When you think of British fantasy films, what comes to mind? Not much? Well, then you're missing out. Here are 10 woefully under-appreciated genre movies that originated on our fair shores:

10. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED - 1960
“You must be taught us a lesson - leave us alone!”. Perhaps the definitive screen adaptation of any John Wyndham novel, the MGM-British film version of The Midwich Cuckoos pits the distinctly Aryan-looking alien children against the inhabitants of the generic small town seen in countless British comedy films of this era, to a devastating effect. 1960 was still a time when a rural community really could be cut off from the outside world for several hours and although the glowing eyes has been much parodied - not least by The Simpsons - it is not over-used. The adult cast is equally good value, especially George Sanders as the ‘father’ of the group’s leader. Just remember – "...a brick wall. I must think of a brick wall..."�

9. CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED - 1963
A semi-sequel to the above, the plot of Children of the Damned unfolds against a background of a resolutely bomb-scarred and wholly un-swinging London, with Ian Hendry and Alan Badel giving extremely good performances as the scientists who attempt to discover why the Midwich Cuckoos have returned. There is the vaguest hint that the group (now sans blonde wigs but still pretty terrifying) are a form of envoy sent from an unspecified future to warn us of the possibility of World War III. The conclusion, with Badel’s character dropping his camp-cynical mask as he desperately begs the army to cease firing, is as bleak as any in the history of British cinema.

8. NIGHT OF THE EAGLE - 1961
A minor low-budget gem, Night of the Eagle is centred on Peter Wyngarde’s obnoxious young history lecturer whose wife becomes involved with witchcraft. Wyngarde scorns such supposed nonsense, only to gradually discover that his comfortable existence of Triumph TR3s, tape recorders and other consumer goods cannot shore up his own crumbling sense of rationality in the face of apparently inexplicable attacks. The coven’s leader is played by a magnificently malevolent Margaret Johnston and indeed the entire film is so enjoyable that the fact that the titular eagle is visibly attached to a tow-rope matters not one iota.

7. NIGHT OF THE DEMON - 1957
Night of the Demon is a film that suffers on two counts - firstly, Dana Andrews, its imported American leading man, looks visibly drunk in several scenes and secondly, the eponymous demon is one of the most ludicrous creations of any SFX department anywhere, not least because of its boss-eyed appearance. Against this, we have Niall McGinnis giving a career best performance as Dr. Julian Karswell, one of the most human and plausible villains to ever grace a British fantasy film. In one regard Karswell is a middle-aged mother’s boy who can disrupt a children’s party with a cyclone - and yet remain completely terrified of the powers at his command – “Nothing is for nothing - I do what I do through fear”. There is also a highly memorable cameo from a nearly unrecognisable young Brian Wilde and in any case, a film that concludes with a demon making a surprise appearance at Winchester railway station is surely worth a look.

6. THE DAMNED - 1961
The Damned remains one of Hammer’s s very rare forays into the realm of art-house cinema. Its vices are many - a middle-aged American B-film leading man and the risible dialogue given to the Teddy Boys (“Last one around the town square’s a cube!”) - but the plot of a scientist rearing a group of radioactive immune children in a bunker in Dorset is quite unique and Oliver Reed’s performance as King, the outwardly self-confident but secretly virginal and insecure teddy boy gang leader is remarkably complex and assured. Much of the narrative unfolds against a background of an out-of-season Weymouth that Losey contrives to appear as utterly menacing in its sheer banality and the conclusion - King dying at the wheel of a purloined Jaguar and the children desperately crying for help as the government helicopters approach - harsher than in any of Hammer’s Dracula films.

5. THE SORCERERS - 1961
The Witchfinder General remains the best-known film of the all too short career of Michael Reeves but his first British A-film, The Sorcerers, should receive more attention. Reeves’ old school friend Ian Ogilvy plays a dissolute young antiques dealer who is so bored with the swinging Carnaby Street scene that he allows himself to be picked up by Boris Karloff’s ‘scientist’ in a Wimpy Bar to take part in “an experiment”. As it transpires, Boris has invented a machine that may look like an RAF-surplus wireless transmitter but is in reality a device that will allow the elderly to vicariously experience the pleasures of youth. Karloff sees only the good in his machine but his gin-sodden wife uses it to feel the sensations of robbery and murder. Shot on a budget of £20,000 - minimal even by 1967 standards - The Sorcerers is a thoughtful study of the morality of different generations that largely takes place in a London of quite spectacular grimness and provides Karloff with one of his finest roles of the last days of his career.

4. BEDAZZLED - 1967
Forget the remake - even if you do happen to be a devotee of Liz Hurley, Basingstoke’s finest actress - for the original version of Bedazzled boasts an unevenly brilliant script from Peter Cook, Dudley Moore’s excellent score, immaculate cinematography and Stanley Donen’s assured direction. Unlike the recent version/mutilation, this version of the Faust story is low-key, highly witty and with Dudley Moore proving what a good straight actor he could be. The leaping nuns are pretty good value as well - as indeed is Raquel Welch - and the conclusion is as well-devised and thought provoking as that of the remake is awful. In addition, this is the film that launched the pop sensation Drimble Wedge & The Vegetations on an unsuspecting world.

3. THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT - 1951
How did the idea that the term ‘Ealing Comedy’ stands for all that is gentle in British cinema gain credence? Together with The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts & Coronets, The Man in the White Suit is a deeply troubling satire on British complacency, in this instance taking the form of a young scientist who blithely invents a fabric that is apparently indestructible, a development that finally manages to unite capital and labour - albeit with the joint goal of destroying the new material. The England of The Man in the White Suit is one where everyone talks and no-one listens and where surface amiability masks a complex hierarchy of vested interests that the outsider disturbs at his peril. Indeed, the placid-looking support characters are more than capable of transforming themselves into a genuinely frightening lynch mob to the extent that by the final reel it is impossible to believe that the film was marketed as a “comedy”.

2. KONGA - 1961
Michael Gough very unconvincing wig ludicrous plot & dialogue = high class entertainment! Yes, Konga - the everyday story of a humble chimpanzee discovered in the Ugandan jungle by a mad scientist who flies him to England in order to practice his foul experiments. Thanks to the power of nuclear radiation and really shoddy special effects, Michael manages to turn his new friend into a stuntman wearing a moth-eaten gorilla costume. Now the reign of terror can commence - strangling a college dean plus “pop sensation” Jess Conrad - until the worm (or gorilla) turns and Michael is taken by Konga on a trip to a balsa wood replica of Big Ben. Warning - after just one viewing, the lines will remain with you forever, from “Konga! Put me down you fool” to Superintendent Jack Watson’s magnificently straight-faced rendition of “Astounding! There’s a monster gorilla, growing to amazing proportions, loose on the streets of London!”

1. QUATERMASS & THE PIT - 1967
Rather than endure a multi-million dollar epic with all of the ambition of the average-film, it is always refreshing to encounter a low-budget film with A-film ideas and an adult view concerning the intelligence of its intended audience. Quatermass & The Pit may have been shot on a pittance but the theme of the earth actually being a Martian colony by proxy is one of enduring fascination and the approach of Baker is that of gradually encroaching claustrophobia and paranoia. The idea for the original 1958 BBC TV series was inspired by the experiences of the writer Nigel Kneale's wife who was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany and it does not take a great leap of the imagination to interpret the influence of “horned locusts” as an analogy of fascism. What makes Quartermass & The Pit especially disturbing is the idea that the average Briton would be capable of atrocities and the conclusion of Professor Quatermass and his colleague Dr. Roney desperately trying to fight the ethnic cleansing of London is as sadly pertinent today as is was over forty years ago.

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