The Frontrooms (2024)
This would seem to be a mockbuster of the Backrooms viral video phenomenon (made before the movie came out) about someone whose office is displaced into another dimension
The Dog Stars (2026)
This post-apocalyptic work from Ridley Scott received a mixed reception but is not unworthwhile. Despite the familiarity of elements, Scott has a strong cast that make the film welcoming
Insidious: Out of the Further (2026)
The sixth of the Insidious films where Blumhouse, James Wan, Lin Shaye et al churn out another entry. However, the entry of new director Jacob Chase into the franchise breathes new life into the tired material
Tooth Fairy (2019)
One of several films based on children’s stories and figures from the people behind the Winnie-the-Pooh horror films, an earlier work about a malevolent Tooth Fairy. Several sequels followed
Beyond Atlantis (1973)
This was one of the films from the classic era of the Filipino exploitation industry. This is an adventure film where treasure hunters discover the modern-day whereabouts of Atlantis
Snuff-Movie (2005)
The director of the original Candyman and the underrated Paperhouse returns with a film about a film director recruiting actors and setting out restage a snuff movie retelling of a cult murder
Blue World Order (2017)
An Australian post-apocalyptic action film that is far from being another Mad Max 2. This bizarrely features people being turned into pacifist zombies by a virus that is controlled by cell towers
Occupation (2018)
An Australian alien invasion film that feels like Independence Day reconceived by way of Red Dawn with a group of people in the wild forming a guerrilla campaign to fight back against the invaders
Rose of Nevada (2025)
Two men sign on as crew on a fishing boat but when they return to port find they have been timeslipped thirty years into the past. Made by a director who loves to fill a film with enigmatic questions
The Beast of Mossy Bottom (2026)
The third of the Shaun the Sheep movies from Aardman Animation. More of Aardman’s appealingly nonsensical silliness, all with a Halloween theme and many references to genre cinema
V/H/S/Halloween (2025)
The eight in the series of Found Footage horror anthologies. The previous entry was one of the best of the series, but this is a much more mixed bag of uneven episodes
The Legend of Halloween Jack (2018)
A film from British director Andrew Jones where a killer murdered by a vigilante mob is resurrected from the grave on Halloween as the vengeful figure of Halloween Jack
Killer Witches from Outer Space (2024)
An alien invasion film with an attention-grabbing title wherein a town is invaded by alien witches at Halloween. When seen however, the title proves to be a big bait and switch cheat
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead (2025)
An R.L. Stine adaptation about a town where children are sacrificed and turned into pumpkins. It is interesting to see Celtic Folk Horror dragged down to the level of a children’s film
Terrifier 2 (2022)
The killer clown film Terrifier was a bloody and edgy film that proved a modest hit. The character of Art the Clown was then brought back for two sequels beginning here
I Am Frankelda (2025)
The first stop-motion animated film from Mexico, a film that arrives in an amazing burst of colour and creativity set in the imagination of a girl who writes horror stories
Carrie (2026)
Mike Flanagan takes on Stephen King’s first novel as an eight-episode mini-series, while adding a series of modernisations that reinvent the story in some fascinating new ways
Practical Magic 2 (2026)
Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sister witches was fairly mediocre in all regards. Nearly thirty years later, the principals have reunited for a sequel
Zipperface (1992)
An erotic thriller that just predates Basic Instinct with a woman detective tracing a killer who wears a full leather body suit and gimp mask who is killing prostitutes
They’re Playing With Fire (1984)
This starts as an erotic thriller where a nerdy teen is seduced by his teacher, cult queen Sybil Danning, before everything takes an abrupt dogleg turn to become a psycho film
Here Comes the Devil (2012)
A fascinating film that heads into some dark places, set in Mexico as two parents become concerned when their two children go missing and then return from a cave strangely changed
Insect (2018)
Czech director Jan Svankmajer makes a film about actors rehearsing a play in which they play insects but keep turning into them, before the film becomes a meta-fiction about Svankmajer making the film
Operation Undead (2024)
An evocative zombie film from Thailand set during World War II as Thai soldiers are turned into zombies by Japanese experiments but then conduct an uprising against the occupation
Passenger (2026)
The director of The Troll Hunter makes a film about a couple living in a van who are targeted by a demonic entity that pursues travellers on the backroads
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)
The fourth of the Tom Holland Spider-Man films where fully half the film now consists of sorting out continuity corners that the previous films had painted the series into
Unabomber (2026)
A true crime film based on the Unabomber Ted Kaczyinski. Armed with a high-profile cast, this purports to tell the facts but wildly distorts the facts of what happened to make up its own story
Bowery to Bagdad (1954)
The comedy team of the Bowery Boys jump aboard the popular 1940s fad for Arabian Nights fantasies in a series of snappy shenanigans centred about a magic lamp and genie
The Brass Bottle (1964)
A broad comedy in which Tony Randall summons a genie from the titular brass bottle only for the wishes he makes to cause havoc in his life with their unintended consequences
Deadline (1980)
Canadian horror film with overtones of The Shining where a horror writer starts to write his masterpiece but delves down into obsession. This is interspersed with some quite out there horror scenes that he dreams up
Marebito – The Stranger from Afar (2004)
An eerie and quite surreal film from Takashi Shimizu of Ju-on/The Grudge fame about the discovery of a mysterious underground world and an even more mysterious vampire-like woman
Home Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025)
A film of massively exciting potential about a city overrun by supernatural forces where a lone hero must make it through a realm of demons to save everybody. Directed by two visual effects people
Signal One (2026)
A film that has clearly done some scientific reading about the construction of a device to detect quantum communications from the rest of the universe. And what happens once scientists broadcast back
Coyote vs. Acme (2026)
After much controversy about being shelved and written off as a tax loss by the studio, this emerges as a perfectly enjoyable toon film in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Boorman and The Devil (2025)
Exorcist II: The Heretic has a legendary reputation as the worst sequel of all time. This is a documentary that tracks down what happened and the hilarious behind the scenes disasters
Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (2008)
The X from Outer Space was a Japanese monster movie that featured possibly the most ridiculous movie monster ever created. For some reason, this is sequel that is now played as a comedy
Uncle Was a Vampire (1959)
Immediately after his success as Dracula, Christopher Lee was imported to Italy to appear as second fiddle to an Italian comic where he is cast as Dracula in all but name
Rabid Grannies (1988)
A Belgian horror comedy about two elderly women who become possessed (as opposed to rabid). This was brought up by Troma and released with a deliberately ridiculous title
Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025)
In recent years, South Korea has taken up the possession and exorcism film. This concerns itself with a team of demon hunters who are forced to exorcise a girl
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman (2023)
South Korean film about a confidence trickster who fakes exorcisms for money who then has to deal with a real sorcerer who has a town under his thrall. Based on a popular Korean webtoon
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (2025)
Spinoff of a comedy tv series about an inept band trying to land a gig, this is a Found Footage film that winds in a time travel plot that amusingly homages Back to the Future
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026)
Another in Ryan Murphy’s True Crime series profiling the lives of killers. This elaborates out and sometimes outrightly fictionalises the life of Lizzie Borden but makes for gripping viewing
Ice Cream Man (2026)
An Eli Roth film concerning an ice cream man whose products turns children murderous. Roth approaches the idea of children killing adults with a gleeful excess that is positively fiendish
Frankenstein (2007)
From Jed Mercurio, the creator of tv’s hit tv show Line of Duty, a modernised retelling of the Frankenstein story. With Helen McCrory playing a female Dr Frankenstein
Frankenstein 90 (1984)
A French modernised retelling of the Frankenstein story. This comes with the influence of Young Frankenstein but seems undecided whether it wants to be a comedy or not
Beyond the Stars (1989)
A largely forgotten 1980s Coming of Age film where parentally defiant teenager Christian Slater befriends burned out NASA astronaut Martin Sheen. Featuring an impressive name cast
The Bell from Hell (1973)
A film that has gained a small cult in part due to the death of its director on the last day of shooting. This is a work of atmospheric Euro Gothic about a troubled man seeking revenge for being placed in an asylum
Jimmy and Stiggs (2024)
A completely deranged film shot by director Joe Begos during Covid lockdown, where two friends consume vast quantities of drugs and alcohol to fight off an alien invasion inside their home
Momo (2025)
Adapted from a book by German author Michael Ende, who wrote The Neverending Story. This is a children’s allegory about beings come to steal time and make people obsessed with efficiency
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
Jane Schoenbrun conducts a meta-fictional take on the slasher film, one steeped in more homages, ideas and metaphors than you can necessarily absorb in a single viewing
The End of Oak Street (2026)
This comes with an appealing premise where a suburb is transported back in time to prehistory and the residents suddenly find the street and their homes overrun by dinosaurs
Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (1991)
The Curse films were a wholly manufactured series having nothing at all in common except some gooey makeup effects. Here a pregnant Jenilee Harrison is recipient of a witch doctor’s curse
SS Hell Camp (1977)
Another of the notorious Nazisploitation films, featuring a seductive woman Nazi mad scientist who creates inventive tortures and a subhuman beast who ravages prisoners
Spaceways (1953)
One of the early works from Hammer Films and director Terence Fisher. A murder mystery set around the launch of a space rocket where a scientist is disposing of his wife and her lover by launching them into orbit
The Painted (2024)
Another haunted house film – this comes with the intriguing idea where spirits are trapped inside the paintings on the wall that come to life
The Small Hand: A Ghost Story (2019)
A haunted house film where Douglas Henshall buys a big decaying mansion in Scotland only to encounter spooky happenings. Adapted from a book by the author of The Woman in Black
Do Not Enter (2026)
Film about urbex explorers venturing into an abandoned hotel and encountering something lurking. Made with a decent budget. The surprise name on the credits is that it is based on a book by the creator of Rambo
Moana (2026)
I was not a fan of the animated Moana. The Disney’s live-action version grinds its way on and here offers up an exacting shot-for-shot remake, which actually works more enjoyably than the original
One Night Only (2026)
A romantic comedy with a ridiculously implausible premise – set in a dystopia where premarital sex is outlawed except for one night a year. We follow two people as they try to hook up
Demon Cop (1990)
An incredibly bad film. Symptomatic of this is the fact there is no actual demon cop in the film but then I suppose demon probation officer doesn’t make for a very catchy title
The Inhabitant (2022)
From the director of Stay Out of the Fucking Attic, a film where Odessa A’zion plays a troubled teenage girl who may be being driven to murder by the spirit of Lizzie Borden
The Werewolf and the Yeti (1975)
This was the seventh of the films where Spanish horror star Paul Naschy played the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky in a plot that takes him to the Himalayas and pits him up against the Yeti
Mr Pye (1986)
In this charming tv adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s book, mild-mannered Derek Jacobi grows angel wings after doing good deeds and turns to mischief to find he is growing devil horns
River of Blood (2024)
A group of Westerners on a kayaking expedition in Southeast Asia are captured by a cannibal tribe. A revival of the cannibal film that lacks anything of the extremes of the Italian genre of the 1970s/80s
Universal (2025)
A film that takes place in a cabin with a cast of three and yet manages to reach for epic-sized ideas. This is proof that great things can be conducted without the need for massive budgets
They Will Kill You (2026)
This is a film best watched knowing nothing at all about it. It leads you to expect one thing then suddenly explodes out into something completely unexpected and the most insane film you will ever see
Marama (2025)
A horror film that draws on New Zealand’s Māori culture. Drenched in superbly brooding Gothic atmosphere, this concerns a Māori girl who travels to England and find what happened to her family
Homo Erectus (2007)
Released under the National Lampoon banner, this is a prehistoric comedy – one that comes with a really goofy sense of humour and is not afraid to get crude and raunchy
Deep Crimson (1996)
Another film based on the true story of the Martha Beck-Raymond Fernandez Lonely Hearts killers, previously unforgettably told in The Honeymoon Killers. Here the story has been transplanted to Mexico
Nightfall (1988)
Isaac Asimov’s Nightfall where a planet experiences nightfall only once every two thousand years is considered the greatest SF short story of all time. This was a film adaptation produced under Roger Corman
Sky Monster (2023)
A film that describes itself perfectly in the title and poster, concerning five girls in a plane that is menaced by a tentacle monster in the clouds. This channels the essence of The Twilight Zone’s Nightmare at 20000 Feet
Monster on a Plane (2024)
A couple of years before this, Germany made the standout Blood Red Sky about vampires loose on a plane. Conceived in a similar vein, this is an hilariously bad German film about a monster loose on a plane
Alpha (2025)
Julia Ducournau, who made transgressive, out there films like Raw and Titane, returns with a film about a strange infection that causes people to calcify
Cape Fear (2026)
Both of the previous versions of Cape Fear are classic works about an ex-con taking revenge on his lawyer. This is a mini-series that extrudes the story to ten episodes of ridiculous gaslighting and revenge schemes
Batman Knightfall – Part 1: Knightfall (2026)
The DC Universe Original Animated Movies return to considerable strength with the first of a three-part adaptation of one of the classic Batman comic event storylines
The Naked Witch (1964)
This was the first film from ultra low-budget director Larry Buchanan, a nudie about a witch burned at the stake who rises to seek vengeance against the descendants of her persecutors
Indecent Desires (1968)
Doris Wishman has become celebrated for her work in nudies – tamer films made before the arrival of the porn film. This concerns a creepy guy who finds a doll that he can use to make women undress
Vash (2023)
One of the best Indian-made horror films. A standout work about a mysterious stranger who enters a family household and exerts sinister control over the daughter
Aces Go Places III: Our Man from Bond Street (1984)
Third entry in the madcap Aces Go Places series of caper comedies, the action scenes go through the roof, while there are a lot of cameos of actors from and parodies of the James Bond films. Directed by the legendary Tsui Hark
Chiller (1985)
One of the lesser known works from Wes Craven, a made-for-tv movie where Michael Beck is awakened from a cryogenic suspension but comes back to life without a soul
Kraken (2026)
A Norwegian monster movie where environmental tinkering in a fjord awakens a vast kraken monster. A solid and satisfying monster movies featuring some epic-sized visual effects
Kraken (2025)
A Russian film in which a submarine crew on a rescue mission encounter a giant kraken. This is a surprisingly good submarine drama with tight and well-polished dramatic tensions
Toy Story 5 (2026)
It does seem precious the world’s leading computer animation company making a film about reliance on e-devices. Nevertheless, Pixar manages to wring something new out of the Toy Story franchise
Pinocchio Unstrung (2026)
From the people who made Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, another horror version of a children’s story. Here Pinocchio eviscerates human organs in order make himself into a real boy
Knife Edge (2009)
Anthony Hickox made his name with a series of horror films in the 1980s such as Waxwork, Hellraiser III and Warlock: The Armageddon. This is a ghost story that was one of his last films
A Dead Calling (2006)
From director Michael Feifer who usually specialises in low-budget true crime films, this a formulaic haunted house film, one of a deluge of such that appeared in the 2000s
More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead (2011)
Return of the Living Dead is regarded as a classic zombie comedy. This is a documentary about the making of it that interviews most of the cast and crew
Chopping Mall (1986)
Jim Wynorski is a B-budget hack who makes a lot of films obsessed with large-breasted women. His second film here was an enjoyable low-budget one about the security robots in a mall going amok
The Amazing Mr Blunden (2021)
The 1972 The Amazing Mr Blunden is a children’s ghost story that has gained a cult reputation. Here actor/writer Mark Gatiss conducts a remake
Skate to Hell (2026)
An ineptly made film about the Devil’s son who loses his skateboard, which is found by assorted people who use it to travel to Hell and back. This is pitifully made on every level
Minions & Monsters (2026)
This is the third of the Minions films where they are placed in the setting of silent Hollywood, which comes with a number of classic movie jokes amid all their usual manic antics
The Last House (2026)
A real head-scratcher where all of humanity suddenly find that they are trapped inside their houses and cannot get out. While outside there lurk sea monsters!
Bane (2008)
Four girls come around imprisoned in a mysterious facility with amnesia to find they are being subject to mysterious experiments. Not to be confused with the DC Comics super-villain
Double Blind (2023)
Ireland has been producing a strong body of horror films in recent years. This concerns drug experiments that force a group of subjects to stay awake – just as things start to go wrong
Hanger (2009)
The films of makeup effects artist Ryan Nicholson revel in a sordid bad taste. This is a fairly extreme work about a coat hanger abortion child who grows up seeking revenge
City Beneath the Sea (1971)
Irwin Allen offers a variant on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in this film about an underwater city. A tv pilot that was foisted onto international audiences in theatres after it failed to be picked up as a series
Hellmouth (2014)
Visually extraordinary film where Stephen McHattie takes a job as the keeper of a cemetery on the edge of the netherworld. Shot with a visual scheme unlike anything you have seen before
Caddo Lake (2024)
Film about the disappearance of a girl in a lakeside community, this unexpectedly builds out with a considerable conceptual dexterity into something else altogether
Supergirl (2026)
Companion piece of James Gunn’s Superman, this met a very mixed reception. Part of its problem is that it wants to create a cynical version of the virtuous Supergirl we are familiar with and trash her image
Evil Dead Burn (2026)
The sixth film in The Evil Dead franchise. Unlike the terminal lameness of other recent 80s franchise revivals like Halloween and Scream, this floors it and goes full tilt with an exhaustingly brutal enthusiasm
Legend of the Naga Pearls (2017)
A Chinese-made Wu Xia film about a roguish thief hero on a quest for a set of magical pearls also sought so that the Winged People can regain the power of flight