List of World War II science fiction, fantasy, and horror films
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Below is an incomplete list of science fiction, fantasy, and horror feature films or miniseries on the theme of World War II.
A separate list of TV series appears at the end.
20th century
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1941 | United States | King of the Zombies | Jean Yarbrough | Horror-comedy. Nazi doctor on island off US coast attempting to acquire war intelligence using zombies[1] | |
1942 | United States | Black Dragons | William Nigh | SF. Scientist turns Japanese spies into Americans[1] | |
1942 | United States | Spy Smasher (serial) | William Witney | ||
1942 | United Kingdom | Thunder Rock | Roy Boulting | Fantasy/Drama. Outspoken anti-Fascist journalist in isolation of Lake Michigan lighthouse visited by immigrant spirits who encourage fight against Fascism | |
1943 | United States | A Guy Named Joe | Victor Fleming | Fantasy. Spirit of dead pilot acts as "guardian angel" for new pilots | |
1943 | United States | Revenge of the Zombies | Steve Sekely | Horror. | |
1943 | United States | Tarzan Triumphs | Wilhelm Thiele | Adventure. German paratroopers conquer a lost city in Africa | |
1946 | United Kingdom | A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) | Powell and Pressburger | Fantasy. | |
1964 | United States | The Incredible Mr. Limpet | Arthur Lubin, Robert McKimson | Live-action/animated comedy. Man turns into talking fish and helps US Navy destroy U-boats, 1941 | |
1966 | United Kingdom | The Frozen Dead | Herbert J. Leder | SF horror. Scientist reanimates frozen heads of Nazi war criminals to revive Third Reich | |
1966 | United States | Spy Smasher Returns (TV) | William Witney | Action-adventure. Superhero Alan Armstrong battles Nazi villains and saboteurs determined to spread destruction; edited TV version of 1942 serial Spy Smasher | |
1968 | United States | They Saved Hitler's Brain (TV) | David Bradley | SF thriller. Nazis in South America kidnap scientist to maintain living head of Adolf Hitler in order to revive the Third Reich | |
1971 | United States | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Robert Stevenson | Children's fantasy musical. German raid on England repulsed with magic, 1940 | |
1972 | United States | Slaughterhouse-Five | George Roy Hill | SF based on Kurt Vonnegut novel. Firebombing of Dresden, 1945 | |
1975 | Italy France |
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom | Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma | Pier Paolo Pasolini | Talks about four libertines that kidnap 18 teenagers and subject them to four months of extreme violence, sadism, and sexual and psychological torture during the last days of the Italian Social Republic. |
1975 | United States | Wonder Woman (The New Original Wonder Woman / The New Adventures of Wonder Woman) (TV) | Leonard Horn | Action-adventure. Pilot in dogfight with Nazi plane crash-lands in Bermuda Triangle on uncharted island inhabited by women | |
1977 | United States | Shock Waves (Almost Human / Shockwaves) | Ken Wiederhorn | SF horror. Island-shipwrecked party encounters former SS commander leading zombie storm troopers | |
1977 | Czechoslovakia | Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea | Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem | Jindrich Polák | SF comedy. Time travel by aging former Nazis conspiring to alter results of war |
1978 | United States United Kingdom |
The Boys from Brazil | Franklin J. Schaffner | SF thriller based on Ira Levin novel. Nazi hunter discovers doctor's plot to revive Third Reich by cloning Hitler in Paraguayan jungle | |
1980 | United Kingdom Canada |
Death Ship | Alvin Rakoff | Horror-Mystery. Nazi prison ship sails seas since end of war luring unsuspecting victims aboard | |
1980 | United States | The Final Countdown (U.S.S. Nimitz: Lost in the Pacific) | Don Taylor | SF. Modern US nuclear aircraft carrier lost in storm arrives in South West Pacific Theatre on 7 December 1941 | |
1981 | France | Oasis of the Zombies (Bloodsucking Nazi Zombies / The Treasure of the Living Dead) | L'abîme des morts vivants | Jesus Franco | Horror. Treasure hunters seeking Nazi bullion, carried across Sahara Desert by Wehrmacht soldiers falling under Allied assault with only one survivor, encounter gold's zombie protectors |
1981 | France Spain |
Zombie Lake (The Lake of the Living Dead) | Le lac des morts vivants | Jean Rollin | Horror. Wehrmacht soldiers killed in lake by French Resistance during war are reanimated into zombies |
1982 | United States | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | Carl Reiner | Detective comedy. Nazis in Latin America with weaponized cheese mould | |
1984 | United Kingdom | The Keep | Michael Mann | Action-horror. German Army and "Einsatzkommandos" occupy Romanian citadel with demonic forces | |
1984 | United States | The Philadelphia Experiment | Stewart Raffill | Adventure-fantasy. Military experiment sends USN destroyer escort from Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1943, to 1984 Nevada desert town; prequel to 1993 film Philadelphia Experiment II | |
1985 | United States | Zone Troopers | Danny Bilson | SF. Soldiers find alien craft | |
1986 | Spain | In a Glass Cage | Tras el cristal | Agustí Villaronga | Horror. |
1989 | United States | Puppetmaster (Puppet Master I) | David Schmoeller | SF horror. Nazi mission to capture US puppeteer with "secret to life" ate[clarification needed] explored by modern scientists | |
1991 | United States | Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge | David DeCoteau | Horror-thriller. Puppeteer avenging his wife killed by Nazis bent on developing drug that reanimates dead | |
1991 | United States | The Rocketeer | Joe Johnston | Action-adventure. Young pilot discovers Howard Hughes' jetpack prototype and as flying superhero battles Nazis before US entry into war | |
1993 | United States | Philadelphia Experiment II | Stephen Cornwell | Adventure-fantasy. Military experiment sends ex-WWII sailor to alternative "1993" where Germany has won war before arriving in Nazi Germany along with modern stealth bomber, 1943; sequel to 1984 film The Philadelphia Experiment | |
1998 | United States | Apt Pupil | Bryan Singer | Horror based on Stephen King novella. | |
1999 | United States | The Devil's Arithmetic (TV) | Donna Deitch | Fantasy/Drama. Modern teenage girl projected into 1940's death camp prisoner to experience horrors firsthand |
21st century
[edit]2000s
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | United Kingdom | The Bunker | Rob Green | In 1944, in the Belgian - German border, seven German soldiers survive an American attack in the front and lock themselves in a bunker. Under siege by the enemy and with little ammunition, they decide to explore tunnels to seek supplies and find an escape route. While in the tunnel, weird things happen to the group. | |
2002 | United States | Below | David Twohy | Strange happenings occur on a United States WW II submarine after picking up three survivors from a sunken British hospital ship. | |
2002 | United States Canada Australia |
Return to Never Land | Robin Budd, Donovan Cook | Animated family adventure based on J.M. Barrie book. Peter Pan rescues young girl from Captain Hook in Never Land during Battle of Britain, 1940; sequel to the 1953 film Peter Pan | |
2003 | Cuba Spain |
More Vampires in Havana | Más Vampiros en la Habana | Juan Padrón | Sequel to the 1985 cuban animated film called Vampires in Havana talks about a Nazi scientist creating an army of Nazi vampires who cause trouble in the city of Havana, Cuba. |
2004 | United States | Hellboy | Guillermo del Toro | Infant demon summoned from Hell to Earth by Nazi occultists discovered by Allied Forces | |
2005 | Japan | Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean | Rōrerai (ローレライ) | Shinji Higuchi, Cellin Gluck | Experimental Japanese submarine attempts to prevent atomic bombing of Tokyo |
2006 | Sweden | Frostbite | Frostbiten | Anders Banke | Horror comedy. Former SS geneticist attempting to create master breed of vampires in Norrland |
2006 | United Kingdom | Ghostboat (TV) | Stuart Orme | Mystery-thriller based on Neal R. Burger novel. Fictional RN submarine presumed lost in Baltic in 1943 resurfaces near end of Cold War, 1981 | |
2006 | United States | Horrors of War (Zombies of War) | Peter John Ross, John Whitney | Action-horror. OSS conducts missions to discover source of Hitler's wunderwaffen and vergeltungswaffen terrorizing Allies | |
2006 | Spain Mexico |
Pan's Labyrinth | El laberinto del fauno | Guillermo del Toro | Fantasy/Drama. Parable influenced by fairy tale of young girl's escape into abandoned labyrinth with mysterious faun creature in Francoist Spain, May–June 1944 |
2006 | Canada | War of the Dead | Sean Cisterna | Horror. Special agent investigating deaths of WWII veterans being hunted down by Nazi zombies | |
2006 | United States | SS Doomtrooper | David Flores | Action Sci-Fi. A genetically bred Nazi super soldier fights Allied troops. | |
2007 | United States | Reign of the Gargoyles (TV) | Ayton Davis | Action-horror. An American aircrew join forces with British soldiers and local townsfolk to battle living gargoyles and the German army | |
2008 | United Kingdom | Outpost | Steve Barker | Action-horror. Mercenaries on Eastern European mission battling mysterious Nazi evil in old Nazi bunker | |
2008 | United States | WarBirds (TV) | Kevin Gendreau | American air crew in Pacific Theatre meet pterosaurs | |
2009 | Norway | Dead Snow | Død snø | Tommy Wirkola | Horror-comedy. SS troops killed in Norway reanimate into zombies terrorizing a modern-day wilderness vacation |
2009 | Russia Japan Canada |
First Squad | Pervyy otryad (Первый отряд) (in Russian); Fāsuto sukuwaddo ファースト・スクワッド (in Japanese) | Yoshiharu Ashino | Anime. Set during the Eastern Front, featuring Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities that are opposed by a supernatural army of crusaders |
2009 | United States | The Land That Time Forgot | C. Thomas Howell | SF based on Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. Stranded U-boat crew in time void on island inside Bermuda Triangle; loosely made re-make of similarly titled 1975 film | |
2009 | United States | Blood Creek (Town Creek) | Joel Schumacher | Horror-thriller. Brothers on revenge mission in rural West Virginia where Nazi professor has been waging occult war since 1936 |
2010s
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | United States Canada Germany |
Bloodrayne: The Third Reich | Uwe Boll | Fantasy-thriller. Dhamphir battling vampire Nazi officer bent on making Hitler immortal | |
2010 | United Kingdom | Jackboots on Whitehall | Edward McHenry, Rory McHenry | Animatronic satire. Alternative history of war where Nazi Germany occupies London | |
2010 | United Kingdom | Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (Nanny McPhee Returns) | Susanna White | Comedy fantasy. Operation Pied Piper and governess who uses magic to aid farm family in need of assistance | |
2010 | United States Canada Germany |
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil | David DeCoteau | Horror-SF. Young man dreaming of joining war effort finds dead puppeteer's crate of mysterious puppets before battling Axis agents on homefront | |
2010 | United Kingdom | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Michael Apted | Fantasy-adventure based on C. S. Lewis novel. Children travel from wartime England to the magical land of Narnia | |
2011 | United States Canada Germany |
Blubberella | Uwe Boll | Action-Comedy. Dhamphir battling Nazis bent on eliminating Resistance group on Eastern Front; spoof of BloodRayne: The Third Reich | |
2011 | United States | Captain America: The First Avenger | Joe Johnston | Based upon the Marvel comic book of Captain America,American soldier transformed into super soldier aids war effort against Hitler's head of advanced weaponry | |
2011 | New Zealand | The Devil's Rock | Paul Campion | Action-horror. A New Zealand commando on the Channel Islands discovers a Nazi occult plot to win the war | |
2011 | United States Lithuania Italy |
War of the Dead | [2] | Marko Mäkilaakso | Action-horror. Medical experiments performed on captured Russian soldiers by Gestapo officer who are later encountered by platoon of American and Finnish soldiers, 1939/41 |
2012 | Finland Germany Australia |
Iron Sky | [2] | Timo Vuorensola | Nazis attack Earth from Moon base |
2012 | United States | Nazis at the Center of the Earth (V) | Joseph J. Lawson | A direct-to-video sci-fi film produced by The Asylum | |
2012 | United Kingdom | Outpost: Black Sun | Steve Barker | Action horror. Scientist develops technology to create immortal Nazi zombie army near end of war to prevent rise of 4th Reich; sequel to 2008 film Outpost | |
2013 | Netherlands United States Czech Republic |
Frankenstein's Army | Army of Frankenstein | Richard Raaphorst | Action, Horror, Sci-fi. Russian soldiers find secret Nazi lab in eastern Germany |
2013 | United Kingdom | Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz | Outpost 3 | Kieran Parker | Action horror. Russian soldiers find themselves facing not only zombie soldiers but also the threat of becoming part of the zombie army too; sequel to 2012 film Outpost: Black Sun |
2015 | India | Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! | Dibakar Banerjee | Based upon the novel Satyanweshi by the Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The film, set in the war-torn Calcutta of the 1940s, follows the first adventure of detective Byomkesh, fresh out of college, as he pits himself against an evil genius who is out to destroy the world. | |
2017 | United States | Transformers 5 | Michael Bay | Science fiction; Relevant to the plot of the long history of Transformers, Bumblebee, who now transforms into a Mercedes-Benz 770 instead of a Chevy Camaro, is allied with the Devil's Brigade unit and helps them besiege Nazi territory with his war hammer. | |
2018 | United States | Overlord | Julius Avery | Thriller, Horror; During D-Day, American paratroopers stumble upon a strange Nazi experiment in a French village. | |
2018 | Poland Germany Netherlands |
Werewolf | Wilkołak | Adrian Panek | A horror film set in the immediate aftermath of World War II in a temporary orphanage for children liberated from a concentration camp.[3][4] |
2019 | United States | Hellboy | Neil Marshall | Thriller, Horror; Lobster Johnson crashes a Nazi ritual during the war in a flashback sequence. |
2020s
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | United Kingdom Bulgaria |
Ghosts of War | Eric Bress | horror - five American soldiers are ordered to hold a French castle formerly occupied by the Nazi high command and encounters virtual ghosts | |
2020 | United States New Zealand |
Shadow in the Cloud | Roseanne Liang | Action-horror. A woman on a top-secret mission joins an all-male crew on a flight from New Zealand to Samoa in 1943 during the Pacific War. | |
2023 | United States | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | James Mangold | Action-adventure. Indiana Jones battles Nazi scientists in both 1944 and 1969. |
In development
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Finland | I Killed Adolf Hitler | Timo Vuorensola | [citation needed] | |
201X | United States | The Bleeding (The Bleeding of Hauptmann Gehlen) | Josef Rusnak | Horror thriller. American spy in Romania infiltrates SS fighting partisans in Carpathians and encounters vampires[5] | |
201X | United States | Boys From Brazil | Brett Ratner | Thriller based on Ira Levin novel. Neo-Nazi plot to begin Fourth Reich in South America by cloning Hitler; remake/sequel to 1978 film The Boys From Brazil[6][7][8] | |
201X | Canada Germany |
Fangs of War | Jim Donovan | Horror thriller. Nazi Supernatural Division secret lab at Castle Dracula, Transylvania unlocks secrets of Count Dracula's immortality, 1944.[9] | |
201X | United States | Panzer 88 | Peter Briggs | Action thriller. Eastern Front King Tiger tank crewmen battle creature | |
201X | United States | Toon Patrol: Roger Rabbit II | To be determined | Comedy and live-action/animated. Kidnapping of Jessica Rabbit by Nazi spies; prequel to 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit [citation needed] |
Other films
[edit]In Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film Starship Troopers, the troopship is named the Rodger Young, after Medal of Honor recipient Rodger Wilton Young.[10]
Dramatized documentary
[edit]Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) |
Original title (Original script) |
Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Russia United States |
Philosophy of a Knife (V) | Andrey Iskanov | Horror. Unit 731 and Japanese human experimentation |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b This film is available at the Internet Archive. Refer to the film's article for the link.
- ^ a b This film is an international co-production shot in English.
- ^ "Wilkołak". Filmweb.pl. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
- ^ "Werewolf". Cineuropa.org. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
- ^ Barton, Steve (31 August 2011). "Vampires Run Amok During World War II in The Bleeding". Dread Central. Dread Central Media, LLC. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- ^ "Brett Ratner Remaking Boys From Brazil". SideReel. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- ^ "Boys From Brazil set for remake". BBC News. BBC. 10 August 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- ^ "The Boys From Brazil (Remake)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 31 January 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- ^ "Fangs Of War Synopsis". Fangs of War. Stealth Media Group. 2012. Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
- ^ Heinlein, Robert A. Starship Troopers. Biographical note on Rodger Young.