Jamie Graham

Shot on 16mm for less than $50,000, Sam Raimi's visceral debut remains a benchmark of modern horror. Plot and acting are minimal - five stooges inadvertently awaken demonic forces - but then this isn't about intellect or intricacy: it's about intensity and intestines. [1 Oct 2001]

A savage triumph.

Drags in places and not always certain of its tone but with a sprinkling of eye-bulging visuals that wink to Spielberg’s heyday. Give it a shot.

Director Garth Davis’ debut is a touch over-stretched but impossible to resist – a classy crowd-pleaser with an especially magical first half.

This easily surpasses Fede Alvarez’s overrated 2013 reboot and suggests there’s plenty more life – and death – in the franchise yet.

Thrilling and haunting, pitching the power of adventure and friendship against the day-to-day horrors of childhood and a chilling Pennywise. An absolute scream.

Not in the Bridesmaids league but a very funny female-centric comedy with big laughs and spot-on attitudes.

Family entertainment with death, limb-lopping and other horrors. If you go Into The Woods today, you’ll be surprised how faithful this is to the dark stage musical.

A sombre, ’70s-flavoured crime drama with strong, interior performances from Hardy, Gandolfini and Rapace. Feel the (slow)burn.

Not up there with key US influences "Annie Hall," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Jerry Maguire," but a romcom Brits can be proud of. Make a date of it.

Trumpeted by Netflix as a ‘new-school western’, The Harder They Fall in fact takes the staples of old-school westerns (bandits, bank jobs, train robberies, rowdy taverns, shootouts) but blends them all together in a manner that feels fresh and vibrant.

The Hateful Eight brands the western with a big ‘QT’. All you’d expect from a Tarantino movie and more besides. Saddle up.

The Shining buzzes madness and malevolence from every frame.

This is also a Christmas horror-comedy – and one of the best since Gremlins.

Wan has fashioned a nitro-fuelled thrill-ride that forms a fitting tribute to its blue-eyed bro.

A retro science-fiction actioner with both brains and brawn – quite a lot of brawn, actually. Surely destined for cult status.

The best horror remakes are not afraid to push the source material in new directions – exhibit a) The Thing; exhibit b) The Fly – and while Watkins’ movie is nowhere near the level of those masterpieces (few are), it’s shrewd, engrossing and pleasingly nasty.

The doc-flavoured approach lends both urgency and tedium, while the blend of miniatures, stop-motion and CGI references the various looks of his 63-year history.

As time passes, a real sadness creeps in as we suspect that we might be witnessing the extinction of a species, though an inspired sight gag is never far away. This is a film that needs to be seen to be believed.

Among the blood, sweat and (ahem) salty tears are musings on desire, family and emasculation, but this is Kim at his most mischievous, the laughs drowning all.

What Fantastic Beasts lacks in wonderment it almost makes up for in scares and subtext.

Like Pacino’s Shakespeare rumination Looking For Richard (1996), Wilde Salomé is passionate and absorbing, though the insertion of lengthy clips from the film might irk viewers who’ve just watched it.

Glen Powell’s whirlwind ascent continues in a film that does pretty much all you could ask for from a Twisters movie.

A low-budget, highconcept WTF thriller that might have been conceived by Rod Serling in the heyday of his Twilight Zone series. Spread the word.

No small achievement. Alexander Payne re-confirms his position as one of US cinema’s premier filmmakers.

The plotting is tangled, the emotional undertow slight, but the action keeps on coming, including a blistering multi-player sword fight on speeding bikes.

It’s fascinating stuff, if all a little rushed.

The gleeful nastiness will be too much for many. Fans, meanwhile, will rejoice as Art wraps intestines around a Christmas tree like tinsel.