Best movies like Consuming Spirits

Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

A family from the city decide to spend a weekend away at a friend's country farmhouse. But a fluke accident sets off a chain of events that alters their lives forever and conjures up the ferocious spirit of the Wendigo.

Wisconsin Death Trip is an intimate, shocking and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the final decade of the 19th century. The film is inspired by Michael Lesy's book of the same name which was first published in 1973. Lesy discovered a striking archive of black and white photographs in the town of Black River Falls dating from the 1890s and married a selection of these images to extracts from the town's newspaper from the same decade. The effect was surprising and disturbing. The town of Black River Falls seems gripped by some peculiar malaise and the weekly news is dominated by bizarre tales of madness, eccentricity and violence amongst the local population.

When the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors, an unlikely hero emerges in dutiful, quiet Allery Parkes. A career employee of the factory, the aging Allery can't reconcile how to live a life simply sitting at home doing nothing. Against the advice and pleas of his loving wife Iola, he forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor Walter Brewer in order to revive the defunct factory.

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Tired of scaring humans every October 31 with the same old bag of tricks, Jack Skellington, the spindly king of Halloween Town, kidnaps Santa Claus and plans to deliver shrunken heads and other ghoulish gifts to children on Christmas morning. But as Christmas approaches, Jack's rag-doll girlfriend, Sally, tries to foil his misguided plans.

Two brothers live in the economically-depressed Rust Belt, when a cruel twist of fate lands one in prison. His brother is then lured into one of the most violent crime rings in the Northeast.

A blending of documentary and experimental narrative strategies, combining stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voice-over to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as “suicide landmark,” and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.

When innocent civilians begin committing unthinkable crimes across Metropolis, Gotham City and beyond, Batman must call upon mystical counterparts to eradicate this demonic threat to the planet; enter Justice League Dark. This team of Dark Arts specialists must unravel the mystery of Earth's supernatural plague and contend with the rising, powerful villainous forces behind the siege—before it's too late for all of mankind.

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

The film explores the past, present, and future relationships between technology, vision, and power. From arcane theories of sight to the emergence of virtual reality and police body camera programs, the film takes a kaleidoscopic investigation into how the reality of what we see is constructed through the tools that we use to see.

A small-town Oregon teacher and her brother, the local sheriff, discover a young student is harbouring a dangerous secret that could have frightening consequences.

A sheriff begins an investigation into the death of a local transsexual after hearing that high ranking politicians may have been involved. Although he is homophobic, his investigation causes him to be rejected by others, forcing him to seek help from the people he once despised.

Set against the backdrop of a decaying Midwestern town, a murder becomes the focal point of three people who work in a doll factory.

This film is a treasure. It's one of the best examples of the theory and practice of the art of camouflaging military targets from air observation & attack that you'll find anywhere, presented in a highly entertaining Disney style full color animation supplemented by live action film. Hosted by “Yehudi the Chameleon,” the action is centered around a P-39 Airacobra base in the Pacific and is chocked full of useful information & “how-tos.” Some of the many things you'll learn: how camouflage works in Nature, analyzing the specific camouflage needs of your location, theories and application of different camouflages, hiding in shadow, using camouflage netting, creating dummy targets, breaking up distinctive shadow lines that outline structures, concealment by “blending,” making “trees,” hiding routes & paths or creating fake ones, hiding targets in plain sight by adding minimal camouflage and more.

Martha Travis is a medium who makes contact with spirits "on the other side" and connects them with their loved ones still alive, in public performances. Trouble begins when she gives a message to Mary Kuron from her husband, Tom. But Tom isn't dead... yet. And Martha not only knows he will die, she also knows who killed him. And the murderer knows she knows...

An evil is unleashed in a small town when a logging company sets up shop in the neighboring woods. Isolated and threatened, a mysterious force hidden within the trees outside the small town of Maiden Woods, strikes fear in the townspeople as Sheriff Paul Shields attempts to overcome the demons of his past while protecting those that he loves.

Five tales by Edgar Allan Poe come to life thanks to a pictorical style animation, five tales that exude madness, pestilence, murder and torture.

An amusement park mogul offers a random group of diverse people $1 million to spend the night in a decrepit former mental institution.

The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.

A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither.

In the early 19th century, Dr. Frankenstein discovers the secret of life – how to create a perfect man – powerful, intelligent and immune to disease. But something goes wrong in the laboratory and the doctor’s hideous creation disappears into the night. At first, Frankenstein hoped that the horrible monster would perish in the wilderness, but now he senses that it’s alive and sets out for him. Dr. Frankenstein tracks the creature to the Arctic, where the two must battle to decide who will become the master of the other’s life…or death.

Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.

Several people disappear from and at the sea. Their bodies are found gnawed to the skeleton, even the marrow is missing. The scientists have no idea which animal could do such things. Dr. Turner begins to suspect that the company which builds a tunnel beneath the bay might have poisoned the environment and caused an octopus to mutate to giant dimensions...

When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner's clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover.

Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the film, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man who he saw being murdered 35 years before.

An immersive and enthralling journey through the Sonoran Desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, El Mar La Mar weaves together harrowing oral histories from the area with hand-processed 16mm images of flora, fauna and items left behind by travelers. Subjects speak of intense, mythic experiences in the desert: A man tells of a fifteen-foot-tall monster said to haunt the region, while a border patrolman spins a similarly bizarre tale of man versus beast. A sonically rich soundtrack adds to the eerie atmosphere as the call of birds and other nocturnal noises invisibly populate the austere landscape. Emerging from the ethos of Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab, J.P. Sniadecki's attentive documentary approach mixes perfectly with Joshua Bonnetta's meditations on the materiality of film. Together, they've created an experience of the border region like nothing you've seen, heard or felt before.

A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.

A man with a split personality fools his small town into believing his two alter egos are a man and a wife, although a struggling young mother holds the key to his past and sparks a battle between the two personalities.

Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the town of rats for the fee. The Mayor agrees, then renigs. In the morning, the plague, the Jew's trial, and the Piper's revenge come at once.

Addled prescription drug addict Daniel finds himself unraveling further under the stress of a recent breakup. Worse yet, he lives in a house haunted by nightmarish events from the past, images of which torment him in terrifying dreams. This hallucinatory horror film leaps off the screen with its disturbingly vivid visuals.

A young child and his mother face a visit from the terrifying sandman.

Angela is a French art student living in Germany who loves to draw comics and creates elaborate tales drawn in a soft and romantic style. One night, Angela meets Yamamoto, a club DJ from Japan, who invites her to come to Tokyo with him. Infatuated with Yamamoto, Angela impulsively agrees, and is soon sharing an apartment with a handful of Western expatriates who work at a nightclub where Japanese businessmen drink, sing karaoke, and date the "hostesses" for a fee.

A middle aged man, Tom, walks out one day on his wife and baby boy and his seemingly happy life with no explanation. He opts to live on the streets of London. Alone in a park at night he is set upon by a gang of violent thugs, in his bid to escape he accidentally runs into a tree. In A&E Tom meets an extremely happy, fast-talking individual, Aidan, the complete opposite of Tom. Too polite, or too weak to ask him to leave him alone Tom tries to get away from him but to no avail, Aidan sticks to Tom like glue. Tom reluctantly becomes involved in Aidan's life and he quickly realizes that this child like man clearly has his own problems, except Aidan can't see them, his shiny optimism blinds him at every turn, even from his 'girlfriend' the dangerous and volatile Linda.

An atmospheric, sub-hallucinogenic venture into the world of the unknown. The enigma facing a young woman is the identity of her father. Unfortunately for her, she becomes drawn into a small Romanian underworld of brooding menace, darkness, torture chambers, and bizarrely over make-over'ed vampires. The moody undertones and well chosen locations are certainly a bonus, as is the comically funny finale.

Gene Reardon (Hauer) is a twice-divorced police detective who lives with his daughter. When a well-heeled local man is kidnapped, the FBI is called in, which introduces Longsworth (played by Paulina Porizkova). Longsworth happens to have been Reardon's first wife. Reardon's police reputation stinks because he botched a high-profile kidnapping case many years ago, which resulted in a baby who was never found. When ransom demands are finally heard, Reardon must try to solve the case without repeating his mistakes.

An Irish filmmaker grapples with the legacy of his estranged father, the late documentarian Arthur MacCaig, through MacCaig's decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Drawing on over 30 years of unique and never-seen-before footage, 'The Image You Missed' is an experimental essay film that weaves together a history of the Northern Irish 'Troubles' with the story of a son's search for his father. In the process, the film creates a candid encounter between two filmmakers born into different political moments, revealing their contrasting experiences of Irish nationalism, the role of images in social struggle, and the competing claims of personal and political responsibility.

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

The story of Leon, an antiques collector who inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon, Leon comes to suspect that his mother's oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.

Charming animated sequel to Raymond Briggs's classic The Snowman. When a young boy and his mother move house, he builds a Snowman and a Snowdog who magically come to life.

A Christmas Carol, told the way Dickens told it himself: one man, one stage. Playing over 20 characters in a tour de force performance, Martin Prest brings Charles Dickens' timeless story of redemption to life. Miserly and unrepentant Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, one fateful Christmas Eve. Marley warns Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits and that, without their help, he will be condemned. Through the course of the night he is shown his Past, his Present and his Future by these spirits. He learns how his actions affect those around him and, also, how they have been affecting his own life. As popular now as when it was first published in 1843, this captivating seasonal tale has the feel good factor of a roast Christmas dinner and presents under the tree. The perfect start to any Christmas.

Ricky, a dim-witted ex-con, meets Beth, a dim-witted waitress, in an Idaho diner. They take off in his car to Washington and begin an affair. Beth, a lonely romance-novel addict, is hopelessly enamored; Ricky is just in it for the (constant) sex. Beth's longing to visit California and Ricky's longing for quick cash leads them into a desperate situation. Director Jost uses a variety of avant-garde visual and narrative techniques, such as montage, collages, split screens and lengthy, tongue-in-cheek monologues to tell the tragicomic story of two complete losers in love.

Three artists struggling against the grid of society find spiritual renewal.

When a town learns that Santa Claus has struck it off his delivery schedule due to an insulting letter, a way must be found to change his mind.

A federal agent joins forces with a British lawman to foil a spy ring.

Earth from Space takes you on an epic quest to discover the invisible forces and processes that sustain life on our planet and, for the first time, see them in action in their natural environment in vivid detail. These truly unique images will explore the deepest mysteries of its existence, raising profound questions and challenging the old assumptions of how Earth's system works.

In this edition of Starz Inside, Starz explores the increasingly popular animation style, anime. The documentary looks at the history of the genre, the pioneers and its influence in current film and television. A number of people in the entertainment industry, ranging from animators like David Silverman (The Simpsons) to actors (Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez) and even musicians (Rob Zombie), participate in the episode by talking about how anime has affected their work and the way they view animation.

Colorful, outspoken, a man of many contradictions, Ralph McGill emerged during the troubled years of the 1950s and '60s as a prominent and influential Southern white opponent of segregation and one of America's most revered newspaper editors. As he became convinced of the injustice of segregation and the inevitability of change, McGill used his front-page editorial column in the Atlanta Constitution as a Southern forum for his distinctive blend of moral outrage and pragmatic moderation. McGill's life is a touchstone for understanding the complex array of forces that dramatically reshaped the South and America in the quarter-century after World War II. These elements are blended with rare archival film, compelling contemporary images and a rich musical score to create an unusually moving and evocative film.

With jaw-dropping visuals and a captivating set list of fan favorites as well as unreleased remixes, see one of electronic music's biggest acts as you've never seen them before. The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience provides a look behind-the-curtain into the process of creating ODESZA's wildly successful return to the touring stage. Since they started making music in the basement of a college house, Harrison & Clay (ODESZA) have bucked industry trends and built a creative and dedicated production team of longtime close friends. Through personal interviews with the band, their fans, and members of their creative team, the film provides an entertaining and heartfelt look at the connection between the band and their fans, how life experiences shaped the creation of their latest album, and how ODESZA grew from small-town aspiring musicians to a four-time Grammy Award-nominated, major festival headlining icon.