The Abandoned (2015)
Haunted Building
A film that creates a genuinely haunted mood, something that is aided immensely by an amazing location and some fine, well developed characterisation between the two principals
Deathdream Endings
Deathdream Endings are films that arrive at the twist revelation where a series of strange and anomalous events are explained by the protagonist(s)’s discovery that they have been dead all along or are in the process of dying without realising it. These are almost always Conceptual Reversal Twist stories where the protagonist awakens to this discovery at the ending.
The theme was created by Ambrose Bierce’s short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1891) in which a hanged Confederate soldier escapes the noose and flees home only to realise this is a vision being had in the seconds before his neck breaks. The film version was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961).
The first treatment on film was Outward Bound (1930) in which the passengers on a cruise liner come to the realisation they are dead. The most famous variation on this was The Sixth Sense (1999) with its classic twist ending. Following The Sixth Sense, the twist has been endlessly repeated to the point that it can now be considered a cliche.
The ABCs of Death (2012)
Horror Anthology
Unique anthology that offers 26 episodes from different genre directors, each ending with a death. The episodes vary wildly in quality and approach but a sufficient number ignore all good taste and/or travel waaaay across taboo lines
Alone (2017)
Children Awaken in a Mysteriously Deserted City
A French variant on The Quiet Earth adapted from a comic-book about a group of young people who wake up to find themselves alone in a deserted city
Antidote (2021)
Nightmare Hospital
Horror film where Ashlyn Yennie wakes up in a hospital filled with sinister happenings including people being maimed and then regenerated
Baskin (2015)
Turkish Horror/House of Devil Worshippers
Balls-to-the-wall horror from all places Turkey. It is not clear what is going on for much of the film about police investigating a house filled with Devil worshippers but you cannot deny that it pulls out all stops
Before I Fall (2017)
Timeloop/Young Adult
Essentially Groundhog Day for teenage girls as Zoey Deutch finds herself trapped in a timeloop living the same day at high school over and over. The film finds a reasonable emotional depth but some of Zoey’s concerns do seem just a little trivial
Bottom of the World (2017)
Surreal Reality Blurrings
Indie film that channels a Lost Highway vibe in which Douglas Smith searches for a missing girlfriend Jena Malone and then wakes up in an entirely different life where he cannot be certain which life is real and which a dream
Campfire Tales (1996)
Horror Anthology
A solid revival of the horror anthology, this tells three stories that all work well. The film also features several before-they-were-known faces
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Haunting/Deathdream
Classic film that has gained a cult reputation, this creates a superbly eerie and haunted atmosphere as a woman moves to a new town and finds herself surrounded by mysterious figures
Cello (2005)
South Korean Ghost Story
The huge success of J-horror films like Ringu and Ju-on: The Grudge in the 2000s was copied right around the Asian region. This was one of several K-horror (South Korean) ghost stories produced during this period
Clown Kill (2016)
Killer Clown in an Office Building
A British effort where a girl working late in an office building who is stalked by a creepy clown. Made with an incredibly amateurism, this is possibly the worst entry in the killer clown genre
Convergence (2015)
Hospital That Exists in an Afterlife Limbo
This has an interesting set-up concerning mysterious happenings in a hospital where it is gradually revealed the characters exist in a limbo caught between Heaven and Hell even if it never does the idea justice
Dead End (2003)
Haunted Backroads Journey
This starts out seeming like a Backroads Brutality film with an innocent family being attacked after taking a side road detour, only to end in increasingly stranger supernatural territory
Disquiet (2023)
Hospital Nightmare and Hallucinations
Jonathan Rhys Meyers wakes up in a hospital as strange hallucinatory and nightmarish things start to happen. The fact that this is a deathdream film becomes very obvious
The Escapist (2008)
Prison Escape Drama/Fantastic Twist
This is principally a prison escape drama, at which it works well with a strong ensemble cast. It also has a left field ending that reveals it is a fantasy film, which remains its least satisfying aspect
Farmhouse (2008)
Sinister Farmhouse/Torture Porn
A film about a couple who break down on a country road and seek help at a sinister farmhouse, before everything turns into Torture Porn territory. And then things get weird
Final Approach (1991)
Amnesiac Air Force Pilot/Fantastic Twist
A film that mostly consists of amnesiac Air Force pilot James B. Sikking being questioned by psychologist Hector Elizondo. The film constantly hints at a big revelation before settling for one of the corniest twist endings
A Fish (2012)
South Koren Deathdream Film
Willfully cryptic and baffling South Korean film that only ends up being dull and confusing. Disappointingly, the big denouement reveals that all we have is another copy of The Sixth Sense with pretensions to meaningfulness
The Green Knight (2021)
Chivalric Quest
David Lowery has emerged as a director to watch in the last few years. Here he conducts a beautifully sparse and more ambiguous take on the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Hallow Road (2025)
Haunted Car Journey
Locke as a ghost story. A really good film that takes place during a car journey as a married couple race off to help their daughter who has had an accident. A tight, twist-filled script with some great performances
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Haunted House
Mike Flanagan follows up the hit of The Haunting of Hill House with a mini-series that adapts another classic work The Turn of the Screw out into a similar kind of cross-generational ghost story. The results are extraordinary
The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019)
True Crime/Precognitive Dreams
Released for the fiftieth anniversary of the Manson Killings, this details the attacks on Sharon Tate by the Manson Family. The film expands on the claim that Tate had a precognitive dream about what was going to happen
The Haunting of Winchester House (2009)
Haunted House
One of the tatty ghost stories made by The Asylum, sold with the association of famous haunted locations or murders. Minor moments of interest if you are prepared to wade through the over-hyped shocks
Haunts of the Very Rich (1972)
Mysterious Happenings at a Luxury Resort
From the Golden Age of TV Movies, a name cast line-up arrive at a luxurious resort only to become trapped there and caught up in increasingly mysterious happenings
Hidden (2005)
Backwoods Sinisterness
Incomprehensible New Zealand film about a group of camp counselors being haunted by something as they run through the woods
I Pass for Human (2004)
Ghosts of Drug Addicts
A film directed by Chris D, lead singer of The Flesh Eaters, about a heroin addict who starts to see ghosts. A strong portrait of addiction but less effective as a horror film
Jack Goes Home (2016)
Weird/Disturbing Journey Back Home
Actor Thomas Dekker directs a film in which Rory Culkin travels home for a funeral and finds disturbing revelations about his past. This feels like one of Richard Bates (Excision, Trash Fire) Jr’s black comedies of middle-class disaffection but circles weird happenings without going anywhere
Jack the Reaper (2011)
Boogeyman/Mysterious Carnival
Film with a class of teenagers a class of teenagers on a field trip is pursued through a haunted carnival by a mythical boogeyman
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Deathdream
Adrian Lyne became one of the most visually exciting directors of the 1980s. Here he makes an afterlife film that swings between moments of greatness and a script that seems very confused about what is happening
Jacob’s Ladder (2019)
Drug Hallucinations
Another remake that nobody asked for. The 1990 deathdream film is reworked in a script that ditches almost all of the afterlife themes and instead seems to want to make a drama about veterans addicted to reality-blurring drugs
The Last Seven (2010)
Amnesiac Survivors in a Deserted City
Seven people wake up in a deserted London with no memory of who they are only to find, as they seek answers, that something is stalking them. An intriguing hook let down by a tired and overused ending.
Leones (2012)
Deathdream
Group of youths walk through the woods lost then discover why they are there in a genre twist ending you can see coming an hour before. A film that seems to have escaped being about nothing and a hackneyed ending by being slapped with the arts label
The Locals (2003)
Backwoods Undead
New Zealand-made horror film in which two friends find themselves in a town where the dead keep returning to life
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961)
Deathdream
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
Orgy of the Dead (1965)
Undead Strippers in a Graveyard
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
Passengers (2008)
Haunted Plane Crash Survivors/Deathdream
Well-cast, nicely made film that seems to be setting out as a supernatural variant on Fearless, which had Jeff Bridges as a reinvigorated plane crash survivor, only to fall apart in a groan-worthy twist ending that has become tediously overused in recent years
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
A Pure Formality (1994)
Police Interrogation/Deathdream
Gerard Depardieu is being interrogated by police inspector Roman Polanski over a murder he cannot remember. Solid, well constructed drama that is turned on its head with a surprise ending
Realms (2017)
Thai Haunted House
Two Americans fleeing an armed bank robbery with hostages take refuge at a house that they discover it is haunted. A vy the numbers effort before arriving at a confused twist ending.
Reeker (2005)
Hunted by an Unearthly Creature
An initially low-assumption film that rapidly becomes highly watchable thanks to some way out jumps and creature appearances that propel it into real WTF territory. Where it falters is its arrival a well and truly cliched twist ending but the ride there is undeniably memorable
Row 19 (2021)
Haunted Plane Flight
Spooky Russian film about a haunted plane flight, this recalls something of The Twilight Zone’s famous Nightmare at 20,000 Feet episode
Seizure (1974)
Deathdream
The first film from Oliver Stone and a head-scratching puzzle as a writer is haunted by various supernatural figures from out of his imagination
7500 (2014)
Haunted Happenings on an Airplane
Takashi Shimizu has done commendable work on the Ju-on/The Grudge films and so I anticipated his taking on the airplane-board horror genre. Only he delivers a surprisingly middle-of-the-road handling before reaching a cliched twist ending that truly deserves to be put out to pasture
Shadow People (2016)
Haunting
Husband and wife find their new home in the countryside to be haunted. A ghost story that is not up to much before what has become one of the biggest cliche endings in the book
Siesta (1987)
Deathdream
This directorial debut for Mary Lambert is a stylish but empty-headed erotic mystery that eventually settles for a fantastical twist ending
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Child Medium
The film that made the name of M. Night Shyamalan and still a strong and spooky story despite the variability of Shyamalan’s offerings since then. What made the film a classic was its twist ending, something that has been relentlessly copied by numerous genre films since
Sole Survivor (1970)
Deathdream
One of the most original variants on the deathdream film where pilots crashed in the desert come to the realisation they are dead
Sole Survivor (1983)
Airline Disaster Premonition/Deathdream Hauntings
Film about premonition of an airline disaster and the survivor being haunted in the aftermath. Not dissimilar to the James Herbert adaptation The Survivor, this goes in predictable directions while never being entirely clear what is happening
Someone’s Knocking at the Door (2009)
Demonic Rapists
A thoroughly demented low-budget exploitation homage about demonic rapists that only falls down when it comes to a cliched twist end
Soul Survivors (2001)
Haunting
This is essentially The Sixth Sense rehashed as a teen horror film and conducted without any finesse – you can see the twist ending coming miles in advance
Spider Forest (2004)
Enigmatic South Korean Horror
South Korean horror film that feels like The Sixth Sense crossed with the enigmatic games of Don’t Look Now. The film takes place in a cryptically baffling mandala of dreams, hallucinations and possible deathdream that eventually proves rather absorbing
Stairs (2019)
Soldiers Trapped in a Timeloop
Soldiers are trapped climbing an endless set of stairs in a timeloop that forces them to revisit a battlefield atrocity
Stay (2005)
Deathdream
Marc Forster film that starts in with a beautifully filmed sense of disquiet mood and eerie reality disjuncts but loses it when it opts for another M. Night Shyamalan twist ending
The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (1976)
Sinister Hotel
Jose Mojica Marins, the cult Brazilian director/actor best known as the demoniac undertaker Ze do Caixao/Coffin Joe, presides over a hotel where the guests meet sinister fates
Sublime (2007)
Hospital Nightmare and Hallucinations
Horror film in which Tom Cavanagh goes into hospital for a routine procedure only to emerge with his leg amputated amid increasingly more surreal things happening around the hospital
The Survivor (1981)
Haunting/Deathdream
Australian-made adaptation of a James Herbert novel with Robert Powell as a airline pilot who is haunted following a crash. In the director’s chair, actor David Hemmings kills all atmosphere
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Horror Anthology/Comic-Book Adaptation
Amicus adapts several stories from the notorious EC Comics as one of their anthology films. Missing is EC’s black humour but this is a worthwhile Amicus anthology
Tales from the Hood (1995)
African-American Horror Anthology
Horror anthology with a specific focus around African-American issues. This conducts a fine revival of the anthology genre and delivers a series of episodes that are all solid and well above-average horror tales
Three Extremes II (2002)
Asian Horror Anthology
A horror anthology featuring episodes from three Asian directors originally titled Three. The better known Three … Extremes was a sequel whereupon this was retitled and re-released as Three Extremes II
The Vault of Horror (1973)
Amicus Horror Anthology
The second of Amicus Films’ adaptations from EC Comics, a follow-up to their earlier Tales from the Crypt and one of their weaker horror anthologies with the episodes much more variable in overall quality
The Wave (2019)
Reality Bending Drug Hallucinations
Justin Long goes on a bender and takes some drugs that bend reality and leave him moving through time. Sort of like a version of Scorsese’s After Hours that dives into drug culture, this wants to be edgy but ends up in surprisingly traditional places.
Wound (2010)
Hallucination and BDSM
The always interesting David Blyth returns to screens with what feels like an amateur remake of Nicolas Roeg’s Track 29 that becomes a confused and plotless mishmash of hallucinations, random BDSM scenarios and shock effects