It’s spooky season again so grab the pumpkin juice and a bowl of spider’s eggs and check out our favourite thrilling, action-packed and scary movies with a tech twist…
Face/Off
This all-action John Woo thriller stars Nicholas Cage as an FBI agent undergoes pioneering high tech facial transplant surgery so that he can take on the identity of the criminal mastermind who murdered his only son. When the villain – played by John Travolta – wakes up prematurely, all hell breaks loose.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Arguably THE archetypal cyborg movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger travels back in time to protect future resistance leader John Connor, pursued by a more advanced and powerful cyborg programmed to destroy them both. With time travel, human-cyborg relations and a glimpse into the future with the T-1000’s polymorphic technology this movie has tantalising tech running through its liquid metal core.
If Terminator 2 puts you in the mood for more thought provoking cyborg-related films, check out Imagine Beyond: Build me Somebody to Love on YouTube.
The Fly (1986)
The movie that spawned the iconic phrase “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” This cult classic tells the story of Seth Brundle, a scientist who gets transformed into a man / fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. With the classic tech theme of matter transportation at the heart of this movie, The Fly is a sci-fi horror film that is chilling as well as gory – perfect for Halloween.
eXistenZ
Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a world-renowned developer of VR games played on consoles connected directly into the players’ spinal cord. When a demo of her new game eXistenZ is sabotaged by a counter-VR group, she’s cast into a harrowing journey through what may or may not be the game.This movie is eerie and mysterious, taking viewers on a head-scratching journey through the dark side of gaming.
Kairo / Pulse
After one of their group takes his own life, strange things begin happening to a group of young Tokyo residents. Is their friend trying to contact them from ‘the other side’ via the internet, or is something even more sinister occurring? Japanese cinema aficionados may already be fans of this movie but for the rest of us, Halloween is the perfect time to check out this cult classic.
For a look at the darker side of digital, check out hacker:HUNTER, a Tomorrow Unlocked original series that recaps the most notorious cybercrime cases of recent years.
Unfriended: Dark Web
When you find a laptop in the lost property of your local cafe do you take it, or leave it alone? Matias decides to take it and soon wishes he didn’t as he and his friends get sucked into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the previous owner who will stop at nothing to get it back. Taking us on a journey into the dark web, this movie is perfect for Halloween with its mix of suspense, gore and terrifying view of humanity and technology.
Hard Candy
Some harrowing themes are exposed in Hard Candy as a vigilante 14-year-old lures an online sexual predator into a web of psychological and physical torture. With some brutal scenes and a tough moral question at its core, this is a film that’s sure to provoke debate.
To learn more about the fight against online child sexual exploitation, watch our Defenders of Digital profile of Susie Hargreaves, CEO, Internet Watch Foundation.
Before the clock strikes midnight…
These are just a selection of our personal favorites. But which Halloween horror films make your watch list? Let us know on our Instagram or Facebook before the sun rises.