Bring Her Back (2025)
Sinister Adoption/Resurrection Ritual
Australia’s Philippou Brothers made the word of mouth hit Talk to Me and return here with this equally creepy film with Sally Hawkins as a sinister foster mother
The Occult and Black Magic
The Occult and Black Magic refers to the dark magical arts, demonology and associated practices. This covers much the same area as what is listed under Devil Worship but comes with no practice of the worship of Satan and associated attempts to give birth to his son.
Those who dabble in the occult will still worship and attempt to summon demons or sacrifice innocents. They also use ritual magic, are constantly attempting to call powers, enact rites or are engaged in the quest for objects of power (Occult Artefacts).
As with Satanists, occultists are prone to wearing black and/or scarlet red hooded robes and gather in secretive covens. Occultists frequently form Secret Societies and will infiltrate positions of power and influence.
Witchboard (2024)
Occult Witchboard
A remake of the 1980s horror Witchboard. The original was just a VHS release and here is given a better budgeted workover, but disappears among a host of ouija-titled films of recent years
Shelby Oaks (2024)
Missing Girl Investigation
YouTube film reviewer Chris Stuckmann makes a directorial debut with this film about the investigation into a mysterious disappearance where he makes a work that is well above the often familiar material it deals with
Apartment 7A (2024)
Rosemary’s Baby Prequel
Did we need a prequel to the events of Rosemary’s Baby? The original one of the defining classics of the horror genre. Under producer Michael Bay Apartment 7A is just more IP churn
From Black (2023)
Resurrection Ritual
Strong and effective film about a grieving mother who is introduced to an occult ritual than can claimedly resurrect her dead son, a journey that takes her into very dark places
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
DC Universe Animated film that is adapted from an Elseworlds story that offers up an alternate 1920s version of Batman who is fighting up against H.P. Lovecraft entities
The Sacrifice Game (2023)
Hostages at a Girl’s School/Occult Rites
Jenn Wexler directs a film about thugs taking over a girls’ boarding school that pleasingly subverts your expectations of everything it is going to be at every turn
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Edgar Allan Poe in an Occult Murder Mystery
Superlatively moody and well written film that winds a young Edgar Allan Poe into an occult murder mystery
Consecration (2023)
Deviltry Afoot at a Convent
Christopher Smith was a highly promising director several years ago with Creep, Triangle and Black Death. Here he returns with a film about sinister happenings in a convent
Studio 666 (2022)
Foo Fighters vs Deviltry/Horror Comedy
A horror comedy starring the Foo Fighters where the band’s antics sit alongside some entertainingly outrageous gore
The Long Night (2022)
Sinister Cultists/Folk Horror
A Folk Horror film where Scout Taylor-Compton visits the South in search of the parents she never knew only for cultists in black robes and animal masks to surround the house
Demonic Christmas Tree (2022)
Possessed Christmas Tree
Yes, exactly what the title announces – a film about a possessed killer Christmas tree. A rather amusing Christmas horror entry from prolific low-budget British producer Scott Jeffrey/Scott Chambers
Venus (2022)
Occult Horror/Sinister Apartment
Jaume Balaguero of [Rec] fame returns with an occult horror where a woman on the run is drawn into sinister happenings at an apartment
Hellhole (2022)
Sinister Secrets of a Monastery
This Polish film starts out seeming like a possession film set in a monastery but rather pleasingly keeps turning all the expectations on their head with increasingly wilder effect
The Cellar (2022)
Mysterious House
An Irish horror film that generates undeniably mysterious atmosphere after a family move into a new house and the teenage daughter disappears after going down into the cellar
Night’s End (2022)
Haunted Apartment
A film shot during Covid lockdown that creates a great sense of isolation with a man locked inside a possibly haunted apartment
Satanic Hispanics (2022)
Horror Anthology
A multi-director horror anthology where all the directors are Latin American
H.P. Lovecraft’s Witch House (2021)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
A low-budget adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story Dreams in the Witch House about a student who moves into a house with occult geometry and stirs dark forces
The Deep House (2021)
Haunted House Underwater
From Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, an incredibly spooky film, almost all of which is shot underwater, about two divers discovering a haunted house at the bottom of a lake
Dashcam (2021)
Found Footage Horrors
Director Rob Savage made a splash with the Zoom horror film Host. His second film here is an insanely crazed horror film that is shot from the point-of-view of a dashcam
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Possession/“True Story”
The third of the Conjuring films, this lacks the presence of James Wan in the director’s seat while peddling an even more highly dubious Based on a True story claim regarding a demonic possession
Betaal (2020)
Bollywood Zombies
Bollywood conducts a reasonable attempt to make its own equivalent of the zombie film in this mini-series about people at siege from undead British colonial soldiers awakened
History of the Occult (2020)
TV Interview with a Black Magician
Argentinean horror film about a tv interview with a black magician where things then proceed to start going wrong. Shot in a dense black-and-white and claustrophobic mock-up of an old tv show
Satanic Panic (2019)
Virgin Pursued by Devil Worshippers Comedy
Rather funny comedy about Satanists and a virginal pizza girl who is chased as their intended victim. This comes with a bizarrely akilter sense of humour that reminds of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours
The Ninth (2019)
Occult Murders in 19th Century St Petersburg
Visually stunning Russian film with a clairvoyant and a police inspector teaming up to solve a series of occult murders in 19th Century St Petersburg
The Demonologist (2019)
Police Investigate Occult Killings
Film where New Orleans detective Brian Krause investigates a series of ritual killings before finding he is dealing with devil worshippers and that he is a destined John Constatine-like figure
The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
Spanish Detective Thriller/Ritual Killings
The second of the films based on Dolores Redondo’s police procedurals, this heads into an admirably dark and perverse place with plenty of jolt twists
Hereditary (2018)
Hauntings/Sinister Cult
Word of mouth hit that has in its fingertips the capacity to be a great horror film. Moments of intense spookiness and an awards-worthy performance from Toni Colette but Ari Aster has an unfocused script
Requiem (2018)
Abducted Child Mystery/Occult Conspiracy
This BBC tv mini-series starts out seeming a mystery about the disappearance of a child as the investigating heroine makes the jolt realisation that she is the missing child, before the show edges over into occult conspiracy. Very nicely written and beautifully directed with a line-up of standout performances
The Sonata (2018)
Occult Classical Music
A film where a violinist is drawn in to the mystery of a piece of classical music with occult properties, this is a classy and well-made production above the mill of the average horror film
Constantine: City of Demons (2018)
Animation/Occult Investigator/Comic Book Adaptation
The Dc Comics character John Constantine was made into an animated web series that was compiled as this film. One is quite taken aback at how much more edgy and adult this is than most of DC’s animated offerings
Pyewacket (2017)
Teenager Casts a Death Spell
Chillingly effective film where a teenage girl casts a spell to kill her mother, only to become terrified and try to turn back what she has unleashed
Bleed (2016)
Haunted Prison/Backwoods Occult
This feels like mostly a series of horror tropes – ghost hunters with cameras in an abandoned building, backwoods occultists wanting the heroine’s baby – shuffled without originality
Satanic (2016)
Pursuit by Satanists
Two couples on a road trip start to experience sinister happenings after witnessing a devil worship ceremony. Essentially Kalifornia meets Race with the Devil, this develops some modestly creepy effect
A Dark Song (2016)
Occult Ritual
This is an absolutely fascinating film about the efforts to perfect an occult ritual. It feels as though the filmmakers have dispensed with Hollywood cliches and has researched the real thing
The Devil’s Candy (2015)
Heavy Metal Horror/Occult Brooding/Psycho Stalker
From Australian director Sean Byrne who made the splendidly twisted The Loved Ones, this starts out a heavy metal horror film that broods with occult imagery and a sense of bad things about to explode
Southbound (2015)
Horror Anthology
Another in the spate of multi-director anthologies that have become popular in recent years – The ABCs of Death, V/H/S et al. This is set around the common locale of a desert highway where all five tales hover in an eerie twilight zone where the everyday world has stepped over into the uncanny
Altar (2014)
Haunted House
Nick Willing is a genre director who has consistently impressed. Here he ventures into the English ghost story where your expectation is that he is going to turn the genre on its head – only he doesn’t
V/H/S Viral (2014)
Anthology of Found Footage Horror Tales
Third of the V/H/S films, all horror anthologies in the Found Footage style. While the other two were fairly hit and miss, this is extremely good. Each of the four stories sits among the very best episodes among the current crop of multi-director horror anthologies
Rosemary’s Baby (2014)
Satanic Impregnation
Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby was a classic film that popularised the modern interest in occult and deviltry on film; this sad remake is something that only parrots the cliches that have set in in the ensuing 46 years and clumsily mishandles all of Polanski’s comically edgy paranoia
Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies (2014)
Zombie Film
The zombie film of the 2010s has become marked by a search for the most bizarre and incongruous title/conceptual mash-ups. True to its promise, the film pits several WWE wrestlers up against zombies, alas the creativity begins and ends with the mild amusement of the title concept
Mercy (2014)
Stephen King Adaptation/Sinister Grandmother
Modestly creepy adaptation of a Stephen King short story about a boy who realises that his grandmother is a witch who made a deal with a backwoods entity
Alpha Girls (2013)
Occult Rituals in a Sorority House
A blatant copy of The Craft where a new girl gets wound up into occult rites going on in a sorority house. Featuring porn star Ron Jeremy as a Catholic priest
The Amityville Asylum (2013)
Haunted Asylum/Occult Sacrifices
Another of the unofficial sequels that bear slim to no resemblance to the Amityville Horror hoax. This is a cheaply made and not terribly scary British effort set in a asylum supposedly built on the site of the Amityville house
The Lords of Salem (2012)
Occult Happenings/Witch's Curse
In this homage to the 1970s occult film, Rob Zombie tones back the posturing shock effect of his earlier films and creates atmosphere. Eventually though, Zombie creates a film that feels coiled to unleash something bad but falters
The Devil’s Rock (2011)
Nazis Uncover Occult Forces
New Zealand-made WWII horror film with a set-up – Nazis encountered occult forces in a bunker – that draws heavily on The Keep. Modestly effective and gore-drenched
11-11-11 (2011)
Occult Film/Numerological Premonitions
Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman delivers a loopy cross between The Number 23 and an occult film whose sole selling point is the significance of the date it was released
Fading of the Cries (2011)
Flight from Occult Forces
Low-budget ingenue effort with pretensions to being more, this produces some occasionally nifty effects that quickly weary and only seem to hold up a thoroughly hackneyed B horror movie plot
Necronos (2010)
Black Sorcerer Seeks Sacrificial Victims
German low-budget film about a resurrected sorcerer, this goes out on a wild edge, winds everything up to 15 on the dial and positively wades in blood, gore and torture scenes
The Shrine (2010)
Sinister European Town/Occult Horror
A piece of filler horror that is utterly generic in every respect about travelers entering a sinister East European village where the locals are up to no good
Shelter (2010)
Split Personality/Soul Transference
This starts out was as a film about multiple personality disorder with several scenes that catch your attention before it drifts into a muddle of confused supernatural themes
The Dunwich Horror (2009)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
An adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft short story. While more faithful to the story than the earlier 1969 adaptation, the film is very cheaply made and collapses into the frequently ridiculous
The Devil’s Tomb (2009)
Tomb of Evil Forces
Jason Connery directs a film that draws upon the basics of The Keep about soldiers venturing into a tomb in Iraq where they awaken a great evil housed there
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)
Animation/Gonzo Exploitation Movie Homage
Animated film directed by Rob Zombie that feels like an episode of Ren & Stimpy made by someone with an unhealthy obsession with horror and exploitation movies and stripper bars
In Search of Lovecraft (2008)
Modern-Day Lovecraftian Cultists
A Found Footage film about a tv crew investigating Lovecraftian cultists who are trying to raise an elder god. This makes an okay stab but is distinctly hampered by a low budget
Phobia (2008)
Anthology of Thai Ghost Stories
Horror anthology featuring four ghost stories from Thai directors. While all the segments vary in approach and style, this is a spooky and above average effort with the real standout being the final segment with an air hostess aboard a plane with a dead body in the midst of a storm
Mother of Tears: The Third Mother (2007)
Italian Occult Horror
After 27 years, Dario Argento finally rounds out his Three Mothers trilogy begun way back with Suspiria but the underwhelming results give all evidence of his having lost his mojo
Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (2006)
Animation/Comic-Book Superhero Team
The first film featuring DC Comics; Teen Titans, a spinoff from the Teen Titans animated series
Constantine (2005)
Occult Investigator/Comic Book Adaptation
Adaptation of DC’s Hellblazer comic-book that gets the Hollywood treatment where all of the character’s background and look has been thrown out and the part badly miscast with Keanu Reeves
Beneath Still Waters (2005)
Sunken Town/Supernatural Retribution
From prolific genre director/producer Brian Yuzna, a film about the drowned residents of a town that was flooded by a dam construction now emerging to exact vengeance on the living
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Videogame Adaptation/Monsters
Uwe Boll gained a reputation as the world’s worst director on the basis of his videogame adaptations. Prize exhibit was Alone in the Dark, which abandons the game and is a series of action scenes without explanatory rationale
Hellboy (2004)
Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
The first of Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptations of Mike Mignola’s comic-book about a demon superhero. Not as good as the sequel, the film’s ace in the hole is Ron Perlman in the title role
Toolbox Murders (2003)
Apartment Block Slasher
After a decade-long slump, Tobe Hooper started to show he still had what it took with this remake of the 1980 slasher film
Doctor Sleep (2002)
Hypnotist vs Occult Killer
Here Nick Willing makes an initially promising film but this becomes a disjointed muddle involving hypnotism, serial killers and occult conspiracy. Not to be confused with the Stephen King adapted film
Dagon (2001)
H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation/Village of Mutants
Stuart Gordon returns to adapt H.P. Lovecraft for a third time. As before, Gordon allows Lovecraft’s unspeakable terrors to be eclipsed by creature effects but the results are nothing too memorable
The Irrefutable Truth About Demons (2000)
Pursuit by Satanic Cult
A New Zealand-made horror film with Karl Urban as an anthropology lecturer who debunks the occult who is targeted and forced to go on the run from a Satanist cult
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival – North (1999)
Festival of H.P. Lovecraft Short Films
A festival of H.P. Lovecraft short films held in Vancouver, which display a quality and faithfulness to the original texts that far outstrips the professional efforts being made elsewhere
Sometimes They Come Back … For More (1998)
Satanic Forces in a Polar Base
The third film adapted from the Stephen King short story, which dispenses with connection to the other films and now concerns occult forces in an Arctic base
Damien’s Seed (1996)
Erotica/Occult
This makes an interesting attempt to rewrite the basics of The Omen as an erotic film. The usual occult happenings but with an emphasis on bodies coupling
Trilogy of Terror II (1996)
Horror Anthology
Sequel to the classic Karen Black-starring horror anthology tv movie with Lysette Anthony starring in a trio of horror tales
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Slasher Film
The sixth of the Halloween films, the fifth with Michael Myers. By now John Carpenter’s original eerie suspense has been reduced to crude slasher movie payoffs. This tries to add some nonsense about druidic cults
Lord of Illusions (1995)
Occult Detective/War Between Magicians
Clive Braker’s third and final outing as a director. Barker is trying to tell an occult detective story but fails to get any of the mood that film noir operates by
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
Dark Waters (1993)
Sinister Convent
A film about a woman’s journey to a convent of sinister secrets that is aswim in religious imagery, although the film itself eventually proves to be all imagery with no coherent plot
Dollman Vs. the Demonic Toys (1993)
Miniature Cop vs Satanic Dolls
Full Moon production that offers the novelty of bringing together their Dollman and Demonic Toys franchises, although nearly a third of the film is comprised of recycled footage from said films
Necronomicon (1993)
H.P. Lovecraft Anthology
Anthology of three H.P. Lovecraft tales from directors Christophe Gans, Brian Yuzna and Shusuke Kaneko. For claiming such a quintessentially Lovecraftian title as this, you feel that it should have been more than it is
The Resurrected (1992)
Black Magician's Resurrection/H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
Alien scripter Dan O’Bannon jumps aboard the 80s/early 90s fad for H.P. Lovecraft adaptations is this directorial outing that eventually develops quite reasonable effect
The Haunting of Morella (1990)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation/Resurrected Wife
An adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story produced by Roger Corman. Alas giving it to exploitation director Jim Wynorski, who likes to add really well stacked women to everything does, kills all of Poe’s atmosphere
Malediction (1990)
Missing Girl/Black Magic
A Bert I. Gordon film with Robert Forster as a P.I. hired to search for a missing girl before finding she was mixed up with a modelling agency and the occult
Gate II (1990)
Demonic Wishes
A superior sequel to the modest The Gate. This borrows from H.P. Lovecraft and delves into the area of cursed wishes that turn on the wisher, all with imaginative results
The Church (1989)
Possessed Dead Overtake a Church
Originally intended as a Demons sequel, director Michele Soavi decided to head in more arty directions. Imagine a Demons sequel mounted with the artistic ambitions of producer Dario Argento’s Three Mothers films
Three Dangerous Ladies (1988?)
Horror Anthology
Very obscure horror anthology re-edited from episodes of a Canadian tv series featuring names like John Hurt, Charles Gray and Keir Dullea.
Evil Altar (1988)
Town in Thrall to a Satanist
A low-budget 80s film about a town where the locals are in thrall to a Satanist who has demanded the souls of 103 children
976-Evil (1988)
Demonic Telephone Line
Riding on his fame as Freddy Krueger in the Elm Street films, actor Robert Englund made his directorial debut here but the film is lumbered with the lame concept of a demonic phone line
The Gate (1987)
Demonic Gateway Opened
Modest horror film of the 1980s where kids inadvertently open a demonic gateway. Like a juvenile version of Poltergeist, this comes with the bonus of some fairly good effects
Necropolis (1987)
Revived Witch
Ridiculous cheap 1980s video release about a witch burned at the stake returned as a New Wave punkette to claims souls
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
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Mad Scientist's Occult Revenge Plot
Unrelated to the Michael Myers saga, John Carpenter tried to use the Halloween name to launch an original horror series. The plot is a baffling mix of Celtic magic and hi-tech but Tommy Lee Wallace creates some way out effects scenes
Mystics in Bali (1981)
Indonesian Witchcraft
A mind-bogglingly deranged example from the largely unexplored arena of Indonesian exploitation cinema as an American woman becomes involved with local witchcraft
The Beyond (1981)
Italian Zombie Film/Gateway to Hell
One of the key films of cult Italian director Lucio Fulci, a gore-drenched but plotlessly incoherent mishmash about zombies emerging as the gates of Hell are opened
Inferno (1980)
Witchcraft Murders
Dario Argento’s sequel to Suspiria, the second film in his Third Mothers trilogy. This is an even better work where Argento delights in sadistic and beautifully artistic imagery almost entirely free of any plot
Alison’s Birthday (1979)
Occult Conspiracy
Australian-made film about a heroine being drawn into occult conspiracies around her that only treads where Rosemary’s Baby went before
Don’t Go Near the Park (1979)
Flesh-Eating Immortals
Another of the ‘don’t __’- titled entries of the 1970s. This is a bizarre bad movie about teenage runaways in L.A.’s Griffith Park who fall prey to flesh-eating immortals
The Legacy (1978)
Occult Killings
One of the last gasps of the Anglo-horror cycle, this sets assorted deviltry in an English mansion along with a series of novelty deaths that trying to compete with The Omen
The Initiation of Sarah (1978)
Sorority Girl's Telekinetic Revenge
A TV movie that has been construed as a blatant copy of Carrie where innocent Kay Lenz moves into a sorority house and finds occult goings-on around her
Suspiria (1977)
Witchcraft in a Girl's School
The work on which the cult of director Dario Argento was built. The film consists of a series of extravagantly arty deaths at a girls boarding school, although comes without any real plot connecting this
Land of the Minotaur (1977)
Minotaur-Worshipping Cult
A really shoddily Greek made film that imports Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence in a story concerning a cult of minotaur worshippers who are snatching tourists in a Greek village
Spectre (1977)
Occult Investigators
Another unsold Gene Roddenberry tv pilot, this would have made for a potentially worthwhile series involving Robert Culp and Gig Young as occult investigators
Night of the Seagulls (1975)
Blind Knights Templar Zombies
The fourth of the Blind Dead films from Spanish director Amando de Ossorio. The film, concerning Knights Templars who were blinded and have returned as zombies, have gained a modest cult
The Ghost Galleon (1974)
Blind Knights Templar Zombies
The third of the Blind Dead films about the zombies of blind Knights Templar. This is set aboard a ghost ship at sea and is said to have later influenced John Carpenter’s The Fog