However, hope springs eternal. Most of the full version of 1927’s Metropolis got found and restored in 2008. George Romero’s thriller The Amusement Park made its way back to Romero’s family and was put up on Shudder in 2021. 1928’s The Passion of Joan of Arc was found in a Norwegian mental hospital. So maybe someday, these lost films will turn up somewhere.

8 Big Bug Man

Brendan Fraser’s return to cinema with The Whale was one of 2022’s most heart-warming moments. Whether the reappearance of Big Bug Man would mar that or not is up in the air. Originally meant to be released in 2004, Fraser starred in this animated film about Howard Kind, a candy factory worker who gets bitten by bugs and becomes a superhero.

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Its release got pushed back year by year before going silent for good in 2008. The rise of 3D animation made the film’s 2D look unlikely to catch on in the 2000s, and it might not do as well in the 2020s either. But on top of featuring Fraser, it was also the last film legendary actor Marlon Brando worked on. He played the factory owner Mrs. Sour, and reportedly had fun with the role. If it turned up, it would be one of the oddest capstones to a star’s career.

7 All-American Massacre

This unofficial follow-up to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was made across 1998-2000 and is actually completed in full. It would have followed Bill Moseley’s character Chop Top as he tells his life story to a journalist in a psychiatric hospital. It would flash back to how Chop Top joined up with Leatherface and his family, and then what he did after TCM2.

Originally it was going to be a 10-minute short to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original TCM film. Then it got longer over time, incorporating more actors like musician Buckethead as Leatherface. No one knows for sure why it never got released, with some citing rights issues, and other a lack of funding. A small clip containing Buckethead made it online, but otherwise, all that’s left are cast interviews and a trailer.

6 Heartbeat in the Brain

Scientist Amanda Feilding is famous for her research into the nature of consciousness and psychoactive drugs, like LSD and MDMA.But those aren’t the only ways of playing with the brain. Trepanation (the practice of drilling holes in the skull) has also been said to cure a variety of ailments and heighten people’s minds. In 1970, Fielding produced a documentary following her research into the field, culminating in her drilling a hole in her own skull because she couldn’t find a doctor willing to do it.

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Feilding somehow pulled it off and is still alive today. Unfortunately, her documentary has all but disappeared. Clips of it appear in the 1998 documentary A Hole in the Head, but it was presumed completely lost after that. Until it resurfaced for a screening in 2011 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, with further clips in Hamilton’s Pharmocopeia. So, there are least some private copies out there waiting for a wider release — for viewers who can stomach it.

5 Spider-Man Vs Kraven the Hunter

Almost 50 years before Sony thought of their upcoming Kraven the Hunter movie, Bruce Cardozo and his fellow New York Uni put him on film alongside his web-headed nemesis. Spider-Man Vs Kraven the Hunter was a 30-minute fan film made with the intent of bringing their original comic book encounter to life. It received a thumbs-up from Spidey co-creator Stan Lee himself, but rights issues kept it from a widespread release.

The film was screened at comic book conventions from 1976 to 2005, but no reported copies have turned up. Cardozo had converted it from 16mm to a digital format, but the PC it was stored on was reportedly destroyed. The original reels may still be out there, but after Cardozo’s passing in 2015, it’s up to his surviving family if they want to show them publicly. That is, if they have them, and if they wanted to show them if they did. Still, Cardozo did get to help bring comic books to life, as he worked as a VFX artist for 2011’s Captain America and 2012’s The Avengers among other films.

4 Bulgasari

Many film buffs today are familiar with Pulgasari, the North Korean kaiju film made by director Shin Sang-Ok after the country abducted him for searching for his previously abducted ex-wife Choi Eun-hee. That film can still be seen today, and is pretty easy to find online. However, that wasn’t the only version of the Korean monster to be filmed, nor was it the first.

1962’s Bulgasari preceded it by 23 years. Directed by Kim Myeong-Jae, it was about a martial artist who turns into the metal-eating menace to avenge his death. It was not only Korea’s first kaiju film, but the first one to use special effects, mainly because the film industry at the time focused on grounded, historical dramas and settings. As such, the film was critically panned, and it disappeared soon after release. The only physical proof left of it are some newspaper articles from the time, and some posters.

3 London After Midnight

Lon Chaney Sr. was famous for being the ‘Man with 1,000 Faces,’ becoming a cinematic pioneer in his use of makeup and prosthetics. His portrayals of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the titular character in Phantom of the Opera are still famous today. However, another iconic role of his was in a film that’s all but completely destroyed now.

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London After Midnight saw Chaney play a detective who dons a vampire disguise to drive a murder suspect to reveal the truth. His disguise has appeared in countless books, magazines, websites, and more, inspiring The Babadook and other creeps. Yet, the original film was presumed destroyed in a vault fire in 1967. The best fans can currently get is a slideshow formed from the production stills that’s available on the Lon Chaney Collection DVD set.

2 Peludópolis

The early 20th century produced many pioneers in animation, from Windsor McCay to the Fleischers, as well as a certain man and his mouse. But without the lesser-known Quirino Cristiani, they made have been left up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Cristiani was an Argentinian director best known in his home country for satirizing then-President Hipolito Yrigoyen with his films. This critical look helped Cristiani create Argentina’s first animated film, 1917’s El Apóstol.

But his magnum opus would be 1931’s Peludópolis, which was about an incompetent leader who sinks his floating city in shark-infested waters. It became the first animated film to use sound. Like London After Midnight, Peludópolis, El Apóstol, and most of Cristiani’s work got lost in vault fires across 1957 and 1961. Aside from a making-of documentary and stills, Peludópolis may be gone for good.

1 Wasei King Kong

Godzilla is Japan’s most famous giant monster, but he wasn’t the first. 1934 saw Daibutsu Kaikoku, a film about a giant Buddha wandering around Japan. That film is also lost and would be worth seeing again for its quirks. Yet that wasn’t Japan’s first kaiju film either. It was beaten to the punch a year early by Wasei King Kong. Maybe. It depends on one’s definition of a ‘kaiju/monster film,’ as its King Kong may not have been an actual monster.

Directed by Torajira Saito, the film was a romantic comedy short about a man who tries to earn money for his girlfriend by dressing up as the giant ape for a stage show. Considering the American film came out in the same year, it would have been the talk of the town worldwide. The film has been gone for so long that it’s presumed lost, possibly even destroyed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Still, there’s a chance a reel or two are lying around somewhere in Japan.

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