Sci-Fi & Horror
From chilling gothic horror to strange dystopian worlds this collection showcases Britain’s historic tradition of creating genre defining sci-fi and horror. Discover films unafraid to explore themes of genetic engineering, inter dimensions and the occult.
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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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The Appointment
Unable to attend his daughter’s violin recital, suburban father Ian (Edward Woodward, The Wicker Man) is haunted by a series of prophetic nightmares that seem to foresee a looming tragedy. Are dark forces gathering to be unleashed upon him?
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Memoirs of a Survivor
Julie Christie stars as 'D', a housewife trying to carry on after a cataclysmic war that has left society in a state of collapse, in an award-winning adaptation of Doris Lessing's famous dystopian novel. 'D' spends her time examining her relations with authority, with the marauding gangs of bruta...
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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 ...
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A Snake of June
Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) and Shigehiko (Yuji Kotari) are a strange couple, whose physical mismatch (she a lithe beauty, he an overweight, balding, obsessive-compulsive neurotic) is reflected in the complete lack of intimacy between them. They connect as human beings, but they live more like friends...
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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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Blind Beast
Blind Beast is a grotesque portrait of the bizarre relationship between a blind sculptor and his captive muse, adapted from a short story from Japan's foremost master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men). An artist's model, Aki (Mako Midori), is abducted by Michio (Eiji Funako...
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Orgies of Edo
Legendary Toei director Ishii’s politically incorrect moral lessons paint a trio of tales of tragic heroines caught up in violence, sadomasochism, incest and torture. Told in anthology style by an impassive physician (Teruo Yoshida), the first story follows Oito (Masumi Tachibana), an innocent yo...
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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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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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Carry On Screaming!
The sinister Dr Watts and his monsters are on the loose! Kidnapping local women to be bungled into his haunted mansion to be transformed into shop-window mannequins. The only thing standing in his way is the hapless Detective-Sergeant Bung and his equally hapless side-kicks. With his quest for cl...
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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...