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The Wicker Man
After receiving an anonymous tip, a policeman ( Edward Woodward ) travels to the Scottish island of Summerisle to search for a missing girl. When he arrives, the Islanders, most of whom seem to be practising pagans, claim to have never seen or heard of the young girl. The mystery leads to our pro...
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Final Prayer
When a newly reopened church in Devon reports of supernatural happenings, the Vatican send a team on investigators, armed with digital recording equipment, with a mission to debunk the spectral myths and restore order to the church. What they discover, however, is far worse than they could have f...
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Scars of Dracula
When he is banished from the village, Paul Carson (Christopher Matthews) winds up at Castle Dracula, where unbeknownst to him, the Lord of the Undead (Christopher Lee) has been reanimated. Searching for Paul, his brother Simon (Dennis Waterman) storms Castle Dracula with his fiancée, unaware of t...
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Gothic
Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) promises his guests a night of horror only a mad poet can deliver and after partaking in hallucinogens, the guests tell ghost stories while exploring the dark corridors of his home - and of their minds. If any director is suited to retelling the wild night that conjured...
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Peeping Tom
Much criticised at the time of its release, Michael Powell’s psychological study of a shy camera technician who films for his home movies the death throes of the women he kills is now widely regarded as a dark classic. Less a straightforward serial-killer thriller than a Freudian meditation on ho...
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Dead of Night
This masterful portmanteau British horror laid the foundations for a slew of similarly structured films in the 1960s and 70s. But no imitator could hope to better this superb collection of macabre supernatural tales, which take in haunted mirrors, ghostly children (and golfers), deadly premonitio...
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
David Bowie cemented his unearthly persona in Nicolas Roeg’s startling cult film; playing an alien stranded on Earth while on a mission to find water for his own world, he initiates a plan to amass a fortune to help save his home planet.
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The Nightcomers
Set in Victorian England, The Nightcomers follows two orphans - Flora and Miles - as they are left by their tutor in a mansion, under the care of the elderly housekeeper Mrs Grose, the governess Miss Jessel, and the groundskeeper Peter Quint. When Grose attempts to have the master of the house fi...
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Friendship's Death
Friendship (Tilda Swinton) has been sent to Earth on a peace mission. Heading for MIT, she inadvertently lands in Amman, Jordan during the 1970 ‘Black September’ war and is ushered to safety by journalist Sullivan (Bill Paterson). Holed up in a hotel as the conflict rages outside, the pair enter ...
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Timeslip
The tension never slackens in this fast-paced tale of atomic-era espionage, starring American actors Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue as crusading reporters investigating a sinister scientific plot. Atmospherically shot on the shadowy, rain-spattered streets of 1950s London, this taut, ingenious th...
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Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
When they stumble across the tomb of the evil sorceress, Queen Tera (Valerie Leon), a team of British archaeologists bring her sarcophagus back to London, in an attempt to uncover whatever secrets she holds. However, when Tera's spirit possesses the daughter of one of the archaeologists (also Val...
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The Glitterball
This ingeniously small-scale sci-fi adventure of a tiny, shiny alien ball-being with strange powers and a taste for electricity, crisps and custard, was released the same year as Star Wars, and foreshadows E.T., but was made for just a fraction of the cost of either. It was produced for The Child...
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Out of the Darkness
Shot on location around Derbyshire, this atmospheric and entertaining ghost story - which sees the dispossessed spirit of a young plague victim making contact with modern kids - is one of the highlights of the latter days of the Children's Film Foundation. Past intrudes on present with increasing...
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Haunters of the Deep
Shot on location around the lonely, windswept coasts of Cornwall, this is an impressively ghostly adventure from the Children's Film Foundation. It remains a cautionary tale for profit-hungry modern miners, and the fine underground camera work effectively conveys all the creepy claustrophobia of ...
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Kadoyng
This gloriously odd, gently subversive comedy from the Children's Film Foundation sees cosmic hobo Kadoyng – blessed with mysterious powers and a stalk-like appendage on his head - arrive unexpectedly on Earth, to befriend local residents, and take on nasty politicians and road developers. Wittil...
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The Day the Earth Caught Fire
When the USA and Russia simultaneously test atomic bombs, the Earth is knocked off its axis and set on a collision course with the Sun. Peter Stenning (Edward Judd), a washed-up Daily Express reporter, breaks the story and sets about investigating the government cover-up.
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And Soon the Darkness
Two young English nurses, Jane (Pamela Franklin) and Cathy (Michele Dotrice) embark on a cycling holiday in the French countryside. They happen upon a mysterious man, Paul (Sandor Eles), who seems interested in them. Cathy is intrigued by the man, but suspicious Jane wants to continue on the jour...
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The Cicerones
English tourist John Trant (Mark Gatiss) visits an East European cathedral in search of an obscure religious painting. There he encounters enigmatic guides, who lead him deep into the strange church, where horror awaits... With the unnerving black humour you'd expect from League of Gentlemen pedi...
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Sleepwalker
When wealthy couple Richard and Angela visit Marion and Alex in their decaying family home, an evening of drunkenness and sexual rivalry turns bloody as the guests fall victim to an unhinged attacker. Featuring a rare performance from director Bill Douglas (Bill Douglas Trilogy, Comrades), and st...
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To Have and to Hold
This ghoulish short has a truly gripping premise. Distracted by her boyfriend while driving on a quiet country lane, a young woman regains consciousness in their wrecked car to find herself hand in hand with her lover. But his lifeless hand, frozen by rigor mortis refuses to let go. John Hardwick...
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Rose Red
Simon Pummell's (Bodysong) visually ravishing sci-fi thriller exploring the future of virtual reality and the desire to transcend human limits. The theft of an experimental drug to suppress the immune system reveals a case of virtual reality addiction and forces a detective to confront his night...
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The Queen of Spades
The distinguished British film director Thorold Dickinson (1903-1984), made only nine features in a chequered but remarkable film-making career which began in 1936 and ended in 1955. He subsequently became Britainís first Professor of Film at the Slade School of Art and wrote the much re-printed ...