Best New Zealand fantasy movies

Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.

A warrior-assassin is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission.

The film tells the story of Mosley, a "thoriphant" who rebels against his life of servitude and embarks on a treacherous journey to find the fabled city of Uprights.

Set in the Channel Islands on the eve of D Day, two Kiwi commandos, sent to destroy German gun emplacements to distract Hitler's forces away from Normandy, discover a Nazi occult plot to unleash demonic forces to win the war.

Hercules and Iolaus take time out from Iolaus' wedding preparations, to help a distant village under attack from "monsters". When they reach their destination, they find the monsters are in fact Amazonian women who are controlled by Hera. "Hercules and the Amazon Women" is the first movie-length pilot episode of the television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".

The vampire myth is given a stylish 1960s treatment, where a human cop partners with a vampire cop to stop a vamp bent on creating a war between the two "separate but equal" races.

When villagers begin disappearing it is discovered that they had fallen through a crack in the earth which goes straight to Hades. Hercules once again comes to the rescue and faces one of his most difficult challenges, and must prove himself as a man as well as a god. "Hercules in the Underworld" is the fourth made for TV movie in the series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Hercules comes to the aid of a young woman who is seeking the lost city of Troy. Eventually, Hercules leads her to a camp of refugees from the city, which has been taken over by Hera's Blue Priests. Hercules helps the refugees take back the city. "Hercules and the Lost Kingdom" is the second movie-length pilot episode of the television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".

When all the earth's fire begins to go out, Hercules and Deianeira must go in search for fire to stop the world from cold. "Hercules and the Circle of Fire" is the third movie-length pilot episode of the television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys".

Teenage twins battle dark forces hidden beneath Auckland's volcanoes.

Baelin (Rowan Bettjeman), a simple background NPC in the video game 'Skycraft' has been walking the same route for as long as he can remember. However, his peaceful (and mindless) routine is violently shaken as a short-tempered Adventurer (Ben Van Lier) drags him off his path and into a dangerous quest to escort a mysterious NPC girl named Willow (Phoenix Cross) across the harsh world of Azerim.

The victim of a hit and run learns to be psychic so he can take revenge on the driver that hit him. A comedy where revenge is a cosmic experience.

A lone camper hears strange noises coming from the depths of the lake.. Will she stand her ground or will she give in to their fishy temptations?

Lucinda lives a fairytale life with dairy farmer Rob, and his 117 cows. But after a freak car accident she decides to test Rob's love for her by trying to make him angry. He passes her tests until a quilt goes missing from their bed and the price of getting it back is high.

Out on a dead calm ocean, in a thick fog, a group of tourists on a pleasure craft are about to cross paths with an ancient and terrible evil. Sharing the same ocean, a sick, dying old Greek man drifts alone on a stricken yacht.

A precocious kitten wants to be a witch's familiar and must pass a test or she will forever be just simple cat, but the witch sees something in the kitten she does not expect.

A young woman battles against a series of giant spiders, spawned by toxic waste, in her new suburban home.

A baby is washed up on a Pacific Island and is adopted by a childless woman. The tribal priest takes an instant dislike to the child, proclaiming him a demon. The child is deaf and mute and therefore excluded from hunting with the other young men. Out of loneliness, he befriends a white turtle. When a drought befalls the island, the priest blames the silent one. When the chief protects the boy, the priest plots the chiefs' downfall.

Five American mobsters sit in a diner and discuss the sexual politics of the fairytale: "Little Red Riding Hood".

In an ancient world a warrior and his son are on a quest get a wish from a magic dragon, to fix the son’s stammer but the forest conspires the stop the father. The boy decides to go on alone to face the unknown creatures that await. On his journey he discovers his own inner strength and convinces his father to accept him as he is.

Wound is a supernatural horror that explores the dark worlds of mental illness, incest, revenge and death. We follow Tanya as she searches for the mother she has never met – a mother who gave her up for dead after being abused by her own father who remains stuck in her present life. Tanya returns from the dead to confront and possess her mother with all her deepest fears and desires, sending Susan into a state of madness and gore filled retribution. A dark, disturbing look into a haunted woman’s mind. This is one terrible dream you will never wake up from.

A hitchhiker takes two kids on the ride of their dreams, but they soon learn that their newfound hero is just as capable of delivering nightmares.

On Christmas Eve, a nameless little girl reads 'The Monster's Christmas' storybook to her teddy bear, as something sneaks around in the trees outside her window. She hears a noise in the other room, and thinking that it's Father Christmas, she goes to investigate. She finds one of the monsters, who has come seeking help to defeat an evil witch that has stolen all the monsters' voices.

Portrait of a Knight is a musical romance about the way in which historic ideals inform contemporary urban life. Rachel is a young archivist living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. Feeling alone and disconnected from life, she projects her romantic fantasies onto the paintings she loves, until one day her song brings Reginald - a Knight of the Realm - to life. His carefree innocence and zest for life begin to open Rachel up to the beauty around her, but the fates have a way of making trouble when miracles occur...

The deadly Komodosarus arrives to reek havoc on the planet earth, where Spiderman and Catwoman must destroy the monster and save the day!

A Maori writer meets a trickster spirit guide and conjures new worlds from the words she inks on a page.

Shot on 16mm celluloid across parts of New Zealand and Samoa, interdisciplinary artist Sam Hamilton’s ten-part experimental magnum opus makes thought-provoking connections between life on Earth and the cosmos, and, ultimately, art and science. Structured around the ten most significant celestial bodies of the Milky Way, Apple Pie’s inquiry begins with the furthest point in our solar system, Pluto, as a lens back towards our home planet and the ‘mechanisms by which certain aspects of scientific knowledge are digested, appropriated and subsequently manifest within the general human complex’. Christopher Francis Schiel’s dry, functional narration brings a network of ideas about our existence into focus, while Hamilton’s visual tableaux, as an extension of his multifaceted practice, veer imaginatively between psychedelic imagery and performance art.

Aroha wants to share her creativity with her neighbours. Her imaginations come to life for everyone to enjoy.

Lizzie Firkin's house is a mess. The cat sleeps in the breadbin and cobwebs cling to the curtains. Lizzie has no time to tidy up - she is far too busy working at a famous nightclub, tap-dancing and playing the trombone. So one day Lizzie sends for Robin Puckertucker, the Wonder Housekeeper, and the result is quite a surprise to them both.

A little boy takes great care of his shadow. He is so careful with it that a witch notices him. She gets the boy to look after her shadow while she goes away on holiday. Minding a witch's shadow turns out to be more complicated than the boy ever imagined.

Dorothy (Fiona Samuel), a lone swimmer, luxuriates in tranquil bliss at a deserted pool — only to have her solitude rudely interrupted by a squad of swimmers. A wordless, strikingly choreographed conflict ensues as Dorothy attempts to assert herself against the dehumanised aggression of the swimmers.

A practice in experimental filming in a much more minimalist nature.

A hunter in New Zealand has created a fantasy world of mounted animal trophies. He returns home to add his latest catch and make some music and finds himself in a new challenge.