Kim Newman

Bruno Ganz is excellent as the victim deceived into committing murder.

So many films address the premise because it’s always thought-provoking and affecting. This also has a bleached, depopulated, effectively catastrophe-struck feel and an intriguing adult-and-child road movie storyline.

William Eubank continues to work his particular mind-stretching mix of acute character interplay and cosmic conceptual breakthrough.

Ferrera successfully breathes life into an old franchise, with only a slight small change in the narrative but making the aliens significantly more frightening. Anwar is equally intuitive and sassy enough to make her a likeable and believable heroine and although the effects aren't up to much, there are still plenty of scary moments.

It’s an entertaining, engaging, colourful picture in its own right with decently-handled action-adventure set-pieces and sly comedy, detouring from the expected thrills and spills into body-hopping comedy drama.

This is a harsh, unsentimental science fiction film, though the performances suggest small surviving flames of empathy and yearning amid the tough, practical attitudes.

Though it rings ever so slightly hollow as cool shades into callousness, this exercise in sexy suspense and brain-scrambling mystery is a dazzling, absorbing entertainment which shows off Danny Boyle’s mastery of complex storytelling and black, black humour.

Some will find this impenetrable and irritating, but audiences willing to tune into Hosking’s off-kilter style will be moved by the ridiculous love stories and relish the hilarious eccentricity.

Even if this is less satisfying overall than Skyfall, there are sequences that rank with Bond’s best.

It stands as a hugely enjoyable, occasionally chilling, musical.

Though a little too languid at two hours, The Love Witch is appropriately seductive.

A rough, exhausting, exhilarating action picture with a payoff which would have delighted Sam Fuller or Howard Hawks. The Stath - an actual Olympian, remember - is on top form.

Strange, stylish and intelligent, this is a rare anime film that delivers on its Eastern promise.

Alternating gritty realism and red‑hued fantasy, this is one of those '70s films that wears well, universal in its heart while picking out specifics which are exactly of their time.

A lurid gothic gangster psychodrama from Roger Corman, this is Shelley Winters’ finest hour-and-a-half, cast as Arizona Clark ‘Ma’ Barker, a role it would be impossible to overplay.

Improv comedy at its best: subtle, hilarious, excruciating and affecting in equal measure.

More startling than an unexpected punch in the noggin, Na Hong-Jin's unusual thriller could have the highest knife count this side of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. A violent thrill-ride to a dark new corner of Asian cinema.

A rich movie, seductive when abandoning people for falling snow or bleak nature and funny, painful and unflinching when it gets physical.

Valhalla Rising gets into your mind and stays there. You can argue what, if anything, it's trying to say, but it is impressive cinema.

It may not be much more than six of the most imaginatively staged and filmed fight scenes in the cinema, but that’s almost certainly enough to recommend it.

This is a must-see film for its unashamed romanticism, its breathtaking visual delirium, the excellent performance of Cusack as the only rational person in the county and the sheer spirit with which the fundamental daftness of the plot is served up.

A riotous, rough-hewn and rousing punk reinvention of ’70s-style grindhouse exploitation-with-a-brain-cinema.

As good an all-out, non-camp horror movie as we’ve had lately.

A mixture of tough and wistful and reflective and brutal, this is the ideal vampire movie for Twi-hards who’ve had their hearts broken for the first time and want to move on to a less cosy vision of eternal romance with a side order of addiction.

A bravura monster movie which just doesn’t let up, ratcheting tension with nary a word uttered on screen. It also boasts great creature design and a breakthrough performance from young Millicent Simmonds.

Not as dark as its source material, Wanted works exceptionally on its own terms. McAvoy crashes the A-list, Jolie finally gets to be as big a star on screen as she has been in print, and Bekmambetov proves the most exciting action-oriented emigré since John Woo.

A little slow and vastly outdated now, but nonetheless very watchable.

Top-flight muscleman entertainment that is not afraid to have a brain or two in its head.

A surprisingly yet successfully restrained lesson in how to haunt a house.

An ambitious physics and time-bending, relationship drama with solid performances from the two main characters.

A well-above-average ho-ho-ho-horror film with a shivery sense of winter weirdland and anarchic ultra-violence, it’s also a strong candidate to become a holiday favourite thanks to a perfectly judged punchline.

As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, Akira the film is teeming with incident and detail.

A worthy, exciting, emotional addition to the venerable monkey movie marathon. Apes will rise. Sequels are likely.

Featuring excellent work from grandstanding Cox and just-lying-there Kelly, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe creates a successful feeling of mounting dread punctuated by crashing thunder and surgical viscera.

This needs its 'based on a true story' caption because otherwise you'd never believe it.

A classy French-Belgian horror with an unusual female perspective on monstrous taboos. Shocking but not sensationalist, this is a strong cannibal movie worth chewing over.

A funny, affecting, twisted tale, which demands you pay close attention to every throwaway detail.

If you're a bah-humbug type looking for an alternative to Santa Claus: The Movie or Miracle On 34th Street, this could be a holiday perennial. May be too strange for normal people, but weird kids will love it.

You have to be in the right mood for it, but this is one of the season’s finest films.

With its driving jazz score, hilarious dialogue and overdrive melodramatics, this is the ultimate expression of the American cinema's greatest fetishes: big breasts, fast cars, tight jeans, and sudden death. This is, in its own way, one of the great films of the 60's.

Unpretentiously and likeable Peter Hyams is one of the few hacks still working at this budget level, and he relishes the chance to make an audience jump, not only with some neat monster effects and a pile of mutilated corpses but also with some subtleties of editing and lighting, plus one of the loudest jump-out-of-your-seat soundtracks in a recent memory.

A true evocation of the spirit of the Strand Magazine, this is the best Holmes movie ever made and sorely underrated in the Wilder canon.

Impressively nightmarish.

While not to everyone's tastes, this is without doubt one of the most exhilarating films of 1994.

A pick-up after the second film, if not as assured as the first. Rapace sets a high watermark for Rooney Mara in David Fincher's remakes.

Though the clumsy geometric tentacle that does most of the machine’s evil will cries out for morphing, this is remarkably prescient in its tackling of issues the cinema is only now catching up with, and Christie adds depth to the lady-in-peril heroine. Well worth reassessment.

Terrific performances, especially from the menacing, lazily charismatic Henshall, and debut director Kurzel's expressionist storytelling make for an Aussie film well worth hunting down. A tough but seriously rewarding watch.

Full of character-based suspense, it’s dramatic and ramped-up with tension. Existing between a Sundance and a FrightFest film, this is a challenging, horribly plausible future vision.

Chucky's smartest, sharpest outing yet.

Hitch's remake of his own film results in an equally compelling action thriller with sterling performances from Stewart and Day.

This doesn't have the high style that made Taxi Driver or American Gigolo instant cultural icons - although Schrader shows more than a few traces of Scorsese as his camera creeps- perhaps because it's concerned with a chilly 90s that looks back with a sort of nostalgia on the cocaine-fuelled craziness of earlier years. But it does develop powerfully the themes of Schrader's earlier work and will not disappoint his fans.

More "Moonlight" than "Twilight," The Transfiguration is a defining vampire film of the mid-2010s. An acutely observed study of social/emotional deprivation, but also a gripping, disturbing horror movie. And, yes, it’s ‘realistic’.

The unfamiliar young cast all show a lot of potential in a well-thought-through, sting- in-the-tail plot. It’s a well-assembled genre movie rather than a great statement, but none the worse for it.

Thoroughly charming, and thoroughly deserving of its cult status.

The Godfather Part II of on-the-farm slasher-movie prequels, this is an American gothic shocker with a lot to say — and an awards-worthy lead performance from Mia Goth.

Thanks to Rushdie's sensitive handling of his own material, this is an adaptation big in both ideas and heart.

Ritchie's colour-desaturated style, use of unusual background music, scattershot slang (some subtitled) and mostly tasteful black comedy give the whole film the feel of an altered state of perception.

It might also be the case that the film is more taken by emotions, beauty and passing fancies than plot and character.

Inventive suspense, spiky characters, outrageous horror and wicked satire. Welcome back, George - you've been away too long.

Polanski arrived on the scene with an almost super-human knack for tension; one of the great directorial debuts in cinema's history.

A first-rate horror movie, It Follows adds a new monster to the pantheon expect pranksters to imitate the Follower for cheap shocks soon — and has a refreshing, unpretentious sense that a meaningful subtext doesn’t undercut spookiness.

Fascinating history, very good movie -- but demanding, and its lack of easy answers will frustrate some. Lessons about 21st century terrorism are implicit, but not overly stressed.

Mason's urbane genius and Douglas' dimpled two-fistedness (and stripy sailor shirt) beef up a floppy script.

A chilling, intense character study.

An unconventional sequel to an unconventional film, this works as a standalone picture with its own distinctive take on alien invasion but also expands what now seem like a franchise with potential to deliver more and varied snapshots of human behaviour in extreme circumstances.

For fans of Cassavetes, Opening night is a must see. As per usual it features a superb cast.

It’s almost as structurally daring as "Memento," demanding that the audience fills in the gaps.

Less confrontational than most Solondz movies, in that it refrains from violence or kink, but still unsettling and affecting.

The beginning of the super-successful franchise, this remains one of the most satisfying Bond films.

A distinctively crass, hugely enjoyable sick satire from director Paul Bartel, working for uber-producer Roger Corman – allegedly, Bartel kept thinking up more and wilder jokes, while Corman insisted more and more people got run over.

And then, of course, there was the music, better music than any film had had for many years.

Chris Cooper's superb performance and numerous authentic details makes this a little gem.

Like all the best exploitation flicks, Piranha is driven by a ruthless desire to entertain and, in this non-pretentious ambition, it succeeds magnificently.

Jokes so stupid as to seem almost surreal, an amazing range of cultural referents and a smattering of genuinely witty conceits.

A clever and enjoyable wrapping-up of the time-travelling adventures.

This unconventional film will offend anyone looking for a plot, but Linklater's smart observations speak volumes.

It has a wealth of marvellous Western imagery, grotesque-comic business (Van Cleef striking a match on seething baddie Klaus Kinski’s hunchback), Ennio Morricone’s baroque score, iconic stars and unforgettable supporting faces.

You might need to take a Norwegian guide along to explain various local references and identify the specific trolls, but Troll Hunter's proud cultural identity - tremble, a US remake is in the works - is its strongest suit. It's wry, spectacular fun.

A cracking cold war story.

Still an impressive and disturbing brink-of-doom thriller.

A star rating is not much help, since von Trier’s self-conscious arrogance is calculated to split audiences into extremist factions, but Antichrist delivers enough beauty, terror and wonder to qualify as the strangest and most original horror movie of the year.

Its intelligence makes it near-essential viewing.

The film never sentimentalises the old swine as it explores the nature of his genius. Terrific ballplayer, miserable human being. Unworthy subject, great movie.

Antibirth is intentionally ramshackle and hallucinatory as storytelling, seen through the viewpoint of characters who are mostly too stoned to concentrate – but it’s also highly crafted and unsettling.

Hokum isn’t just hokum. On top of an affecting personal quest for a non-despairing ending, it delivers a full evening of scares, chills, wicked jokes and haunted escape-room hijinks.

A slick thriller which takes place in a moral vacuum. It's fascinating rather than exciting, but makes for chilly thrills with two strong, charismatic lead performances, a great deal of style and amusingly repulsive, ruthless twists.

Significantly grittier than previous Bat-beginnings, this finds new things to do with, and say about, a character who's been around since 1938.

For once, a great remake, smartly executed. Great performances and a killing ending that will stay with you forever can't hurt, either.

The intricate work of a craftsman, and a beautiful appearance by the beguiling Simone Sigornet.

A touch too heavy on the Faust scenario, this is nevertheless a typically powerful effort from Stone especially strong on the nightmarish aspects of the war, as when a simple misundertsanding instantly becomes a massacre...Gripping stuff

Gorgeous and seductive, if pitched at Almodóvar fans and perhaps a touch long. Those drawn by Cruz’s divadom will wonder why it takes so long to get to her -- though she is wholly dazzling when it does.

The story isn't as strong as either Leone or Corbucci's best work, but the iconic imagery and solid central performance from Nero make it easy to see why this became a worldwide success.

A really satisfying backstage drama, this is an exhilarating tour around a man whose talent was almost as big as his ego.

Instantly gripping, with a powerhouse star performance, it'll make you want to speed through the weeks to get to part two.

Many will find Kansas City unbearable, because Leigh (with a mouth full of jagged teeth and a permanent snarl) and Richardson (who totters along in a druggy stupour), give brilliant performances as extremely unpleasant characters. Furthermore, the ending is a real slap-in-the-face downer. But if you can get past that, this is the real stuff.

Like it or not, Six has contributed something fresh and demented to pop culture.

Painful for many reasons, but highly recommended.

How to sum up? You have to make synapse-spark connections, interpret events to your own satisfaction, pick up visual cues (a long stretch of the film is dialogue-free) and be happy with not knowing all the answers (you know, like in life — but not in most motion pictures). A perfectly judged, strikingly beautiful film, but also a lunatic enterprise which invites — even welcomes — befuddlement as much as wonder. A true original.