1920 London (2016)
The Bollywood horror film is a rare and strange beast – what other horror film would you see that comes with song and dance numbers? This is a Bollywood possession film where, despite the use of local colour and custom, it is surprisingly still drawn from the cliches created by The Exorcist
1922 (2017)
A Stephen King adaptation, this is less the jumpshocks of It than a work of dark brooding psychology as a farmer contemplates the murder of his wife. Think Days of Heaven by way of Grant Wood’s American Gothic
1984 (1956)
The first film adaptation of the classic George Orwell dystopian work. The brilliance of the book only comes through in occasional moments but mostly the film befalls the leaden hand of director Michael Anderson
1984 (2023)
A new adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. In this case, the film was shot in Russia and imagines the world as a full-on dystopian future quite unlike any of the previous film versions
1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)
Italian exploitation film about gangs fighting in the ruins of a future New York. Enzo G. Catsellari has ripped off both Escape from New York and The Warriors
9 (2009)
Extraordinary animated film from Shane Acker concerning the lives of a series of stitchpunk dolls as they try to make sense of the world in the aftermath of civilisation
90210 Shark Attack (2014)
This has to be the single worst killer shark film ever made and quite possibly the worst film of the 2010s. A shark film set in a Beverly Hills mansion where the nearest body of water is a swimming pool and where the appearance of the shark will reduce you to tears of laughter
976-Evil (1988)
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
976-Evil II (1991)
Sequel to Robert Englund’s directorial debut about a demonic phone line, this is an almost entirely unrelated work about a killer with astral projection powers
A Name for Evil (1973)
Obscure almost interesting film where Robert Culp drops out of city life, renovates a possibly haunted house before being drawn into a surreal Free Love fantasia
A Nation Without Women (2003)
Indian film set in a future where female infanticide has become so widespread there are no longer any women. A fundamentally implausible idea is treated with some conviction
A Night in the Woods (2011)
The British equivalent of The Blair Witch Project, although this makes the title not strictly accurate – it should more correctly have been called A Night on the Moors. This conducts the build-up in an especially interesting way with much interplay between the trio of characters who all come holding secrets
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
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
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Yet another in the fad for 19870s/0s horror remakes, a merely efficient revival that reduces the wild, outré scares of Wes Craven’s original to conveyor belt shocks
A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors (1987)
The point where the A Nightmare on Elm Street series became what everyone remembers, where Robert Englund’s Freddy went from a boogeyman into the equivalent of Wile E. Coyote in a Road Runner cartoon, popping up like a malevolent jack-in-a-box to quip a one-liner and dispatch victims in a display of makeup effects virtuosity
A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master (1988)
Fourth of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Under Renny Harlin’s hand, the unworldly atmosphere of Wes Craven’s original is replaced by moments of incredible silliness
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
The first and worst of the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. The dream logic becomes incoherent, while the film is twisted out of shape to become a bizarre gay Coming Out parable
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)
The fifth of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films offers up the same old thing but director Stephen Hopkins enters at an inspired level that transforms the set-pieces with a genuine weirdness
A Nightmare Wakes (2020)
One of several films based on the famous writer’s workshop at Villa Diodati in 1816 and the meeting with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Dr Polidori that led to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein
A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990)
Despite one of the great exploitation titles of all time, this bikini clad babes vs dinosaurs after the apocalypse effort lacks the cheerful cynicism of other Troma films and is just cheap, dull and unwatchable on almost every level
Der Nachtmahr (2015)
This creates an intriguingly uncanny atmosphere in the story of a teenage girl who keeps seeing a strange goblin creature but nobody will believe her. The last half far less interestingly turns into a variant on E.T. with her racing to protect the creature
Nadja (1994)
Beautifully moody black-and-white vampire film from Michael Almereyda. A modernised reworking of Dracula’s Daughter
Nails (2017)
Film that takes place with the heroine confined to a hospital bed unable to move as a malevolent ghost enters her room
Naked (2017)
Comedic variant on Groundhog Day where Marlon Wayans wakes up naked in an elevator on his wedding and is forced to repeat the same hour over and over as he tries to get to the church.
Nang Nak (1999)
Beautifully made Thai film about a husband whose wife dies in childbirth but where he refuses to let go of her ghost
Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)
I never much cared for Nanny McPhee. This is a sequel that replicates the original in fairly much the same amount mix of plot elements, slapstick sequences and nonsensical absurdism
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Emma Thompson written and starring adaptation of a series of children’s books comes across as a lesser copy of Mary Poppins. A film that feels like it should have been more than it ends up being.
Nasty Rabbit (1964)
A legendarily awful spy movie where assorted characters run around a ranch in ethnic disguise trying to find a rabbit that contains a deadly virus
National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982)
Following the highly successful Animal House, this was the second of the films made using the name of the satirical magazine National Lampoon and is a feeble parody of the slasher film
National Lampoon’s Men in White (1998)
An excruciatingly unfunny spoof of Men in Black that was shoved out using the name of National Lampoon magazine. A painful viewing experience.
Natty Knocks (2023)
A Halloween horror from a director with a reasonable genre association, this establishes its genre bona fides but then shoots itself in the foot
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Oliver Stone film with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a couple on an ultra-violent mass murder spree. Stone gets heavy-handedly preachy but directs with an excess of style that proves enormously entertaining
Natural City (2003)
Wrongly referred to as an adaptation of the original Philip K. Dick’s
Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Hayao Miyazaki’s second film, a visually stunning work set in the aftermath of a holocaust. Miyazai’s frequent themes of pacifism and respect for the environment and run through building to a emotionally wrenching climax
Navy Seals vs Zombies (2015)
Surprisingly, about the only ‘vs’ titled zombie film to take itself seriously. I have no time for films about the glory of military heroism, where this has both feet firmly planted, but what must be commended is that it is one of the few films where the soldiers feel like an actual trained combat unit
Nazi Overlord (2018)
The Asylum’s mockbuster answer to the J.J. Abrams’ produced Overlord concerning GIs on a mission behind enemy lines encountering Nazi mad science. Passably well made for the most part
Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)
Hands down the best film ever produced by The Asylum. How could one not like an entertainingly madcap concoction that features mad scientists, zombie stormtroopers, Nazi UFOs and Adolf Hitler preserved as a head in a jar attached to a robot body?
Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love (1971)
In one’s efforts to track down all Edward D. Wood Jr’s films, one finally comes to Necromania, which was believed lost for many years … This turns out to be a pornographic film, consisting of little more than serial sex scenes, this far less interesting because it lacks all of Wood’s typical gaffes and ineptitudes
Necromentia (2009)
Drawing very clear influence from Clive Barker and Saw, this is a delve down into perverse fetish, gateways to Hell and bizarre hallucinations. After watching the film through twice, I still remain confused to what it was all about
Necronomicon (1993)
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
Necronos (2010)
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
Necropolis (1987)
Ridiculous cheap 1980s video release about a witch burned at the stake returned as a New Wave punkette to claims souls
Needful Things (1993)
Anodyne adaptation of a weaker Stephen king novel about a curio shop that sells objects that cause people to become obsessed and in so doing wreaks havoc throughout a small town
Needle in a Timestack (2021)
Solid time travel film about a man who struggles to find a way back to his love as her ex keeps changing the timeline so she doesn’t leave him
Nefarious (2023)
A psychologist is sent in to interview a killer facing execution who makes the claim he is possessed by a demon. Despite being made by the people behind God’s Not Dead, this is actually a well-made and captivating film
Neil (2005)
Film that assembles interesting a number of SF elements and twists but is killed by its delivery as a pretentious indie film
NEKRomantik (1987)
From German director Jörg Buttgereit, a shocking and full-on film about necrophilia that defies all taboos and holds little back. This has a raw, in our face shock value that hits direct to the gut
NEKRomantik 2 (1991)
Jörg Buttgereit’s sequel to his shocking necrophilia film
Nekrotronic (2018)
The second film from the director of Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead about demon hunters. A great deal has been expanded on the creature effects and in building the film’s mythology.
Nemesis (1993)
Albert Pyun’s finest film. It is another of his standard killer cyborg films but comes with an often hauntingly written gritty Cyberpunk edge that makes it quite unique
Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995)
The first of several sequels Albert Pyun made to Nemesis. This copies The Terminator with bodybuilder Sue Price being pursued through East Africa by killer androids
Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (1995)
The third of Albert Pyun’s Nemesis films about time-travelling cyborgs – not much plot just action scenes and some moments of undeniable strangeness
Nemesis 4: Death Angel (1996)
Another of the string of cyborg action films that low-budget director Albert Pyun made in the 1990s. This has a head-scratching fascination, featuring very weird cyborg sex scenes, the unearthly bodybuilder heroine Sue Price and a series of strange philosophical ruminations
Nemesis Game (2003)
Frustratingly enigmatic film where student Carly Pope is drawn into a game of mysterious clues where people are being killed
Neon Maniacs (1986)
Very typical 1980s horror film steeped in an enthusiasm for the genre that makes a beeline for cheesy mutant monster effects
Nerve (2016)
This is like an online version of 13 Sins about an internet site that pushes people to take increasingly more outrageous and eventually deadly dares. One of the new thrillers centred around social media that seeks to adopt its visual look, this is slickly polished and aimed direct to the teenage demographic
Netherworld (1992)
One of the better films from Charles Band’s Full Moon Productions set amid voodoo rites in the American South and creating an atmosphere of exotic/erotic mystery
Never Let Go (2024)
Alexandre Aja film with Halle Berry and sons at a cabin in the woods facing an evil force outside. A work that screws with what we think is going on
Never Let Me Go (2010)
This has a similar scenario to Michael Bay’s The Island but also at 180 degree remove – where Bay was loud and bludgeoning, this approaches the idea as a subtle British childhood pastoral
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Rogue James Bond film made outside the regular series due to a complicated copyright battle. Sean Connery was inveigled back the role and this has some standout casting that is a welcome relief from the unserious Roger Moore films
Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
Tawdry erotic thriller copy of Basic Instinct Rebecca De Mornay is drawn in by possible stalker Antonio Banderas
Never Too Young to Die (1986)
Completely insane 1980s spy film – a madcap mahsup of elements including James Bond gadgetry, mad scientists, action and splatter served up with not a shred of realism. The crowning glory is a completely OTT Gene Simmons as a cross-dressing super-villain
Neverlake (2013)
Italian-made film centred around a haunted lake that sits just between earnest amateurism and promising ambition. Features a range of mysterious happenings that you leave you for some time wondering what is going on before these are pulled together in a surprise ending
Neverland (2011)
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
New Alcatraz (2002)
Gimmicky B-budget film about a hi-tech future prison, which has been thrown together with a giant snake amok plot. A passably routine effort (*)
New Dragon Gate Inn (1992)
A classic Wu Xia/flying swordsman film from the genre’s 1990s’ heyday, a remake of one of the earlier foundational hits of the genre. Produced by the legendary Tsui Hark
New Eden (1994)
SF film with Stephen Baldwin sentenced to life on a prison planet where he becomes saviour to a small peaceful community
New Moon (2009)
The second of the Twilight films where the moderately grounded original is blown up into the near laughable with the ridiculously over-the-top hyper-sexualised posturing of its male leads
New Rose Hotel (1998)
Abel Ferrara adapts a William Gibson short story but seems disinterested in Gibson’s densely cluttered, technologically brimming Cyberpunk futures and strips the essence down to a caper film
New Year’s Evil (1981)
Slasher film made by Cannon Films that uses its title holiday date with some ingenuity – the killer kills someone on the hour of midnight across each of the US time zones – but is otherwise routine
New York Stories (1989)
Anthology where directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen each contribute an episode set in New York. Allen’s contribution in which a magician’s trick manifests a giant nagging mother in the sky is side-splitting
Next (2007)
This adapts a Philip K. Dick story and then throws it out to make a generic action film with Nicolas Cage as a psychic. All the potential of its idea is lost amid a series of ridiculous plot twists
Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)
Whose bright idea was it to give us kid versions of The Avengers (ostensibly their children)? While Marvel have had an unparallelled string of hits on the big screen in the 00s, their attempts to replicate the successes that rival DC have had in animation have been a dismal failure
Next Door (2005)
Brilliantly twisted Norwegian film in the vein of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and The Tenant about a man whose dealings with two girls living in the apartment next door starts blurring and shifting into some genuinely surreal and out there, not to mention perverse, territory
Next of Kin (1982)
A stylishly directed Australian psycho-thriller about Jackie Kerin who inherits a retirement home and takes it over only to find that someone is killing the seniors
Nice Girls Don’t Explode (1987)
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
Nick Fury, Agent of Shield (1998)
Way back before Marvel Comics’ extraordinary domination of cinema screens and Samuel L. Jackson’s airing of the role, there was this tv pilot with David Hasselhoff; Although the film has a ridiculed reputation today, David S. Goyer delivers a tongue-in-cheek script filled with side-splitting one-liners
Night Angel (1990)
Erotic horror as the demon Lilith attempts to take over a fashion magazine
Night at the Museum (2006)
Popular family hit with Ben Stiller as a night watchman at New York’s Museum of Natural History who discovers that the exhibits come to life at night. More a cute idea than a full film, there is some fun to the characters and effects
Night at the Museum 2 (2009)
Sequel to the Ben Stiller hit offers more of the same with a bigger museum and more exhibits come to life but little else
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
The third entry in a franchise that seems to be stretching to find anything to do with its premise beyond the first film. Everyone involved seems to have only turned up to collect a paycheque and be going through the motions in a show that entirely coasts by solely on your familiarity with the characters
Night Fright (1967)
An incredibly dreary film about an alien monster menacing a small town. The alien invasion cinema equivalent of watching paint dry. Unseen during its original release, it was then resurrected in the VHS era as an E.T. copy called E.T.n – The Extra-Terrestrial Nasty
Night Game (1989)
Police procedural with Roy Scheider as a detective tracking a serial killer who strikes on the nights of big baseball games
Night Hair Child (1972)
Quite a perversely charged film about a psychopathic child with voyeuristic tendencies
Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
A classic work of Film Noir adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel featuring Edward G. Robinson as a stage mentalist who suddenly finds he can predict the future for real
Night Hunter (1996)
Low-budget action film with Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson hunting vampires. Routine as both action and vampire film.
Night in Paradise (1946)
Overblown production featuring Turhan Bey as the storyteller Aesop engaged in a romantic adventure
Night Life (1989)
Teen horror variant on the zombie film. Scott Grimes gets a job at his uncle’s morgue only for a lightning bolt to revive his school bullies as zombies.
Night Life of the Gods (1935)
A 1930s screwball comedy about the invention of a ray that can petrify people that is then used to bring statues of Greek gods to life
Night Monster (1942)
Entertaining and quite well made potboiler with Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill skulking around a big old mansion as someone or thing starts killing people off
Night Must Fall (1937)
Gripping psychological thriller in which a niece suspects that Robert Montgomery who has charmed her aunt may be a psychopathic killer
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
This was the second and better of the films spun off from tv’s Dark Shadows (back before Tim Burton wrecked everything). At last the show gets production values and atmosphere that do it justice, although the major minus is that the series cult figure of Barnabas Collins does not feature this time
Night of Fear (1972)
Underrated Australian horror film that prefigures The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in its dialogueless story of a woman attacked and imprisoned by a mad farmer. Directed with considerable all-out effect
Night of Something Strange (2016)
Film about a zombie-creating sexually transmitted disease that feels like it was made by a bunch of drunken adolescents trying to out-gross each other after an all-weekend beer party. A film that is readily ventures into bad taste and is prepared to offend
Night of the Animated Dead (2021)
A remake of the original zombie film Night of the Living Dead conducted in animation
Night of the Big Heat (1967)
One of a trilogy of SF films made by Hammer director Terence Fisher during the mid-1960s, none of which have a very good reputation. This is an alien invasion film but Fisher fails to create the paranoid atmosphere of the better US counterparts of this period
Night of the Blood Beast (1958)
Roger Corman’s brother produces a low-budget film that borrows a few leafs from The Quatermass Xperiment in its story of an astronaut who returns having been resurrected from the dead by alien invaders.
Night of the Bloody Apes (1969)
A Mexican entry about a scientist who turns his son into an ape man that goes amok. Little more than a 1940s mad scientist film with the addition of modern exploitation elements. Listed as a Video Nasty in the UK.
Night of the Comet (1984)
This has the amusing idea of casting a Last People on Earth film with two Valley Girls. This starts well but the film seems to run out of steam halfway through
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Alien body snatchers comedy that feels less like a film than an extended fanboy in-joke