The Top 10 Best Urban Fantasy Movies
Urban Fantasy Brings the Best of Fantasy, Noir, and Everything Else You Could Want!
I’m quickly becoming a big fan of the urban fantasy genre, which means it’s my duty as a geek to obsess over it. While everyone who knows me will have to listen to me drone on and on for the next few weeks, you only have to put up with me for 10 movies. That being said, I should probably let you know what constitutes urban fantasy in my book. For one thing, it has a lot of elements of classic fantasy including magic, mythological creatures, ghosts, and, occasionally, the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The thing that makes it different is that these are hardly sword and sorcery films, meaning that the fantasy elements in it have adapted to a more modern environment (one that is hopefully dark and gritty too). Think of it like fantasy and noir had a baby, and you pretty much have an urban fantasy. If that caught your attention, then you’re in luck, because I’m counting down the 10 best urban fantasy movies to date. The only rule is that they have to be live action movies that received theatrical releases.
10. Lord of Illusions
Clive Barker is known for his exceptionally dark, dirty, and dystopian aesthetic. He received a ton of admiration for films like Hellraiser and Dark Breed. I loved his urban fantasy flick Lord of Illusions, which follows a down and out detective who winds up getting involved in a very different kind of underworld. While magicians exist in the world of Lord of Illusion actual magic wielders are also very much alive and real. Like most noir movies, the detective soon finds that his case is much bigger than he thought at first and winds up getting involved trying to stop a cult attempting to revive their long-dead leader, who will inevitably bring about the end of the world. Lord of Illusion asks the real questions, like can a .38 Special save you from a guy who shoots fireballs out of his hands?
9. Highlander
I might have gotten ahead of myself when I said that the urban fantasy movies on this list weren’t going to be “sword and sorcery.” One of the best movies of the 80’s tells the tale of a rare race of immortal swordsmen who are destined to do battle until only one remains. Since they’re kinda far and few between, this battle manages to make it all the way into the 1980’s. This is where the last stand begins between an ancient Scotsman and an evil German known only as The Kurgan. The two are forced to do battle until one can manage to chop the head off the other (it’s the only way for them to truly die). The winner will receive the ultimate power, which is never really explained. While it might be a classic movie, that still doesn’t stop me from questioning why one of the characters was a Spaniard, with a Welsh accent (Sean Connery), also uses a katana…
8. The Crow
The next urban fantasy movie to make this list is actually a comic book adaptation. Don’t worry though, because this is one character that definitely doesn’t wear a cape. The Crow is a film marred by tragedy due to the untimely death of Brandon Lee on the set. Regardless of that though, it’s still a cult classic that saw a slew of sequels (all of which pretty much sucked) and even a short-lived sci-fi series. The story revolves around a musician who is killed by a bunch of gangsters. Unfortunately for the killers, it turns out the guy they killed wasn’t quite ready for the afterlife and he comes back as an immortal who is hellbent on getting vengeance on them. It’s one hell of a revenge movie and from a time when Alex Proyas wasn’t making problematic movies like Gods of Egypt. Definitely worth watching if you like dark and gritty films.
7. Odd Thomas
Anton Yelchin left a pretty big hole in my heart after his tragic death in 2016, but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t look back on all his movies fondly. One of his craziest films was Odd Thomas in which he plays a short-order cook who “sees dead people.” The thing is that he actually does something about it when ghosts cry out for justice. So, this small-town guy ends up becoming the avenger for those that suffered unnatural deaths. Thomas finds himself getting in over his head when he discovers that a mass murder is going to occur in his small town. With the help of his psychic abilities and the lingering dead to help him stop a terrible tragedy, it’s Yelchin at his finest as an “everyman” faced with extraordinary circumstances.
6. Angel Heart
Angel Heart is a weird horror-noir film from the late 80’s starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro. It’s a tale filled with twists and turns, and the ending will shake you to the core. As far as the urban fantasy movies on this list, Angel Heart is by far away the darkest of them all. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s hard to watch, but Angel Heart is a truly great urban fantasy tale, that only reveals the fantasy elements at the very end. Turns out that when you’re a detective you should really pay attention to who hires you for a job. Detective Harry Angel learns this the hard way (like every other big-screen detective) when it’s revealed that his employer is hardly a good guy. If you like horror movies that will really mess with your mind, then Angel Heart is one that you’ll definitely want to check out.