The Next One (1984)
Mysterious Visitor
A very strange film where widow Adrienne Barbeau finds an amnesiac Keir Dullea on a Greek island who shows mysterious abilities and may have come from the future
Other Dimensions
The world we live in exists in three-dimensions – the x and y axes on a flat surface make up the first two dimensions, while depth adds a third. Time is commonly referred to as a fourth dimension. Mathematics describe the possibility of far more dimensions than that. Fantastic cinema has run with that and created the idea of other dimensions as some kind of alternate reality.
Quite what other dimensions are in genre cinema is never clearly defined. As in Rod Serling’s classic opening narration for The Twilight Zone (1959-63), the fifth dimension appears to be simply a place where strange, unexplained things occur and no more details are offered than that.
Other dimensions can be places that experiments open up to unleash aliens or Lovecraftian entities. There can be strange Alternate Realities or simply different worlds and planets where people become trapped or venture into for adventures. Occasionally they can be other dimensions in the mathematical sense – places that have strange geometric and topographical landscapes.
Mortal Kombat (2021)
Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
A reboot of the film series adapted from the popular videogame. Produced by James Wan, this emerges as a kinetic and enjoyable effort that has clearly designed to introduce an ongoing franchise
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021)
Animation/Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
The second of the Mortal Kombat animated films, this continues into another tournament, introducing a bewildering array of characters from the games amid a high degree of violence and bloodshed
Magic in the Mirror: Fowl Play (1996)
Talking Ducks
Sequel to the delightfully madcap Magic in the Mirror set in a world of talking ducks
H.P. Lovecraft’s Monster Portal (2022)
Lovecraftian Film
Low-budget film about a woman who inherits a British country estate to find someone has opened a portal to unleash entities. One of several low-budget films of late to appropriate Lovecraft’s name
Monster Hunter (2020)
Videogame Adaptation/Monster-Filled Other Dimension
Resident Evil series director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich return with an adaptation of another popular videogame series
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
Sequel to the Mortal Kombat film. While the first film was fun, here anything resembling plot has been stripped away to concentrate on fight scenes such that the film blurs into a single shapeless action sequence
The Watch (2020)
Terry Pratchett Adaptation
Mini-series based on the works of Terry Pratchett that feels as though it is made, designed and cast by people who haven’t even read the books
Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)
Videogame Adaptation/Sinister Otherworldly Town
Dull and unimaginative Silent Hill sequel that only revisits what went before. The first film had an uncanny otherworldly atmosphere but the sequel reduces everything to no more than pop-up Clive Barker
The Dark Tower (2017)
Stephen King Adaptation/Portal to a Parallel World
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman gives us an utterly mangled version of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series that has little resemblance to the books, yet makes little sense if you haven’t read them
The Witches of Oz (2011)
Wizard of Oz Sequel/Modernisation
Sequel/modernisation (it is confusing what) to The Wizard of Oz relocated in New York. This tv mini-series may be the cheapest work ever served up bearing the Oz name and flounders amid the shabbiness of its effects and utter lack of magic its director conjures
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Gonzo SF
The big-budget film version of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide phenomenon is a disaster that fumbles Douglas Adams’s absurdist wit and blows everything up with big-budget effects and a pitch to American audiences
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are resurrected in a new animated film that feels like a watered-down fix designed for Ritalin-deprived youth
The Killer Eye (1998)
Giant Horny Alien Eyeball
A David DeCoteau film about a giant alien eyeball that causes people to become erotically aroused. The chessiness of the premise is hijacked by DeCoteau’s typical homo-erotic predilections
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Videogame Adaptation/Evolved Dinosaurs
The first film to be adapted from a videogame and inauspiciously one of the worst. This is a film made on a decent budget that seems to have set out to be as stupid and brainless as possible
Land of the Lost (2009)
TV Series Comedy Remake/Prehistoric Lost World
Big screen revival of the children’s lost world tv series that is now a loud and excruciating Will Ferrell vehicle that reduces the original into lowbrow farce. A majorly unfunny bomb on every level
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
Supergirl (1984)
Comic-Book Superheroine
The Christopher Reeve Superman films started superbly but became wrecked by the producers’ insistence on the insertion of comedy element. Here they turn their attentions to Superman’s cousin Kara whose screen debut is derailed by a horrendously overacting Faye Dunaway