly hip and unfunny one-liners
Super Hot (2021)
Occasionally amusing comedy where a group of fans set out to rescue the heroine’s unrequited crush from a house of vampires
Super Hybrid (2010)
Modestly effective film about people being hunted by a shapechanging killer car
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
The first film to be adapted from a videogame and inauspiciously one of the worst. This is a film made on a decent budget that seems to have set out to be as stupid and brainless as possible
Super Tanker (2011)
Syfy Channel disaster movie about the efforts to dispose of a container of antimatter being carried on board a tanker, where things proceed to go wrong
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
A documentary about the career of Superman star Christopher Reeve and his dealing with life following the accident that left him a quadriplegic
Superbob (2015)
An amusing superhero spoof from the UK, a mockumentary following the everyday Bob, who is rather of a twit, as he goes on a date and his frustrations dealing with the bureaucracy required to go into action
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
Supergirl (1984)
The producers of the Christopher Reeve Superman films turn their attentions to Superman’s cousin Kara whose screen debut is derailed by a horrendously overacting Faye Dunaway
Supergirl (2026)
Companion piece of James Gunn’s Superman, this met a very mixed reception. Part of its problem is that it wants to create a cynical version of the virtuous Supergirl we are familiar with and trash her image
Supergrid (2018)
Lowell Dean, director of WolfCop, makes what feels like a revival of the low-budget Mad Max film – an action film set in a socially collapsed future
Superhero Movie (2008)
A Scary Movie-styled parody of the early 00s spate of superhero films, this has a few amsingly on-target spoofs of its targets (especially Spider-Man) but is mostly scattershot
Superheroes (2011)
Fascinating documentary portrait of a series of individuals who dress up in costume and set out to be real-life superheroes
Superhost (2021)
A film that one entered with no expectation whereupon it turned into a quite reasonable effort with Gracie Gillam owning the show as a splendidly mad AirBNB host
Superintelligence (2020)
We have had some standout A.I. films in the last few years. This is comedy variant where Melissa McCarthy is befriended by an A.I. who adopts the voice of James Corden
Superman & Batman: Apocalypse (2010)
One of the best of the DC Universe Original Animated Movies under the greatly underrated Lauren Montgomery. This serves to introduce Supergirl and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World
Superman (1948)
A 15 chapter serial that marks the very first live-action screen appearance of Superman. The superheroics and effects are painfully primitive today (where Superman flying is represented by animation) but the serial gets many aspects of the comic-book down right
Superman (1978)
This is where the modern comic-book superhero began on screen. A film that is almost completely successful in banishing campy silliness and taking itself seriously, allowing Superman to fly with magnificent effects. Christopher Reeve shines as the ultimate boy scout
Superman (2025)
James Gunn’s almost completely successful reboot of the cinematic Superman, the first film that comes with a total confidence in the comic-book source and where Gunn is not afraid to be goofy
Superman and the Mole-Men (1951)
Aside from two earlier serials, this was the first Superman feature film, featuring George Reeves in a dry run for tv’s Adventures of Superman. With its crude effects and avoidance of much in the way of superheroics, this makes fascinating contrast to the modern Superman of Man of Steel
Superman II (1980)
Shot back-to-back with the first Christopher Reeve film, this then became a mess behind the scenes. The end result emerges fairly well with the show dominated by the magnificent Phantom Zones villains and giving depth to the Superman-Lois relationship
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
The original version of Superman II became mired in problems over the firing of director Richard Donner. After the rediscovery of the original footage, Donner was able to go offer up a restored version. Seeing the storylines the way they were meant to be and Marlon Brando’s original scenes as Jor-el make for a work that is superior in every way
Superman III (1983)
The nadir of the Christopher Reeve Superman films, one where the desire to add a comedy element in the form of Richard Pryor overtakes and wrecks what is already a random and unfocused plot
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
The last of the Christopher Reeve Superman films after the series was taken over by Cannon Films. Usually regarded as the series low point due to the cheapness of the effects, this to its credits abandons the comedy focus of the preceding two films and has some not uninteresting aspects
Superman Returns (2006)
This has a bad reputation but Bryan Singer does a wonderful job in bringing Superman back to the screen in a version surprisingly reliant on the Christopher Reeve films. The superheroics soar and Kevin Spacey makes for the best screen Lex Luthor ever
Superman Unbound (2013)
One of the best among the incredibly underrated animated DC Comics films. A beautifully character-driven venture into the Superman mythos where Brainiac gets a magnificently theatric airing, while Supergirl undergoes some astonishing revisions
Superman vs. The Elite (2012)
This adapts What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?, the highly acclaimed graphic novel that was written as a response to 9/11. Unfortunately, I am not sure condensing the story into a 76 animated film fully does justice to the complex debate of the original
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
An animated film that seems premised on not much more than bringing various obscure DC Comics characters out of mothballs for one giant-sized punch up
Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006)
Spinoff of the 1990s animated Superman tv series, made as tie in for Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns Some good action, negligible use of the characters unlike the DC Universe Animated Original Movies that began the following year, at best a routine episode of the tv series
Superman: Doomsday (2007)
A condensed animated adaptation of the top-selling DC comic-book of all time The Death of Superman that comes with some massively exciting animated action set-pieces
Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)
Fine animated film that traces Superman’s early years – Superman: Year One if you like – as we see pieces of the mythos coming together
Superman: Red Son (2020)
A very different take on the Superman story that asks What if Superman had grown up in the Soviet Union rather than in the US and become a paragon of Communist virtue
Superman: Requiem (2011)
A feature-length Superman fan film made as homage to the Christopher Reeve films. You have to applaud the film for sterling effort even if it comes woefully short in trying to create its superheroics on a $20,000 budget
Superman: The Last Son of Krypton (1996)
Pilot for the excellent Bruce Timm Superman animated tv series of the mid-1990s. This retells the Superman origin story, keeping great faith to the comics, while adding some fantastic action scenes
Supernatural (1933)
Carole Lombard plays an heiress who becomes possessed by the spirit of an executed murderess. From the Brothers Halperin who were behind >i>White Zombie
Supernova (2000)
The celebrated Walter Hill directs an Alien-inspired film about a mutated killer loose on a spaceship. This was a problem-ridden production that pans out far less interestingly than it promises to be
Supernova (2005)
Disaster TV mini-series about the end of the world due to the sun about to go supernova. Cliche plotting, canned action scenes and bad science ensue
Supersonic Man (1979)
A cheap Spanish-made copy of the first Christopher Reeve Superman film
Superstarlet A.D. (2000)
Gonzo comedy that looks like a film about post-holocaust mutants that has been directed by Russ Meyer
Superstition (1982)
Fairly negligible film about a family who move into a house to face the vengeance of a witch
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
Surf II (1984)
Eccentric 80s frat rat/surfer comedy – part of the weird joke is that there never was a Surf I. Eddie Deezen is a mad scientist turning surfers into zombies with a soda made of industrial waste.
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
A classic Troma title that is actually more interesting than the actual film, which concerns wars between surf gangs in a collapsed future. The film does eventually achieve a bizarre over-the-top lunacy
Surf’s Up (2007)
This came out several months after Happy Feet and has a similar plot involving surfing penguins. Though the lesser film and far more predictable, it is likeable
Surrogates (2009)
Interesting conceptual SF film where the populace of the future inhabit a series of perfect avatar bodies. Despite a few logical quibbles with the premise, this does a good job in exploring the idea of such a world
Survival of the Dead (2009)
George Romero’s sixth and final zombie film where he writes characters and a script with much more of a richness of theme than he did in the last two entries
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
Survive (2024)
A French catastrophe film where the Earth’s poles abruptly reverse, transforming what was ocean into a desert. A survival film that is based on a premise that is fundamentally scientifically absurd
Surviving Evil (2009)
South African-shot film that pretends to be set in The Philippines. Utterly generic on every level, the film seems to be about Filipino vampire monsters but everything is vaguely sketched
Surviving Life (2010)
Czech Claymation animator Jan Svankmajer embraces the Terry Gilliam cutout animation process in this wackily playful mix of dream and surrealism that emerges similar to The Science of Sleep
Surviving the Game (1994)
Blatant copy of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Hard Target and both in turn from The Most Dangerous Game. Here Ice-T is a homeless man forced to flee hunters and survive with his bare hands.
Suspect Device (1995)
What seems a routine low-budget action film is propelled into the decidedly watchable by a bizarre Philip K. Dick-ian twist that comes mid-film
Suspect Zero (2004)
Serial killer thriller with Aaron Eckhart on the trail of an ambiguous Ben Kingsley. This offers some interesting twists but fails in the core issue of developing it into an absorbing thriller plot
Suspiria (1977)
The work on which the cult of director Dario Argento was built. The film consists of a series of extravagantly arty deaths at a girls boarding school, although comes without any real connecting plot
Suspiria (2018)
Dario Argento’s original Suspiria was an almost entirely narrative-free work set around a series of extravagantly arty deaths; this remake could not be a more different film. Not to say it is uninteresting in what it does
Suzume (2022)
Beautifully made anime from Makoto Shinkai about a young girl and a three-legged chair on a quest to close a series of portals across Japan and prevent unimaginable chaos emerging
Svengali (1931)
Classic from the Golden Age of Horror with John Barrymore as a malevolent hypnotist who places a young model under his control. he film’s design scheme draws heavily from German Expressionism and comes with some amazingly inventive directorial effects
Swallow (2019)
A film of considerable creepy fascination where Haley Bennett has married into a family of wealth and develops an obsession with eating objects. This heads into an area of disturbed psychology that is quite unsettling
Swamp Thing (1982)
Wes Craven makes a film based on the DC Comics character but reduces the mood of the original to something cartoonish. One of Craven’s worst films
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
Swarm (2007)
A blatant copy of Snakes on a Plane featuring mutated ants aboard a plane. Without the other film’s tongue-in-cheek approach, this collapses into absurdity
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
Sweeney Todd (2006)
Released before the Tim Burton version, this is a British tv production that offers a grimly realistic, non-musical historical portrait of Sweeney Todd with Ray Winstone in the title role
Sweeney Todd: Slice & Dice (2025)
Another version of the Sweeney Todd legend. Rather than a musical, this is a straight horror version, produced on low-budget. Here we learn that Sweeney is on a mission to kill off members of the aristocracy
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936)
NOT the Tim Burton film, this is one of several earlier versions of the Sweeney Todd story. Crudely made, it is lit up by the lurid melodramatics of the forgotten British horror actor Tod Slaughter
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Tim Burton takes on the film version of the Stephen Sondhiem musical about a murderous barber, featuring Johnny Depp in the title role. But disappointingly, Burton still makes the same film he always does
Sweet Home (1989)
Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa has developed a reputation for his intensely uncanny and deeply unfathomable horror films. This is one of his earlier works, a much more straightforward haunted house film that in its more bizarre moments attains the whacked-out dementia of the cult Japanese film House
Sweet Sixteen (1983)
80s slasher film about a teenage temptress who leaves a trail of dead men around her. An impressive cast but the film sits on a very dubious line
Sweetheart (2019)
Blumhouse production from J.D. Dillard who made a modest splash with the street magician film Sleight, this features Kiersey Clemons as a survivor stranded on a desert island facing a monster that comes out at night
Swimfan (2002)
This is essentially Fatal Attraction relocated to a high school where athlete Jesse Bradford is stalked by Erika Christensen. This collapses in a series of ridiculous motivations
Swiss Army Man (2016)
A ridiculously off the wall and heartwarming film. Imagine a crosshatch between Weekend at Bernie’s and Cast Away – where Wilson the beachball is replaced by Daniel Radcliffe as a farting talking corpse
Switchback (1997)
Directorial debut from the Die Hard scriptwriter Jeb Stuart is a solid thriller but the film was a surprise flop despite bringing together an impressive cast
Sword Master (2016)
One of the lush, beautifully produced modern Wu Xia (flying swordsmen) films. Produced and written by the legendary Tsui Hark
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)
Cannon Films make an adaptation of the Mediaeval legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Routine 1980s fantasy cinema with Sean Connery looking embarrassed as the Green Knight
Swordsman (1990)
The first in a highly enjoyable series of flying swordsman films produced by Tsui Hark. The series hit its peak with the second film but this is an enjoyably energetic and busy effort in its own
Swordsman II (1992)
Sensational example of the Hong Kong Wu Xia/Flying Swordsman film. Ching Siu-Tung delivers an amazing series of martial arts battles with fantastical moves that are quite out of this world
Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993)
The third in the Hong Kong Wu Xia/flying swordsman series. After a sensational second entry, this one figures it has to top it, resulting in some utterly whacko scenes even by the usually OTT, anything-goes standards of Hong Kong fantasy
Sympathy (2007)
Beautifully tightly wound thriller that takes place in a hotel room between a bank robber, his hostage and an escaped convict where nothing is what it seems
Symptoms (1974)
Strange film from Spanish director Joseph Larraz about mysterious happenings at a country mansion
Synchronic (2019)
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have become one of the most underrated indie genre voices. Here they make a film where Anthony Mackie discovers a drug that causes people to travel through time
Synchronicity (2015)
An ambitious film reminiscent of Twelve Monkeys, this has a time traveller venturing into the past and a conceptual jigsaw as he intersects with and has to hide in the margins of events in his own timeline
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Mind-bending Charlie Kaufman meta-fiction in which Philip Seymour Hoffman creates a vast theatre project that drags on for years and starts to merge into his own life
The 6th Day (2000)
Arnold Schwarzenegger revisits something of Total Recall in this modest and clever action film in which he discovers that a clone has stolen his life
The 7 Adventures of Sinbad (2010)
Cheap mockbuster from The Asylum that was designed to exploit the success of the flop Prince of Persia. While ostensibly a Sinbad film, this confusingly abandons the Arabian Nights milieu and is set contemporary where Sinbad is not sailor but a corporate CEO stranded on a desert island
The 7th Dwarf (2014)
German animated film about the adventures of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves. Lightweight and trivial, this feels like it has come along ten years too late to the fad for fairytale parodies and mash-ups we had in the mid-2000s with films like Shrek and Hoodwinked!
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
One of the classic films from cult stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen, an Arabian Nights fantasy adventure where Harryhausen’s creations prove to be quite wondrous
The Sacrament (2013)
Ti West, a rising name in horror in the last few years, makes a film about the activities of a sinister cult. Soon into the film, you realise that he is actually conducting a modern Found Footage retelling of the infamous Jonestown mass suicide of the 1970s
The Sacrifice (1986)
Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film, a slow and weighty meditation upon questions of faith as one man prays to turn back a nuclear holocaust
The Sacrifice Game (2023)
Jenn Wexler directs a film about thugs taking over a girls’ boarding school that pleasingly subverts your expectations of everything it is going to be at every turn
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
The best budgeted of Guy Maddin’s films, a renaissance of his familiar kitsch surrealism and silent movie homages
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 Saint (1997)
Big screen revival of the famous playboy spy falls flat due to the miscasting of Val Kilmer in the title role where Kilmer’s attempts to adopt disguises and accents throughout becomes risible. The thriller plot is nothing to get excited about.
The Salute of the Jugger (1989)
Interesting film directed by David Peoples, the screenwriter of Blade Runner, about a post-apocalyptic sports team. This avoids the cliches of the Mad Max film and creates an interesting future background
The Sand (2015)
Solid little effort about a group of teens who wake up on a beach to find that the sand is trying to devour them and the only shelter they have is picnic tables and the lifeguard station. This delivers a tight, contained survival story that generates some excellent tension