1, 2, 3, Whiteout: The End of the Light Age (2007)
Baffling SF film that lacks anything resembling a plot and seems mostly an experimental film about showing pretty light patterns
100 Bloody Acres (2012)
An Australian Backwoods Brutality comedy, which amusingly inverts the genre’s clichés, not dissimilar to Tucker and Dale vs Evil
100 Feet (2008)
This lifts the premise of Disturbia – protagonist confined to home detention with an ankle bracelet and spies a killer next door – but rather effectively turns around to ask what would happen if the space they were confined in also happened to be haunted
100 Million BC (2008)
An Asylum mockbuster released at the same time as Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 B.C., this involves time travel mission into the prehistoric past that accidentally brings a dinosaur back to the present
100° Below 0 (2013)
Syfy Channel disaster movie about a mass volcanic eruption plunging Europe into an instant Ice Age. All the usual potted formulaic drama and cheap effects – the absurdity of the film is surely demonstrated by the fact that people wander about in the midst of -100 degree temperatures in t-shirts
101 Dalmatians (1996)
This live-action remake of the classic Disney animated film benefits from Glenn Close chewing scenery in grand style as Cruella De Ville but the latter half essentially degenerates into no more than a series of Home Alone-styled slapstick violence scenes
102 Dalmatians (2000)
Sequel to the live-action 101 Dalmatians remake that brings back Glenn Close as Cruella DeVil and proves a far more enjoyable film that its predecessor
1BR (2019)
A girl moves into a new and welcoming apartment complex only to be imprisoned and tortured by her neighbours into following the code of moral precepts by which they live
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961)
Famous short film adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story that patented the twist ending in which someone discovers that have been dead all along
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
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
O Lucky Man! (1973)
The second of Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm’s McDowell’s social satires with coffee salesman McDowell passing through increasingly more surreal adventures
Oasis of the Zombies (1981)
One of the original Nazi zombies films with zombies protecting an oasis that hides a gold treasure. This was made by prolific exploitation director Jess Franco meaning that much of the film’s potential is drowned in cheap production values and bad dubbing
Oblivion (1994)
One of the best films from Full Moon Productions that locates a Western on another planet and manages a perfectly pitched homage to either genre
Oblivion (2013)
This falls short of being a great science-fiction film by a hairs breadth. Not the big space/action film it was sold as, more a Philip K. Dickian conceptual breakthrough film that seems to have borrowed large chunks of its set-up from Moon
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (2009)
Exquisitely lovely anime set in a world of creatures that live on scavenged human junk. If in the end, the heroine’s allegorical quest is on the generic side, the film captivates you with the richness of colour and detail that has gone into imagining its world
Observance (2015)
A man surveilling a woman finds strange goings-on and becomes infected by something. This is essentially Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation played as a horror film; alas, while this does a fine job in the build-up, it lacks a third act that explains anything at all
Obsession (1976)
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
Oceans Rising (2017)
Disaster movie from The Asylum set around global warming. Notable for two things – the wackiness of the scientist’s scheme to save the planet by creating black holes, and the cheapness of the production, which does almost everything it can to avoid effects shots
Octaman (1971)
A monster movie from the screenwriter of The Creature from the Black Lagoon that should have a place in any list of bad movies
Octane (2003)
Thriller where Madeleine Stowe’s daughter is abducted by a blood drinking cult while on a road trip
October 32nd (1992)
Cheap and tatty variant on the Arthurian legends with people trying to prevent a reincarnated sorcerer obtaining Excalibur
Octopus (2000)
B-budget mix of giant animal film and submarine drama with impoverished effects and a script only notable for its ludicrous improbabilities
Octopus II (2001)
Sequel to the ridiculous Octopus, this is slightly less cheap but no less absurd in its premise of a giant octopus attacking New York
Octopussy (1983)
The thirteenth James Bond film. the fifth for Roger Moore. While the preceding entry had tried to trim back the cartoonish excesses of the Moore era, it is back to business as usual here. The film frequently feels divorced from the remotest shred of realism
Oculus (2013)
A couple of years ago, the hauntingly eerie Absentia made Mike Flanagan into a must-watch director; this is his follow-up – the story of an evil mirror that, while slightly the lesser of Absentia, conducts some undeniably effective games of reality and illusion
Odd Thomas (2013)
At first glance, Stephen Sommers and Dean R. Koontz seem strange bedfellows, but oddly enough it works – Koontz gives Sommers more story than he is used to working with and surprisingly it is the likeable characters and mind-boggling quirks of plot at the forefront rather than Sommers’ usual CGI bombast
Oddity (2024)
An Irish film that develops an incredibly uncanny atmosphere as a blind clairvoyant deduces what happened regarding her sister’s murder
Oddity (2024)
An Irish film that develops an incredibly uncanny atmosphere as a blind clairvoyant deduces what happened regarding her sister’s murder
Odysseus and the Isle of the Mists (2008)
Supposedly an adventure based on an untold story from The Odyssey, an entry among the fantasy adventure films made for cable filler in the 2000s
Of Love and Other Demons (2010)
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
Of Unknown Origin (1983)
Underrated film with Peter Weller as a Wall Street banker who has his life overturned in trying to deal with a tenacious, hyper-intelligent rat that invades his home
Off Season (2021)
From the increasingly underrated Mickey Keating, a film about a ghostly small town where Keating creates an incredibly eerie and haunted atmosphere
Officer Downe (2016)
Comic-book adaptation about a cop that is resurrected from the dead to take on the toughest assignments. Feels like a throwback to an 80s film like Maniac Cop or Dead Heat where the film is killed by the tiresomely cliched appropriation of the faux grindhouse aesthetic
Offspring (2009)
Strong and at times quite brutal film about a feral cannibal family. The controversial The Woman was a better-known sequel
Ogre (2008)
A Syfy Channel film about the present-day discovery of a lost, still extant 19th Century village that has conducted a deal to preserve themselves by annually sacrificing someone to an ogre
Oh God Book II (1980)
Sequel to Oh, God, this brings back George Burns as God but pairs him with a cute kid
Oh Heavenly Dog (1980)
Lame comedy with Chevy Chase as a private detective who is killed and then reincarnated in the body of a dog (played by Benji)
Oh, God! (1977)
Amiable and quite likeable light fantasy in which supermarket manager John Denver receives a visit from God in the person of George Burns. This throws barbs in the direction of organised religion but in a way intended not to offend anybody
Oily Maniac (1976)
Outrageously whacked Hong Kong film that prefigures The Toxic Avenger in having a downtrodden hero jump into a pool of oil and emerge as an avenging superhero made of oil. Crudely made and pitched, the film’s novelty all lies in the bizarreness of its title character
OK Connery (1967)
With the success of the James Bond films in the 1960s, someone had the idea of casting Sean Connery’s younger brother Neil in a spy film
Okja (2017)
Boon Jong Ho’s version of E.T., albeit one where E.T. is a genetically-engineered pig the size of an SUV, not to mention one with an oddball sense of humour that it is hard to imagine being enjoyed by young age groups
Old (2021)
M. Night Shyamalan gets more of a bad rap than he is due. I am happy to argue that this, which is set around a beach where people rapidly age, is one of his best films to date
Old Man (2022)
Lucky McKee, director of May and The Woman, makes a film about two men meeting at a cabin in the woods where secrets emerge amid psychological tensions between the two
Old People (2022)
German film in which the elderly abruptly turn and begin attacking the young en masse
Oldboy (2003)
Electrifyingly ultra-violent film from Park Chan-wook who ably borrows from Takashi Miike. The film equally becomes a conceptual twister as the protagonist is forced to go on a reality-bending quest through his own life.
Oldboy (2013)
Spike Lee’s English-language remake of Oldboy is an abortion. Where Park Chan-Wook directed the original with an insane energy, whereas Lee only delivers a formula action film and fumbles the ending
Older Gods (2023)
An original work that conjures a fantastic sense of ominous Lovecraftian cosmic horror as a man is haunted by a cult whose purpose is to wake a slumbering deity that is dreaming all of reality
Oliver & Company (1988)
One of the more forgettable Disney animated film of the 1970s/80s lull, this draws heavily on Lady and the Tramp for a talking animals retelling of Oliver Twist
Olivier, Olivier (1992)
Agnieszka Holland drama about the sudden return of a boy who went missing several years earlier, although may well be an impostor. Contains minor fantasy elements
Omega Cop (1990)
A low-budget post-apocalyptic action film featuring the almost completely forgotten martial arts and (non)-actor Ron Marchini who must venture out into the ruined city to rescue three girls
Omega Doom (1996)
Albert Pyun cheapie in which the plot of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo is relocated to a post-apocalyptic setting and cast with androids
Ominous (2015)
Another of the films with sinister-sounding adjectives that sprung up in the wake of Insidious, this is actually a cut price copy of The Omen about a child resurrected from the dead who causes a series of deaths to all around him. Some amusing novelty deaths but nothing special
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
Romantic musical in Barbra Steisand discovers psychic powers and her reincarnated past lives. Despite being a flop, this is a film of oddball charms and features an effervescent Stresiand
On Borrowed Time (1939)
Unique light fantasy film in which aging Lionel Barrymore manages to imprison Death in a tree in his backyard
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
The sixth James Bond film where Sean Connery was replaced by Australian model George Lazenby who had never acted before. Lazenby is a disliked Bond but that tends does stand in the way of the fact that this is a fine character-driven Bond film with some of the best action sequences of the series
On the Beach (1959)
The first major film confronting nuclear war full on with the world’s last survivors gathered in Australia. Slightly ponderous today but nevertheless full of potent imagery
On the Beach (2000)
TV mini-series remake of the 1959 nuclear war film. With no longer the need to make messages as in the original, the story has been expanded out with a lush romantic sweep
On the Comet (1970)
I have raved elsewhere about Czech director Karel Zeman and his amazing blends of live-action and animation. This, his adaptation of a lesser-known Jules Verne work, is not quite up there with his earlier films but is an enjoyably colourful knockabout adventure
On the Nose (2001)
Irish-made comedy with Robbie Coltrane who has a Aborigine head in a jar that can predict horse races
On the Silver Globe (1988)
Andrzej Zulawski, known for the demented Possession, makes an SF film about planetary colonisation. The spirit of Andrei Tarkovsky hangs over the film, which is long and philosophically rambling. What you cannot deny is the film’s epic scope and the mad splendour of Zulawski’s visuals
Once Bitten (1985)
One of several vampire comedies that came out in the 1980s , an unfunny effort with a young unknown Jim Carrey as a teen looking to lose his virginity being seduced by vampire countess Lauren Hutton
Once Upon a Crime (2023)
A very strange Japanese-made blend of fairytale and detective story that takes place in the realm of fairytale where Little Red Riding Hood turns detective to solve a murder at Cinderella’s ball
Once Upon a Forest (1993)
Appealing animated film with an environmentalist theme where four young orphan animals go on a quest to save their woods
Once Upon a Mattress (2005)
Disastrous tv movie version of the classic musical based on The Princess and the Pea
Ondine (2009)
Neil Jordan directs a beautifully earthy Irish fairytale in which Colin Farrell fishes up a possible selkie woman
One Cut of the Dead (2017)
The idea of a zombie film all shot in a single take. This proves a novelty amusement but then the film spins this on its head and becomes positively ingenious.
One Cut of the Dead in Hollywood (2019)
One Cut of the Dead was one of the freshest and most hilariously original takes on the zombie film of recent. This is a sequel
One Hour Photo (2002)
Robin Williams gives a creepy performance as a one hour photo employee with stalkery tendencies who becomes obsessed with a family
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
The last really good animated film made during Walt Disney’s lifetime and for the next couple of decades. Filled with cuddly anthropomorphism and charmed delights
One Million B.C. (1940)
Classic caveman vs dinosaurs prehistoric drama later to be remade as the more famous version with Raquel Welch. This plays as fairly creaky today but gains an undeniable vividness with the raw ferocity of its dinosaur scenes (played by optically enlarged lizards)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Cult stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen made this classic caveman vs dinosaurs film in collaboration with Hammer Films. The work that brought Raquel Welch to prominence as an actress
One Missed Call (2003)
Cult director Takashi Miike jumps aboard the J-horror fad of the 2000s and makes a Ringu copy that substitutes haunted videos for haunted cellphone calls. Two sequels and an English-language remake followed
One Missed Call (2008)
Probably the worst among the mid-00s fad for English-language remakes of Japanese horror films. Takashi Miike’s original is reduced to affectless CGI pop-up scares
One Missed Call 2 (2005)
Sequel to the Japanese original, not the English-language remake. This quickly forgets about haunted phonecalls and becomes even more of a copy of Ring, the inspiration of the original, and fails at generating spooky atmosphere
One Missed Call: Final (2006)
Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call was one of the more popular of the Ringu-influenced Japanese ghost stories, concerning a viral curse passed by cellphone calls. This was the second Japanese sequel
One of Our Spies is Missing (1966)
The third cinematically released film repackaged from episodes of the cultish 1960s spy tv series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Despite a scattershot plot that doglegs all over the place, the film is made with a wonderfully droll sense of humour that makes it undeniably appealing
One Point 0 (2004)
This travels into very similar places to Roman Polanski’s The Tenant – a paranoid tale about a man surrounded by very strange apartment neighbours. Apart from adding some reality blurring SF twists to the mix, this does little more than churn cliches
One Spy Too Many (1966)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. tv series was construed as lighter take on the James Bond films. This, the third theatrical film recut from tv episodes, is one of the most entertaining, creating a memorable super-villain and almost entirely consisting of over-the-top death traps and action set-pieces
One Under the Sun (2017)
Strange film in which a woman astronaut returns from a Mars mission somehow ‘changed’
Oni Baba (1964)
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
Only (2019)
A film made for the era of Coronavirus crisis if there ever was one. This concerns a worldwide plague that kills all women where Freida Pinto may be the left woman left alive. What is uncannily predictive is the film’s images of empty streets and supermarket shelves, people huddled in quarantine and social distancing
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Individualistic indie director Jim Jarmusch tackles the vampire film. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastically well paired as the two bored title lovers. Beautifully filmed but, typical of Jarmusch, one where not a lot happens
Onward (2020)
The 22nd animated film from Pixar and also the least successful (being released only a week before theatrical chains closing down due to Coronavirus). This has an appealingly quirky and original concept not unakin to Bright that takes place in an alternate reality where magic creatures live in a world akin to our own
Open House (1987)
Shabby entry in the slasher genre with a radio talkback host receiving calls from a killer who is slaughtering female realtors
Open Season (2006)
Passable animated film from Sony Pictures Animation, although the story arcs too closely resemble every other animated film for it to have much in the way of notability
Open Water (2003)
A true story about a couple on a diving expedition who are accidentally stranded in a sea of sharks. A minimalist film, shot almost completely at sea, that works up incredibly raw tension
Open Windows (2014)
This Nacho Vigalondo film prefigured Unfriended with its telling of a film that all takes place on a computer screen. This is the far more adventurous film with a wildly entertaining plot about celebrity stalking, featuring some outrageously improbable twists and technological feats
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Excellent film from Alejandro Amenabar in which a handsome playboy finds himself in the midst of a baffling series of reality flips before arriving at an SF twist ending
Opera (1987)
This may well be the finest of Dario Argento’s giallo thrillers. Set around the production of an opera, this offers a series of murder set-pieces staged with an artistry that is as extraordinary as their sadism
Operation Avalanche (2016)
This takes the old conspiracy theory about the Moon Landing being faked by tv and is a Found Footage film being shot by two filmmakers who have been tasked with fabricating the Moon Landing. Including a cameo from Stanley Kubrick, the results are hilarious
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
Guy Ricthie makes a spy action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is far more absurdly entertaining than anything you expect it to be. Hugh Grant steals the day as the super-villain of the show
Operation Ganymede (1977)
A West German-made film where a space mission to Jupiter returns only for the crew to find the Earth deserted. This captures something of the original Planet of the Apes in its better moments
Orbiter 9 (2017)
Spanish film about a lone girl on a space mission who has never met another human being and her sudden awakening to the real nature of her world. To say more is to give the film’s on big surprise away. Alas after revealing this, the film seems at a loss what to do next
Orca (1977)
After his crass remake of King Kong, Dino de Laurentiis went on to make this blatant copy of Jaws, which was widely ridiculed. Contrarily, i rather liked it – a Moby Dick by way of Jaws, it comes with some visually fantastic moments
Ordet (1955)
Carl Dreyer, the Danish director of Vampyr and The Passion of Joan of Arc, is one of the least well-known great directors. This, his second-to-last film, concerns itself with the nature of religion and miracles. A very weighty Bergman-esque piece, it arrives at an astonishing ending
Orgazmo (1997)
An early work from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about a Mormon who becomes a porn star and then turns superhero
Orgy of the Dead (1965)
Thought to be a long-lost Edward D. Wood, Jr film for many years, Although only written but not directed by Wood, this has all the gaffes, bad acting and hilarious purple prose of a Wood film. The film itself is a tame nudie that largely consists of strippers doing routines in a graveyard
Orlando (1992)
Tilda Swinton plays a gender-changing immortal in Sally Potter’s eccentric adaptation of a Virginia Woolf novel
Orphan (2009)
Another variant on the evil child film featuring a maliciously psychopathic Isabelle Fuhrman
Orphan: First Kill (2022)
I was fairly ho-hum about the first Orphan but this is a sequel that entirely surprises you