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
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 Fisher King (1991)
Modern-Day Grail Quest
Terry Gilliam’s finest moment, a modernised knightly quest where radio dj Jeff Bridges is dragged into helping homeless man Robin Williams find the Holy Grail. A film made by its performances and warm and eventually soaring characterisations
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
Black Death (2010)
Mediaeval Journey to a Village of Witches
Powerful film from Christopher Smith set during the Middle Ages about a group on a journey to a village where a priestess can purportedly raise the dead. The film’s skewering of faith in an unforgettable ending is stunning
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)
Modernised Hansel and Gretel/Juvenile Delinquent Drama
Matthew Bright’s even better sequel to Freeway where he conducts an outrageous and quite brilliant modernisation of Hansel and Gretel now recast with two juvenile delinquents on the run
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
The Devils (1971)
Historical Witch Persecution
Ken Russell makes an historical work about the Catholic Church’s persecution of a supposed outbreak of possession at a convent in 17th Century France. As to be expected of Russell, this is shocking and outrageous. Oliver Reed gives one of his best performance
Black Orpheus (1959)
Modernised Greek Myth
An extraordinary film that offers a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, relocating it amid the Rio Carnival with striking and colourful results
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
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
Orphee (1950)
Modernised Greek Myth
Jean Cocteau’s beautiful modernisation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice updated to post-War France
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
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
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
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 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
EverAfter (1998)
Deconstructed Cinderella
Witty and very charming retelling of Cinderella that strips out all of the fantasy elements and substitutes a pseudo-historical realism. The cast positively shine.
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
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
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
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
Games (1967)
Psycho-Thriller
One of the psycho-thrillers made by he great and underrated Curtis Harrington during the 60s/70s. The film draws much from Les Diaboliques, right down to casting its leading lady. Harrington delivers suspense with an expert hand
Freeway (1996)
Modernised Little Red Riding Hood/Juvenile Delinquent Drama
Matthew Bright’s extraordinary modernisation/trashing of Little Red Riding Hood who becomes Reese Witherspoon’s juvenile delinquent who goes hitchhiking and is targeted by serial killer Kiefer Sutherland
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
An Angel for Satan (1966)
Italian Gothic
A small masterpiece of 1960s Italian Gothic cinema. Exquisitely moody black-and-white photography with Barbara Steele as the ideal of a Gothic dominatrix twisting men around her finger and setting a town against itself
The Awakening (2011)
Victorian Ghost Story
A classic British ghost story that produces an exceedingly haunted atmosphere at times, although falls apart in a highly contrived M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
Birth (2004)
Boy Claims to be Reincarnated Husband
Beautifully made and exquisitely directed film with Nicole Kidman as a widow who meets a ten-year-old boy who claims to be the reincarnation of her late husband
Dead Again (1991)
Reincarnation Thriller
Kenneth Branagh breathes life into the creaky reincarnation thriller with a plot that crackles with tension, while he directs with a virtuoso showmanship that shouts style from every frame
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Modernised Hansel and Gretel
An early film from Francois Ozon, this offers a modernisation of Hansel and Gretel where the two are teenage lovers on the run before the story turns into a remarkable gay coming out parable
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Epic Legend
An interesting and worthwhile attempt to retell the epic legend of Beowulf but to give it grounding as an historical work. Filmed in Iceland with an international cast
Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021)
19th Century Village Beset by Mysterious Monsters
Worthwhile film that has a strong vibe of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village about a post-US Civil War town that comes under attack by mysterious creatures
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
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
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
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
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
Beauty (2004)
Modernised Beauty and the Beast
A quite enjoyable attempt to modernise the story of Beauty and the Beast with Martin Clunes as a disfigured reclusive aristocrat and Sienna Guillory as a plumber who connects with him
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
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
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
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
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
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
Anthem of the Heart (2015)
Anime/Girl Cursed With Being Unable to Speak
Sweet and tender anime about a young girl who has a curse placed on her that causes her to lose her voice and how this actually allows everyone around her to voice things they don’t say.
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
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
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
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 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
Frog Dreaming (1986)
Monster/Aborigine Magic/Children's Film
Modest Australian-made children’s film that imports Henry Thomas riding on the success of E.T. as a teen inventor finding a lake purported to contain a creature from Aborigine legend
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
Emperor Visits the Hell (2012)
Modernised Journey to the West
The idea of (some chapters of) the classic Chinese legend Journey to the West retold in contemporary terms. This makes for some amusing interpolations, while also acting as a social critique of modern-day Chinese society
Endangered Species (1982)
Cattle Mutilations
A modest thriller with sheriff Robert Urich investigating cattle mutilations in small town Buffalo and finding possible UFOs and a government conspiracy to be behind these
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
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
The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Animation/Epic Fantasy
One of Rankin-Bass’s animated films, this has an ambitious epic fantasy plot with original themes about the line between science and magic, although this is undone by Rankin-Bass’s limited animation
Outlander (2008)
SF Version of Beowulf
Retelling of the epic legend of Beowulf in SF terms where Grendel becomes an alien monster
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
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
Ghost Chasers (1951)
Idiots Try to Expose a Medium Comedy
Another of the films from the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys, a prolific comedy act of the era. Here the boys set out to bust a fake medium racket during the course of which they are aided by a ghost
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
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
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 Ghoul (1933)
Resurrection/Old Dark House Thriller
Creaky but atmospheric British film where Boris Karloff dies but is brought back from the dead by an Egyptian jewel to stalk his heirs through a big old mansion
Thirst (1979)
Medical Vampires
Modest Australian film where Chantal Contouri is introduced to a secret vampire society that keeps human beings as cattle
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse (2003)
Biblical End Times Serial Killer Thriller
Luc Besson scripted sequel to the serial killer thriller The Crimson Rivers. However, in director Olivier Dahan’s hands, this emerges as a empty-headed series of shock images and random action scenes
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
A Cinderella Story (2004)
Modernised Cinderella
A contemporary take on Cinderella that relocates the story to a modern high school with a downtrodden Hillary Duff trying to make it to the prom
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
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