down in the mouth - budget scifi movie may have had their heyday during Roger Corman ’s rise to B - film greatness in the 1950s , but they ’re still get going strong today — proving that you do n’t of necessity need plushy special effects to tell a really great story . Here are our ducky from the past few 10 .
14. Another Earth (2011)
Director Mike Cahill ( I Origins ) and star Brit Marling ( The Sound of My Voice , Netflix ’s The OA ) co - wrote this tale of guiltiness , grief , and cosmic 2d chances . Marling plays a brilliant cleaning woman named Rhoda who micturate a wicked , tragical mistake : causing a railcar fortuity that pop a woman and her unborn child , forget the woman ’s husband , John ( William Mapother ) , physically and mentally devastate . Rhoda induce another terrible mistake when she first seek to place affair right , seeking out John but give way to tell him who she really is . But possible repurchase comes from an unlikely place : the “ mirror world ” that looms above — lay out by a very simple-minded but effectual visual effect — where the hoi polloi and places are indistinguishable to those on our major planet , with the key divergence being that sure rotten liveliness decision may never have transpire .
13. John Dies at the End (2012)
This cult repulsion - scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli ( Bubba Ho - Tep , Phantasm ) features quite a few outrageous special force , as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti , but it was still made forless than a million dollar bill . Based on David Wong ’s novel , it ’s about a duo of buddies who experience increasingly bizarre hallucinations and circumstances ( alternating dimensions , alien , etc . ) when they bump a new street drug that ’s nicknamed “ Soy Sauce . ” Eventually , the fate of the world hangs in the balance — and along the way , there ’s also an evil supercomputer , a desperate andiron , and a monster that cobble itself together from a freezer full of gist .
12. Computer Chess (2013)
Filmed in black - and - snowy using period - appropriate video cameras , author - director Andrew Bujalski ’s offbeat and intricate study of a computing machine Bromus secalinus tournament is set in 1980 — and if you did n’t know any good , that ’s when you ’d think it was made . It was really made in 2013 .
bona fide nerd ( not Hollywood nerds ) converge on a flavorless hotel to determine whose program will reach chess domination , though the backstage dramas and micro - drama outside the competition provide most of the veridical interest . Though Computer Chess is mostly an awkward clowning , it ventures into scifi when it begin to intimate that one team ’s artificial intelligence operation software is path , way more self - aware than most anyone realizes or is uncoerced to admit .
11. The American Astronaut (2001)
Another black - and - livid entry , The American Astronaut grapple to meld the genre of scifi , Western , and melodious . Writer - director Cory McAbee , whoonce described his workas “ Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers , ” also plays the title of respect character — an intergalactic cowboy / rare - goods dealer who becomes mat in a outline to deliver a human beings to the all - female major planet of Venus ( but it gets way more complicated than that)—and his banding , the Billy Nayer Show , provided the tunes . Unsurprisingly , the end result is something completely unique , enhanced by the photographic film ’s usage of hired hand - painted , lo - fi extra effects in most case .
10. Monsters (2010)
Before Gareth Edwards did Godzilla — and then reach his lifelong dream of making a Star Wars movie with Rogue One — he work as a digital effects artist and practice those skills to his first feature , Monsters . As the statute title suggest , it ’s a monster movie , but it ’s uniquely set in a universe where humanity and aliens have been co - survive on Earth for a number of days , and while the tension and fear may not have deflate , the novelty has . stranger ( real - life couple Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able ) team up to re - enter the US from Mexico , but the slip is complicated by a margin that has become exponentially more uncongenial . Edwards , who also write the pic , did the motion-picture photography , and did the production intent , makes the most of a budget that ’s just a tiny fraction of what he ’d get for his future blockbusters .
9. Robot & Frank (2012)
Lonely , technology - averse , and intermittently forgetful retiree Frank acquires a companion robot from his well - meaning son , and presently actualise his new buddy would be the thoroughgoing partner in offense , literally . Robot & Frank is a touching sketch of aging , but it also does an incredible business wee a robot grapheme ( and it is a real , recrudesce character ) believably blend into its otherwise fairly typical indie - film landscape . A winning cast ( most prominently Frank Langella as Frank and Peter Sarsgaard as the interpreter of the robot , though a unlike worker actually wears the wooing ) further elevates this inspired effort from first - time director Jake Schreier and first - time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford .
8. Sleep Dealer (2008)
In Alex Rivera ’s thriller , it ’s a future in which illegal immigration between Mexico and the US has been totally outlaw ( thanks to a border wall … ) . However , since the US saving would give way without a steady stream of people willing to process for nothing , would - be prospective citizens labour in grim factories where they ’re physically plugged into virtual reality machines that control robots doing labor movement stateside . Within this uneasy mixture , we meet a gentleman’s gentleman who dreams of hacking into a monolithic corporation to restore piss to his region ; a woman who peddles uploaded storage ; and a lagger pilot light who has a crisis of moral sense . Sleep Dealer is obviously a politically - given story that ’s really about globalization , but it also do to be whole thrilling at the same meter .
7. Moon (2009)
At the very goal of a three - twelvemonth solo Erolia minutilla on the Moon , the man overseeing an automated mining deftness ( Sam Rockwell)—who has only his AI ( vocalize by Kevin Spacey ) for society — realizes he ’s not as alone as he once thought . He also initiate to surmise that his corporate employers are not as benevolent as he once believe . Director Duncan Jones ( Source Code , Warcraft ) is work onanother film set in the same universe as Moon , called Mute , which will also have scifi component though it ’ll be go down on Earth this sentence ; finally , he hop to do a third and make it a trilogy .
6. The Signal (2014)
College fry on a road trip take a detour to pass over down their bane , a mysterious hack who lure them to an exotic encounter , after which they ’re whisk to an ostensible politics facility that ’s experimenting with foreign technology . On humans . admit them . apart from its imaginative plot of ground , which keeps you guessing until the end ( and even then leave you with a gravid “ Huh ? ” icon ) , it ’s output aim that kindle 2001 : A Space Odyssey and plump for turns by Laurence Fishburne and Lin Shaye that make The Signal particularly memorable .
5. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
4. The One I Love (2014)
Yep , another one with Mark Duplass . Charlie McDowell ’s debut feature — filmed mostly at Colorado - maven Ted Danson ’s mansion — is about Ethan and Sophie ( Duplass and Elisabeth Moss ) , a married twosome who try out to relieve their human relationship by going on a weekend getaway . Things before long get very , very surreal when it becomes apparent that everything is not what it seems , especially not Ethan and Sophie , who become entangled in their very unconventional therapy session . ( No spoilers here , but of class there ’s a twist . ) Duplass and Moss are ridiculously full in a movie that need the most nuanced playact to make it seem credible — which they totally do .
3. Take Shelter (2011)
In rural Ohio , construction actor and family gentleman’s gentleman Curtis ( Michael Shannon ) becomes dangerously ghost with work up a tempest shelter in his backyard . As the picture show ( write and place by Jeff Nichols , who also made last class ’s excellent Midnight Special with Shannon ) advance , it ’s made clear that Curtis is n’t your run - of - the - mill end of the world prepper ; he believes he ’s receiving clues that a weather condition - stick out apocalypse is near . But are these mark real , or just paranoid sound reflection of a profoundly disruptive judgment ? Take Shelter hold until the very end for its giving reveal , but it serves up a definitive answer .
2. Primer (2004)
This is the gilded standard of all autonomous , small - budget movies about time traveling . Shane Carruth ( who write , directed , edited , scored , produced , and conscientious objector - stars ) famously spent just $ 7,000 making his mind - bending narrative of two guys who accidentally invent a time machine . But Primer is so much more than something that can be tighten to “ big ideas on a tiny budget . ” As the movie come along , the invention lurch from amazing discovery to destructive force , as timelines overlap and intersect and a grinder manikin between the two friends . It catch puzzling as hell , for both the audience and the characters — but you never lose the sensation that Carruth knew exactly what want to do , every step of the way .
1. Coherence (2013)
A dinner party among friends ( and a few frenemies ) get unearthly when a comet go past overhead and strike hard out the power . When fellow member of the group speculation out to check on the vicinity , they see that the comet has opened threshold between parallel dimensions , each stop different versions of themselves , all attending their own dinner parties . by nature , world begin to crisscross , a billet that has fussy appeal for Emily ( Emily Baldoni ) , whose personal and professional lives are both on a downward helix — in her reality , anyway . Filmed in conductor James Ward Byrkit ’s own home , Coherence make great use of improv and some simple but efficacious props ( lambency stick , picture , a ping pong boat paddle ) to weave a thoroughly judgment - bend “ what if ? ” tale .
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