My Old Ass (2024)
Teenager Meets Her Future Self
At first glance, this film about a teenager meeting her future self seems too cute and lightweight, but emerges as something extraordinary
Invisible and Imaginary Companions
Invisible and Imaginary Companions are characters that accompany usually the protagonist of a story and cannot be seen by others. This can be some entity such as an angel or a ghost, even a large invisible rabbit who are invisibly aiding the protagonist (or just as equally causing mischief). There are also a number of films about children’s imaginary companions, which run the gamut from annoying comedic figures to sinister ones in horror.
The other use of Imaginary Companions concerns companions that appear inside the individual’s head. One version of this is as a narrative device where the companion rson is the literalisation of someone with whom the protagonist is imagining conversing. The other use is where the figure is revealed to be a delusionary one inside someone’s mentally ill mind.
Next Door (2005)
Strange Apartment Neighbours/Reality Blurring
Brilliantly twisted Norwegian film in the vein of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and The Tenant about a man whose dealings with two girls living in the apartment next door starts blurring and shifting into some genuinely surreal and out there, not to mention perverse, territory
The Noah (1975)
Last Man on Earth
Experimental film about the last man left on Earth after a nuclear war who develops a series of imaginary companions
Oh God Book II (1980)
The Almighty Appears Comedy
Sequel to Oh, God, this brings back George Burns as God but pairs him with a cute kid
Old Man (2022)
Tensions Between Two Men in a Cabin in the Woods
Lucky McKee, director of May and The Woman, makes a film about two men meeting at a cabin in the woods where secrets emerge amid psychological tensions between the two
On Borrowed Time (1939)
Man Captures Death
Unique light fantasy film in which aging Lionel Barrymore manages to imprison Death in a tree in his backyard
One Under the Sun (2017)
Astronaut Returns Changed
Strange film in which a woman astronaut returns from a Mars mission somehow ‘changed’
The Other (1972)
Diabolical Twin
Classic horror film about good and evil twins that creates a good deal of sinister effect and arrives at a much imitated twist
Over Her Dead Body (2008)
Ghostly Ex Comedy
Unfunny comedy in which Eva Longoria dies and returns as a ghost to make life miserable for fiance Paul Rudd as he becomes involved with another woman
Paddington in Peru (2024)
Talking Bear
Third of the Paddington series, this has more of an adventure film feel as it takes Paddington and the Browns to Peru in search of a lost city
Pandorum (2009)
Space Mission Gone Wrong
Rare cinematic treatment of the generation ship story that conducts it with a modest degree of affectiveness. Produced by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Haunting Found Footage Film
The Paranormal Activity series still manages to produce a reasonable amount of eerie scares and jumps a third time around, although by now the claim to still being found footage is starting to strain credulity
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
Haunting Found Footage Film
The Paranormal Activity series has had a better run than most horror franchises up until now but the cracks are starting to show through here. This feels like it is straining to find some new way to do the familiar moves but fails to provide anything unexpected or original
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
Haunting Found Footage Film
For supposedly the Paranormal Activity series final entry, this offer the novelty of the first Found Footage film in 3D – a gimmick that signals the series is out of fresh ideas. Moreover, the series’ look via watching security cameras has been de-emphasised in favour of another CGI driven ghost story
Pet Sematary (1989)
Resurrection of the Dead/Stephen King Adaptation
An okay Stephen King adaptation that does nothing particularly wrong but lacks the impact that has caused people to regard the novel as one of the best of King’s works
Pin (1988)
Man's Disturbed Relationship with a Sinister Anatomical Dummy
Creepy and surprisingly well-made Canadian horror film in which a mentally disturbed David Hewlett has a strange relationship with an anatomical dummy that directs him to kill.
Play It Again Sam (1972)
Romantic Advice from Humphrey Bogart's Ghost Comedy
Comedy based on a Woody Allen play in which Allen plays his usual hapless character who receives romantic advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart
Pretty Ghost (1991)
Hong Kong Ghost Comedy
One of a popular spate of 80s/90s Hong Kong ghost comedies where a man gets the aid of an annoying ghost girl as he pursues the woman of his dreams
Prevenge (2016)
Psychopathic Pregnant Woman
Directed by and starring actress Alice Lowe, this comes in a blackly funny vein. Lowe plays a pregnant woman driven by the voice of her baby as she starts dispatching everything from sleazy men to those who annoy her
Princess (2006)
Animation/Anti-Porn Vigilante
Animated film from Denmark about a man who goes on an ultra-violent crusade against the porn industry over the loss of innocence of his young niece
Psych 9 (2010)
Sinister Happenings in an Abandoned Hospital
Thriller with a heroine working in an abandoned hospital amid sinister happenings that draws substantially on the fine Danish film Nightwatch. Does an okay if familiar job making us constantly doubt everything that happens before arriving at an ending that only confuses
Rent-a-Pal (2020)
Sinister Video Friend
Horror film about a downtrodden man tending a dementia-ridden mother who encounters a video friendship service where Wil Wheaton proves a cheery but increasingly disturbing new best friend
Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)
Anime/Videogame Adaptation
The second of the Resident Evil anime films. This is set before the release of the T-Virus and focuses on origin stories for some of the characters
Ring Around the Rosie (2006)
Haunting/Reality Bender
This starts out as a seeming ghost story without creating much tension then features Tom Sizemore going psycho, before arriving at one of the most confusing of all attempts to conduct an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
Santa Sangre (1989)
Surrealism/Psychologically Disturbed Mime Artist
Near indescribable mix of horror, hallucination, surrealism and tormented sexuality – quite possibly cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky at his best
Secret Window (2004)
Sinister Stranger/Stephen King Adaptation
Stephen King adaptation with Johnny Depp as a writer in a cabin in the woods harassed by mysterious stranger John Turturro. Screenwriter David Koepp directs a marvellously chill Turturro with lots of twisty surprises
Seeing Heaven (2010)
Gay Clairvoyance Film
A gay version of Don’t Look Now – a film that takes forever to go anywhere and fails to wind its twists up to anything interesting
A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life (2019)
Murderous Life Coach/Black Comedy
Essentially a women’s version of Fight Club, a black comedy about a girl being dragged on a killing spree by a murderous life coach
Session 9 (2001)
Sinister Abandoned Asylum
Borrowing the Blair Witch aesthetic, Brad Anderson makes a highly effective minimalist horror film about a group of working men encountering something during the clean-up operation of an abandoned asylum
Silent House (2011)
Haunted House
Haunted house film that comes with the novelty of being shot entirely in one take. This delivers some okay but never standout jumps but in the end you appreciate it more for its technical novelty than producing scares
The Sixth Man (1997)
Ghost Aids Basketball Team
Exceedingly lightweight effort about Marlon Wayans’ ghost brother aiding their basketball team, which proves as predictable as one expects
Someone is Watching (1999)
Stalker Psycho-Thriller/Child's Sinister Invisible Companion
Okay psycho-thriller where Stefanie Powers is stalked in her new apartment while her son develops a mysterious imaginary companion
Stopmotion (2023)
Filmmakers Obsessive Descent
A film about a stop-motion animation filmmaker who descends into a dark and obsessive state of mind
The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle (2005)
Arthur Conan Doyle Biopic-Mystery/Meta-Fiction
BBC production that seems to be a straightforward biopic of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle only for it to take a very strange dogleg into meta-fiction
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Korean Ghost Story
A South Korean ghost story that achieves quite a degree of spookiness, albeit influenced by the Japanese Ring phenomenon, although things fall apart at a confusing twist ending
Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
Horror Anthology
Director Freddie Francis had had great success making several of the Amicus horror anthologies then went independent to made another Amicus-styled anthology here with mixed results
Thr3e (2006)
Christian Serial Killer Thriller
Quite evidently modelled on Se7en even to the lookalike title, this is the novelty of a Christian serial killer thriller. The results are quite strange to say the least
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)
Kid Detective and His Imaginary Polar Bear Companion
This must have been a marketing nightmare for Disney – a film about a kid who operates as a private detective along with his polar bear imaginary companion. The result has an oddball charm
To Rome with Love (2012)
Quartet of Rome-Set Comedy Tales
Another film amid Woody Allen’s European renaissance, four tales all set around the gorgeously shot location of Rome. The stories are on the slight side and it is lesser Allen but there is great casting and moments where Allen is on good form
Topper (1937)
Ghost Screwball Comedy
A deliriously frothy screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as two socialites killed in a crash who then haunt the car’s new owner. Several sequels followed.
Topper Returns (1941)
Ghost Screwball Comedy
Second sequel to Topper , the screwball light fantasy comedy about a dull man who is driven crazy by ghosts only he can see. This throws everything into an Old Dark House setting but proves there is still a good deal of droll, nonsensical humour to be found in the formula
Totem (2017)
Haunting
I was very impressed with director Marcel Sarmiento on the basis of the perversely twisted Deadgirl. Here Sarminento turns his hand to making a ghost story
Track 29 (1988)
Surrealism
This collaboration between Nicolas Roeg and Dennis Potter results in a mind-boggling blurring of dream, reality, symbolism and sexual obsession. A name cast are allowed their heads and go wild
Unholy Night (2019)
Christmas Horror Anthology
Modest and well-made low-budget anthology of Christmas horror tales from three Canadian filmmakers
The Uninvited (2009)
Haunting/Asian Horror Remake
The Hollywood remake of the South Korean ghost story A Tale of Two Sisters that waters down and reduces the effectiveness of the original to generic shocks
Voice from the Stone (2017)
Possible Haunting
Strongly reminiscent of The Innocents, Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones plays a nanny arriving at an estate to tend a boy who claims to hear his dead mother’s voice in the stone walls.
The Ward (2010)
Haunted Asylum
John Carpenter returned to the director’s chair after more than a decade but failed to light the world on fire. Carpenter makes what you could call a ghost story version of Girl, Interrupted. The scares are tame and the film is hamstrung by an improbable M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
What Josiah Saw (2021)
Southern Gothic
This is a superbly written and directed work of Southern Gothic that consists of three interwoven tales that gradually expose dark family secrets
When I Consume You (2021)
Siblings Fight Demonic Entity
The massively underrated Perry Blackshear makes another of his kitchen sink works about a handicapped brother and his sister’s possible ghost fighting a demonic figure
Where is Anne Frank (2021)
Animation/Anne Frank’s Imaginary Companion Comes to Life
Beautifully affecting animated film from Ari Folman in which the imaginary companion in Anne Frank’s diary comes to life in the present day
Wolf Garden (2023)
The Ambiguously Fantastic
This may be or may not be a werewolf film. What we have is a work that is long on mood and much ambiguity as a man hides in the English countryside from a crime he has conducted
The Woman in the Fifth (2011)
Mysterious Femme Fatale
European arthouse film that feels like it should have been a horror film. This starts well but when it veers into genre territory, its big twist has been done by too many genre films of recent and holds nothing interesting in its treatment
The Woman in the Window (2021)
Psycho-Thriller
Slickly produced psycho-thriller that comes mired in controversy, featuring Amy Adams as an agoraphobe who maybe witnesses a murder.
Wound (2010)
Hallucination and BDSM
The always interesting David Blyth returns to screens with what feels like an amateur remake of Nicolas Roeg’s Track 29 that becomes a confused and plotless mishmash of hallucinations, random BDSM scenarios and shock effects
Youth Without Youth (2007)
Man Regains His Youth
Francis Ford Coppola film that came out the same time as The Case of Benjamin Button where Tim Roth regains his youth after being hit by a lightning bolt