Return to Oz (1985)

From the many adaptations of Frank Baum’s fairyland fables, Return to Oz is one celluloid trip that has roots firmly planted within the dark realms of fantasy borne from the original books.

An evil princess who collects heads; a slave race with wheels for appendages; a desert that reduces anyone who touches it into sand…

Baum was a voracious advocate for female rights and votes for women. His passion seeped through his work where the strongest protagonists were wise, thoughtful and powerful girls.

Oz may not be Utopia, but it’s home to a road of imagination and an altruistic future.

The Haunting (1963)

Robert Wise’s chilling film is leaden with eerie tension and fraught performances. Dr Markway imprudently invites guests to act as guinea pigs in his ill-advised studies.

• Eleanor, a woman whose own subconscious spirit plays as much a part in “the haunting” as the malevolent phantoms encased within the stone walls of the venerable yet malignant edifice.

• Theo hides her vulnerability behind a façade that shatters under the relentless erosion of Hill House’s enduring denizens.

• Luke vaunts like a braggadocio but soon laments his bravado.

You may never look at wallpaper the same way again…

In the night… In the dark…