A Yorkshire nerd in love with an American femme fatale, an English film in love with American genres. The result is a romantic mystery that is neither very romantic nor very mysterious, but its quirky innocence may well still leave you smiling.
Thriller
The Cell
Visually its one of the most inventive pieces of cinema youre likely to see, but in every other department its essentially run-of-the-mill.
Batman
Much darker than your average superhero flick, Batman goes for style over substance but just about makes a success of it.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Downsized abbatoir workers, weird hitch-hikers, vandalised graveyards, abandoned cars, a macabre house, a hapless quintet of young lambs for the slaughter, and the gentle hum of a chainsaw. With these basic elements and next to no money, Tobe Hooper has spun an unapologetically mean-spirited tale of skewed family values and Southern discomfort, where all sanity is finished off with a skull-crushing hammer-blow. An absolute classic of horror, with many imitators but few rivals.
Halloween
Where many of its nastier, bloodier copycats have long since been carved and diced from our memory, John Carpenter's low-budget, genre-defining excursion into the slasher film's virgin territories is still very much alive and freshly frightening today. A monument to Hitchcockian suspense, it brings terror out of the gothic castle and into the suburban streets and homes where it belongs. A classic slicing of American life.
In the Cut
Sex and desire come to a bloody head in this elliptical thriller. Stylish, clever, and full of insight into the darker side of both male and female sexuality – but when a film like this runs twenty or so minutes too long, just don't advertise the fact by calling it 'In the Cut'.