A.I. Tales (2019)
Science Fiction Anthology
An anthology of four SF tales, short films from various directors around the world, although surprisingly none that feature Artificial Intelligences
Films of 2019
Abigail (2019)
Alternate Reality/Steampunk and Magic
Russian film that creates a fascinating alternate reality where Steampunk and magic blend in an almost familiar world
Abominable (2019)
Animation/Cute Yeti
Animated film in which a girl befriends a Yeti. Essentially a rewrite of E.T. that never much rises out of banal formula. On the other hand, I do have an issue with a children’s film pushing blatant political propaganda
Above the Shadows (2019)
Invisible Girl
A unique and highly original take on the invisibility film where Olivia Thirlby becomes invisible because people no longer notice her until she meets one person who does
Ad Astra (2019)
Mission to the Outer Reaches of the Solar System
In the same vein as Gravity and The Martian, this depicts spaceflight with scrupulous scientific regard. Essentially Apocalypse Now in space with Brad Pitt on a mission to Neptune to find his father who has gone rogue
The Addams Family (2019)
Kinky Perverse Family/Animation
An animated film revival of The Addams Family. You feel that a PG-rated film sold to family audiences is a bit tame for the Addams’ dark humour, nevertheless this gets much of the kooky silliness.
After Midnight (2019)
Possibly Imagined Monster Attacks
A wonderful maybe monster movie. Jeremy Gardner falls to pieces after his girlfriend leaves. At the same time, he is certain a monster is lurking outside while everyone else thinks he is losing it.
Aladdin (2019)
Live-Action Disney Remake/Arabian Nights
As part of the ongoing firesale, Disney offer up a live-action remake of their animated hit. where a mismatched Guy Ritchie delivers a mediocre rehash of what was an overrated classic in the first place
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Cyborg Girl/Manga Adaptation
What was once a planned James Cameron adaptation of a manga about a cyborg girl is now brought to the screen by Robert Rodriguez but it is hard to say what an underwhelming disappointment the result is
Among the Shadows (2019)
Near Future Werewolf Private Eye/Murder Mystery
A film about the internecine in-fighting among werewolf clans and a werewolf P.I. in a near-future European Union. With Lindsay Lohan as the EU President’s wife!
Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer (2019)
Andrei Tarkovsky Documentary
Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the greatest of all directors, having made films like Solaris and Stalker. This is a documentary about his life and films made up of archival material
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Sinister Doll
James Wan is one of the finest directors currently at work in the horror genre. The produced by James Wan credit is a less enthusiastic prospect and had consisted of total dogs spinning off more popular works.
Aquaslash (2019)
Slasher Film at a Water Park
A French Canadian (Quebec)-made slasher film set around an aqua park. This builds to a memorably gore-drenched finale
Assimilate (2019)
Body Snatchers
A body snatchers film, shot partially as Found Footage where teens shooting a video make the discovery that people in their town are being replaced
Astronaut (2019)
Senior Pursues a Dream to Go Into Space
Space movies were big following successes like Gravity and The Martian. At complete contrast, this is a genteel laidback film with Richard Dreyfuss as a senior obsessed with boarding a spaceflight
Automation (2019)
Robot Develops Artificial Intelligence
Another among the recent spate of Artificial Intelligence film, the story of a secretary who befriends a robot. This is an A.I. film on a B-budget that you feel should have been made as a comedy
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel conclude the cliffhanger they left Avengers: Infinity War on and offer up a bigger-than-big line-up, overspilling with just about every MCU character to ever appear on screen up to that point
The Banana Splits (2019)
Horror Remake of a Children's TV Show
In the what the feck department, this is a gore-drenched horror remake of a Hanna-Barbera children’s show, one that now depicts the original anthropomorphic animals as murderous killer robots
The Barge People (2019)
British Backwoods Brutality/Canal Mutants
A surprisingly reasonable effort that relocates the Backwoods Brutality film to England with people menaced by mutant creatures emerged from the rural canals
Batman: Hush (2019)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
Animated adaptation of the classic Batman comic-book story, this places the Batman/Cat Woman relationship centre stage to give her the most substantial workout of any film
Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
Animation/Comic-Book Superhero Crossover
An animated crossover where you cannot help but think that the two styles of either – a grim loner who lives in a dark milieu vs a team of manic teenagers spouting surfer speak – are only going to end up clashing
The Beach House (2019)
Fog Brings Environmental Mutations
Fine film in which a young couple’s idyllic getaway to the title location becomes a nightmare as the ocean produces a fog that starts to create mutations
Beneath Us (2019)
Illegal Immigrants Tortured by a White Couple
This is a brutal and unnervingly effective film about Mexican illegal immigrant day labourers who are imprisoned and tortured by a wealthy entitled white couple
Black Christmas (2019)
Girl’s Dormitory Slasher
A remake of the work that has been cited as the first slasher film. This is less a horror film than a horror film that has been hijacked by a political agenda, delivered with a relentlessly loud and damning misandrist tone
The Blackout (2019)
Alien Invasion/Worldwide Powercut
An impressively large-scale SF film about a military sortie into an area of western Russian that is all that is left unaffected after aliens create a worldwide power cut
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 and Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019)
Genre Director Documentary
A fascinating documentary about B movie and exploitation director Al Adamson, covering the frequently hilarious making of his films and the bizarre circumstances of his murder
Blood Quantum (2019)
American Indians vs Zombies
This had me sold from its premise of American Indians vs zombies. Made by Canadian First Nations people, this features an Indian reservation as the last refuge against the zombie apocalypse
Blood Vessel (2019)
Vampires on a Nazi Ship
Australian film set during World War II as a group of shipwreck survivors board a deserted Nazi ship only to then discover that it is inhabited by vampires
Brightburn (2019)
Superhero Gone Wrong
The rather interesting idea of Superman retold as a horror movie featuring a character that is Superman in all but name who goes over to the dark side instead of becoming a paragon of truth, justice and the American way
Butt Boy (2019)
Man Causes Objects to Disappear Up His Ass
Every so often a film stops you dead in your tracks with its WTF premise. This is one such – a film about a man who develops a fetish for sticking objects up his ass and causes household objects, pets and children to disappear up there
Captain Marvel (2019)
Marvel Comics Superheroine
The MCU offers up their first superheroine with very unexceptional results. A competent enough effort but DC’s Wonder Woman easily blows everything this tries to do out of the water
Captive State (2019)
The Resistance Against an Alien Invasion
A highly politicised films that takes place several years after an alien invasion and concerns the resistance against them. However, the aliens feature very little and the film resembles more of a ‘hood drama
The Car: Road to Revenge (2019)
Possessed Car
The Car concerning a possessed car is one of the forgotten films of the 1970s. Why it has produced a sequel 42 years later is a scratch of the head. Not that the two films even resemble one another
Carmilla (2019)
Lesbian Vampire
A new version of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic, multiple filmed lesbian vampire story. This retells the story in dreamy Victorian surroundings
Cats (2019)
Musical/Singing Cats
The film version of the smash Andrew Lloyd Webber musical phenomenon was widely ridiculed. Seen, it is a colourful and absorbing entity and by no means as bad as its rap gives it
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
TV Series Remake/Action Film
The second big screen revival of the hit 1970s tv series. Essentially a Girl Power version of one of the Mission: Impossible films, which turns what was originally a girl-fronted detective show into a spy caper featuring SF gadgetry
Child’s Play (2019)
Evil Artificially Intelligent Doll
The controversial remake of Child’s Play where Chucky is no longer possessed but become an artificially intelligent smart toy. This seems to misconstrues everything that the fanbase of the series celebrates by a mile
A Christmas Carol (2019)
Miser's Redemption/Dark Adult Retelling
A tv mini-series that offers a dark, adult and definitely not family friendly version of the oft-filmed Charles Dickens tale that reinvents the original in quite astonishing ways
Clown (2019)
Killer Clown
The Asylum’s mockbuster version of It: Chapter Two. From Eric Forsberg, one of the better directors to emerge from The Asylum, this involves a group of teens being pursued around a funhouse by a killer clown.
Clown Motel (2019)
Killer Clowns
There have been a spate of killer clown films in the last few years almost none of which have escaped being cheap and crappy. This one is based around the real-life clown motel in Nevada
Clownado (2019)
Storm of Killer Clowns
This may possibly win the award for the all-time most ridiculous premise for a film. It tries to outdo Sharknado by offering up a storm of killer clowns
Code 8 (2019)
Superpowered Heist Film
One of the few original, non-comic book based superhero films of the 2010s set in a world where those with powers are treated as a minority. This is essentially a heist film but with the addition of super-powers
Color Out of Space (2019)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation/Mutations from Space
Richard Stanley made one of the most exciting directorial debuts with Hardware. Welcomely returning after a long absence, he is one of the few directors to mainline the essence of H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horrors
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
Cosmos (2019)
Communications from Space
Strong and intelligent SF film about amateur astronomers who receive radio signals from space indicating existence of alien life. A film made with a remarkable economy – most of it takes place inside a car – and rooted in good science
Countdown (2019)
Mobile App That Predicts People's Deaths
This feels like the Final Destination franchise updated for the mobile user generation concerning a sinister app that predicts how long the user has to live
Crawl (2019)
Killer Alligators in the Crawlspace
Alexandre Aja makes a based on true life film where Kaya Scodeario becomes trapped in the crawlspace under a house with alligators as floodwaters rise all around
Critters Attack! (2019)
Malicious Alien Creatures
For reasons known only to those involved, Critters, the quintessential 1980s VHS series about malicious creatures, has been revived for another sequel but with unmemorable results
Cross: Rise of the Villains (2019)
Action Team
Third of the Cross films, a more fantastical variant on The Expendables, bringing 90s action actors back out of mothballs to form a team as they face various super-villains in present-day L.A.
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
Legendary Mexican Boogeywoman
An extension of The Conjuring universe with a film based on the Mexican legend of the crying woman La Llorona. This killed by the director’s constant straining for effect
Curse of the Nun (2019)
Ghostly Nun
A low-budget mockbuster that joins the horde of ghost nun films that were made following the success of The Nun. From the director of Clowntergeist.
Daniel Isn’t Real (2019)
Malevolent Childhood Imaginary Companion
A horror film that delves into pleasingly dark places as a man finds that his life is being taken over by his childhood imaginary companion that he realises wants to possess his body
Dark Encounter (2019)
UFOs and Alien Abduction
A modestly effective film about UFOs and alien abductions. This follows familiar paths to other films but is conducted with a quite reasonable degree of atmospheric
Darlin’ (2019)
Feral Girl/The Woman Sequel
The Woman was one of the least likely films to ever warrant a sequel. But this is what we get here and directed/written by no less than Pollyanna McIntosh who played The Woman in the original
The Dawn (2019)
Catholic Horrors/Haunting and Possession
A passable variant on the usual haunting and possession cliches overloaded with Catholic imagery before becoming a surprise unofficial prequel to a classic horror series
Dead Dicks (2019)
Apartment That Produces Copies of People
An off-the-wall film with a unique premise about an apartment where every time somebody is killed another copy of them emerges out of a hole in the wall
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Zombie Comedy
Jim Jarmusch is one of the foremost American independent directors and here makes his first zombie comedy. The question is is what can he bring to a genre that has been in full-on self-parody mode since Shaun of the Dead
The Deeper You Dig (2019)
Missing Girl's Ghost/Divination
Modest and quite well made film entirely shot, produced and acted by the Adams Family who have gone on to make a series of other striking horror films. This concerns a man haunted by a ghost after he kills a girl
Deerskin (2019)
Man's Obsession With His Coat/Gonzo Comedy
Another of the strange surreal deadpan films from Quentin Dupieux about a man who buys a deerskin jacket that then speaks and urges him to eliminate everybody else who is wearing a jacket
The Demonologist (2019)
Police Investigate Occult Killings
Film where New Orleans detective Brian Krause investigates a series of ritual killings before finding he is dealing with devil worshippers and that he is a destined John Constatine-like figure
Depraved (2019)
Modernised Frankenstein Film
Larry Fessenden has become a horror director who has made some fine work that remain under the commercial radar. This is his modernised take on the Frankenstein story
Doctor Sleep (2019)
The Shining Sequel
Mike Flanagan, one of the most exciting genre names in recent years, takes on Stephen King’s book sequel to The Shining, managing the daunting balancing act of both adapting the book and turning it into a sequel to the Stanley Kubrick film
Don’t Let Go (2019)
Cellphone Calls Across Time
Blumhouse film that borrows the basics of Frequency where a detective starts receiving phone calls from his murdered niece from several days in the past and tries to prevent her murder
Doom: Annihilation (2019)
Videogame Adaptation/Labyrinth of Monsters
This was the second film based based on the Doom game and actually does a far better job of getting the essence of the game and paying fanservice to its elements than the earlier 2005 film did
Dreamland (2019)
Crime Thriller with a Vampire
Bruce McDonald, who directed the standout Pontypool, makes a crime film where Stephen McHattie plays both a hitman and a heroin-addicted trumpet player. For head-scratching reasons, the film also includes a vampire
The Driver (2019)
Car Ride Through the Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie action film that features Mark Dacascos driving through the post-apocalyptic landscape in a luxury car looking for a home for his daughter
The Dude in Me (2019)
Gangster and Bullied Teen Swap Bodies
A South Korean film where a tough gangster and a bullied teenager end up swapping bodies whereupon the gangster ends up transforming the teen’s life by employing gangland tactics in the school playground
Dumbo (2019)
Flying Elephant/Disney Live-Action Remake
Another in the spate of live-action remakes of Disney animated films – one of four to be released in 2019 alone. This comes from Tim Burton who reconceives as Dumbo as another of his oddball outsiders.
The Dustwalker (2019)
Aliens Create Zombies in the Australian Outback
A zombie film of sorts in which the people of an Australian outback town are taken over by an alien force. A zombie film that seems to be trying not to be a zombie film.
Eat Brains Love (2019)
Zombie Romantic Comedy
The appealing idea of a romantic comedy/road movie where both characters are zombies. The plot is all over the place but the premise is conducted with some amusement
Eli (2019)
Sinister Medical Institute/Possible Hauntings
This has an intriguing set up involving a child with an autoimmune condition that makes him allergic to everyday air and his journey to a sinister medical institute, before a completely WTF twist
Every Time I Die (2019)
Man Body Hops to Solve His Own Murder
Film with an interestingly original premise where a guy is murdered and then inhabits the bodies of a group of friends as he tries to expose the killer
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
True-Life Serial Killer
Documentary-maker Joe Berlinger makes an exactingly detailed recreation of the Ted Bundy case, while Zac Efron abandons teen pin-up roles and steps into the title role with unnerving likeness
Farmageddon (2019)
Aardman Animation
Aardman Animation return with a sequel to Shaun the Sheep Movie. More of the same absurdly nonsensical capers and gags, this comes with much in the way of homage and in-jokes to classic SF films
Fascism on a Thread: The Strange Story of Nazisploitation (2019)
Nazisploitation Cinema Documentary
A documentary that charts the lurid and frequently distasteful phenomenon of the Nazisploitation film that emerged as a mini-genre in the 1970s
47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)
Trapped Underwater Surrounded by Sharks
47 Meters Down, with two sisters trapped underwater in a shark cage with a failing supply of air, didn’t require a sequel. Here we get two different sisters trapped underwater with a limited air supply and surrounded by sharks
Fractured (2019)
Hospital Nightmare
Brad Anderson makes a paranoid nightmare as Sam Worthington takes his daughter to a hospital only for her to go missing and he to encounter a Kafka-esque bureaucracy that insists she doesn’t exist
Frozen II (2019)
Disney Animation
Frozen was the most successful animated film of all time. It also felt the most formulaic and least inspired Disney film of the 2000s. As part of Disney’s new business policy of recycling everything, this is a sequel.
Fuck You All: The Uwe Boll Story (2019)
Genre Director Documentary
Documentary about the so-called World’s Worst Director Uwe Boll. We get fascinating insight into Boll’s filmmaking methods, while the documentary fearlessly tackles the controversies associated with its subject
Fulci for Fake (2019)
Lucio Fulci Documentary
A documentary about the life of cult Italian horror director Lucio Fulci that is a mix of talking heads interviews and scenes where an actor reenacts aspects of Fulci’s life
The Gallows Act II (2019)
Haunted High School Play
The Gallows was a Found Footage film about a haunted high school play. Blumhouse have yet to have a success to which they are not willing to spin out a sequel
Game Over (2019)
Bollywood Horror
A reality bending Bollywood film in which a wheelchair-ridden woman videogame designer is haunted by mysterious events, although quite what is all about is a very good question
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (2019)
Cops and Gangsters vs Serial Killer
The tough hard-boiled Korean gangster film is a genre of its own. This uniquely has a detective and a crime kingpin deciding to join forces to track down a serial killer. Slated for remake by James Wan
Gemini Man (2019)
Assassin Fights a Clone of Himself
Ang Lee dips his feet into the action genre in a conceptually fascinating work where assassin Will Smith facies a younger clone of himself. Smith’s performance and the effects used to de-age his double are top-notch
Get Duked! (2019)
Wilderness Survival Course Comedy/Human Hunting
A rather funny comedy about four misfit youths on a wilderness survival course in the Scottish Highlands who run afoul of human hunters and pagan sacrifice
Girl on the Third Floor (2019)
Malevolent House
Wrestler C.M. Punk does a halfway reasonable job of branching out as an actor, playing a regular guy engaged in home renovation who has to deal with a malevolent house
Glass (2019)
Ordinary Superhero and Villains
Unbreakable was M. Night Shyamalan’s everyday superhero film. Here he merges the characters from Unbreakable and Split to create his own shared universe. This could in effect be the kitchen sink version of The Avengers
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019)
Giant Monster Bash
Follow-up to the 2014 US-made Godzilla. This introduces other monsters from the Japanese series and tries to create a shared universe. But when the film is all massively-scaled mass destruction, it seems hard to root for the monsters
Good Omens (2019)
Biblical End Times/Antichrist Comedy
TV mini-series based on the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett novel that spoofs The Omen and Biblical End Times prophecies. The series is very close to the book as though it didn’t want to edit any precious gag
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Timeloop Film
Happy Death Day seemed a gimmicky marriage between Groundhog Day and a slasher film. This sequel is a far better film that places some funny and quite clever spins on the previous film
Haunt (2019)
Extreme Halloween Attraction
A directorial outing from the screenwriters of A Quiet Place produced by Eli Roth set around a Halloween haunt. This avoids the pitfall of other Halloween haunt films and creates some effective games of reality and illusion
The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019)
True Crime/Precognitive Dreams
Released for the fiftieth anniversary of the Manson Killings, this details the attacks on Sharon Tate by the Manson Family. The film expands on the claim that Tate had a precognitive dream about what was going to happen
He Dreams of Giants (2019)
Lost in La Mancha Sequel
Lost in La Mancha was a documentary charting the collapse Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Gilliam later finished the film and brought the same documentary-makers back to chart the process here
Hellboy (2019)
Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
Reboot of the Hellboy series promisingly comes from Neil Marshall but is also made by Millennium Films who have a habit of buying up previously successful properties and churning out cheaper spinoffs
The Hole in the Ground (2019)
Child Turns Evil
An Irish film that creates quite a reasonable degree of atmosphere in its story of a mother who believes her son has been replaced by something else
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019)
Documentary About African-Americans in Horror
A documentary about African-Americans in the horror genre that covers everything from the earliest depictions through the Blaxploitation film to the rise of Black filmmakers
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
Animation/World of Dragons
One of the most beautifully made formula animated films of recent vintage but at the end of the day no more than a film that is by the numbers where the artistry is unsupported by the banal script
I Am Mother (2019)
Survival Shelter Drama
A unique and original fallout shelter drama from Australia that sits in an interesting place of ambiguity. What makes the film stand out is its unique robot design
I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu (2019)
Rape and Revenge
I don’t enjoy watching these rape and revenge films. Continuing to make sequels showing abuse definitely crosses an exploitative line. After 41 years, director Meir Zarchi and star Camille Keaton re-team to make a sequel to the original