The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
Cinderella from the Ugly Stepsister’s Viewpoint
An adult and frequently horrific retelling of the Cinderella story from the Ugly Stepsister’s point-of-view
Deformity and Disfigurement
Deformity and Disfigurement refers to characters afflicted with bodily deformities and/or disfiguring appearances. There is the common association made that that which is ugly, horrific and unappealing to look at should be shunned, or that is it represents some form of moral degeneracy.
In the horror film, deformity and disfigurement is commonplace. Often horror films feature characters that become afflicted with wasting diseases and mutations or are maddened as a result of scarring in some accident. Mad Surgeons also have a frequent fixation with grafting faces taken from others onto their disfigured wives and daughters.
There are also a number of works that create sympathy for the disfigured and outcast – as in the various versions of Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the more modern versions of The Phantom of the Opera.
Deformity and disfigurement are frequently the character traits that affect Super-Villains and their henchpeople – villains with hook hands or eye patches are commonplace. Often the hurt over their disfigurement will create a psychic split that will leave a villain seeking Revenge against those associated. There are a lesser number of heroes afflicted with disfigurement with examples such as Darkman and Deadpool.
Mary Had a Little Lamb (2023)
Horror Version of Nursery Rhyme
The people behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey deliver a horror version of the nursery rhyme. Here Mary becomes a middle-aged woman living in the woods with a hulking son who has a lamb’s head
The Lurking Fear (2023)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation/Abandoned Asylum
Another low-budget H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, this abandons all but the bare bones of the story to create a work about abominable experiments lurking in the halls of an abandoned asylum
Cobweb (2023)
Secrets in the Walls
A horror film produced by Seth Rogen that gains some really creepy effect as a boy finds something is living in the walls of his home
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)
Animation/Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
The third of the Mortal Kombat animated films. This abandons inter-dimensional kombat and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, focused around the blind swordsman Kenshi
Barbarian (2022)
Sinister AirBNB
The directorial debut of Zach Cregger that received great word-of-mouth. A film that shifts points-of-views to tell the story of people discovering a horrible secret in the basement of an AirBNB
The House of Snails (2021)
Sinister Small Town
A Spanish horror film that develops some reasonable effect in its story about a writer who moves to a small town only to find the locals are keeping sinister secrets
Beauty Water (2020)
Anime/Extreme Beauty Product
South Korean-made anime that takes a dive into horror grotesquerie in the story of a beauty product that offers to reshape flesh and a girl who becomes obsessed with it
Looks That Kill (2020)
Teen With a Face That Kills People Comedy
A film about a teen whose face kills anyone who looks at him. This is a romantic comedy that overspills with originality, quirkiness and a really dark sense of humour.
The Witches (2020)
Evil Witches/Roald Dahl Adaptation
Robert Zemeckis’s remake of the Roald Dahl story and Nicolas Roeg film proves a head-scratching effort that misfires on almost every cue
Pet Sematary (2019)
Resurrection of the Dead/Stephen King Adaptation
Remake of the Stephen King novel that opened to very divided reaction. The surprise about the film is bar one central aspect it is surprisingly faithful to the book. On the other hand, the changes make the crucial difference
Rabid (2019)
Parasitic Skin Graft
The Soska Sisters take on remaking the classic David Cronenberg film about a woman with a blood-drinking skin graft who leaves a trail of rabid victims. The sisters smartly update the original, bringing a host of new ideas to bear
The Cleaning Lady (2018)
Psycho Cleaning Lady
Director Jon Knautz and actress Alexis Kendra made the quite impressive Goddess of Love and reteam for this film where Alexis befriends the disturbed, disfigured cleaning lady of the title
The Field Guide to Evil (2018)
Horror Anthology
From the producers of the ABCs of Death films, a further horror anthology where nine directors from around the world deliver eight episodes based on the folklore of their region
Nightmare Cinema (2018)
Horror Anthology
A above average entry in the recent trend of horror anthologies featuring episodes from different directors, including Joe Dante and Mick Garris, featuring at least a couple of standout entries
The Perfection (2018)
Classic Music Students' Twisted Rivalry
Quite the most insane film I have seen in recent memory. The rivalry between two classical music students reminds of Black Swan albeit wound up to the histrionic level of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, all added to the most pleasingly twisty mess-with-your assumptions script
Escape from Cannibal Farm (2017)
British Backwoods Brutality
British director Charlie Steeds delivers a well tuned homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that gets it right in ways that most of the Texas Chainsaw sequels don’t
Phantom of the Theatre (2016)
Chinese Version of The Phantom of the Opera
A fascinating Chinese version of The Phantom of the Opera, transplanted from a Parisian opera house of the 19th Century to a film being shot in an abandoned theatre in the 1930s. On the other hand, this version makes the most radical changes to the story of any of the Phantom films
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
Adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel, one of the most famous comic-book titles of all time. The notoriously cranky Moore need have no reason to shun this film version, which recreates his work right down to preserving his dialogue and replicating the set-up of individual panels
The Enchanted Cottage (2016)
Romantic Fantasy of Transformation
A modern remake of an old play filmed twice before about a magical cottage that allows plain and disfigured lovers who stay there to see the other one as beautiful
Deadpool (2016)
Marvel Comics Superhero
Maybe the smartest and wittiest of the modern Marvel Comics adaptations, this takes every opportunity to deflate its own seriousness, not to mention frequently breaks the fourth wall with side-splitting results
The Giant (2016)
Deformed Man Has Daydreams of Being a Giant
For the most part, this plays out as a mundane drama about someone with a terrible deformity – similar to The Elephant Man or Mask – but who also has daydreams in which he is a giant
The Hybrids Family (2015)
Monster Comedy
From the director of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, this is an unfunny monster comedy that plays out like it is trying to be a live-action version of the Hotel Transylvania films
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
Animation/Famous Monsters Comedy
I had little enthusiasm for this, I tend to like my classic monsters serious rather than defanged – these Hotel Transylvania films are so watered down, Dracula doesn’t even get to drink blood
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
Graphic Novel Adaptation/Ultra-Violent Film Noir Tales
Robert Rodriguez makes his return to Frank Miller’s classic film noir-styled graphic novels. You keep expecting this to hit in with the astonishing freshness the first film did. Rodriguez and Miller give us more of the same amazing visuals but there is the feeling it is no longer original and new
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
Fantasticised Historical Battle
Less a 300 sequel or prequel than a parallel story, this offers much the same as before but in 3D and with naval instead of land combat. Seeing Zack Snyder’s amazing visuals repeated all over again, all the poses and hyper-masculinity now seem to bubble with an inherent risibility.
Hans Crippleton: Talk to the Hans (2014)
Deformed Hillbilly Monster Hunter Comedy
A painfully unfunny endurance test created by star Kevon Ward centred around the deformed, imbecilic hillbilly he played at Halloween shows. The film is little more than people playing morons in silly voices
The Dance of Reality (2013)
Surreal Autobiography
The first film in 24 years from Alejandro Jodorowsky, a surreal journey through his own childhood. Gone is Jodorowsky, the mad prophet of El Topo, replaced by a warm, wryly self-reflexive Jodorowsky looking back in on his own life
Hatchet III (2013)
Slasher Film Homage
Third in the series of slasher homage films where Adam Green steps back from the director’s chair. This ups the gore content and number of genre cameos, otherwise is fairly much the same as before
Movie 43 (2013)
Anthology of Bad Taste Comedy Skits
An anthology of comedy skits that sets out to be in as bad taste as possible – you are left astounded how far a film has to go to offend in this post-South Park era. That and wondering if the producers had kidnapped some of the stars’ family members to force them to participate
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)
Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark delivers a prequel to his 2010 Detective Dee film. This takes the character back far more to his original nature as a Chinese equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. That is if you can imagine Sherlock Holmes taking place as a flying swordsman film filled with sea monsters and wildly fantastic martial combat scenes (*)
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Animation/Hotel for Famous Monsters
A variant on the much more charming Mad Monster Party?, an animated film featuring cute cuddly versions of the Famous Monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, wolfman etc) with Adam Sandler voicing Dracula
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part I (2012)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
The first of a two-part animated adaptation of the classic graphic novel ever written. The film lacks the same impact because, firstly, it is an incomplete story, and secondly, Frank Miller’s ideas have now become so much part of the modern Batman
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Comic-Book Superhero
The Dark Knight is a hard act to follow and Christopher Nolan almost does but not quite. The story keeps Batman off-screen for half the film. Tom Hardy’s Bane dominates the show, while Catwoman is surprisingly subdued
Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter (2011)
Deliberately Bad Film/Exploitation Homage
Tony Watt strikes again with another of wilfully bad, agonisingly unwatchable films. All the bad acting, plotlessly rambling scenes and random exploitation movie homages that one expects of a Tony Watt film
Frankenstein (2011)
Frankenstein Stage Adaptation
Danny Boyle’s stage adaptation, broadcast live on movie screens, wrings up some unique changes on the classic tale. The role of Frankenstein and creation alternated between Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller
The Summer of Massacre (2011)
Anthology of Slasher Tales
The unique idea of an anthology made up of five different slasher tales. Unfortunately, the film’s only raison d’etre is serving up serial gore scenes, which have the effect taken out of them because they are all conducted digitally and look biologically preposterous
Beastly (2011)
High-School Version of Beauty and the Beast
The interesting idea of the fairytale Beauty and the Beast retold in a modern high school setting. Despite itself, the film manages to wring a reasonable sincerity out of the premise
Jonah Hex (2010)
Western Comic-Book Adaptation/Supernatural Bounty Hunter
This is an adaptation of the DC comic-book character of a supernatural avenging Western gunslinger that fails to burn with the grim mood it should have
Hatchet II (2010)
Slasher Film Homage
Hatchet was a homage to the 1980s slasher film that had a mild amusement. In the sequels, Adam Green upped the number of genre cameos and in-jokes, while pushing the gore effects to an extreme
Death Race 2 (2010)
Future Prison/Gladiatorial Road Races
The first of three sequels (actually a prequel) to Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race, this gives the origins of Frankenstein and the Death Race. This rehashes much of the first film as generic direct-to-dvd fodder
Frankenstein Unlimited (2009)
Anthology of Frankenstein Short Films
A series of short film interpretations of the Frankenstein story, with interpretations ranging from BDSM to kung fu and modern police procedural
Hanger (2009)
Aborted Child’s Revenge/Bad Taste
The films of makeup effects artist Ryan Nicholson revel in a sordid bad taste. This is a fairly extreme work about a coat hanger abortion child who grows up seeking revenge
Transylmania (2009)
Frat Rat Horror Comedy
A excruciatingly unfunny film that feels like one of Abbott and Costello’s monster bashes played as a crass frat comedy
Heartless (2009)
Pacts with a Possible Devil Figure
Fascinating British film about pacts with an ambiguous Devil figure. The film largely exists to push protagonist Jim Sturgess into as many morally uncomfortable places as possible
Friday the 13th (2009)
Slasher Film
Another 1980s horror remake that had much potential. However, this proves to be just another Friday the 13th film by the numbers, albeit with a bigger budget, and widely misses the mark
The Cycle (2009)
Backwoods Brutality
Micheal Bafaro is a justifiably obscure director whose entire career has been built on recycling other horror films. This is his version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which is passable until a Sixth Sense-styled twist ending
Giallo (2009)
Italian Psycho-Thriller
Dario Argento makes a disappointing return to the giallo thriller where he made his name. With Argento’s characteristic murder set-pieces having been toned down, the results are nothing special
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009)
Young Adult/Vampire Wars/Circus of Freaks
Adaptation of a series of Young Adult books that should have emerged as Harry Potter made with the sensibilities of a Tim Burton. But the result fails to come to life in Paul Weitz’s hands
The Dark Knight (2008)
Comic-Book Superhero
Christopher Nolan brought the cinematic Batman franchise back to life with Batman Begins and here expands it into something amazing. The show is capped off by Heath Leder’s towering Academy Award winning performance as The Joker
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Comic-Book Vigilante
The Punisher (2004) with Thomas Jane was a dud among the 2000s Marvel Comics adaptations. Here the role is recast with Ray Stevenson and director Lexi Alexander gets the dark, violent tone of the comic-book right
300 (2007)
Fantasticised Historical Battle/Graphic Novel Adaptation
Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the classic Frank Miller graphic novel about the Greek battle of Thermopylae. In replicating the look of the original’s panels, Snyder pushes what would otherwise be a standard historical film into something extraordinarily stylised and fantastic
Carved: The Slit Mouthed Woman (2007)
Boogeywoman from Japanese Urban Legend
J-horror film based on the Japanese urban legend of a boogeywoman with a face slit from ear to ear who appears to kill people
Slasher (2007)
German Backwoods Brutality
A German-made copy of the Backwoods Brutality cycle that only rehashes clches and frequently verges on the amateurish in execution
Timber Falls (2007)
Backwoods Brutality
By the numbers Backwoods Brutality where a woman is imprisoned by crazed backwoods fundamentalists in order to bear them a child
Beneath (2007)
Smalltown Secrets
Girl returns to her hometown after many years, encounters family secrets, ghostly figures, clairvoyant visions. The film holds interest for a time as you try to figure out what is going on but eventually proves a letdown
Hatchet (2006)
Slasher Film Homage
This was Adam Green’s homage to the Friday the 13th series that comes with the virtue of a high level of gore and a sense of humour. This was subsequently spun out to several sequels
Black Christmas (2006)
Girl's Dormitory Slasher
Another in the mid-2000s fad for 1970s remakes. This revives what has been cited as the first slasher film but throws most of the original out and turns the rest into a gore-drenched slasher film
Penelope (2006)
Modern Fairytale/Girl Cursed with a Pig-Like Face
This has the feel of a fairytale where Christina Ricci plays a girl who suffers from a hereditary curse that has left her with a pig-like snout
Sin City (2005)
Graphic Novel Adaptation/Ultra-Violent Film Noir Tales
Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novels is groundbreaking and one of the most visually adventurous films in years. A trio of film noir-styled tales where he sets out to replicate the look of Miller’s comic panels
Strange Circus (2005)
Twisted Disfigurement Story
Japanese director Shion Sono has emerged as an increasingly worthwhile name in recent years. This is an admirably twisted and perverse work that leaves you quite flabbergasted
Rampo Noir (2005)
Japanese Horror Anthology
Anthology of tales adapted from Japanese horror writer Edogawa Rampo. The various directors push the stories into an admirably perverse and disturbed space
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Space Opera
The last of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy and the last opportunity for him to get it right, which he generally does. The effects are expert but are not allowed to dominate as much as they did previously and the focus has come back onto the story and Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader
Frankenstein Reborn (2005)
Modernised Frankenstein
One of the early films from The Asylum, this offers a modernised retelling of Frankenstein where some interesting attempts to find modern-day equivalents for parts of the story befall one of their usual low-budgets
Mortuary (2005)
Creature in the Crypt/Body Snatchers
Another effort in the sad slide into shabby amateurishness that marked that latter years of Tobe Hooper’s career, a muddled effort set around a mortuary involving body-snatching fungus and deformed relatives in the crawlspaces
House of Wax (2005)
Wax Museum Slasher
Despite borrowing the title, this has the no connection to the 1953 film with Vincent Price as a mad waxworks curator and is a modern slasher film. Nevertheless, director Jaume Collet-Serra does come up with some very inventive dispatches
Late Bloomer (2004)
Handicapped Serial Killer
A disturbing Japanese film about a man in a motorised wheelchair (played by a real disabled actor) who turns serial killer and begins to enact revenge for petty injustices
The Machinist (2004)
Anorexia, Sleeplessness and Reality Blurrings
Fascinating film from Brad Anderson where Christian Bale is subject to a series of reality blurrings. What hangs over the show most of all is Bale’s intensely physical performance for which he lost a third of his body weight to turn himself into an anorexic shell of a human
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House/Musical Adaptation
The long-planned film adaptation of The Phantom musical emerges as disaster under Joel Schumacher. The Phantom’s presence has all been watered down and the film exists as no more than a series of scenographic poses
Highwaymen (2004)
Cat and Mouse Game with a Killer on the Backroads
Robert Harmon made the classic The Hitcher, but failed to ever follow up on it. This is the sole work that ever came close – a beautifully tense series of games between Jim Caviezel and a motorised killer on the backroads
Beauty (2004)
Modernised Beauty and the Beast
A quite enjoyable attempt to modernise the story of Beauty and the Beast with Martin Clunes as a disfigured reclusive aristocrat and Sienna Guillory as a plumber who connects with him
Creep (2004)
Deformed Creature in the London Underground
A tense and well sustained horror with Franka Potente trapped in the London Underground after hours and menaced by a deformed creature that lurks in the tunnels
The Singing Detective (2003)
Detective Story Daydreams
Disastrous Hollywood version of Dennis Potter’s classic tv mini-series where a hospitalised Robert Downey jr fantasises a dream world of 1940s film noir
Darkness Falls (2003)
Vengeful Tooth Fairy
Formulaic horror film about an avenging supernatural hag known as the Tooth Fairy. Much of the premise is borrowed from A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002)
Disney Animation Sequel
One of Disney’s cheaply produced video sequel to their animated film made during the 1990s/2000s. This one actually emerges as superior to the original
Snow White (2001)
Fairy-Tale
Caroline Thompson, a regular Tim Burton scriptwriter, directs a uniquely revisionist version of the fairytale in which she digs in to explain the origins of many of the familiar aspects of the story
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Reality Bender
The English-language remake of Open Your Eyes, starring Tom Cruise. The Spanish version is still the superior of the two but this stays surprisingly faithful to the original
Bruiser (2000)
Man's Face Becomes a Blank Mask
Uneven George Romero film from his less satisfying latter period in which Jason Flemyng wakes up with a blank white mask on his face and finds it allows him to unleash vengeance against those who wronged him
Blood Dolls (1999)
Demented Puppetmaster
Another of Charles Band’s doll horror films a la the Puppetmaster and Demonic Toys films. Here Band goes totally gonzo and makes one of the strangest films of his entire career
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival – North (1999)
Festival of H.P. Lovecraft Short Films
A festival of H.P. Lovecraft short films held in Vancouver, which display a quality and faithfulness to the original texts that far outstrips the professional efforts being made elsewhere
The Phantom of the Opera (1998)
Madman Beneath the Opera House
Dario Argento takes on The Phantom and welcomely rescues it from musical romance and returns it to being a horror film. Despite a beautifully mounted production, Julian Sands’ Phantom is too weak and wimpy
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Reality Bender
Excellent film from Alejandro Amenabar in which a handsome playboy finds himself in the midst of a baffling series of reality flips before arriving at an SF twist ending
Spawn (1997)
Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
A very disappointing film adaptation of Todd MacFarlane’s cult comic-book where all of the moody darkness emerges with one-dimensional effect as little more than The Punisher with horns
I Married a Strange Person (1997)
Bizarre Surrealist Animation
A quite indescribable animated film from the great Bill Pympton, this largely consists of a series of bizarre and surreal, often outrageous, transformations and juxtapositions
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Ugly Teenager/Disney Animation
A Disney animated film that turns Victor Hugo’s classic oft-filmed novel about Quasimodo, a misshapen figure of pity, into a slightly ugly teenager who now comes accompanied by talking gargoyles
Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996)
Disfigured Avenging Superhero
This was the second and better of the two video-released sequels to Sam Raimi’s Darkman starring Arnold Vosloo in the title role. This adds a much more interestingly complex plot to the mix
Batman Forever (1995)
Comic-Book Superhero
Tim Burton’s superlative duo of Batman films were wrecked after Joel Schumacher took up the director’s chair and turned the films into giant camp fests. Here he allows a madly overacting Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones loose as the villains
Castle Freak (1995)
Deformity in the Dungeon
Stuart Gordon had a cult hit with Re-Animator and much of the rest of his career felt like his attempting to repeat that. Here he re-teams with many of the Re-Animator personnel for what is essentially a rehash of a 1960s Italian Gothic film
Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995)
Disfigured Avenging Superhero
The first of two video-released sequels to Sam Raimi’s Darkman now starring Arnold Vosloo in the title role. This also brings back Larry Drake as the villain Durant
Boxing Helena (1993)
Sexual Obsession and Amputation
David Lynch’s daughter Jennifer directs a film about a surgeon who abducts a woman and amputates her limbs to make her love him. A critical bomb, it is a not uninteresting work about woman’s desire handled with more taste than you would think
Accion Mutante (1993)
Future Mutant Terrorists/Gonzo Comedy
The directorial debut of Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, a planetary adventure about a group of mutant terrorists that comes with a bizarrely wacky sense of humour
Batman Returns (1992)
Comic-Book Superhero
The second of Tim Burton’s Batman films is even more beautifully dark and glistering than the first, introducing Michelle Pfeiffer as a sizzling Cat Woman and Danny De Vito as a venomous Penguin who respectively own the show
Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1992)
Disfigured Psycho Cop
The third of the Maniac Cop films had production problems and now feels more like a regular slasher film, although is still boosted by a characteristically witty Larry Cohen script
Basket Case 3 (1991)
Psychotic Siamese Twin/Gonzo Deformities
The third of Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case films but by this point the perverse wit of the original has become replaced by a cartoonish absurdity
The Dark Backward (1991)
Gonzo Comedy/Man Grows a Third Arm
A really strange comedy with Judd Nelson as a socially inept man who tries to make it as a stand-up comedy act after growing a third arm out of his back. Audiences scratched their heads and the film bombed
Popcorn (1991)
Movie Theatre Slasher/Genre Homages
Surprisingly good modern slasher film set in a movie theatre during a festival of old horror films. The films come with surprisingly affectionate and well done recreations of old gimmick films, and the slasher sequences a more than reasonable style
Basket Case 2 (1990)
Psychotic Siamese Twin/Gonzo Deformities
Frank Henenlotter takes the commercial route and makes a sequel to his no-budget cult film. A bigger budget allows the film to become a comic variant on Freaks featuring a series of way-out makeup effects
Darkman (1990)
Disfigured Avenging Superhero
Sam Raimi created one of the few original screen superheroes with Darkman, essentially a superhero film where The Joker (by way of The Phantom of the Opera) is the hero of the piece
Maniac Cop II (1990)
Disfigured Psycho Cop
Standout sequel to Maniac Cop, the best of the series, where Larry Cohen turns in a remarkable script and William Lustig delivers incredible action sequences
The Witches (1990)
Evil Witches/Roald Dahl Adaptation
Nicolas Roeg and Jim Henson collaborate on an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book. Roeg leaves the grotesquerie and gleeful malice intact making this one of the best Dahl adaptations