Amnesiac (2014)
Imprisonment Thriller
Michael Polish is one of the underrated American directors. Here an amnesiac Wes Bentley wakes up a prisoner of a wonderfully chilling Kate Bosworth who insists that she is his wife
Amnesia
Amnesia is the partial or complete loss of a person’s memory. This is an acknowledge medical condition in the real world. It is a common trope in fiction where a person wakes up with no memory and spends the story discovering who they were.
This trope regularly appears in genre stories where the protagonist must discover who (or in some cases what) they are. There are quite a number of stories where characters wake in an alien environment with no memory.
Also common in genre material are stories about amnesia-inducing drugs or operations. Or else of people whose memories have been wiped for a particular purpose.
See also Altered Memory dealing with amnesia inducement and artificial memories.
Andron (2015)
Mysterious Labyrinth/Future Televised Games
A group of people whose memories have been blanked wake up in a mysterious labyrinth and have to survive death traps and each other. A promising mix of Cube and The Hunger Games killed by clumsy storytelling
Apples (2020)
Plague of Amnesia
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
Archangel (1990)
Kitsch Surrealism
The second film from Guy Maddin, which comes with all of his familiar homages to German Expressionism and silent cinema, wrapped up in a surrealist plot of hilarious melodrama and side-splittingly deadpan dialogue
Ash (2025)
Hostile Alien Planet/Alien Nasty
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
The Awakening (2011)
Victorian Ghost Story
A classic British ghost story that produces an exceedingly haunted atmosphere at times, although falls apart in a highly contrived M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
Bad Girl Island (2007)
Mysterious Femme Fatale
A film that feels like it should be an erotic thriller but isn’t. Antonio Sabato Jr. rescues an amnesiac Annalynne McCord who proceeds to exert a fatal influence
Black Box (2020)
Amnesia and Mind Transference
Blumhouse film in which an initial plot about a man suffering amnesia undergoes a twist to become a body theft story
Bugmaster (2006)
Wandering Exorcist/Manga Adaptation
Akira director/creator Katsuhiro Otomo returns with this live-action manga adaptation about a wandering exorcist. Very different to any of Otomo’s anime, this is much quieter and rooted in Japanese folklore but has some undeniably way out scenes
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999)
Experimental Medical Treatments
This feels like a weepie Disease of the Week drama where Elijah Wood is an amnesiac placed in a hospital ward of terminal patients before the film arrives at an SF conceptual twist
Cerebrum (2022)
Frankenstein Film
A young man recuperates from a brain injury while tended by his father. As he tries to piece together what happened, we discover we are in the midst of a Frankenstein-type film
The Chain Reaction (1980)
Nuclear Accident Action Thriller
An Australian film from many of the people behind Mad Max about the cover-up of a nuclear accident. Essentially The China Syndrome with the addition of car chases
A Chinese Ghost Story (2011)
Chinese Supernatural Fantasy/Ghost Romance
A Chinese Ghost Story was one of the greatest Hong Kong fantasy films; this remake gets everything wrong. The aerial combat scenes are replaced by CGI, the characters rewritten and the Buddhist elements eliminated
Colonials (2023)
Colonist Return to Post-Apocalyptic Earth
A low-budget film with some very accomplished effects that takes place in a devastated future as a Martian colonist returns to find what has happened to Earth
Coma (2019)
Alternate Reality Inside Shared Dreams
An extraordinary Russian film that takes place in a uniquely designed dreamworld shared by people in comas. This has an imagination and conceptual grasp that rivals Inception
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Western/Alien Invasion
High-concept Jon Favreau directed film that has a winning title concept, overflows with star power and is made on a big budget. But the script feels like it had no idea what to do after setting up its title conceptual mash-up
Cryo (2022)
Cryogenic Thriller
This has an intriguing premise where a group awake from cryogenic suspension with their memories blank as someone among their number now begins killing them
Cure (1997)
Hypnotism Murders
The film that brought Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa to attention. Set around a series of hypnotism murders, this is, as with Kurosawa’s films, cryptic and frequently inexplicable but has an undeniable uncanniness
Dark City (1998)
Reality Manipulation
From Alex Proyas and David S. Goyer, this has an astonishing conceptual audacity in its plot dealing with shifting realities and transplanted memories, making it arguably the finest science-fiction film of the 1990s
Darkest Day (2015)
The Zombie Apocalypse
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
Dead Again (1991)
Reincarnation Thriller
Kenneth Branagh breathes life into the creaky reincarnation thriller with a plot that crackles with tension, while he directs with a virtuoso showmanship that shouts style from every frame
Dead Friend (2004)
Korean Ghost Story
South Korean ghost story that has borrowed most of its moves from the J-horror cycle – Ring, The Grudge et al. A relatively anodyne treatment is enlivened by a twist ending that draws heavily on The Sixth Sense
The Dead Pit (1989)
Mad Scientist Resurrects the Dead in an Asylum
A typical 80s film with a mad doctor resurrecting the dead in the abandoned wing of an asylum amid gory makeup effects. The first film from Brett Leonard who next went on to make The Lawnmower Man
Edgar Allan Poe’s Lighthouse Keeper (2016)
Poe Adaptation/Haunted Lighthouse
Adaptation of a story fragment that Edgar Allan Poe left unfinished upon his death. The original (only two pages long) gives little more than a setting but this builds out into an okay period ghost story
Embers (2015)
Catastrophe That Has Left the Population with Periodic Amnesia
An often hauntingly made film set in a world where the populace is affected by periodic amnesia and memory resets. Memento in effect recast as an apocalyptic story
Estranged (2015)
Imprisonment Thriller
An amnesiac girl returns home to a large estate in the English countryside only to be made prisoner by her family. Reminiscent of one of the 1960s Hammer psycho-thriller, this is well-made and builds out a fine sense of alienation
The Father (2020)
Alzheimer's Sufferer/Reality Blurrings
A film that received great acclaim at awards season. Anthony Hopkins is a dementia-ridden senior and we experience his state of mind subjectively in a constantly shifting sense of what is real
Final Approach (1991)
Amnesiac Air Force Pilot/Fantastic Twist
A film that mostly consists of amnesiac Air Force pilot James B. Sikking being questioned by psychologist Hector Elizondo. The film constantly hints at a big revelation before settling for one of the corniest twist endings
Flashburn (2017)
Amnesiac Scientist Imprisoned/Reality Bender
Reality bending film where an amnesiac Sean Patrick Flanery wakes up in a warehouse and learns he is a scientist who holds the antidote to a pandemic. But all is not it seems.
The Forbidden Room (2015)
Tapestry of Surreal Tall Tales
Guy Maddin has perfected a blend of silent movie stylistics and hilariously surreal melodrama. This is a Guy Maddin film on acid, a sumptuously madcap fantasia of visuals wound around a tapestry of tall tales
Fractured (2013)
Amnesiac Man Struggles Between Hell and Redemption
Film about an amnesiac man trying to piece his disturbing past together amid a series of surreal nightmares. This ends up not nearly as interesting as you feel it could have been
The Gathering (2003)
Archaeological Mystery/Sinister Observers
Made not long after The Da Vinci Code was huge, a similar archaeological mystery centred around an amnesiac Christina Ricci and a sinister buried church dating back to The Crucifixion
Gemini (1999)
Evil Twin
Cult Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto returns to his favourite topic of the repressed. This emerges as his version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a period-set work about an upstanding doctor haunted by his twin
The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972)
Identity Bender
Originally a tv movie but released to theatres. Michael Sarrazin is man who survives an explosion at a laboratory with amnesia only to be accused of being a spy and end in a labyrinth of brainwashing and identity confusion
Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Slasher Film
Slasher film from the 1980s heyday directed by the once great J. Lee Thompson. This drags drearily where the only going for it are some novelty splatter effects and a twist ending that makes no sense whatsoever
The Haunted Strangler (1958)
Split Personalitied Killer
A split-personality killer film from the early days of the English horror cycle that fails through fundamentally absurd psychology and a hammy performance from Boris Karloff
Hercules Unchained (1959)
Greek Mythological Hero
Sequel to the Steve Reeves-starring Hercules where Hercules is wooed by an evil queen after drinking the Waters of Forgetfulness. Spectacular but stolid
The Hive (2014)
Deadly Infection/Shared Memories
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
Homunculus (2021)
Man Can See Inner Traumas
Takashi Shimizu, the director of the Ju-on/The Grudge films, conducts an adaptation of a manga about a man who undergoes a trepanning operation and emerges able to see people’s inner traumas given symbolic expression
House of Mirrors (2012)
Amnesia Psycho-Thriller
Low-budget psycho-thriller about amnesia that tries hard in many areas but fails to generate enough contortion in terms of plot twists to make the show work
Inferno (2016)
Dan Brown Adaptation/Trail of Clues to a Deadly Virus
The third film based on Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon books. This is essentially the same plot as The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks following clues to a deadly virus hidden in classic artworks around Europe
Intersect (2020)
Time Travel Experiments
A film with Lovecraftian overtones about a group at the Miskatonic University doing research into time travel that proceeds to go wrong, while unleashing mysterious monsters
Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
Haunting/Astral Projection
The fifth film in the Insidious series. This time Patrick Wilson returns to the franchise and takes the director’s chair, showing he has been taking some lessons from James Wan
Iron Girl: Ultimate Weapon (2015)
Cyborg Bounty Hunter
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
It Watches (2016)
Sinister Happenings as a Man Goes Housesitting
This feels as though the director, frustrated with lack of financing, grabbed a camera and shot a film around his home. This generates a modest creepiness but falls apart at a credibiity-stretching ending
Jiu Jitsu (2020)
Action Film/Alien-Human Combat
The action film has largely died off in the 2010s. This is very much a throwback with a set-up reminiscent of Predator about an action team fighting an alien in the jungle
Justice League: Warworld (2023)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
Another of the animated DC Comics films in which various of their regular characters find themselves incarnated in simulated combat arenas
The Killing Machine (1994)
Action/Manufactured AIDS Virus Coverup
Action film with Jeff Wincott as a resurrected hitman who makes the discovery that AIDS has been artificially manufactured
The Last Seven (2010)
Amnesiac Survivors in a Deserted City
Seven people wake up in a deserted London with no memory of who they are only to find that something is stalking them. An intriguing hook let down by a tired and overused ending
Little Fish (2020)
Amnesia-Inducing Plague
Beautifully understated film set in a world where a plague is causing people to lose their memories, following Olivia Cooke whose husband Jack O’Connell gradually succumbs
Malice in Wonderland (2009)
Modernised Alice in Wonderland
A modernised retelling of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice takes a colourfully surreal trip through an urban landscape and criminal underworld
The Maze Runner (2014)
Young Adult/Maze World/Conceptual Breakthrough Story
One of the better among the current fad for Young Adult dystopian SF works post-The Hunger Games. This dispenses with dystopian Coming of Age stories and gives us a fascinating conceptual mystery even if the answers prove underwhelming
Moksha – Or The World and I, How Does That Work? (2012)
Man Chained Up/Existential Parable
Imagine a weird mix between the basic premise of Saw and Waiting for Godot. A South Korean film about a man inexplicably chained up in a park that is less interested in his escape than it becomes a surreal existential allegory for life
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Hollywood Noir/Surrealism
David Lynch work of Hollywood noir in which novice actress Naomi Watts (in the role that made her name) is drawn into a surreal idenity blurring mystery. As always with Lynch, this baffling, weird and mesmerising
Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (1995)
Time-Travelling Killer Cyborgs
The third of Albert Pyun’s Nemesis films about time-travelling cyborgs – not much plot just action scenes and some moments of undeniable strangeness
The Next One (1984)
Mysterious Visitor
A very strange film where widow Adrienne Barbeau finds an amnesiac Keir Dullea on a Greek island who shows mysterious abilities and may have come from the future
Oxygen (2021)
Woman Imprisoned in a Cryogenic Capsule
Imprisonment thriller where Melanie Laurent wakes up trapped inside a cryogenic capsule, this expands out to become an excellent SF film
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Space Expedition/Alien Contact
A popular hit based on a book by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, where Ryan Gosling is a scientist who undergoes a space expedition and makes alien contact in an effort to save the Earth
Radius (2017)
Amnesiac Man Wakes Up With Killing Power
This comes with a fascinatingly original premise – man wakes up with complete amnesia and finds that he has the ability to kill anyone within thirty feet of him. The case of a film that holds attention with a captivating and unusual plot and a series of constant whiplash reversals
The Reconstruction of William Zero (2014)
Cloning Film
A low key but modestly effective film where an amnesiac man comes to the gradual realisation that he is a clone
Replace (2017)
Woman Needs to Steal Other People’s Skin
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
Revolt (2017)
Alien Invasion
Modestly effective film with an amnesiac soldier trying to make his way across Africa in the aftermath of an alien invasion. Featuring some fine and well staged effects
The Rizen (2017)
Labyrinth of Lovecraftian Horrors
Amnesiac persons wake up in a bunker filled with monstrosities. Sort of H.P. Lovecraft served up as a low-budget variant on Resident Evil
The Rizen: Possession (2019)
Labyrinth of Lovecraftian Horrors
Sequel to the earlier The Rizen with the group of people trapped inside a labyrinth of Lovecraftian horrors
Road Wars (2015)
Post-Holocaust Action
A mockbuster from The Asylum released to ride on the coattails of Mad Max: Fury Road. Slightly more watchable than most of their offerings, although still cheaply made, this is the oddity of a Mad Max film with the addition of vampires
Rub Love (1998)
Korean Near Future Thriller/Amnesia Drug
Stylish but not always coherent South Korean near-future thriller about a comic-book artist, a hit woman and an amnesia drug
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Kitsch Surrealism
The best budgeted of Guy Maddin’s films, a renaissance of his familiar kitsch surrealism and silent movie homages
Shadow Puppets (2007)
Mysterious Labyrinth/Conceptual Breakthrough
A conceptual puzzle film – people wake up in a facility with no memory of who they are – reminiscent of Cube with the smoke monsters from Lost thrown in. Unfortunately, this is too low-budget to create much mystery and the big reveal is not a terribly interesting one
Southland Tales (2006)
Near-Future L.A.
Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame makes a work set in a near-future L.A., a sprawling film bursting at the edges with too many characters and subplots but not uninteresting
Spiritwalker (2020)
South Korean Gangster/Bodyswap Film
A conceptually intriguing cross between the bodyswap film and the South Korean gangster film
Superman II (1980)
Comic-Book Superhero
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)
Comic-Book Superhero
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
Tekken: A Man Called X (2014)
Videogame Adaptation
Nobody seemed to care about Tekken, the 2010 film based on the popular videogame. Despite that, this is a sequel – albeit one that has almost nothing to do with the first film. This consists of nothing more than a series of efficiently unmemorable action scenes and a plot that makes no real sense
Three Extremes II (2002)
Asian Horror Anthology
A horror anthology featuring episodes from three Asian directors originally titled Three. The better known Three … Extremes was a sequel whereupon this was retitled and re-released as Three Extremes II
Time Lapse (2001)
Action/Memory Erasing Drug
Action film in which an agent tries to prevent a nuclear arms deal after being given a memory-erasing drug
Tykho Moon (1996)
Lunar Colony Noir
Film from Enki Bilal, a celebrated comic-book creator in France, about the noirish goings-on and in-politics on a lunar colony
Ulysses (1954)
Greek Myth Adventure
Lavishly made Greek myth adventure, an adaptation of The Odyssey with Kirk Douglas as Ulysses/Odysseus
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)
Super-Soldiers/Action/Identity Bender
Sixth entry in the series, this throws out all the themes the previous sequels operated by and feels like a Universal Soldier film written by Philip K. Dick with utterly fascinating results. John Hyams hits in with a brutal intensity that shows he is one of the most exciting up and coming action directors
The Visitor (2022)
Sinister Small Town
Blumhouse production where Finn Jones moves to a small town and finds the portrait of the town’s founder is a ringer for him
The Werewolf (1956)
Atomic Werewolf
A real oddity among the werewolf genre – a film that tries to mix the werewolf up with the 1950s fad for the atomic monster movie in having the transformation brought on by atomically irradiated wolf blood
Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010)
Japanese Superhero
Takashi Miike makes a sequel to his earlier superhero film filled with his typically eccentric touches