The Theatre Bizarre (2011)
A horror anthology featuring episodes from seven different directors. As with other anthologies, the episodes vary in quality, ranging between the so-so, the mostly quite good and one standout segment
Thelma (2017)
Essentially a Norwegian version of Carrie. The ingenious spin it places on the Carrie story is to tell it as an LGBT story and have the psychically empowered heroine not bullied and tormented but struggling against a lesbian attraction to another girl.
Them (2006)
French horror film that generates a reasonable level of tension as a couple are attacked in their home by mysterious strangers
There’s Something Wrong With the Children (2023)
Quite decent Blumhouse film in which children suddenly go bad and begin playing malicious, murderous games with adults
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
They Live (1988)
John Carpenter makes an alien invasion film that works as a biting satire of Reaganomics in which aliens are manipulating reality to increase their profit shares in Earth
They’re Watching (2016)
The Found Footage genre has become fairly much strip-mined of all possibilities and I felt little enthusiasm for yet another. That said, this film about a reality tv crew in a heavily superstitious East European village, proves surprisingly well made and entirely wins you over with a bravura climax
The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
Ray Milland is a dying white racist millionaire who has hit head transplanted onto the shoulders of a Black man. A film that sees the absurdities of its premise and plants tongue in cheek.
The Third Day (2020)
A UK TV mini-series that borrow much from The Wicker Man in a complex and fascinating story about the discovery of folk religion on a small island and becoming caught up in pending rituals
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
Thunderball (1965)
The fourth James Bond film and crippled by the misfortune of coming just after Goldfinger, which defined the formula and became the peak of the series. By contrast, this is stuck with having to make everything bigger and more spectacular
Thunderbird 6 (1968)
The second of the films spun off from the Gerry Anderson puppet tv series and a much better dramatically sustained film than its predecessor
Thunderbirds Are Go (1966)
The first of the films spun off from Gerry Anderson’s cult puppet tv series. Not a completely successful transition but it is, as always with an Anderson production, worth watching for what the Andersons do best – making amazing models and blowing them up
Thunderpants (2002)
Likeable film about a kid with incredibly powerful farts who uses his ability to launch a rocket. It’s mind-boggling to think such a premise was ever given funding nd a greenlight
Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives (2010)
Imagine Baise-Moi or Thelma and Louise by way of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – a film that hits a perfect note in terms of tongue-in-cheek spirit
The Tie That Binds (1995)
Usually a scriptwriter, Wesley Strick makes a reasonable directorial debut in this psycho-thriller about a white trash couple killing those in their way to getting back the daughter that was taken away from them
The Tiger’s Tail (2006)
John Boorman makes a film where Brendan Gleeson has his life taken over by a doppelganger
Time Addicts (2023)
This is an Australian film where two crystal meth addicts find a drug that transports them through time. While keeping itself contained to a single location, this emerges out into a cleverly constructed time paradox
Time Lapse (2014)
A perfect example of a film carried by the ingenuity of its concept – a camera that takes photos 24 hours into the future – told with a superb tightness of economy – two sets and mostly three actors (largely unknowns) – and some wonderfully contorted twists
The Time Travelers (1964)
Modest B-budget SF film with scientists opening a time portal and becoming caught up in a future war between humanity and mutants
Timebomb (1991)
Action film from Avi Nesher that comes with a solid and satisfying punch. Michael Biehn is a mild-mannered clockmaker who suddenly discovers he is a brainwashed assassin
Timecop (1994)
Film featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a temporal police officer. While you expect another time travel action film, this has quite a deal more sophistication in the scripting department than you expect
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)
This must have been a marketing nightmare for Disney – a film about a kid who operates as a private detective along with his polar bear imaginary companion. The result has an oddball charm
Tintin and I (2003)
Documentary about Tintin creator Hergé based on audio recordings he made in the 1970s
Tintorera (1977)
One of the better killer shark copycats made in the immediate aftermath of Jaws, this approaches the familiar in unexpected ways
Titan A.E. (2000)
Very nicely made space opera from animator Don Bluth, operating from a Joss Whedon script, that unfortunately proved a big box-office flop
T.M.A. (2009)
Czech-made haunted house story that does not vary far from the traditional basics but generates a sparse but modest atmosphere
TMNT (2007)
Animated revival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which brings them back to the screen with a satisfyingly gritty edge and a series of kinetic action sequences
To Rome with Love (2012)
Another film amid Woody Allen’s European renaissance, four tales all set around the gorgeously shot location of Rome. The stories are on the slight side and it is lesser Allen but there is great casting and moments where Allen is on good form
To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
The second-to-last Hammer film, an adaptation of one of Dennis Wheatley’s occult novels, shows them trying to catch up with The Exorcist and its ilk
Tobor the Great (1954)
Cinema’s first cuddly, friendly robot that is programmed according to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, predating Forbidden Planet’s Robbie the Robot. A modest overlooked film of the 1950s SF era
Together (2025)
A Body Horror film that creates some undeniably ick effect where Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple who experience an infection that causes their bodies to start fusing into one whenever they touch
Tokyo! (2008)
Directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho make an anthology of strange and surreal tales that take place in Tokyo
Tokyo Fist (1995)
Shinya Tsukamoto returns to the repressions of his earlier Tetsuo: The Iron Man in this frenetic, ultra-violent work about a downtrodden salaryman who reconnects with life by allowing himself to be beaten up in the boxing ring. This feels like Raging Bull remade by David Cronenberg
Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
One among the 00s spate of gonzo Japanese splatter films. The film exists as a series of outlandishly over-the-top and absurdly entertaining splatter and bizarrely cartoonish bio-mechanoid transformation
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Pierce Brosnan’s second outing as James Bond holds up fairly well, especially in the action department, although Jonathan Pryce seems miscast as a Rupert Murdoch-modeled super-villain
Tone-Deaf (2019)
Dark, sardonic comedy where Amanda Crew rents a house to get away for a weekend only to face a murderous Robert Patrick. The humour is barbed and quite hilarious
Tonight I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967)
The second and more sophisticated of the Ze do Caixao/Coffin Joe films with director Jose Mojica Marins as a diabolic undertaker who delights in inflicting a catalogue of tortures on the weak-minded
Too Good to Be True (2003)
British tv movie variant on Fatal Attraction where a woman is stalked by her ex-husband Peter Davison
Too Tired to Die (1998)
Quirky indie film where a man encounters various strange people after learning he has 24 hours left to live
Top of the Food Chain (1999)
Canadian-made parody of a cheesy 1950s SF film that emerges more wittily amusingly than most Deliberately Bad SF Films
Topper Returns (1941)
Second sequel to Topper , the screwball light fantasy comedy about a dull man who is driven crazy by ghosts only he can see. This throws everything into an Old Dark House setting but proves there is still a good deal of droll, nonsensical humour to be found in the formula
Torment (1986)
Very obscure and forgotten psycho film from the 1980s that, while not aiming particularly high in its horizons, nevertheless manages to generate a reasonable tension and creepiness
Torn Hearts (2022)
Rather good film featuring Married … With Children’s Katey Sagal who gives a splendidly deranged performance in the full Baby Jane mode as an aging Country and Western star
Total Stranger (1999)
Reasonable psycho-thriller where landlord Lindsay Crouse takes on increasingly deranged tenant Zoe McClellan
Totally Killer (2023)
A Blumhouse production that ends up being a smart conceptual mash-up between Back to the Future and Halloween
Tourist Trap (1979)
An early Charles Band film with Chuck Connors psychically bringing a collection mannequins to life. A fine little film that develops a eerie strangeness all of its own
Tower of London (1962)
This is essentially Shakespeare’s Richard III mounted as a horror film. Roger Corman and Vincent Price take time away in the midst of their Edgar Allan Poe adaptations to turn the same style to matters historical
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Interesting little film that has gained a small cult reputation, a True Crime work based on a series of unsolved killings conducted by a masked figure in a small Southern town in 1946. A solid, quasi-documentary-like depiction that adheres to the facts for the most part
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
Not a remake but a sequel to the cult true-crime film The Town That Dreaded Sundown with a series of copycat killings influenced by the film occurring in the present-day. Directed with a bravura stylishness that makes you jump out of your seat in joy
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
Trancers (1985)
One of the more enjoyable films from Charles Band with Tim Thomerson giving a highly entertaining performance as a hard-boiled detective travelled back from the future
Transformers (2007)
Michael Bay takes on the 1980s toy phenomenon, turning it into a massive blockbuster filled with copious mass destruction and machines beating the metal crap out of each other
Trauma (1993)
Another giallo thriller from Dario Argento filled with all the wild bursts of imagination, bizarre plot twists and set-pieces we have come to expect from him
Trauma (2004)
Colin Firth is released from hospital following the death of his wife but experiences a series of reality-blurring hallucinations
Treasure Island (1999)
Unrelated to Robert Louis Stevenson, this is a bafflingly surrealist parody of a 1940s thriller
The Treatment (2014)
The police procedural has vanished from cinema screens this side of the 00s, although this is one Belgian example. This ventures into some very dark territory in its story of a detective who ventures into underground paedophile rings in search of a child-abducting serial killer
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)
Third of the films in the Tremors series, which have held up surprisingly well in their balance of creature effects and a considerable sense of humour. This adds a series of twists to the premise that are positively hilarious
Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)
For an original that was only a modest box-office hit, it is surprising how long the Tremors series has kept going – five sequels, plus a tv series. This is the sixth film in the series and despite a limited and repetitive premise, characters running about hunting underground-burrowing monsters, it pulls off another enjoyable entry and fails to set a foot wrong
Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)
The first of several sequels to the modest hit of Tremors with Fred Ward and Michael Gross repeating their roles, hunting Graboids in Mexico this time. As with the first film, this ably balances suspense, creature effects and a considerable sense of humour
The Triangle (2005)
An impressive line-up of genre names came together for this big event mini-series that sets out to offer a conclusive explanation for the Bermuda Triangle in a plot that juggles an entertaining stew of wild ideas involving timewarps, alternate timelines and government cover-ups
Tristan + Isolde (2006)
Adaptation of the legendary historical romance was considered a box-office flop but emerges as a better film than one expected it would
Troll 2 (2025)
Not the notorious bad movie but a sequel to Troll, the Norwegian-made effects spectacular about the revival of a giant troll. This is more of the same but with the effects pushed to a more spectacular level
The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
Modestly effective British entry into the 1950s alien invasion genre with people fighting invaders on a Swiss mountainside
Tropical Malady (2004)
An early film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, two tales – the first a gay love story, the second about a ghost tiger
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Acclaimed director Claire Denis makes a quite out there film in which people are obsessively driven to devour others during the act of sex
Trunk (2023)
Gripping German thriller with a woman abducted and imprisoned in a car trunk. Like Buried, this takes place entirely inside the trunk with her using her phone to try to get help
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
An amusing parody of the Backwoods Brutality film where the hillbillies are likeable innocents and the college kids end up killing themselves in a series of bizarre accidents. Amusing, although in the end is only a one-joke film
The Tune (1992)
The first film from the inimitable Bill Plympton, a work of bizarre surrealist animation and strange satiric transformations as a man sets out on a journey to find the final line for a tune
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
The Turn of the Screw (2009)
A BBC adaptation of the classic oft-filmed Henry James ghost story in which we cannot be sure whether the ghosts are real or exist inside the heroine’s imagination. This treats some aspects of the story liberally but gets the essence of the story right
Turning Red (2022)
This was the 25th Pixar film and becomes in effect a Pixar-ised version of The Incredible Hulk about a young girl who transforms into a red panda whenever she gets upset
Turok: Son of Stone (2008)
Animated adaption of the comic-book about a Native American warrior stranded in a prehistoric lost world
Twice Upon a Yesterday (1998)
Appealing and well told fantasy in which a couple are each individually offered the opportunity to go back in time and change the circumstances that led to their breakup
Twilight (2008)
Before the teen idol phenomenon took over, the original in the massively popular Young Adult series works as an earnest romance where all involved are clearly making an effort to play with a conviction
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
David Lynch’s cinematic prequel to his cult tv series critically divides people. Charting the last days of the doomed prom queen Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee gives a tour-de-force performance
Twins of Evil (1971)
The third and best of Hammer’s Karnstein trilogy, which features twin sisters Madeline and Mary Collinson as vampires. This works due to a strong hand from director John Hough and Peter Cushing on fine form as a witchfinder
Twisted Tales (1994)
For a time Kevin J. Lindemuth had a reasonable place making direct-to-video films and anthologies. This is a solidly effective video-released anthology of horror tales
Twister (1996)
After the massive success of Jurassic Park, anything with Michael Crichton’s name on it was hot property. This is made from his script about tornado chasers and is a rather entertaining film made with no other purpose that to keep producing a series of spectacular mass destruction scenes on an ever-expanding scale
Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
One of the better of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s cheap splatter films, set in a Confederate town that exists in a timewarp and slaughters all outsiders
U (2006)
A likeable and colourful French animated film
U Be Dead (2009)
A British-made tv movie about a female stalker. What sets this above Fatal Attraction and the other copies is that it is based on a true story
Uforia (1985)
Appealingly eccentric comedy set in the American Midwest where supermarket cashier Cindy Williams gains a cult following after preaching that the UFOs are coming
The Ugly Duckling (1997)
Amiable British animated film for young children based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale
The Ugly Duckling (2010)
Charming Claymation animated adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale from Russia that manages to be a mordant satire on Communism into the bargain
The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
An adult and frequently horrific retelling of the Cinderella story from the Ugly Stepsister’s point-of-view
Ultimate Avengers (2006)
The first of several animated films based on Marvel Comics properties, this does a solid job in adapting Mark Millar’s The Ultimates, a retelling of The Avengers origin story
The Ultimate Warrior (1975)
An early example of the post-apocalyptic action film with Yul Brynner as a lone fighter hired to defend a peaceful community
Ultraviolet (2006)
Milla Jovovich is a part of a vampire rebel underground in a dystopian future. A film filled with incredible design schemes and action scenes that are as spectacular as they are ridiculously improbable
Ulysses (1954)
Lavishly made Greek myth adventure, an adaptation of The Odyssey with Kirk Douglas as Ulysses/Odysseus
Umma (2022)
Undeniably effective ghost story where Sandra Oh plays a woman who is haunted by the ghost of her abusive traditional mother
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
Undead (2003)
Appealingly quirky homemade zombie film that launched the career of Australia’s Spierig Brothers. The two demonstrate a considerable inventivity when it comes to the visual and makeup effects, which they created all themselves
Under Paris (2024)
Xavier Gens makes an undeniably entertaining big-budget film about killer shark amok in the Seine
Under Pressure (1997)
Modestly effective psycho-thriller with Charlie Sheen in his first psycho role as a fireman who snaps under the pressures of everyday life and threatens his neighbour
Under the Bed (2012)
A film about children and monsters under the bed. You expect this to be a kid’s film but the surprise is that it is played adult the whole way with undeniably effective results
Under the Skin (2013)
Fascinating film with Scarlett Johansson as an alien visitor luring male hitchhikers. The film is beautifully made but frustratingly opaque in terms of explanations for what is happening. indeed, feels like a science-fiction film that has been stripped of any easy science-fiction handholds
Undertone (2026)
A really quite spooky film about a series of audio recordings send to a podcast that seem to contain evidence of a possession. A film that almost entirely has its effect relayed by sound
Underwater (2020)
Throwback to late 80s/early 90s films like The Abyss and Sphere with the crew of a sub-oceanic station fighting off a monster. Generic in plot terms bit directorially this is an intense and claustrophobic ride
Undocumented (2010)
A Found Footage film that gets political – in this case, featuring a group of American vigilantes torturing Mexican illegal immigrants. Not quite full on Torture Porn but holds a darkly barbed bite