Trap (2024)
Serial Killer Trapped at a Rock Concert
M. Night Shyamalan film with Josh Hartnett as a serial killer caught up in a police sting being held at a rock concert
Films of 2024
The Platform 2 (2024)
Allegorical Prison of Multiple Levels
The Platform offered a striking allegory with a prison where a banquet table of food moved down 300 levels each day. This is a sequel
Transformers One (2024)
Transformers Origin Story/Animation
Since Michael Bay retired from the series, The Transformers films have been looking for new directions. This ventures into animation to tell a Transformers origin story
Stream (2024)
Livestreamed Murders
Horror film with a substantial cast of genre veterans where Jeffrey Combs imprisons guests in a hotel and livestreams as a group of killers compete to rack up the most creative kill
Timecut (2024)
Time Travel/Slasher
A time travel film produced by Christopher Landon that has a number of similarities to Totally Killer in which a girl travels back in time to 2003 to prevent her sister being murdered by a serial killer
Survive (2024)
Catastrophic Reversal of the Earth’s Poles
A French catastrophe film where the Earth’s poles abruptly reverse, transforming what was ocean into a desert. A survival film that is based on a premise that is fundamentally scientifically absurd
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Space Opera
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon was intended as a two-part space opera saga. This first half emerged watchably and this is Part Two
Red One (2024)
Christmas Action Film
Essentially Christmas the Action Film featuring Dwayne Johnson as Santa’s bodyguard going into action accompanied by Chris Evans as a nerdy hacker when Santa is abducted
Abigail (2024)
Vampire Kidnap Thriller
From the duo behind the Scream reboot films, a thriller about the kidnap of a young girl in the vein of From Dusk Till Dawn that abruptly pivots to become a vampire film
The Last Breath (2024)
Survival in Shark Infested Waters
A film about survival in shark-infested waters where a party diving on a wreck become trapped inside by sharks. Featuring the last performance of Julian Sands
You Can’t Run Forever (2024)
Survival Thriller/Girl Flees an Attacker
The 2020s have seen a surprise upsurge in films about people being pursued by attackers. This is another about a teen girl flees pursued by a J.K. Simmons as a business professor who suddenly goes psycho
ClearMind (2024)
Virtual Reality Therapy
This starts out as a seeming improv piece about several couples gathered for a weekend where the bickering becomes increasingly darker, all before it reaches an SF twist
Frankie Freako (2024)
Goblin 1900 Number
Makeup effects artist Steven Kostanski has become a fine director in recent years. Here he makes a Gremlins-styled film about a 1-900 number that unleashes a mischievous goblin
Frankenstein Legacy (2024)
Frankenstein Film
One of the spate of Frankenstein films to emerge in the 2023-4 period, this conducts an ambitious period-set follow-up to the original Mary Shelley story on a low budget
The First Omen (2024)
Prequel to The Omen
Did the world ask for a prequel to the events of The Omen, explaining how Damien was born etc? It’s not an issue that has given me sleepless night, but it is a question the film sets out to answer anyway
Earth Abides (2024)
After the Apocalypse
Earth Abides is a classic novel that essentially defined the theme of survival in the aftermath of the collapse of civilisation. This is a TV mini-series adaptation of the book but badly fumbles it
Despicable Me 4 (2024)
Animation/Comic Travails of a Super-Villain
More from the world’s cuddliest super-villain and those manic ritalin-deprived kids that are the Minions. Is there are life and creativity left in a franchise that has been milked for six films now?
Death Streamer (2024)
Vampire Livestreamer
A film from low-budget producer/director Charles Band about a trio of horror podcasters who come across a vampire that livestreams its kills on the internet, only for their attention to bring it after them
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
Compulsion (2024)
Erotic Thriller
Director Neil Marshall once had great promise but his recent work has become fairly tatty. Here he and lead actress, the controversy-laden Charlotte Kirk, have fun making a throwback to the 1990s erotic thriller
Code 8: Part II (2024)
Superpowers Film
The Canadian-made Code 8 was one of the few non-comic book adapted superhero films of recent years. This is a sequel where a bigger budget has been afforded to the superheroics
Cinderella’s Revenge (2024)
Horror Version of Cinderella
A horror version of Cinderella where she gets to stab people with the glass slipper. This also features several modernisms where instead of a pumpkin coach, the fairy godmother conjures up Elon Musk to drive Cinderella to the ball in a Tesla
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones (2024)
H.P. Lovecraft Film
Another low-budget film that appropriates H.P. Lovecraft’s name above its title. From low-budget director Chad Ferrin who previously ventured into Lovecraft with The Deep Ones
Byte (2024)
Werewolf Phone App
This takes the award for bizarre concepts – a phone app that turns users into werewolves
Breathe (2024)
Earth With Depleted Oxygen Supplies
Film set in a harsh future as people struggle to survive in a world where oxygen supplies have been reduced to near zero. An okay film that suffers from an implausible premise
Borderlands (2024)
Videogame Adaptation/Planetary Adventure
Eli Roth adapts the popular videogame and corrals a surprisingly high-profile cast in a knockabout planetary adventure. Alas, that met a very mixed reception and was widely regarded as a bad movie
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Gonzo Afterlife Comedy
After 36 years and several abortive attempts, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder reunite to make a sequel to Beetlejuice, but the essentials that fired up the young Burton now feel as they come by the numbers
The Beast Within (2024)
Werewolf Film
This is a werewolf film with a difference. Everything comes with an ambiguity that is seen through the eyes of a young child trying to make sense of what is happening to her father
Bagman (2024)
Boogeyman
Colm McCarthy, who previously directed the standout The Girl With All the Gifts, returns with a film about a man being haunted by a boogeyman out of his childhood that snatches children in a bag
Azrael (2024)
Post Apocalyptic Cult
A film that takes place with no dialogue set in a post-apocalyptic world where people have forsaken speech as Samara Weaving is pursued by a cult
Apartment 7A (2024)
Rosemary’s Baby Prequel
Did we need a prequel to the events of Rosemary’s Baby? The original one of the defining classics of the horror genre. Under producer Michael Bay Apartment 7A is just more IP churn
An American in Austen (2024)
Modern Girl Transported Back Into Pride and Prejudice
A modern girl pining for the perfect man is transported back into the world of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice where she ends up disrupting the story
Alienoid: Return to the Future (2024)
South Korean Time-Hopping SF Action
The second part of the Korean time-hopping/alien invasion film where many of the plot strands from the extremely confusing first film are at least wrapped up
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Death & Porridge (2024)
Horror Version of a Fairytale
Another in the spate of horror versions of fairytales and children’s stories, this is essentially The Strangers played out with people terrorised by a group dressed as Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Team of Spook Chasers Comedy
Follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, reuniting that film’s mix of new and classic cast. However, this becomes a plotting juggle that is often straining to find somewhere to include everyone
Mads (2024)
Deadly Outbreak
A French horror film shot all in a single unbroken take as a deadly infection spreads all around town and we follow various people as they try to survive in the midst
The Invisibles (2024)
Man Fades Away
This has an intriguingly original concept where milquetoast Tim Blake Nelson wakes up to find he has faded away and become invisible to other people – and then finds a secret world of other similar Invisibles
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
Epic Fantasy/Anime
A spinoff prequel to the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films that takes the option that several other film/videogame franchises have of Going Anime
Longlegs (2024)
Serial Killer Thriller
Osgood Perkins has been a director on the rise in recent years. This was his fourth film where he makes a serial killer thriller featuring a verrrry weird Nicolas Cage in the title role
Long Distance (2024)
Planetary Survival
SF film with Anthony Ramos as survivor of a crashed ship who must make a journey across a hostile planet to find another survivor while low on oxygen
Lisa Frankenstein (2024)
Modernised Frankenstein Comedy
A modernised comedy take on the Frankenstein film that comes with a script from Diablo Cody where Kathryn Newton turns a resurrected man into the ideal boyfriend
Lazareth (2024)
Post-Pandemic Future
A film set in a post-pandemic future, this features Ashley Judd and daughters living in isolation on their own who are suddenly forced to welcome a stranger into their house
MaXXXine (2024)
1980s Hollywood Psycho Film
Ti West and Mia Goth round out their trilogy of films begun with X with a psycho film set in 1980s Hollywood
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Animation/Talking Animal Martial Arts
The fourth entry in DreamWorks popular animated series, which by now is just another entry in the series that is coasting by on recognition factor, while offering minimal difference
Joker: Folie a Deux (2024)
Comic-Book Super-Villain
Joker was a huge hit with Joaquin Phoenix winning an Academy Award for his role. This sequel emerged to very mixed reception, partly due to its rejection of the first film and then heading off to become a musical
It’s What’s Inside (2024)
Bodyswap Device
An interesting twist on the bodyswap film where millennials at a party use a device that allows them to swap bodies – only for two of the host bodies to be killed in an accident
Jackpot! (2024)
Legalised Death Lottery Comedy
This comes out like a comedy version of The Purge almost, where a future California lottery awards the winner millions if they can avoid every other person trying to kill them
Inside Out 2 (2024)
Pixar Animation/The Personalities Inside a Girl’s Head
Inside Out, set around the personified emotions in a girl’s head, was one of the breaths of fresh air among Pixar’s slip into terminal sequelitis during the 2010s. Now it gets its own sequel
The Innsmouth School for Girls (2024)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
Low-budget adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth about a town where the locals have become mutant fish people, which has been weirdly mashed up with a girls boarding school story
Immaculate (2024)
Immaculate Conception Horror
A horror film where Sydney Sweeney stars as a virginal nun who appears to be experiencing an immaculate conception. This is only a slightly better version of The Nun
The Inheritance (2024)
Supernatural Murder Mystery
A horror film in which billionaire Bob Gunton traps his children in his mansion with him in the belief that something is trying to kill him as it slowly eliminates their numbers
The Mouse Trap (2024)
Mickey Mouse Horror Film
Another of the Mickey Mouse horror films that emerged when the character entered public domain. This features a Mickey Mouse masked killer pursuing teens through an amusement arcade
Imaginary (2024)
Sinister Imaginary Companion
A largely routine Blumhouse film where a woman’s return to her childhood home ends up awakening her imaginary companion who has now turned sinister
Moana 2 (2024)
Disney Animation/Pacific Island Mythology
Disney make a sequel to Moana, their venture into Pacific Island mythology
Lowlifes (2024)
Backwoods Brutality/Cannibal Film
This starts out seeming like it is going to be a regular Backwoods Brutality film about a regular family threatened by hicks before expectations are abruptly turned on their head
Damsel (2024)
Dragon Fantasy
A dragon fantasy where Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown plays the damsel who sets out to save herself. A fantasy film made for people who don’t like fantasy films
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)
Disney Live-Action Prequel/Talking Animals
The Lion King was one of the worst of the live-action Disney remakes. Now comes this prequel
Please Don’t Feed the Children (2024)
Imprisonment Thriller/Zombie Film
Steven Spielberg’s daughter Destry makes her directorial debut with a confused mix of an imprisonment thriller and a zombie film, albeit a zombie film that only produces a single zombie
Madame Web (2024)
Marvel Comics Superhero
Another of the films spun off from Sony’s hold on the Spider-Man copyright, this has been called the worst Marvel Comics superhero film ever. This also bears next-to-no resemblance to its comic-book counterpart
Horny Teenagers Must Die! (2024)
Slasher Film
A slasher film that certainly grabs your attention with a sensationalistic title. While not without occasional amusements, this is mostly amateurish
Bone Lake (2024)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
A psycho-sexual thriller that is being heralded as a throwback to the 1990s erotic thriller a la Basic Instinct but suffers from an utter tameness that would have been ridiculed in the 1990s heyday
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Giant Monster Bash
A follow-up to Godzilla vs Kong, this tries to offer more of the same but suffers another ridiculous script. This ended up being overshadowed by the acclaim that the Japanese-made Godzilla: Minus One received
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
Home Invasion and Brutality
The Strangers was one the sleeper hits of the 2000s. This is the first chapter in a three film reboot. On the minus side, it has been handed over to Renny Harlin, who should be on any worst directors list
Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
Marvel Comics Superhero
The third of the Venom films, which has become one of the worst of the modern Marvel spinoffs. By this point any pretence that the films are taking themselves seriously has been long forgotten
The Girl in the Trunk (2024)
Girl Imprisoned in a Car Trunk
A thriller that comes with an identical premise to the earlier Trunk about a girl who is abducted and locked inside the trunk of a car from where she tries to affect an escape from her abductor
Subservience (2024)
Robot Nanny Amok
Another android gone amok film with former sex symbol Megan Fox cast as an android nanny who starts defying her programming
Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Marvel Comics Superhero
Another of Sony’s films spun off from Spider-Man supporting characters. In the comics, Kraven is a Spider-Man super-villain with a big game hunter motif but here is turned into a superhero
Arctic Hollow (2024)
Venture into the Hollow Earth
A low-budget film about a venture into the Hollow Earth in search of a missing person and encounters with creatures there. So low budget the underground caves seem shot in a darkened room
Tarot (2024)
Cursed Tarot Cards
A horror film based around the phenomenon of tarot cards, a surprise that nobody has done so before
Festival of the Living Dead (2024)
Zombie Film
The Soska Sisters made a splash on the genre scene a few years ago. Here they make a tribute/follow-up to Night of the Living Dead but produce an utterly safe work that is the antithesis of the edginess that gained them a name
Afraid (2024)
Smarthome A.I. Amok
The first film to come out following the advent of generative A.I. From American Pie director Chris Weitz, an evil A.I. film that arrives with all the hysteria of villagers with burring torches in a Frankenstein film
I ♥ Robots (2024)
After the Robot Apocalypse
An amateur-looking film set after the robot apocalypse concerning a girl and her friendly robot who must make a journey across the wasteland. This at least boasts some well-integrated robot effects
The Crow (2024)
Resurrected Avenger
The original The Crow is a cult classic. This long-planned remake from the perpetually terrible Rupert Sanders was an ill-advised move from every angle that gets just about everything from the mood to the conception of its character wrong
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
Easter Evil (2024)
Killer Easter Bunny
There have been a growing number of Easter horror films in recent years. This is perhaps the worst of them all. It concerns a killer Easter bunny and is a film that appears to have been entirely ad libbed in a hotel room
Space Sharks (2024)
Gonzo Killer Shark Film
Another in the gonzo killer shark film fad viz Sharknado, a bottom of the barrel effort that concerns lab sharks returned from a space mission mutated
Mummy Shark (2024)
Mummy Shark Resurrected
In a seeming competition for the most ridiculous killer shark of all time, Z budget director Mark Polonia gives us a film about a mummy shark revived from an Egyptian pyramid