Set in Orange County, California, in an age where America has lost its ‘war on drugs', a reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends, the consequence of which is a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode and even your own motives become unclear. Scanner Darkly is a cautionary tale of drug use based on the novel by Philip K Dick and born of his own experiences. Like a graphic novel come to life, the film uses live action pho find out more...

2019. The Earth is on the brink of destruction, Tokyo shimmers with post-punk fetishism, gangs of cyberpunk bikers and rioting crowds are on the streets of the post-atomic city. The scene is set for comic-book ultra-violence in this remarkable animated nightmare of hyper-reality. find out more...

Much imitated but never equalled, this is the definitive space nightmare. The crew of a commercial spacecraft are stalked by a stowaway, mutating monster of veracious appetite. Weaver puts in a splendidly believable performance as the resourceful Ripley. Taut script and awesome special FX. find out more...

The long-awaited special extended version of the brilliant sequel to the sci-fi classic "Alien". Containing seventeen minutes of extra footage showing the previously unexplained background of the terrifying planet where the Alien has bred and which Officer Ellen Ripley must now return to. find out more...

As this movie cost 20,000,000 dollars to make you might expect the special effects to be something special and they are! The story of mankinds first meeting with aliens, told on a lavish scale with quasi-mystical overtones. A brilliantly conceived epic, superbly directed by Spielberg. find out more...

Transfer (1966), Cronenberg's first film, is a surreal sketch of a doctor and his patient. From the Drain (1967) finds two men in a bathtub, which may be part of a centre for veterans of a future war. Stereo (1969), Cronenberg's first official feature film, stunningly shot in monochrome, concerns telepaths at the Institute for Erotic Enquiry where patients undergo tests by Dr. Luther Stringfellow. In Crimes of the Future (1970) Cronenberg worked in colour and with a find out more...

Set in Johannesburg (more than a welcome change to the usual formulaic Hollywood paradigm whereby LA or New York are not only the backdrop for disaster but act too as the centre-point of planet Earth), An ominous mothership hovers above Johannesburg containing an alien race of insectoid refugees. Derogatively referred to as 'Prawns' by humans they are cordoned off in an apartheid-esque fashion and forced to live a desolate and slum-like existence in the titular District 9. While forcibly relocat find out more...

Hailed as the best film debut since Eraserhead, Donnie Darko's instant cult status and mainstream success are well deserved. find out more...

Lynch has toiled to condense Frank Herbert's mammoth SF novel into two hours twenty: 10000 years in the future the life-and-death struggle between the Atreides and Harkonnens for the vital spice Melange, which is vital for space travel and is guarded by giant mile-long worms, takes place on a third planet - Arrakis, the desert planet, home to the Fremen, dune dwellers with vivid blue eyes. Fremen legend tells of a Messiah who will be able to drink the water of life, previous tasters having tried find out more...

The classic science-fiction film that brought us Robbie The Robot. When a space cruiser is sent to investigate the silence from a planet inhabited by scientists, the crew find all but two of the inhabitants, Professor Morbius and his bewitchingly innocent daughter, have died. Morbius has made a discovery and he has no intention of sharing it (or his daughter!) with anyone. Classy kitsch. find out more...