The Time Travelers (1964)
Time Travel/Post-Holocaust Future
Modest B-budget SF film with scientists opening a time portal and becoming caught up in a future war between humanity and mutants
Mutants and Mutation
In scientific terminology, mutation is a change in the DNA of an individual or organism. It is one of the principal factors responsible for the Evolution of a species – where genetic changes are carried through multiple generations and those changes that are best adapted to survival come to predominate. Ever since the concept of DNA was understood, genre fiction has latched onto the possibilities of mutation with great enthusiasm.
1950s SF was filled with numerous examples of mutants, usually of the three-eyed and scaly-skinned variety, that would appear in the aftermath of a Nuclear Holocaust. Mutation also has the ability to create superhumans, frequently those with Psychic Powers. Equally it can have hideous side effects and turn humans into all manner of monsters, hybrids or deformed oddities.
Mutation is frequently the given cause when it comes to Monster Movies where atomic energy or genetic experiments have the ability to turn regular-sized creatures into Giant Animals – this is particularly so in the fad for Atomic Monster Movies.
Mutation is also often the cause of a superhero gaining their powers in a Superhero Film – indeed, almost the entire Marvel pantheon of superheroes owes their powers to mutagenics – where it can create a great range of abilities. Just as equally it can also serve as the origin for a Super-Villain.
TMNT (2007)
Comic-Book Superheroes/Animation
Animated revival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which brings them back to the screen with a satisfyingly gritty edge and a series of kinetic action sequences
Together (2025)
Couple Physically Fuse Together
A Body Horror film that creates some undeniably ick effect where Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple who experience an infection that causes their bodies to start fusing into one whenever they touch
Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film/Cops vs Bio-Mechanoid Mutants
One among the 00s spate of gonzo Japanese splatter films. The film exists as a series of outlandishly over-the-top and absurdly entertaining splatter and bizarrely cartoonish bio-mechanoid transformation
Total Recall (1990)
Virtual Memories/Reality Bender/Action
Adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story is killed by being turned into an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle and by director Paul Verhoeven’s burying the reality bending subtleties of the story under bludgeoning ultra-violence
The Toxic Avenger (1984)
Mutant Superhero/Bad Taste Splatter/Troma Film
The film that launched the name of Troma Films. The world’s first superhero splatter film, this readily dives into bad taste just to see what kind of offence it can get away with
The Toxic Avenger (2023)
Mutant Superhero/Troma Remake
A remake of the work that launched Troma films. The original The Toxic Avenger was a gungily nasty film that readily trod way over all lines of good taste. In being cast with name stars, this has been cleaned up considerably
Track of the Moon Beast (1976)
Man Becomes Were-Lizard
Cheap and unmemorable film that is essentially a werewolf film with an SF rationale in which an archaeologist transforms into a lizard creature under the moonlight after touching a moon rock. The most incredible thing is that this has a screenplay by Bill Finger, the unacknowledged co-creator of Batman
Turkey Shoot (1983)
Future Prison/Human Bloodsports
Ridiculous, splatter-heavy Australian-made film about a prison camp where prisoners are offered their freedom in a run while pursued by armed hunters
2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)
Post-Holocaust Action
One of the more cheesily entertaining among the Italian-made ripoffs of Mad Max 2 during the 1980s (as well as more than a few dashes of Escape from New York). The film works up a moderate head of steam
Ultramarines (2010)
Animation/Wargame Adaptation/Space Marines vs Demonic Forces
Animated film based on the popular fantasy wargame. The set-up is a fascinating mix of SF and mediaeval religion but the plot rehashes Aliens without much payoff and the animation is B-budget
Ultraviolet (2006)
Dystopian Future Action/Vampire Mutations
Milla Jovovich is a part of a vampire rebel underground in a dystopian future. A film filled with incredible design schemes and action scenes that are as spectacular as they are ridiculously improbable
The Unseen (2016)
Man Slowly Starts to Become Invisible
Modestly effective effort about a man whose body is slowly fading away and becoming invisible. A film carried by some fine effects sequences, this derives its frisson from the gradual revelation of what is happening but loses it when the mundane subplots take over in the second half
Uzumaki (2000)
Spiral Obsession and Mutations/Japanese Horror Film
Surreal Japanese horror film in which the world is taken over by spiral patterns. A strange and trippy film.
Vampire Hunter D (1985)
Anime/Post-Holocaust Vampire Hunter
Cult anime about a monosyllabic vampire hunter moving across a hallucinatory post-apocalyptic dispatching mutants and vampires
Vesper (2022)
Environmentally Devastated Future
Visually extraordinary film set in an environmentally devastated future, this place enormous creativity into depicting a strange, very alien world
War of the Colossal Beast (1958)
Atomically Mutated Giant
Bert I. Gordon makes a sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man. The film cheats where a good chunk of running time is padded with footage from the original
Warlords (1988)
Post-Holocaust
B-budget director offers up a copy of Mad Max 2 and peppers it with plentiful tongue-in-cheek exploitation elements stirred with undeniable vigour
Warlords of Atlantis (1978)
Lost World Adventure
Not one of the Doug McClure Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations but by the same people and in the same vein. Thanks to a particularly inventive script this is the best of these lost world adventures
Watchmen (2009)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel is exceedingly faithful to the original. Often called unfilmable, Snyder articulates the material in ways that quite surprise
Watchmen: Chapter I (2024)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
An animated adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic, genre defining comic-book, this is the most faithful treatment to date
Watchmen: Chapter II (2024)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
The second part of DC Universe Animated Original Movies’ adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel, the most faithful screen adaptation yet
Waterworld (1995)
Post-Holocaust Drowned Earth
The most expensive film ever made at the time, a Kevin Costner epic in which he is a lone mariner in a drowned world where survivors cling to shantytowns floating on the surface. Essentially a Mad Max film located on water.
The Werewolf (1956)
Atomic Werewolf
A real oddity among the werewolf genre – a film that tries to mix the werewolf up with the 1950s fad for the atomic monster movie in having the transformation brought on by atomically irradiated wolf blood
Wizards (1977)
Post-Holocaust Sword and Sorcery/Animation
Ralph Bakshi left behind counter-culture animation to embark on this original fantasy film that comes with a trippily surreal quality, mixing fantasy tropes with a science-fictional rationalisation
The Wolverine (2013)
X-Men Spinoff Film
While this received a good deal of fan buzz, I must admit to being disappointed. It strips much of the superheroics and mutant cameos of the other X-Men films until it feels more like a Westerner in Japan thriller like Black Rain or even a routine film noir plot that happens to be cast with Wolverine
Wrong Turn (2003)
Backwoods Brutality
Passable effort that copies that basics of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a group of stranded teens running afoul of an in-bred family
X: First Class (2011)
Comic-Book Superheroes/Origin Prequel
An X-Men origin story that serves as the occasion to recast the series with younger actors. This works far better than the previous two films, integrating the characters in a strong story, although is quiet at the superheroic action
X-Men (2000)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Bryan Singer’s dynamic and exciting adaptation of the Marvel Comic title fairly much kicked off the massive fad for Marvel superheroes in the 00s/10s. This was also the film that mad Hugh Jackman into an international superstar.
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Comic-Book Superheroes
The seventh X-Men chapter arrives with a certain ennui. Bryan Singer creates some epic scenes but the sprawling ensemble and the series’ ragged continuity makes it hard to invest in the characters, while the new villain looks like a B movie wizard and the mass destruction climax comes surprisingly by the book
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Despite the bad press surroundings this, I failed to find it as bad as other reviewers. It’s a solid if not standout entry in the series with some fine superheroic action sequences
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Comic-Book Superheroes
It is nice to see Bryan Singer regain his form after several years lull. The plot is nothing world-shattering but it is nice to see a character-driven X-Men, while Singer delivers the superheroics with a cheer-out loud elan that most of the sequels missed by a wide margin
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Comic-Book Superhero
After the disaster of X-Men: The Last Stand, the decision was made to give a whole film over to the series’s most popular character, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and to go with a prequel that told his origin story. Largely a film that exists as a series of superheroic action scenes
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Brett Ratner inherits the X-Men franchise from Bryan Singer for the third film in the series and promptly killed it off (after this point everything became prequels featuring Young X-Men). Ratner’s handling of the superheroic action lacks Singer’s exhilaration or any affinity for the characters
X2 (2003)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Bryan Singer’s immediate sequel to X-Men, this ups the number of new mutant characters, although only sporadically manages to kick in with the spectacular superheroic action sequences the first film had
Xtro (1982)
Mutating Alien Abductee
A British-made copy of Alien that has been construed as a series of bizarre images and scenes that make no real sense – even the title is given no explanation
Zombeavers (2014)
Mutant Zombie Beavers
Gonzo killer animal and zombie films have been hugely popular in recent years – it was probably inevitable they meet. This comes with the deliriously ridiculous image of zombified human-beaver hybrids on the attack
Zoom: Academy for Superheroes (2006)
School for Superheroes
Family-friendly superhero film that places more focus on slapstick than superheroics and contains an embarrassing return to the screen for Chevy Chase