My fascination with Stephen King started with a paper boat. The boat bobbed and weaved its way along a tiny stream created by the day’s rampant rain fall. Little Georgie, whose boat it was, happily followed the paper toy until it disappeared down a drain. Saddened and a little ashamed that he had lost the boat his older brother had made him, Georgie begins to walk home but is alerted by a gravely voice from within the blackness of the drain. Georgie investigates. He peers into the drain. To his surprise a smiling clown stands before him holding the boat…

…they never did discover Georgie’s body.

Science-fiction in the 1990s was a mix of dystopian societies, self-reflexive parodies, high-concept action, good old horror, and a smattering of sequels. Quite an eclectic mix. During ten years we went from the serious (Strange Days, Contact, 12 Monkeys) to the ridiculous (Galaxy Quest, Space Truckers, Fortress) but there was always an element of quality on show.

Check out our ten picks for best science-fiction of the 1990s…

Just in time for Halloween, we conclude our look at the best horror movies of the late 1960s and 1970s. In Part 3 we run down the top 10 scary movies released between 1967 and 1979. We have witches, and we have demonic children, pagan cults and fanatically religious mothers. Also in the mix are a family of cannibals, a host of dispensable teenagers, an insane brother, a loving father, a computer named Mother, and a son hell bent on taking over the world. And we must not forget the terrifying alien, the shark off Amity Island, and that strange little woman who stalks Donald Suhterland in Don’t Look Now.

Horror film has always been at its best when representing in some form the genuine fears populating society at the time of release. Whether it be the cold-war fears of the 1950s or the feral youth of the 2000s, horror film has managed to tap into our base fears through the very real issues plaguing contemporary culture. Arguably, the genre has never been as powerful or influential as it was between the beginning of the American New Wave and the total commercialisation and high-concept era of the 1980s. In other words, the best horror films ever made appeared in the 12 years between 1967 and 1979.

George Litman of blog The Great White Dope drops in for Spielberg Week to tell the world just how good Spielberg’s much maligned 1941 is. What do you think? Is it Spielberg’s worst film or is it unfairly derided?

Ruth at Flixchatter and Aiden at Cut The Crap Movie Reviews have been on the happy pills and seen fit to give the Happy 101 Award to Top10Films. This award thingy is all about what makes us happy. Ten things that make us happy to be more precise.

The Radio Times here in the UK held a reader poll to discover the best family film of all time with over 2500 people voting Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” number 1. It’s a curious list with only a couple of films (“E.T.” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Back To The Future”) lacking at least one musical interlude. Given the readership of the magazine I’m guessing the 2500 people who voted consisted mainly of grandparents wishing to occupy their children’s children with a melancholic sing-a-along hence the inclusion of films “Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” amongst others. Read on to see the top 10 and don’t forget to click here to be in with a chance of winning ten family film DVDs.

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th marks BBC Films weekend as the filmmaking arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation launches its new television home on BBC Two. The channel will show the network premieres of three of the BBC’s most critically acclaimed films of the last few years – “Is Anybody There”, “The Damned United”, and “Eastern Promises”.

The weekend is a showcase of the BBC’s finest feature film work in its new home on BBC Two. The move to showcase BBC films on the channel is part of the network’s recent Strategy Review which, amongst other things, pledged £25m to the production of quality drama.