Aachi & Ssipak (2006)
Demented Korean Anime
South Korean anime that is set in a future world where people are obsessed with shit. This comes with a demented energy and a filthy-mindedness that is determined to outrage
Drugs and Addiction
This refers to the depictions of various narcotic substances in fantastic cinema, along with the resulting problems that occur when people become addicted to them. These can include:-
– Depictions of types of narcotics and addictive substances in the future, including dystopias where the populace are kept in narcotised bliss
– Chemicals and addictives that have unforeseen side effects ranging all the way from mutation to personality transformation (the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story is often told as a story about drug addiction)
– Stories about people under the thrall of addictions and the dementia produced, many of which are depicted under the theme Drug Hallucinations.
The ABCs of Death (2012)
Horror Anthology
Unique anthology that offers 26 episodes from different directors, each ending with a death. The episodes vary wildly in quality but a sufficient number ignore all good taste and/or travel waaaay across taboo lines
Alice (2009)
SF Version of Alice in Wonderland
Following on from his reworking of The Wizard of Oz in Tin Man, this is a tv mini-series where Nick Willing rather fascinatingly reinterprets Alice in Wonderland in SF terms
Alien Nation (1988)
Human-Alien Buddy Cop Film
Made not longer after the buddy cop hit of Lethal Weapon, this has a curmudgeonly human paired up with an alien partner. A fairly ordinary cop show plot is boosted by two fantastic central performances
Aliens vs Titanic (2017)
Stranded on a Planet with Alien Parasites
Full marks for the title. Rather than any spacegoing version of Titanic, we have a spaceship named Titan1-C, which is soon abandoned and thereafter a cheesily ridiculous film about alien chestbusters
Alyce (2011)
Modernised Urban Alice in Wonderland
The director of Zombie Strippers! offers up Alice in Wonderland as a modern urban tale that becomes an allegory for a drug-induced journey into a disturbed headspace
Antibirth (2016)
Stoner Chick's Mutant Impregnation
This has cult midnight hit written over it. It’s a loopy trip into people doing drugs, alien impregnation and government conspiracy that should have been quirky and funny but sort of goes asleep at the wheel
Better Man (2024)
Rock Star Biopic with an Ape
This comes with a head-scratching premise – a biopic of pop star Robbie Williams but where Robbie is portrayed as a CGI ape. Essentially, the rock star biopic by way of one of the Planet of the Apes reboot films
Bliss (2019)
Drug Hallucinations
This starts out seeming just another drug trip film where artist Dora Madison takes a new drug in search of inspiration. Then things get really deranged. A film where director and lead actress lets all stops out and go for broke with impressive results.
Blood (2000)
Narcotically Addictive Blood
One of the most impressive overhaulings of the vampire theme in recent years in which vampirism is treated as an addiction in which humans become hooked on the vampire’s blood
Bloodeaters (1980)
Toxic Marijuana Turns Hippies Into Zombies
A little-known zombie film in which marijuana crop-dusted with an untested pesticide turns hippies into zombies. Listed as a Video Nasty in the UK
Blue Sunshine (1977)
LSD Flashbacks Create Psychos
A film that has gained a cult reputation about a group of people who start suffering flashbacks from a bad batch of LSD taken in the 1960s that now causes them to become crazed killers
Bong of the Dead (2011)
Gonzo Zombie Comedy
A film about a marijuana crop that is grown using zombie brains as fertiliser. This starts with a promising gonzo zombie film tone but never quite sustains its approach
Brain Damage (1987)
Addictive Brain Parasite
The best film from the great and underrated Frank Henenlotter about the relationship between a man and a parasite in his brain that feeds him drugs to make him go and kill
Brave New World (1998)
Dystopian Future
TV movie adaptation that conducts a hatchet job on Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel where his vision of a conditioned class structure is turned into an allegory about a media-saturated world
Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986)
Bad Taste Splatter and Mutations/Troma Film
One of the essential Troma films, this seems to have been conceived as Rock’n’Roll High School with Evil Dead-styled makeup effects and lots of moronic bad taste humour
Cocaine Bear (2023)
Rampaging Drug-Addicted Bear
Very loosely based on a real-life incident, this is an Animals Attack film about a rampaging bear wired on cocaine. Director Elizabeth Banks makes a play for darkly funny humour
Cocaine Crabs from Outer Space (2022)
Drug Addled Invading Alien Crabs
Another of the films inspired by Cocaine Bear, this features an invasion by alien crabs that become wired on cocaine. It is hard to tell if this is being deliberately ridiculous or not
Cocaine Shark (2023)
Gonzo Killer Shark Film
Prolific Z-budget director Mark Polonia jumps aboard the bandwagon of Cocaine Bear and offers a film about a shark-human hybrid that is created by experimental cocaine
Cocaine Werewolf (2024)
Werewolf Film
Cocaine Bear seems to have given birth to a mini-genre of films about drug-addicted animals amok. Here regular Z-budget Mark Polonia gives us a cocaine-snorting werewolf
Corridors of Blood (1958)
19th Century Medical Experiments
Early Anglo-horror film that seems to be trying to push a story about a 19th century doctor (Boris Karloff)’s discovery of anaesthetic gas out of shape and make it into a horror story.
Crackcoon (2024)
Drug-Addicted Racoon Amok
This is another of the low-budget films that take their inspiration from Cocaine Bear with a drug-addicted raccoon amok. This sits right between bad movie stakes and passable amusement
Dark Angel (1990)
Cop vs Intergalactic Drug Dealer/Action
Rather enjoyable action film that conducts an amusing spin on Lethal Weapon buddy cop formula with Dolph Lundgren taking on an intergalactic drug dealer
Dead Ringers (1988)
Disturbed Twin Psychology
David Cronenberg’s absolute masterpiece of the perverse with Jeremy Irons giving a tour-de-force performance(s) as twin gynaecologists who descend into drug addiction, obsession and madness
Dredd (2012)
Comic-Book Adaptation/Future Law Enforcement Officer
A second film version of the Judge Dredd comic-book. More faithful than the Sylvester Stallone version, this comes with a satisfyingly visceral kick, yet a low-budget means that we see little of Dredd’s satiric future
Dune (1984)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
David Lynch disowned his film version of the classic Frank Herbert SF novel. However, Lynch may be incapable of making a bad film and this, while acting freely with the book, has a visual grandeur that makes it highly watchable
Dune (2000)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
This TV mini-series remake of the Frank Herbert novel is much more faithful to the essence and complexity of the book, even if it lacks the visual resplendence of the film versions
Dune Part One (2021)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel comes with a determination to give the story and its richly detailed world faithful life on screen. Villeneuve adapts freely in many areas but gets the complexity of the saga
Dune Part Two (2024)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune, this delves more deeply into the world of the Fremen, although starts to diverge more from the book
Edge of Sanity (1989)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adaptation
Probably the worst film adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this opts for a trashy sordidness with a lunatically over-the-top Anthony Perkins in the centre of the show
Equals (2015)
Dystopia
Dystopian film about a future where emotion is forbidden – this owes much to George Lucas’s THX 1138, right down to the blinding white-on-white look. The film is also hobbled by a non-acting Kristen Stewart
Equilibrium (2002)
Dystopia
While Kurt Wimmer’s film with Christian Bale as an enforcer in a dystopian future attained some acclaim when it came out, it feels like it is comprised of a collage of cliches borrowed from every other dystopian film
Evil Bong (2006)
Demonic Marijuana Bong
From Charles Band, this features a possessed marijuana bong that sucks those that imbibe inside into the simulation of a stripper bar where they lose their souls. Several sequels followed.
The Faculty (1998)
Alien Body Snatchers Take Over a High School
Robert Rodriguez directs from a script by Scream writer Kevin Williamson. This wittily deconstructs the 1950s alien body snatchers film by way of The Breakfast Club
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
Mike Flanagan mini-series that expands on the story to incorporate a host of other Poe stories. More like another of Mike Flanagan’s cross-generational ghost stories by way of tv’s Succession with a lot of Poe-esque margin notes
Frankenhooker (1990)
Frankenstein Parody
Frank Henenlotter of Basket Case fame modernises the Frankenstein film Here Frankenstein creates a body out of parts from Time Square hookers. Amusing but eventually a film where the humour is too broad
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Adult Animation/Gonzo Talking Animals Satire
The first X-rated animated film. Ralph Bakshi’s first film, taken from Robert Crumb’s cartoons, this is hilariously raunchy as the titular talking cat takes a strung-out but often sharply politicised journey through 1960s counter-culture
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Teenage Girl Werewolves
Witty, wryly sarcastic modern take on the werewolf film where two teenage sister become affected – sort of like a remake of I Was a Teenage Werewolf by way of Ghost World. Two sequels followed.
Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)
Teenage Girl Werewolf
The first of two sequels to the Canadian werewolf film. This takes place with the surviving sister placed in a rehab facility and is the best of the trilogy, even better than the first film was in its writing and characters
Guardian (2001)
Action/Body-Hopping Demon
Utterly generic action film with Mario Van Peebles as a detective tracing a street drug that turns people psychothic before finding he is up against a body-hopping demon
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)
Time Travel Comedy
Why we needed a sequel to Hot Tub Time Machine is a big question. Essentially, Back to the Future Part II meets The Hangover, all this does is wind the original’s amiable coarseness up by a factor of ten
I Pass for Human (2004)
Ghosts of Drug Addicts
A film directed by Chris D, lead singer of The Flesh Eaters, about a heroin addict who starts to see ghosts. A strong portrait of addiction but less effective as a horror film
Infinity Pool (2023)
Executed Clones/Bored Lawless Elites
Extraordinary Brandon Cronenberg film about a fictional country where those convicted of crimes can have clone copies executed in their place, leading to an tourist underworld where all crimes are permissible
Jacob’s Ladder (2019)
Drug Hallucinations
Another remake that nobody asked for. The 1990 film is reworked in a script that ditches almost all of the afterlife themes and instead seems to want to be a film about veterans addicted to reality-blurring drugs
Jekyll and Hyde … Together Again (1982)
Jekyll and Hyde Spoof
Extremely silly and at times undeniably funny spoof on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – here Dr Jekyll becomes a coke addict who snorts his formula and turns into a swinger with a giant afro
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Spy Film/Comic-Book Adaptation
Kingsman with its parody of gentlemanliness and action movie sensibilities, was the smartest of the modern spy movie parodies. This sequel has gone to the excesses of the Roger Moore Bond films in the space of one film
Life After The Navigator (2020)
The Making of Flight of the Navigator
Documentary about the making of Flight of the Navigator and the mind-boggling story of Joey Cramer, the film’s child star turned bank robber
Limitless (2011)
Intelligence Expanding Drug
Bradley Cooper in a film about a drug that provides about heightened intelligence. In truth this is a film how becoming a baked drug addict can give you the feeling you can change the world
Liquid Dreams (1991)
Future Sexuality
An offbeat science-fiction film sold as a work of erotica but one that actually subverts the genre in interesting ways concerning a futuristic apartment block performers where strippers are being fed a drug
Liquid Sky (1982)
Drug-Addicted Flying Saucer
Culty New Wave film with Anne Carlisle as a model who has a miniature UFO land on her New York apartment roof where it devours her lovers for the opiate in the brain produced during orgasm
Lucy (2014)
Drug Grants Enhanced Intelligence and Superpowers/Action Film
Luc Besson makes a preposterously entertaining work where drug mule Scarlett Johansson develops superhuman mental capabilities – sort of if you imagine Limitless reconceived as an action film
Max Payne (2008)
Videogame Adaptation/Vigilante Cop
Based on the popular videogame, this is fairly much Death Wish by way of Jacob’s Ladder and proves an underwhelming delivery of its promise
Methgator (2023)
Giant Drug-Addicted Alligator
Cocaine Bear proved a reasonable success. The Asylum’s response was to give us Methgator about a drug-addicted giant alligator
Necromentia (2009)
Hallucinations, Fetish and Gateways to Hell
Drawing very clear influence from Clive Barker and Saw, this is a delve down into perverse fetish, gateways to Hell and bizarre hallucinations. After watching the film through twice, I still remain confused to what it was all about
Orphans and Angels (2003)
Sinister Stranger
New Zealand made film about a woman who falls under the influence of a sinister stranger who plies her with drugs
The Other Side of the Mirror (2016)
Darker Version of Alice in Wonderland
This sets out to offer a dark take on Alice in Wonderland but leaves you scratching you head. At most the Wonderland characters take a lot of drugs, along with a haphazard mix of scenes from the book cheaply shot
Outland (1981)
Action Set on One of Jupiter's Moons
The film‘s Space Western idea aside – the plot is High Noon transplanted into orbit – this is a solid and well-made science-fiction film with Sean Connery as a long marshal on Jupiter’s moon Io
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025)
Horror Version of Peter Pan
From the people behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, this is the horror version of Peter Pan. And good grief, does this go dark with Peter as a child abductor and Tinkerbell who shoots up ‘fairy dust’ through a needle
Photographing Fairies (1997)
Fairies and Altered Perception
One of two films that came out in 1997 about the Cottingley Fairies Hoax. In comparison to the other, FairyTale: A true Story, this expands the premise out into a remarkable study of altered perception
Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982)
Descent into Madness/Rock Musical
Film version of Pink Floyd’s best-selling album, an extraordinary surreal audiovisual dive into the fraying mind of a rock star
Project Power (2020)
Superpower Drug
Suffering superhero fatigue from screens overwhelmed with Marvel and DC adaptations? This is one of the most original superhero treatments in some time, concerning a drug that give the user superpowers for five minutes only
Proteus (1995)
Shape-Shifting Monster
Shabby copy of Alien with shipwreck survivors facing a genetically engineered monster on an oil rig
Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children (2015)
Surrealist Animation
Strange, surrealist animation from Spain – the characters are the small, cute talking animals you might encounter in a standard piece of cutsie moppet animation but it exists in a disturbing world that is anything but where characters are plagued by drug addictions, mental illness and police brutality
Reminiscence (2021)
Memory Retrieval Device/Future Noir
Lisa Joy, co-creator of tv’s Westworld, directs a work of future noir in an ingenious plot involving a memory recording device and Hugh Jackman obsessed with a missing woman
Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008)
Future Organ Repossession/Rock Musical
Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman conducts a futuristic Gothic rock opera. A film of constant posturings where Bousman demonstrates remarkably little affinity for either music or sf … a musical that feels made by people who are tone deaf
RoboCop 2 (1990)
Cyborg Cop
With a script co-written by Frank Miller, this sequel comes in as a leaner work that abandons the campier excesses of its predecessor while expanding on its ideas with considerable ingenuity
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Animation/Philip K. Dick Adaptation/Identity Bending Drugs
Richard Linklater conducts an animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel with extremely faithful results. Keanu Reeves is a police officer assigned to investigate what he realises is himself
Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)
Psychic Powers
Second of the sequels to David Cronenberg’s Scanners, this features Liliana Komorowska who becomes crazed after taking a scan suppressant drug
Shrooms (2007)
Drug Hallucinations/Backwoods Horror
A group of friends travel to Ireland and go on a tour searching for magic mushrooms. In between assorted drug hallucinations, someone or thing begins slaughtering the group
Skinwalkers (2006)
Werewolves
A big-budget revival of the werewolf film set amongst warring werewolf clans of bikers. Produced by Stan Winston and with an interesting cast line-up
The Soul Eater (2024)
Police Procedural/Folk Boogeyman Killings
A French police procedural where detectives are plunged into a series of bizarre murders involving a child sacrifice cult and a folk boogeyman. From the directorial duo who started the whole French Extremism movement with Inside
The Special (2020)
Man Becomes Sexually Obsessed with a Mysterious Box
Film about a man who develops an obsession with a mysterious black box that gives him the best sex of his life
The Theatre Bizarre (2011)
Horror Anthology
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
THX 1138 (1971)
Dystopian Future
George Lucas’s first film and always a puzzle to those who come to it after the Star Wars series where its antiseptic, dehumanised aesthetic and dystopian future seems almost the polar opposite of the Star Wars universe
Ticks (1993)
Mutant Ticks
Routine variant on the 1970s killer bug film, although the bugs here are gooey and cartoonish not meant to be taken seriously
Time Addicts (2023)
Time Paradox
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
Tommy (1975)
Demented Rock Musical/Messianic Pinball Player
Ken Russell’s adaptation of The Who’s hit album is filled with gloriously mad, glitter rock excess and wildly over the top acting in the ways that only Russell ever managed
Urge (2016)
Designer Drug Causes Mass Insanity
The use of a designer drug causes a small island to descend into mass insanity – this is essentially The Crazies repackaged as a slick empty-headed thriller for teen audiences. The various scenes of madness are frequently laughable and the film arrives at possibly the most ridiculous twist ending one has ever seen
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011)
Gonzo Stoner Film
The third film in the series of stoner comedies trips off into gonzo genre territory. A relentlessly and unashamedly vulgar film that also manages to be occasionally quite funny
VFW (2019)
Barroom Under Siege from Crazed Drug Addicts
Joe Begos makes an ultra-violent homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 with a group of war veterans in a bar at siege against a horde of crazed drug addicts outside
Vile (2011)
Sadism and Torture
I’m tempted to make a comment about this being a film that offers its own critical summary in its title but this Saw wannabe is so tame it fails even that. Hard to believe a film with a premise about a group of people forced to torture one another could emerge so dramatically uninteresting
The Wave (2019)
Reality Bending Drug Hallucinations
Justin Long goes on a bender and takes some drugs that bend reality and leave him moving through time. Sort of like a version of Scorsese’s After Hours that dives into drug culture, this wants to be edgy but ends up in surprisingly traditional places.
Wicked City (1993)
War with Demon Dimension
Live-action version of a manga that was previously made as an anime. This Hong Kong-made version is the lesser, lacking the perverse sexual imagery of the anime. It does feature the wildly fantastical action scenes typical to HK fantasy of this era but this has been conducted on a low-budget and looks rubbery (*)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Satiric Youth Revolution
Satiric 1960s Youth Revolution film where a rock star becomes US President, reduces the voting age and everyone over thirty is placed in a concentration camp
Wired (1989)
Surreal John Belushi Biopic
Flop and muchly hated biopic of John Belushi that turns his life into a bad farce. Included here for the presence of an angel that guides Belushi through his life
Zombie Hunter (2013)
Zombie Film
Post-apocalyptic zombie action played with a tongue-in-cheek comic-book tone. Plus Danny Trejo as a badass zombie-hunting priest