Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator (1985)
Rating: ★★★★
Jan 2, 2001Resurrection of the Dead/Splatter Black Comedy/H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
This was one of the classic 1980s splatter films. Stuart Gordon throws most of H.P. Lovecraft's tone out the window and goes for hilariously black comedy served up with outrageously over-the-top effects

From Beyond (1986)

From Beyond (1986)
Rating: ★★
May 31, 2001Other-Dimensional Monsters/H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation
After the cult success of Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs and most of the principals returned with a further H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. More outrageously over-the-top splatter effects but this is somewhat the lesser

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
Rating: ★★½
Sep 6, 2001Re-Animator Sequel
Sequel to the cult splatter hit of Re-Animator, directed by the original's producer Brian Yuzna. Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott and David Gale are back. This has some amazing effects work but lacks the first film's outrageous black humour

The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)
Rating: ★★
Sep 5, 2012Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation/Inquisition Horrors
Stuart Gordon's adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story gets full marks for being set during the Spanish Inquisition. On the other hand, Gordon's unserious splatter heavy approach and a campy performance from Lance Henriksen deflates the material

Necronomicon (1993)

Necronomicon (1993)
Rating: ★★
Feb 13, 2009H.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

Lurking Fear (1994)

Lurking Fear (1994)
Rating: ★★
Mar 24, 2015H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation/Creatures Beneath the Graveyard
Charles and Albert Band had a success with the H.P. Lovecraft adapted Re-Animator; their attempt to replicate that with another Lovecraft story here is lacking Stuart Gordon's splattery black humour and not much happens

The Frighteners (1996)

The Frighteners (1996)
Rating: ★★
Dec 6, 2000Medium vs Ghostly Serial Killer Comedy
Before The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson flopped badly with this ghost comedy. Jackson allows his obsession with the effects technology to take over at the expense of much else and provides little that is funny

Parasomnia (2008)

Parasomnia (2008)
Rating: ★★
Jun 2, 2015Girl With Sleeping Sickness/Dream-Invading Serial Killer
William Malone, the director of House on Haunted Hill remake, makes an interestingly different film about a girl who has spent most of her life asleep being pursued by a genius killer who invades her dreams

The Witches of Oz (2011)

The Witches of Oz (2011)
Rating:
Jun 2, 2014Wizard of Oz Sequel/Modernisation
Sequel/modernisation (it is confusing what) to The Wizard of Oz relocated in New York. This tv mini-series may be the cheapest work ever served up bearing the Oz name and flounders amid the shabbiness of its effects and utter lack of magic its director conjures

Would You Rather (2012)

Would You Rather (2012)
Rating: ★½
May 26, 2013Deadly Party Game
The old party game about choosing between two difficult decisions is spun out into a rather lame attempt to make another Saw. Given a generic commercial handling, the film fails to get inside the psychological tension of its life and death decisions

The Penny Dreadful Picture Show (2013)

The Penny Dreadful Picture Show (2013)
Rating: ★★½
Nov 29, 2016Horror Anthology
Not to be confused with the recent tv series Penny Dreadful, this is another in the recent spate of multi-director horror anthologies – The ABCs of Death, V/H/S films etc. Directed with a retro vibe, the episodes are expectedly uneven but better than might be expected from the hands involved

Suburban Gothic (2014)

Suburban Gothic (2014)
Rating: ★★
Oct 27, 2014Middle-Class Satire/Haunting
From the director of Excision, another film that satirically digs its claws into middle-class values but there is the feeling we have seen all of this before and the film fails to provide anything funny. Added to this is a barely scary ghost plot the film occasionally remembers to get back to

Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom (2017)

Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom (2017)
Rating: ★★
Jun 8, 2020Animation/Young H.P. Lovecraft’s Adventures
The second in a series of animated children's films about the young H.P. Lovecraft and his encounters with the various denizens of the Cthulhu mythos

In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic ‘80s Horror (2019)

In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic ‘80s Horror (2019)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 11, 2020Documentary About the 1980s Horror Film
An exhaustive documentary that charts in enormous detail every facet of the 1980s horror film, although this is not as exhaustive as it seems to think and leaves some big omissions

In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)

In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)
Rating: ★★
May 6, 2024Documentary About the 1980s Horror Film
A follow-up to the documentary about the 1980s horror film, this deals with some of the lesser-known and overlooked works that were not covered the first time around

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023)
Rating: ★★½
Mar 24, 2023Comic-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