You’ll Find Out (1940)
Old Dark House Comedy
Old Dark House comedy set around the antics of big band leader Kay Kyser. Starring several horror names of the day – Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre
Rationalised Fantasy
Rationalised Fantasy concerns stories that are ostensibly fantasy, horror or supernatural but where the elements of the fantastic are reveled to be have a mundane explanation. This can refer to stories in which elements such as hauntings (most commonly), reincarnation, possession, mediums, UFOs and such like are revealed in an end twist to have more rational explanations than what we had been led to believe (sometimes in absurdly contrived ways).
This also refers to works of fantasy, myth and fairytale that are retold in modern terms.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Possible Werewolf Murders
A film directed by actor Jim Cummings about a small Utah town that is facing a series of werewolf attacks. This works surprisingly well due to a series of witty and well-rounded characterisations
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Adventures in a Magical Land
An indisputable classic fantasy … a gorgeous sparkling fantasy that made full use of Technicolor in an era dominated by black-and-white and is told in such bold and earnestly heartfelt tones that it becomes the nearest we have to a piece of genuine American mythology
When Michael Calls (1972)
Phone Calls from a Dead Child
TV movie that comes with a great opening hook – a family receive phone calls from a brother who died 15 years earlier
Wer (2013)
Werewolf Film
From the director of The Devil Inside comes a werewolf film that wants to convince us it might not be a werewolf and a Found Footage film that is only pretending to be a Found Footage film. The result is a crappily photographed film that takes a long time to ever unleash its werewolf
Wendy (2020)
Modernised Peter Pan Retelling
Director Benh Zeitlin made an extraordinary debut with Beasts of the Southern Wild. In his follow-up, he does striking things in making a modernised Peter Pan and transplanting the story to Louisiana
The Well (1997)
Body in the Well/Psychological Horror
An incredibly spooky film about two woman on an Australian outback farm that believe they are haunted by a dead body in the well
Volver (2006)
Drama/Mother's Ghost
Pedro Almodovar film in which two daughters try to deal with their mother’s seeming return from the dead
Viy (2014)
Russian Gothic
Russian-made adaptation of a classic horror story that takes place as an exquisitely stylised 19th Century Gothic fantasy world but is a head-scratchingly incoherent mishmash on a plotting level
The Village (2004)
Pioneer Town/Mysterious Creatures in the Woods
M. Night Shyamalan creates three-quarters of a tense and eerie film about a 19th Century village under siege from mysterious creatures only for it to fall apart when he produces a damp squib of a twist ending
Vertigo (1958)
Reincarnation Thriller
Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, this is a study in obsession and features a reincarnation plot. What works more so than the contrived plot twists is Hitchcock’s expert direction, all thunderously brooding mood and lush Technicolor dreaminess
The Vampire (1957)
Medical Vampire
One of the first films about a medically rationalised vampire concerning a doctor who discovers pills that turn him into a vampire monster
Under the Rainbow (2013)
Romantic Comedy/Modernised Fairytales
No relation to the disastrous Chevy Chase film, a French romantic comedy that has modernised retellings of various fairytales wound into the plot, often being deflated or turned on their head
Tristan + Isolde (2006)
Historical Romance
Adaptation of the legendary historical romance was considered a box-office flop but emerges as a better film than one expected it would
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996)
Ghosts of Memory
Ambiguous ghost story in which Peter Gallagher sees and talks to his late wife Michelle Pfeiffer. Written by hit tv producer David E. Kelley (The Practice), this frequently disappears into its own self-congratulatory dialogue
The Three Investigators in the Secret of Terror Castle (2009)
Juvenile Detectives Investigate a Spooky Mansion
The Three Investigators books were an essential part of my youth. This does a fair job of remaining faithful to the stories, albeit with the addition of some grating modernisations, and creates reasonable atmosphere as they investigate a seemingly spooky mansion
The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
Criminal Mastermind
The third film about the title criminal mastermind from Fritz Lang. Here Lang returns to a radically different Germany to the one he fled in the 1930s, the West Germany of the Cold War, to deliver a creepily paranoid work about the surveillance society
Thor (2011)
Marvel Comics Norse God Superhero
The film adaptation of Marvel Comics’ The Mighty Thor is placed in the hands of Kenneth Branagh who delivers an okay film, if one where he never quite seems at home with the superheroic action
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Vikings vs Neanderthals/Michael Crichton Adaptation
Michael Crichton was hot as a result of Jurassic Park. Although mostly seen as an historical spectacle, this is an adaptation of his novel that attempts to retell the legend of Beowulf with Vikings against Neanderthals
13 Ghosts (1960)
Haunted House
One of the films from gimmick master William Castle, a more routine ghost story that eventually opts for a mundane ending and was sold with the gimmick of Ghost Viewer glasses. Later remade as Thir13en Ghosts
Thirst (1979)
Medical Vampires
Modest Australian film where Chantal Contouri is introduced to a secret vampire society that keeps human beings as cattle
Theatre of Death (1967)
Grand Guignol Theatre/Vampire Killings
One of the Hammer Films wannabes of the 1960s that even employs Christopher Lee in a horror film set around the historical Grand Guignol Theatre
The Terror of Dr Hichcock (1962)
Italian Gothic
Influential if possibly overrated work in the Italian Gothic cycle of the 1960s. There’s the haunted figure of Barbara Steele and rich atmosphere, even if the plot doesn’t make much sense
Tempest (1982)
Modernised Shakespeare Adaptation
Paul Mazursky conducts a contemporary version of the Shakespeare play set in the Greek islands, which serves to give the original a potent resonance
Tam-Lin (1971)
Modern-Day Queen of the Fairies
The only film ever directed by actor Roddy McDowall. Based on a folktale, it is the story of two lovers trying to escape when one is in thrall to the Queen of the Fairies. McDowall creates a lush film that is oddly ponderous and non-fantastical but what a cast he assembles
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977)
Possessed Housewife
An The Exorcist copy made as a tv movie – where The Exorcist shocked audiences with barf bag theatrics and obscenities, this merely has Karen Black shucking her staid fashion sense and buying a sexy red dress. Rather peculiarly, this becomes a possession story as women’s self-actualisation drama
Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Old Dark House Comedy
The East Side Kids, a popular comedy group during the 1940s/50s, conduct a variant on the Old Dark House film featuring a sinisterly lurking Bela Lugosi … The East Side Kids’ films were made on impoverished budgets – this one of their better but still aimlessly circles around creaky and dated gags
The Spectre (1963)
Italian Gothic
A work of brooding Italian Gothic, a loose sequel to The Terror of Dr Hichcock. Featuring oodles of atmosphere and the genre’s indisputable queen Barbara Steele as a wife haunted by a dead husband
Smiley (2012)
Internet Boogeyman
This is essentially Candyman rewritten for the internet generation about a boogeyman that appears to kill the person on the other end if you type a phrase three times
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes vs Black Magic
Guy Ritchie’s reinvention of Sherlock Holmes seemed a miscalculated disaster in the offing. It doesn’t radically reinvent the basics but emerges passably well
Sharing (2014)
Premonitions of Disaster
I went to see this on the description that called it a horror film about premonitions of disaster but far less interestingly it is a fictional attempt to analyse people’s attempts to grieve over the Fukushima Disaster – not uninteresting but with little interest in being a fantastic film
Seven Footprints to Satan (1929)
Old Dark House Thriller
An Old Dark House film from the silent era. Haxan director Benjamin Christensen turns the mansion into a fantastical netherworld and creates a compulsive atmosphere of weird and fascinating happenings that is is only marred only by a contrived mundane ending
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
Medium/Kidnap Thriller
Standout thriller with Kim Stanley as a medium who fakes a child kidnapping with husband Richard Attelborough to prove her powers
Seance (2021)
Girls’ Boarding School Ghost Story
Adam Wingard’s regular scriptwriter Simon Barrett directs a revival of the girls’ boarding school ghost story. I had very high expectations of this
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015)
Sword and Sorcery
Fourth entry in the eminently forgettable sword-and-sorcery series, this heads down into bad movie stakes by writing a series of grating quips over everything, while the action scenes exist in the realm of unbelievability that show that nobody is treating anything with the slightest seriousness
Red State (2011)
Religious Cult
Kevin Smith discovers a newfound maturity in this work about a religious cult. Smith subdues his adolescent humour in a series of darkly laced dramatic twists, while the show is capped by some great performances
Red Planet Mars (1952)
Radio Messages from God on Mars
One of the most bizarre of 1950s Communist Fear films in which humanity begins to receive radio message from God on Mars. The film’s politics are hysterical today.
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Alien Artefact
The third and in the opinion of many the best of Hammer’s Quatermass films in which Nigel Kneale introduces a conceptually wild array of ideas about Martians, race memory, psychic powers and The Devil
Prince of Darkness (1987)
The Devil and Quantum Physics
One of the less successful, nevertheless underrated John Carpenter films where he pays tribute to Nigel Kneale in a conceptually mind-boggling mix of deviltry and quantum physics
Pizza (2012)
Bollywood Ghost Story
A rare Indian venture into the horror film, this is a haunted house film of modest effect that suddenly becomes a whole lot more watchable when it pulls a major M. Night Shyamalan-esque twist on us
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025)
Horror Version of Peter Pan
From the people behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, this is the horror version of Peter Pan. And good grief, does this go dark with Peter as a child abductor and Tinkerbell who shoots up ‘fairy dust’ through a needle
Passion of Mind (2000)
Woman's Double Life in Dreams
This has the intriguing idea of two Demi Moore’s living on either side of the world, each dreaming that they are the other but the premise pans out as no more than a routine Chick Flick
Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)
The Wizard of Oz Prequel
Sam Raimi’s prequel to The Wizard of Oz is now; the story of how a conman fools an entire land rather than of an innocent girl just trying to find her way home. The reconceptualisation of Oz comes with a colourful sweep
Outlander (2008)
SF Version of Beowulf
Retelling of the epic legend of Beowulf in SF terms where Grendel becomes an alien monster
Orphee (1950)
Modernised Greek Myth
Jean Cocteau’s beautiful modernisation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice updated to post-War France
Ondine (2009)
Man Fishes Up a Selkie
Neil Jordan directs a beautifully earthy Irish fairytale in which Colin Farrell fishes up a possible selkie woman
Of Love and Other Demons (2010)
Possible Demonic Possession/Magical Realism
Lush Magical Realist adaptation of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book about demonic possession that takes the view that it is no more than Church superstition
Obsession (1976)
Reincarnation Thriller
Brian De Palma with Paul Schrader on script make a homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo with Cliff Robertson wandering Venice believing he has found the reincarnation of his late wife
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Depression-Era Version of The Odyssey
The Coen Brothers hilariously adapt The Odyssey into the Depression Era with George Clooney leading a trio of escaped convicts as he tries to return to his wife
Nightmare Man (2006)
Boogeyman Comes to Life
This has an interesting set-up about a woman pursued by a boogeyman figure from her nightmares where others cannot be sure whether she is delusional at the same time as the figure starts eliminating them – but the film’s low-budget gets in the way of adequate treatment
Nightmare Alley (2021)
Fake Clairvoyant/Predestination
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Guillermo Del Toro’s remake of the 1947 film noir tale about a fake clairvoyant is an exquisite piece of mood and design
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Fake Clairvoyant/Predestination
Classic film starring Tyrone Power as an ambitious carnival barker who has success with a mind-reader act. Filled with great film noir atmosphere and a doomed sense of fate at play
The Night Walker (1965)
Dream Lover/Psycho-Thriller
William Castle psycho-thriller (from a Robert Bloch script) that creates an incredibly haunted mood between dream and reality only to fall apart in an absurdly contrived ending
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
Giallo Film
A giallo film with Anthony Steffen as an aristocrat who likes to pick up red-haired girls and kill them in the dungeon in his villa, who then becomes haunted by the ghost of his late wife
Nice Girls Don’t Explode (1987)
Pyrokinesis Comedy
Charmingly nonsensical comedy variant on Firestarter where a girl’s dating life is a nightmare due to her causing things to spontaneously combust when she becomes emotionally aroused
Neverland (2011)
SF Version of Peter Pan
Following Tin Man and Alice, another of Nick Willing’s ingenious rewritings and rationalisations of classic children’s tales in science-fiction terms. Here the essentials of Peter Pan are transported to another planet
The Mysterious Doctor (1943)
Haunted Mine
Film made during World War II about the locals of small English town dealing with a haunted mine and uncovering a Nazi infiltration plot
My World Dies Screaming (1958)
Precognitive Dream of a Sinister House
One of the first films to copy William Castle’s gimmick and filmed in Psychorama wherein frightening images and words were subliminally projected on the screen. The plot where a newlywed wife has a recurrent dream of a sinister house only for it to be the one they move into has a disappointingly mundane rationale
The Murder Mansion (1972)
Sinister Happenings at a Mansion
Spanish film about a group of people gathered at a mansion as spooky happenings begin happening and people are killed off
Moth (2016)
Found Footage Horrors
A Hungarian-made Found Footage horror film with vague claims to being about the Mothman. This only goes where The Blair Witch Project trod before, although subverts it in a twist ending (8)
Monster from the Surf (1965)
Surfers vs Sea Monster
Another Z movie attempt to join the 1960s beach party movie fad with the additions of monsters that ends up being fairly ridiculous on all counts
Mongrel (1982)
Possibly Supernatural Killer Dog
Incredibly shabby film about residents of a Texas boarding house being killed by a supernatural dog
Molom, A Legend of Mongolia (1995)
Buddhist Journey
Gentle affecting film about a boy learning Buddhist life lessons as he journeys across Mongolia with an old man
Martian Child (2007)
Adopting a Possibly Alien Child
Adapted from a David Gerrold book, this is essentially the Adam Sandler adopts a kid film Big Daddy by way of K-PAX and its ambiguous alien visitor
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Vampires/Whodunnit
Dracula director Tod Browning reteams with Bela Lugosi in a remake of the silent London After Midnight. A vampire film that has much atmosphere but is ruined by a ridiculous ending
A Man Who Was Superman (2008)
Man Believes He is Superman
Before the spate of superheroes with no powers films with Kick-Ass and Super, there was this South Korean based-on-a-true-story film about a delusional man who believes he is Superman
Malice in Wonderland (2009)
Modernised Alice in Wonderland
A modernised retelling of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice takes a colourfully surreal trip through an urban landscape and criminal underworld
The Magician (1958)
Enigmatic Magician
Ingmar Bergman film about a travelling magic show. Bergman is fascinated with the power that illusionists hold and what happens behind the mask. A spellbinding film that is more haunted that most genre films
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Possibly Fake/Real Medium Comedy
One of Woody Allen’s slighter films about rationalist Colin Firth who is debunking medium Emma Stone but becomes convinced of her powers as romance sparkles
Luciferous (2015)
Haunted Apartment
A ghost story that is directed by a married couple who shoot the film in their own apartment and also play a family as they start to be affected by a malign presence
London After Midnight (1927)
Vampires/Whodunnit
A lost film from the great silent actor Lon Chaney [Sr] who would undergo great physical makeup transformations for his role. This also has the distinction of being the first Hollywood-made vampire film
The Lodge (2019)
Cabin Fever/Possible Haunting
An entry from the revived Hammer Films directed by duo who made Goodnight Mommy. A slow burn of a film about cabin fever and fragmenting psychology often reminiscent of The Shining
Lifeforce (1985)
Soul-Sucking Alien Vampires
Tobe Hooper’s space vampires film wildly divides audiences and was a flop for Cannon Films. You have to applaud its ambitious conceptual grasp even if it bites off more wild ideas than it is ever capable of coherently presenting
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980)
Headless Horseman
A tv movie version of the classic ghost story by Washington Irving and the most faithful version of the story to date. With a young Jeff Goldblum as Ichabod Crane
The Last Exorcism (2010)
Exorcism Found Footage Film
An exorcism film made Found Footage-style with Patrick Fabian as a conman exorcist. This is constantly confounding everything one expects of the genre with considerable cleverness
Lancelot du Lac (1974)
Arthurian Legends
French director Robert Bresson’s take on the Arthurian legends, stripped of nobility and magic. I’m not part of the critical cult around Bresson. Films that are dull and lifeless are not about spiritual yearning just dull
King Arthur (2004)
Arthurian Legends
A big-budget version of the Arthurian legends that makes dubious claim about being rooted in historical fact. The fantasy elements are stripped out and what we have is more of an historical spectacle
Joker (2012)
Bollywood Film/Faked Crop Circles and Alien Visitation
Bollywood SF film that is like a version of Shyamalan’s aliens film Signs with a few dashes of The Mouse That Roared, all played as a comic farce with much singing and dancing
The Invisible Ghost (1941)
Hypnotism Psycho-Thriller
A low-budget cheapie starring Bela Lugosi as a widower who goes into a trance and starts killing women after having visions of his late wife’s ghost
The Intruders (2015)
Possible Haunted House
The haunted house genre has become so overused t feels mined out of original moves. Despite a better cast line-up, this follows all the familiar paths, even if it arrives at a quite different ending
Incense for the Damned (1969)
Psychological Vampirism
A striking variant on the vampire film full of rich metaphor. Set against the backdrop of Oxford university, this explains vampirism as a psychological condition brought on by sexual impotence and academic pressure
The Illusionist (2006)
Enigmatic Stage Magician
This came out the same year as The Prestige and has a very similar plot with Edward Norton as a stage magician in 19th Century who may have real powers and the rivalry over a woman
If the Shoe Fits (1990)
Modernised Cinderella
A modernised retelling of the Cinderella story that is set in the Paris fashion world starring with Jennifer Grey as a lowly seamstress falling for self-important fashion designer Rob Lowe
I Bury the Living (1958)
Cemetery Keeper with Killing Powers
Fascinating forgotten film with Richard Boone as a cemetery keeper who finds he can kill by placing pins on a map of the cemetery. This feels like a forgotten Twilight Zone episode and develops some quite creepy effect.
Housebound (2014)
New Zealand Haunted House Comedy
An NZ-made haunted house comedy that runs through a frenzied array of genre plot devices, a couple of minor jumps and some easy middle-of-the-road laughs leaving you feeling there should have been more to it
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Haunted House
One of the key films from William Castle, the P.T. Barnum of the horror genre. Castle always approached horror like a carnival barker. Castle does not have much style but the luridness of his shocks proves entertaining
The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002)
Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
A new and extremely good adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story featuring Richard Roxburgh as Holmes. This offers some radical shakeups of the story and characters
The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)
Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Another adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes quasi-supernatural mystery. This is also one of the worst ever thanks to the wildly over-acted, scenery chewing performance from Matt Frewer, badly miscast as Holmes
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Given lavish period settings and featuring a sterling cast line-up of British talent from the day, this is probably the most faithful film adaptation of the Conan Doyle story
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
Sherlock Holmes Comedy/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes novel made as a comedy vehicle for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Given the duo’s reputations as comics, the results are fairly excruciating
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Hammer Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Hammer Films’ one and only Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It is beautiful to see the opulence of early Hammer productions brought to bear giving the story unusually effective life
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
The first in a series of Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone, who became the definitive Holmes for many years, and a reasonable adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle novel
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929)
Silent Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
An incredibly good adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story. Thought lost for many years, this was made at the height of German Expressionism and has a vividness that other adaptations lack
Hold That Ghost (1941)
Two Idiots in a Haunted House
The fourth of Abbott and Costello’s films, a knockoff of the then recent hit of the Bob Hope remake of The Cat and the Canary involving much comedic running around a supposedly haunted mansion
Hercules (2014)
Greek Mythological Hero's Ordinary Exploits
Dwayne Johnson starring Hercules film that just wants to be a big dumb cartoon without a brain cell in its body. This takes the interesting approach that Hercules was an ordinary man whose exploits were all down to PR
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
Old Dark House Comedy
Both directing and starring here, Gene Wilder attempts to revive the Old Dark House comedy. By the 1980s, this was datedly creaky, while Wilder’s comedy mugging histrionics are excruciating to sit through
The Hands of Orlac (1960)
Possessed Hands
The third film and least version of the classic horror story about a pianist who receives hands transplanted from a murderer and is driven mad believing they are possessing him
The Hands of Orlac (1924)
Possessed Hands/Silent German Classic
Classic German silent film about a pianist who receives hand transplants and believes they are possessed. Superbly stylised direction from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari director Robert Wiene and with Conrad Veidt putting his all into the contorted mime work
Griff the Invisible (2010)
Man Believes He is a Superhero
An Australian entry in the spate of superheroes with no powers films a la the likes of Kick-Ass, Defendor and Super. This plays out as a quirky but never particularly funny romantic comedy
The Green Hornet (1974)
Masked Superhero
The Green Hornet was a tv series based on the radio and serial masked hero. Following Bruce Lee’s ascent to superstardom, three episodes of the series were re-edited as a feature film