Choose your kind of movie night

Big teeth, small towns and gloriously unlikely threats. Start with a swamp creature, then see what happens when the zoo bites back.

Shadows on staircases, strange houses and visitors who should never have arrived. These older films have very different ways of making a quiet room feel less comfortable.

A bad decision, an unreliable explanation and very little time to put things right. Follow the clues through hard-edged thrillers and black-and-white crime stories.

Choose your kind of ridiculous: a silent-film chase, a conversation nobody can control or a horror comedy that knows exactly how silly it sounds.

An approaching train, a stranger in town or a journey across open country. Compare classic westerns with later films that question who gets to be the hero.

Basketball, music, tightropes and people whose determination becomes a story of its own. A documentary night can take you somewhere a fictional adventure never would.

Conversations, unlikely friendships and lives changing without an enormous spectacle. Leave space for a film that draws you closer instead of turning up the volume.

Folklore, friendship and worlds made one frame at a time. Read the premise and age guidance for your group; an animated image is not a universal promise of suitability.

A journey, a family argument, an investigation or an unexpected second chance. These Hindi-language productions are a starting point, not a guarantee of a particular dubbed or subtitled edition.

Start with the cricketing ambitions of Jersey or the interwoven lives of C/o Kancharapalem. Original language identifies the production; check the selected edition for audio and captions.

Investigations, western towns, domestic comedy and familiar opening credits. Open a show for its seasons before deciding where you want to begin.

Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd turn a physical predicament into a whole world of possibilities. Look for a transfer with a score you enjoy, then let the images do the talking.

Follow the eight feature films in release order, from the first arrival at Hogwarts to the two-part conclusion. Each installment has its own running time and viewing options.

The joke and the scare are often closer together than they seem. Try a deadpan monster encounter, a disastrous shopping mall or a cabin trip that goes very wrong.

Plans made under pressure and people trying to stay alive inside a much larger conflict. The setting may be shared, but the perspective changes from film to film.

A performance can be the center of a film or the thing that changes a life around it. These music-led choices move between concert, memory and the search for a voice.