Movies and Shows for Skeptics
In your typical screen fare, omens prove true, ghosts are real, monsters do exist, psychics are genuine, superstition is accurate, extraterrestrials are here, conspiracy theorists have the truth, God works in mysterious but irrefutable ways while skeptics are forced to change theirs or fall victim to divine retribution, blood-soaked fangs, malicious poltergeists, path-crossing black cats, sinister government forces and the like. But sometimes we get a different point of view.
NOTE: This list will be updated periodically.
NOTE: This list will be updated periodically.
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33 titles
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLionel BarrymoreElizabeth AllanBela LugosiWhen a nobleman is murdered, a professor of the occult blames vampires, but not all is what it seems.It turns out the vampires don't really exist—although the explanations for the seemingly supernatural occurrences are not very convincing.
- DirectorSidney FranklinVictor FlemingGustav MachatýStarsPaul MuniLuise RainerWalter ConnollyAlthough married Chinese farmers Wang and O-Lan initially experience success, their lives are complicated by declining fortunes and lean times, as well as the arrival of the beautiful young Lotus.The lazy uncle (Walter Connolly) believes the locust plague is brought by the gods, but the book-learned older son (Keye Luke) insists that the locusts are a natural occurrence and can be fought.
- DirectorSidney LanfieldStarsBasil RathboneNigel BruceRichard GreeneSherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the legend of a supernatural hound, a beast that may be stalking a young heir on the fog-shrouded moorland that makes up his estate.Sherlock Holmes investigates the case of a seemingly supernatural hound with a perfectly natural explanation in the best-known adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's story.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsJames EllisonHeather AngelJohn HowardSurviving members of an aristocratic English family are threatened by a legendary monster when they venture out on chilly, foggy nights.In contrast to The Wolf Man (1941) (1941), this horror flick finds a medical—though admittedly not very plausible—explanation for werewolves.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsAlice FayeDana AndrewsLinda DarnellA slick con man arrives in a small town looking to make some money, but soon gets more than he bargained for.John Carradine plays Professor Madley, a spiritualist who delivers messages to the dead, while making no pretense to his cronies that his 'spook shows' are anything but a con.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDavid NivenKim HunterRobert CooteA British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.Does David Niven really visit heaven or is it all just a hallucination? We're left to decide.
- DirectorHarry GerstadStarsGeorge ReevesJack LarsonNoel NeillThe members of a club devoted to spurning superstition begin to suffer a series of near-calamities.Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen, on duty as reporters, visit a club that is devoted to thumbing its collective nose at any and all superstitions. Members must walk under a ladder after entering the rented meeting house. Pins are left all over the floor, and members are forbidden to pick any up. The chairman calls the meetings to order by breaking a mirror. Their mascot, of course, is a black cat. When bad things begin to befall them, they prove to have a perfectly natural explanation. (Not that Superman is scientifically plausible, but you can't have everything.)
- DirectorAlan BeaumontStarsBernardine FlynnMaurice CopelandJim BannonMitch Fredericks is frantic, but Dr. Corey is unconcerned, on the day Andy is to jump from the roof with only an umbrella.Andy (Arthur Peterson) continues to believe in his own ability to predict the future even after Mitch (Jim Bannon) explains that he had tricked him into thinking he had such powers.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyFredric MarchGene KellyBased on a real-life case in 1925; two great lawyers argue the case for, and against, a Tennessee science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.It's science vs. religion, evolution vs. creation in this famous movie of the famous play about the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.It seems a motel caretaker's homicidal mother has risen from the grave—until the horrifying truth is revealed.
- DirectorRichard L. BareStarsWilliam ShatnerPatricia BreslinGuy WilkersonA pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune-telling machine in a local diner.Probably the only Twilight Zone episode to argue against the supernatural. William Shatner becomes a slave to his superstitious belief in the tacky little fortune-telling machine in a small-town diner.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsDeborah KerrPeter WyngardeMegs JenkinsA young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.Like Henry James's The Turn of the Screw on which it is based, this thriller can viewed as a straight ghost story or the story of a mad young woman who draws others into her hysteria.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.Most viewers don't notice it, but this horror movie about witchcraft does not make natural explanations, such as coincidences, impossible. Satan's visitation could be nothing more than Rosemary's nightmare and the worshipers' wishful thinking. We don't even see the baby. Rosemary screams something about its eyes. Hysteria? Deformities brought on by the tannis root? One of the funniest things about this jet-black comedy is imagining the shattering anti-climax of the baby's development as the would-be witches cling ever more desperately to their beliefs. (Skeptics will have to ignore the TV movie sequel, however.)
- DirectorPhilip CassonTrevor NunnStarsIan McKellenJudi DenchJohn BownMacbeth (Ian McKellen) is a daring member of the Scottish military, who receives a revelation from three menacing sorceresses that he will someday become the King of Scotland. This information gives him a thirst for power, and with prompting from his wife, Lady Macbeth (Judi Dench), he kills the current leader in order to take the throne. But he must continue to commit murders to keep his actions a secret, and soon no one is safe.The usual supernaturalism is not present in this adaptation of Shakespeare, even though the text (aside from the usual time-saving edits) is not altered. Here the witches have no obvious supernatural powers. In the play, Macbeth is probably hallucinating in act III, scene IV, although it specifies that the ghost appears; but this production makes the unusual choice of not having John Woodvine, who plays Banquo, appear as the ghost. Instead, Macbeth (Ian McKellen) reacts to 'the incorporeal air' when he sees the apparition.
- CreatorJoe RubyKen SpearsJoseph BarberaStarsDon MessickCasey KasemNicole JaffeA group of teenage friends and their Great Dane (Scooby-Doo) travel in a bright green van solving strange and hilarious mysteries, while returning from or going to a regular teenage function.This cartoon series about a talking dog is not exactly a fount of scientific rigor, but all the ghosts prove to be human tricksters in disguise, while many of show's spin-offs prefer them to be real.
- CreatorAnn DruyanCarl SaganSteven SoterStarsCarl SaganJaromír HanzlíkJonathan FahnAstronomer Carl Sagan leads us on an engaging guided tour of the various elements and cosmological theories of the universe.In Carl Sagan's glorious story of the cosmos he takes the time to examine myths, religion, creationism and extraterrestrials.
- DirectorLouis J. HorvitzStarsPeter UstinovWilliam EckertAnn MallalieuA panel of experts examines the five main suspects in the Jack the Ripper murders and determines which of them is the most likely to have committed the crimes.In front of a live audience, Peter Ustinov hosts an examination of who Jack the Ripper really was. Pre-recorded segments do their best to tantalize the viewer with possibility of mad conspiracies that go all the way up to the queen, but the producers made the mistake of inviting genuine criminal experts to examine the case and decide who is the most likely suspect. Their unanimous choice is also the most boring: the paranoid schizophrenic. The next time a Ripperologist tells you the murders could only have been committed by a skilled surgeon, refer him to this TV special.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsRobert De NiroRobin WilliamsJulie KavnerThe victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.Dr. Sayer (Robin Williams) believes his patients, catatonic for thirty years, may be conscious at some level. Dr. Ingham (Max von Sydow) believes they are unconscious simply because "the alternative would be unthinkable." Luckily for the patients, Sayer has a more scientific way of determining the truth. Also: Awakenings is probably the only movie to use a Ouija board for actual communication.
- StarsJames RandiGordon HigginsonRoger CrosthwaiteThe noted conjurer and skeptic, James Randi, investigates paranormal claims on stage in front of an audience.In front of a live audience, the famous conjurer, James Randi, debunks various paranormal claims.
- DirectorCarl CharlsonStarsJames RandiJohnny CarsonMike DouglasStage magician and scientific skeptic James Randi recounts his cases debunking claims of the supernatural around the world.After this series aired an overly credulous episode on the subject, James Randi set out to apply a more rigorous logic to psychics and psychic phenomena.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghJulie ChristieDerek JacobiHamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.When Horatio and the watchers see the ghost, it is subtly but unmistakably suggested that they are victims of an optical illusion and the power of suggestion prompted by the darkness, the lightning and a statue. This would mean that the hypersensitive Hamlet is the victim of an even stronger hallucination and would explain why he is the only one to hear the ghost (except when it utters the word "Swear!") and why later the ghost is only visible to him, not Gertrude, when it visits her chamber.
- DirectorScott PaddorStarsMichael DornOrson WellesWalter HautThe modern myth of the UFO begins with a 1938 radio broadcast and continues through two major 1947 sightings, the "contactee" movement, abduction stories and crop circles.This excellent TV documentary retains all the spooky thrills of the more credulous UFO specials, while taking a more hard-nosed position on whether extraterrestrials are actually visiting us and whether we have any evidence for it.
- DirectorPeter SmithStarsJohn NettlesDaniel CaseyJane WymarkThe body of a criminal is found in a crop circle, and the locals blame extra-terrestrial activity for the death. But Barnaby is not convinced.When a dead body turns up in a crop circle, a ufologist blames alien abduction, but DCI Barnaby suspects a human agency.
- CreatorRandall MoldaveEric SmallStarsPenn JilletteTellerShera PollinsThe comedy illusionist duo explore various topics and debunk what they consider misconceptions about them.The pair of conjuring comedians debunk the unscientific and irrational.
- DirectorGreg YaitanesStarsHugh LaurieLisa EdelsteinOmar EppsA nun suffering from acute dermatitis and asthma treated by House with possibly the wrong medication comes dangerously close to death.Nuns believe one of their sisters has stigmata. Dr. House has a more down-to-earth explanation. That is a minor plot point in an episode that nevertheless is filled with excellent discussions about faith vs. reason.
- StarsJonathan MillerArthur MillerRichard DawkinsJonathan Miller interviews five atheists and one theologian on the subject of atheism.Jonathan Miller interviews five atheists and one theologian on the subject of atheism.
- DirectorKashaf ChaudhryStarsTony RobinsonDan BrownOliver DaviesTony Robinson examines the claims made in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, "The Da Vinci Code."Tony Robinson takes a skeptical look at the conspiracy theories promoted by Dan Brown's best-selling thriller, The Da Vinci Code.
- DirectorTim KnightStarsDerren BrownLorraine DiFeliceAnn DruffelDerren Brown takes on a number of fake identities as he travels across the USA trying to convince people of his abilities in the area of psychic powers and the supernatural world.Derren Brown pretends to possess paranormal powers among those who claim to possess the same in order to find out if they can spot him as a phony. He also demonstrates how easy it is to get a skeptic to believe in God.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsAshley JuddMichael ShannonHarry Connick Jr.An unhinged war veteran holes up with a lonely woman in a spooky Oklahoma motel room. The line between reality and delusion is blurred as they discover a bug infestation.In an Oklahoma motel room, a lonely woman and a delusional war veteran protect themselves against an imaginary bug infestation. William Friedkin's film version of Tracy Letts's play not only demonstrates how powerful the power of suggestion is, but it also features one of the few conspiracy theorists in the movies who is actually a crackpot.
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsIvana BaqueroAriadna GilSergi LópezIn the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.The successful combination of real-life horror and mystical horror is just one of many triumphs of this strange, touching, violent fantasy, which (like A Matter of Life and Death (1946)) allows us to decide whether or not the fantasy elements were real or all a dream.
- DirectorRussell BarnesStarsYousef Al-KhattabRichard DawkinsTed HaggardRichard Dawkins' highly critical documentary attacks the pulsing heart of all mainstream religion- faith; with special focus on Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Contains repeated references to sectorial schools as child abuse and faith as the stepping stone to terrorist activity.Richard Dawkins examines the battle between faith and science. Among the astonishing things are a rehearsal for a play about hell, a secular Jew-turned-Muslim who is rabidly antisemitic and an apologist for the murderer of an abortion doctor.
- CreatorJames Manos Jr.StarsMichael C. HallJennifer CarpenterDavid ZayasHe's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them.From the religious hypocrisy of the Trinity Killer to Angel Batista's belief in the Law of Attraction, Dexter consistently turns a jaundiced eye toward anything supernatural.
- DirectorLarry CharlesStarsBill MaherTal BachmanJonathan BouldenBill Maher's take on the current state of world religion.Bill Maher ridicules religion and its believers.