Altered States (1980)

Let’s be real, here: Ken Russell isn’t exactly known for being comprehensible. Take a look at Lair of the White Worm or Gothic, and tell me you don’t agree. He works in the bizarre, the fantastic; the outré, if you will. His films deal in symbolism and religious allegory and sexual expression, and often times challenge the notion of good taste. But comprehensible? No.

And why should Altered States be any different? Hovering uncomfortably above the intersection of science fiction, fantasy and horror, States, based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky, employs the “kitchen sink” theory, which says that every device, image, shot, angle, color, sound or texture must be gathered up, shaken vigorously, and thrown back at the screen with force. Unfortunately, in some cases it doesn’t matter if any of it makes sense. This film is a mess, moving from one concept to the next without care for continuity or context; that it’s mildly redeemed by a trio of good performances–by William Hurt, Bob Balaban and Charles Haid–isn’t saying much.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Startlingly low-budget post-war monster flick famous for its Ray Harryhausen creature effects.

Military atomic testing in the Arctic unleashes an ancient dinosaur from hibernation. A physicist (Paul Hubschmid), the only witness to the monster, can’t get anyone to believe him that it exists. Soon enough, the beast emerges on the East Coast and proceeds to devour a few fishing vessels before stomping most of Manhattan flat to the ground. The physicist partners with an anthropologist (or archaeologist or dinosaurist–I can’t remember) to stop the carnage.

Moon (2009)

Sam Bell is an ordinary guy. Finishing out the final weeks of a 3-year mining expedition on the surface of the moon, he ticks off the days by drawing smiley-faces on the bathroom wall. There are few creature comforts here: A few messages home to his wife, reruns of Bewitched, and the company of the strange robot, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), who bears a remarkable resemblance to HAL 9000, speaks in glacial tones, and all but runs the outpost.

But Sam is also dangerously close to succumbing to cabin fever: his skin carries a deadly pallor, his teeth have gone yellow, and he begins to…see things. One night (or is it day?), Sam takes the rover out to fix a downed excavator and has an accident. He wakes up in the infirmary. GERTY stares down at him with a single, cold blinking eye. What happened, Sam asks? GERTY is ambiguous. And then a stranger shows up. Is it a hallucination? Has Sam finally gone off the deep end?

District 9 (2009)

Neill Blomkamp’s surprising smash hit, District 9, was perhaps one of the most original films of 2009. It was also one of the best.

Twenty years ago, an alien spaceship broke down over Johannesburg, South Africa. The surviving aliens were segregated into a shanty town that has since become a slum. Civil unrest boils over as the human residents of Johannesburg, tired of the alien presence, ironically demand that the foreigners be moved. Enter Multi-National United, a business conglomerate that agrees to spearhead the massive relocation effort. Ostensibly humanitarian, the MNU secretly plots to commandeer the aliens’ powerful weapons cache.