Still spooky after all these years this superb Ealing chiller is still the best example of a portmanteau tale. Five guests in a country house relate their tales and the film moves into nightmare territory. Watch it with a friend! find out more...

Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

Perhaps Caine's defining role as the ruthless London villain in Newcastle to sort out some gang bovver. When he finds out his niece has become embroiled with some very seedy characters, his involvement becomes far deeper. A violent and slick thriller with an excellent feel for both time and location and a comment on the despair of Britain in the 1970s. find out more...

This is the director's cut of the 1933 classic. It contains several scenes that were originally excised and is taken from a restored archive print. Kong looks as terrifying as ever and there is also a half-hour documentary of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the making of King Kong. Excellent stuff. find out more...

It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

An archetypal classic Western, since remade countless times, with Alan Ladd superb as the world-weary gunslinger who rides into town and finds himself as the 'good guy' protecting the innocent from powerful malevolent forces. In this case the innocent are squatters determined to fight for their rights against a rancher and his gunmen; in one way this is the evolution of the west from lawlessness to settlement, in another the battle between big and small business. For Shane the options are clear, find out more...

One of the truily great adventure movies, the type that Star Wars paid tribute to, and an example of what the large studios could produce. Glorious colour, sumptuos sets, and a brilliantly choreographed climatic sword fight between Flynn and Rathbone. find out more...

Hill House is a dark brooding mansion with a chillingly eerie history. Dr Markway, an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, and an unhealthy penchant for terror, is drawn to the site and, along with two researchers and a skeptic, sets out to unravel the house's mysteries.
A really good early horror made thrilling by the atmosphere, the low key sound effects and the chilling camerawork. find out more...

A talented young pool whizz-kid being groomed for the big time comes to grief when he falls in love. A downbeat drama with some brilliantly handled and atmospheric pool hall scenes and a low-life romance. Outstanding performances all round. find out more...

An American scientific expedition stumbles across a long-buried UFO and it's extraterrestrial occupant in the ice of the North Pole. When they dig it up and take it back to their camp for study they unwittingly wake the creature from its hibernation. The original sci-fi paranoia trip based on the short story 'Who Goes There' by John W Campbell and later updated in glorious fashion by John Carpenter as 'the Thing'. A must for fans of the latter's ooze-fest. find out more...