Disasterpiece Theater: Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Die Hard

July 1988 •English

NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her office, the entire building is overtaken by a group of terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down.

Next Door

March 2005 •Norwegian

After Ingrid leaves John, he allows himself to be pulled into a mystical and scary world where it is impossible to separate truth from lies.

Frenzy

May 1972 •English

After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he claims vehemently to be the wrong man.

Angel Heart

March 1987 •English

A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.

Lost Highway

January 1997 •English

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Os Santos

December 2022 •Portuguese

The Wooden Woman

December 2021 •English

Edith has been beset by vivid hallucinations that only end when she begins spying on her next door neighbor.

Evil Under the Sun

March 1982 •English

An opulent beach resort provides a scenic background to this amusing whodunit as Poirot attempts to uncover the nefarious evildoer behind the strangling of a notorious stage star.

The Scary Movie

January 1993 •English

Martina and Sonja, cross-dress in vampire capes and werewolf claws, re-enacting familiar horror tropes. A corresponding soundtrack of stock screams and "scary" music suggests that the girls' toying with gender roles and power dynamics may have dire consequences.

Scream

December 1996 •English

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

Scream 2

December 1997 •English

Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney Prescott acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.

Scream 3

February 2000 •English

While Sidney Prescott and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another Ghostface killer rises to terrorize them.

The Final Terror

May 1983 •English

A group of friends head out for what is expected to be a vacation of hiking, camping and a good time, but when a backwoods mama finds them on her turf, it becomes anything but a vacation.

L.A. Vice

October 1989 •English

Detective Jon Louroy Chance investigates a string of murders in Los Angeles and uncovers a ruthless kidnapping scheme.

The Sleeping Car Murder

November 1965 •French

Six people travel by train overnight from Marseilles to Paris. When the train arrives at its destination, one of the passengers, a girl, is found dead in a sleeping berth. The police led by Inspector Grazzi investigate the other five passengers, suspecting that one of them was responsible. However, as the investigation is stepped up, the other passengers start turning up dead. It is then up to the last remaining two to solve the case, before they become the next victims.

What We Leave Behind

January 2024 •English

In search of others in an infected world, Sam and Lily venture out in hopes to build a community of survivors as Sam struggles for his own survival after refusing to let go of his past.

Herzensschrei

October 2010 •English

Friday the 13th

May 1980 •English

Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

30 Days of Night

October 2007 •English

This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town's husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.

A Thousand Billion Dollars

February 1982 •French

A young journalist uncovers an assassination disguised as a suicide, linked to an American multinational seeking to dominate French industries. Determined to expose the truth, he races against time to gather evidence before more lives—and his own—are at stake.