Uncle Sam (1997)
Vengeful Undead Army Veteran
Film about an undead military veteran from director William Lustig and a script by the great Larry Cohen that unevenly digs into patriotic sentiment with black regard
Supernatural Retribution
Supernatural Retribution concerns a sense of justice enacted by non-corporeal agencies. This may be someone that has been murdered or wrongly killed who rises from the grave or returns as a ghost to exact vengeance against those responsible. In other cases, the wronged dead can possesses another person or even an inanimate object.
In other examples, the retribution can take the form of Curses that exact justice against the children, family members, even descendants of the guilty party or entire towns, many years later. Or the form of retribution may simply be an invisible force that affects people that have disturbed a tomb or sacred cultural object.
Stories of Supernatural Retribution are common in Anthology Films, which frequently feature stories in which somebody has gotten away with a crime only for the sting in the tale to be that they have reckoned without ….
The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
Resurrected Avenger
The first sequel to The Crow extends the look of the original into an amazingly lit Goth designer world. However, the plot (an early work from David S. Goyer) is no more than a rehash of the first film
Sometimes They Come Back … Again (1996)
Supernatural Retribution
Sequel to the Stephen King adapted film about hoodlums resurrected from the dead, this descends into an incredible silliness. Featuring a teenage Hillary Swank
Judge and Jury (1996)
Executed Killer Returns
A ridiculous supernatural action film where a madly overacting David Keith plays an executed killer returned from the dead to seek revenge against cop Martin Kove
Tales from the Hood (1995)
African-American Horror Anthology
Horror anthology with a specific focus around African-American issues. This conducts a fine revival of the anthology genre and delivers a series of episodes that are all solid and well above-average horror tales
Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)
Monster Movie
The Stan Winston directed Pumpkinhead was one of the genuinely original monster movies of the 1980s. This was the first of several video-released sequels
The Crow (1994)
Resurrected Avenger/Graphic Novel Adaptation
Overshadowed by the tragedy of star Brandon Lee’s death on set, this is a beautifully dark and glistening Gothic tale of a murdered youth revived from the dead to attain vengeance against his killers. Several lesser sequels followed
Immortal Sins (1992)
Reincarnated Witch's Revenge
A Roger Corman produced erotic horror in which Cliff De Young inherits a castle in Spain where he is tempted by a witch who appears in his dreams
Sometimes They Come Back (1991)
Supernatural Retribution/Stephen King Adaptation
Passable but slight tv movie adaptation of a Stephen King short story about a teacher facing undead pupils
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
Edgar Allan Poe Anthology
George Romero and Dario Argento collaborate on an anthology, each adapting an Edgar Allan Poe tale. Either director leaves you with high expectations but the results are very mixed
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
Horror Anthology
Film spinoff from the Tales from the Darkside tv series, this is an anthology of three horror tales, the result is a surprisingly slick and well made film
Grim Prairie Tales (1990)
Anthology of Wild West Horror Tales
An interesting, if not completely successful, attempt to revive the horror anthology – in this case with four tales that all take place in a Western setting
Shocker (1989)
Executed Killer's Supernatural Revenge
Wes Craven’s attempt to top his A Nightmare on Elm Street and the phenomenon that Freddy Krueger subsequently became was this remarkably silly film with Mitch Pileggi as a serial killer returned from the electric chair
The Chair (1989)
Haunted Prison
One of a spate of killers returned from the electric chair films that came out around the time of Wes Craven’s Shocker. The film is all build-up and almost no delivery, although is enlivened by an undeniable sense of humour
The Horror Show (1989)
Executed Killer's Supernatural Revenge
Routine executed killer comes back from the electric chair film made to exploit the success of Wes Craven’s Shocker. In some places this was sold as another of the House films
The Girl in a Swing (1988)
Haunting
A cryptic ghost story based on a novel by Watership Down author Richard Adams, featuring Meg Tilly as a newlywed bride who is haunted by events from her past
Pumpkinhead (1988)
Demon Unleashed
Makeup effects artist Stan Winston takes the director’s chair and creates one of the truly original monsters of the 1980s. Several sequels followed
Kadaicha (1988)
Aborigine Curse
Australian horror that sets out to combine US models like A Nightmare on Elm Street and a few dashes of Poltergeist with the idea of an Aborigine curse but emerges as poorly executed
The Dreaming (1988)
Cursed Aborigine Artefacts
Australian film about an Aborigine bracelet taken from an archaeological dig exerting supernatural retribution in the present for a mass murder in the past
Death Spa (1988)
Killings at a Health Spa
A 1980s VHS released horror about a series of novelty killings at a health spa. This contains some entertainingly bizarre death and a surprise number of later to be famous faces
Creepshow II (1987)
Horror Anthology
The sequel to the hit George Romero-Stephen King horror anthology. This misses the original’s black humour by a mile and instead becomes overblown and filled with shrill unlikable characters
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
Prom Queen's Supernatural Retribution
Unrelated in any way to the slasher film Prom Night, this plants tongue in cheek as it tries to imitate the A Nightmare on Elm Street films in its story of a vengeful undead prom queen
Prison (1987)
Haunted Prison
An early film from Renny Harlin made for Charles Band concerning a haunted prison. Features an unknown Viggo Mortensen in one of his earliest roles
Retribution (1987)
Possession Film
Interestingly watchable 80s film where a man becomes possessed by a disembodied soul that sets out seeking revenge against its killers. With lots of entertainingly lurid despatches
Aenigma (1987)
Supernatural Retribution in a Girl's School
Lucio Fulci attained a cult following for his horror films. This reads like a tatty copy of Dario Argento’s Suspiria that has been bizarrely married to the psychic coma patient premise from Patrick
From a Whisper to a Scream (1987)
Horror Anthology
One of the more underrated horror anthologies featuring an aging Vincent Price as narrator. All four stories are equally strong and venture into some pleasingly dark and grisly places
Trick or Treat (1986)
Undead Heavy Metaller
Film about a heavy metal star resurrected from the dead. This sets out spoofing fundamentalist paranoias about backwards masking but soon ends up all over the place and fails to take itself serously
House (1986)
Haunted House/Horror Comedy
Amiably silly haunted house film with William Katt fighting rubbery pop-up monsters. This doesn’t take itself too seriously. A minor hit that produced three sequels.
The Wraith (1986)
Avenging Ghost Car
An unknown Charlie Sheen stars in a film about teens haunted an avenging ghost car. An uncredited copy of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter
The Oracle (1985)
Cursed Ouija Board
From cult director Roberta Findlay, this is a film about a haunted ouija board. What is going on doesn’t make a lot of sense but Findlay serves up a series of bizarre deaths that prove entertainingly absurd
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Dream-Invading Boogey Man
One of the most influential horror films of the 1980s, creating a series of dream horror copycats. Before the campy, makeup effects driven sequels kicked in, Wes Craven’s original creates a genuinely unearthly series of nightmare jumps
Seeding of a Ghost (1983)
Hong Kong Supernatural
A completely deranged film from Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers involving the resurrection of a dead wife to exact retribution. Full of ghost sex, gore and madcap creature effects
Superstition (1982)
Supernatural Retribution
Fairly negligible film about a family who move into a house to face the vengeance of a witch
Poltergeist (1982)
Haunting
Debate will always rage as to whether this was directed by Tobe Hooper or producer Steven Spielberg. It doesn’t alter the fact that it is a superlative rollercoaster of a ghost story that pulls its effects off flawlessly
Creepshow (1982)
Horror Anthology
Stephen King and George Romero collaborate on a horror anthology made as homage to the EC Comics, telling five tales that replicate the blacker-than-black sense of humour (and even the visual look) of the comic-book with hilarious results
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Scarecrow Enacts Supernatural Retribution
Frank De Felitta was mostly known for writing the novel that became Audrey Rose. He directs this tv movie where intellectually handicapped Larry Drake is killed by a lynch mob only to return from the dead as a scarecrow
Ghost Story (1981)
Supernatural Retribution
Big-budget studio adaptation of Peter Straub’s novel about four aging men who tell ghost stories to exorcise their past. This strips many of the book’s storylines and never seems to make any of its attempts to scare pay off
The Fog (1980)
Vengeful Ghosts
John Carpenter’s immediate successor to Halloween is a suspenseful and scary ghost story about undead sailors descending on a small town in a fog bank, even if the narrative logic holding everything together is thin
Terror (1978)
Supernatural Deaths
A key work of British exploitation director Norman J. Warren centred a series of supernatural novelty deaths
The Uncanny (1977)
Cat Horror Anthology
A production from Amicus founder Milton Subtosky in the style of the horror anthology that made the company’s name
The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (1976)
Sinister Hotel
Jose Mojica Marins, the cult Brazilian director/actor best known as the demoniac undertaker Ze do Caixao/Coffin Joe, presides over a hotel where the guests meet sinister fates
Encounter with the Unknown (1973)
Horror Anthology
A variant on the horror anthology film that manages to let the potential in its three stories fall through its hands. Narrated by Rod Serling, creator of tv’s classic anthology series The Twilight Zone, who must’ve needed the money
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Western/Supernatural Retribution
A Clint Eastwood directed/starring Western in which he plays a gunslinger who turns up in a town and exposes the guilty secrets of the townspeople in what is eventually revealed to be a supernatural twist
The Vault of Horror (1973)
Amicus Horror Anthology
The second of Amicus Films’ adaptations from EC Comics, a follow-up to their earlier Tales from the Crypt and one of their weaker horror anthologies with the episodes much more variable in overall quality
… And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)
Haunted House/Supernatural Retribution
Amicus Films venture into the haunted house genre with a newlywed Stephanie Beacham haunted by a disembodied hand but atmosphere is weakened by the constant reaching for crude shock effect
The Demons (1972)
Witch Persecutions/Witch's Retribution
Jess Franco rips off Ken Russell’s The Devils, although surely only Franco could take a story about nuns being tortured and witches burned at the stake and turn it into a work of softcore erotica
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Horror Anthology/Comic-Book Adaptation
Amicus adapts several stories from the notorious EC Comic as one of their anthology films. Missing is EC’s black humour but this is a worthwhile Amicus anthology
Asylum (1972)
Horror Anthology
One of the best of the horror anthologies from UK’s Amicus Films. This adapts four stories from Robert Bloch, which are all tales told by the inmates of the titular asylum and settle in with chill effectiveness
Vampire Circus (1972)
Circus of Vampires/Hammer Film
Fascinating vampire film from the latter days of Hammer Films, this tries to do something different to the usual
Crowhaven Farm (1970)
Occult Conspiracy
TV movie that was an early effort from celebrated producer Aaron Spelling, concerning an occult conspiracy surrounding a couple who inherit a farmhouse
The House That Would Not Die (1970)
Haunted House
A routine haunted house film that was made as a tv movie,. One of the several early genre works made by celebrated tv producer Aaron Spelling.
Cry of the Banshee (1970)
Mysterious Stranger/Witch's Retribution
Dreary film in which Vincent Price is a magistrate who is haunted by a manifestation of The Devil for his witch persecutions. The publicity falsely tried to sell this as an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation.
Venus in Furs (1969)
Supernatural Retribution
One of the better films from exploitation director Jess Franco that develops a haunted atmosphere that while crude is hard to shake
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1968)
Edgar Allan Poe Anthology
Trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe tales from three European directors. Roger Vadim’s opening episode drags but both Louis Malle and Federico Fellini deliver standout works in their respective segments
Kuroneko (1968)
Japanese Ghost Story
An exquisitely haunted Japanese ghost story from the muchly overlooked Kaneto Shindo that conjures some moments of genuinely otherworldly atmosphere as two ghost women take vengeance against samurai
Tonight I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967)
Malevolent and Sadistic Undertaker
The second and more sophisticated of the Ze do Caixao/Coffin Joe films with director Jose Mojica Marins as a diabolic undertaker who delights in inflicting a catalogue of tortures on the weak-minded
Majin, Monster of Terror (1966)
Stone Deity Awakens
One of the more unusual Japanese monster movies, one that operates just as much a samurai film, concerning the stone god of a mountain that awakens to defend downtrodden peasants
Return of Giant Majin (1966)
Stone Deity Awakens
A Japanese monster movie with a difference. The second in a trilogy of films about a giant stone deity that awakens to defend villagers in trouble
Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)
Italian Gothic
An entry in the Italian Gothic cycle featuring the great Barbara Steele, This comes with superbly eerie black-and-white mood but proves slow-paced when it comes to its supernatural retribution plot. It even manages to waste Steele in a nothing role.
Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)
Horror Anthology
The first of Amicus’s horror anthologies. The stories are rehashes of five popular horror tropes, all united by Peter Cushing as the title doctor telling the fortunes of five passengers on a train carriage
Illusion of Blood (1965)
Japanese Ghost Story
A standout adaptation of the oft-filmed kaidan eiga (Japanese ghost story) Yotsuya Kaidan/The Yotsuya Ghost Story. A beautifully filmed classic version of the story
Nightmare Castle (1965)
Italian Gothic/Supernatural Retribution
Classic work of the 1960s Italian Gothic cycle featuring Barbara Steele, shot in beautifully brooding black-and-white and with a remarkable sadomasochistic undertow
Oni Baba (1964)
Japanese Supernatural Retribution Tale
A classic Japanese ghost story (kaidan eiga) about two women who survive by preying on passersby. This adopts the lyrical realism of the era and builds to reach an incredibly haunted conclusion
Witchcraft (1964)
Resurrected Witch
Entry in the Anglo-horror cycle with a resurrected witch and an imported Lon Chaney Jr presiding over deviltry in a sleepy English village
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)
Malevolent and Sadistic Undertaker
Brazil’s Ze do Caixao or Coffin Joe is one of the most evil characters ever created on film, spearheaded by director/star Jose Mojica Marins’s contempt for the weak and catalogue of brutalities and blasphemies
Kwaidan (1964)
Japanese Ghost Story Anthology
The greatest of all Japanese ghost stories. This is an anthology that tells four stories. Each is made with an extraordinary visual flair and great attention to colour, lighting and design
Black Sabbath (1963)
Italian Gothic/Horror Anthology
The great Mario Bava directs a horror anthology of three tales, delivering each with considerable spooky atmosphere. The standout among these is The Wurdulak with Boris Karloff as a vampire preying on his family.
Twice-Told Tales (1963)
Horror Anthology
With the success of the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price, this was a copycat attempt that cast Price in a trio of tales adapted from another writer of American horror stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Haunted Palace (1963)
Possession/H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
This was ostensibly another in Roger Corman’s series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with Vincent Price possessed by his ancestor. This only borrows Poe’s title and instead adapts an H.P. Lovecraft story.
The Brainiac (1962)
Warlock’s Retribution
Bizarre Mexican film about a resurrected warlock who transforms into a bat creature to take retribution against the descendants of those who burned him at the stake
Tales of Terror (1962)
Edgar Allan Poe Anthology
The fourth of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films. This mixes it up slightly and adapts four Poe stories into three episodes, each of which stars Vincent Price
The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Anglo-Horror/Possibly Supernatural Cat Killings
A film from the early days of the Anglo-Horror cycle about the greedy relatives seeking a will being killed by a possibly supernatural cat
The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond (1960)
Japanese Ghost Story
Another effort from the Golden Age of kaidan eiga (Japanese ghost story films) during the 1950s-60s. While this assembles the essentials of the genre, it is only delivered in terms of a series of strident and unsubtle pop-up effects
Vampire Bride (1960)
Vengeful Creature/Japanese Horror
Rather drab and cheap Japanese horror film about a disfigured actress who returns to life as a hairy vampire creature to exact vengeance. Not without its schlocky appeals, the hairy vampire bride looks more funny than threatening
Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959)
Japanese Ghost Story
Japanese ghost story based on a kabuki play that has been filmed numerous times. Much more character and story driven than modern kaidan eiga, this builds to a grim and spooky climax with undeniable effect
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
From Hell It Came (1957)
Classic Bad Movie/Possessed Tree
A bad movie classic. Plenty of hysterically funny dialogue and one of the most ridiculous looking movie monsters of all time – a possessed tree (where the film also manages to wind in the 1950s obsession with atomic monsters)
An Inspector Calls (1954)
Mysterious Police Inspector/Morality Play
Film version of a classic play about an inspector who calls to expose the sins of a wealthy family and their involvement in the death of a girl. Comes with a fantastical twist in the tale.
Strangler of the Swamp (1946)
Ghostly Retribution in the Swamps
A film from the famous poverty row studios of its era that has gained a certain cult reputation. The film transcends its cheapness to create an undeniable spooky atmosphere in its tale of a ghostly revenant, even if the cult has tended to overstate its effectiveness
The Walking Dead (1936)
Wrongly Executed Man Resurrected from the Dead
Not to be confused with the hit tv series, this features Boris Karloff as a wrongly executed man come back from the dead to exact justice
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