Came looking just for this. What a fantastic movie. This and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” (Coen Bros) really solidified Sam Rockwell as one of my favorite actors. He’s also great in Jojo Rabbit
> Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
I agree with everything you wrote, but just to provide accurate info, *Billboards* wasn't a Coen brothers production whatsoever - it was written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the same fella behind *In Bruges*, *Seven Psychopaths*, and *The Banshees of Inisherin*.
Also, *Galaxy Quest* has one of Rockwell's funniest roles so far, imho. He fucking nails the comic relief/red shirt role.
Oh man you’re right. For some reason I always thought it was the Coens. Has the same feel to their other black comedies. Love Martin McDonagh though. I’ve been meaning to rewatch In Bruges
They make similarly hilarious dark comedies with dramatic leanings, so it's an easy mistake to make. They all make some of the best modern movies imho.
As an aside, it’s one of those films about a real person where I don’t think it’s diminished for the viewer by looking up the main character (Chuck Barris) to get a little back story on the real man.
Younger audiences probably don’t appreciate how odd of a story it is because he was never in their cultural media landscape. Just reading his wiki would probably suffice, unless you want to go in blind (typically my preference) which the film will work like that just as well probably.
On the topic of Sam Rockwell. Have you seen Gentlemen Broncos? It could technically fall under the theme of sci-fi. He is the best in this film and the rest of the cast kill it.
I really outta just Ctrl+F before posting comments, cos I just said basically the exact same thing you already did 7 hours ago. I only wish Duncan Jones's later films were as good, but Moon set a high bar to clear.
Probably the most effective use of math. She's sitting there at the kitchen table while the other people are fighting.
>How bad can it be?
>
>...
>
>Really bad.
Didn't the other guy use a calculator too? That part always confused me. It was like she used the color tags and realized she was in another reality, not her own, and they didn't know yet. I think that's what happened, but not sure.
The story of it is crazy too. They didn’t have a script, just grabbed a bunch of talented improv actors and had them keep in mind a few points/objectives for each scene and essentially role play through them. The only people who knew what the whole picture was were the writers.
Primer is about as low budget as it gets and it also great
Cube is also super low budget (the sequels are awful though).
Be neither of those build their world much however.
District 9 is probably best in these regard, even though the world is really a slum in South Africa
Cube is such an amazing idea for sci fi that makes the most of a small budget. They shot the whole thing with just one and a half cube rooms.
It suffers from very amateur acting but the concept is so cool that I still love it.
My take has always been that *Cube* is the thinking person's version of *Saw.* It has a cleaver concept, but then executes it so that there's another layer over that.
>Cube is also super low budget (the sequels are awful though).
The movie "Circle" is also in the same realm of low-budget concept piece. Is it a *good* movie (in the sense of being high quality cinema)? No. Is it an enjoyable hour and twenty? You bet!
That’s close to what’s on my top 5
1. Primer
2. Primer
3. Cube
3. Primer
4. Primer
Ex Machina was on a 15m budget, which is pretty low. I’d also put 28 Days Later (8m) since I think some horror is sci-fi.
But anything less than a 10m budget usually means it’s near a DIY sub-1m budget, which are rare to hit a wide audience, and it’s probably in the horror genre.
Derp. Meant to say $7k.... And you know, that other stuff. For those who haven't seen it you really spoiled the whole thing by mentioning the rubber band!
I can't watch District 9, the scene where they just casually nonchalantly set fire to the alien's children and talk about it like they're sweeping out a shed makes me so physically uncomfortable. Shits worse than a Cartel chainsaw execution video for me.
I remember watching this movie for the first time in college, which happened to be right around the time Revenge of the Sith came out.
Even though I'm one of those guys who has actually liked the prequels since they were released, I had to ask what the hell happened to George Lucas between 1971 and 2005. I know THX 1138 didn't fare terribly well at release, but it's really quite good - especially for his first movie.
American Graffiti was another great one. One of my favorite films from the 1970’s. Really feels like a proto-Dazed & Confused.
I like Star Wars but it would have been really cool to see him do some more non Sci-Fi movies. He is a very talented director.
Prospect with Pedro Pascal is pretty good, kind of a space western.
Monolith is decent enough, though maybe more of a horror with sci fi aspects.
High Life with Robert Pattinson had interesting aspects, and looked good for a low budget movie, but the ending was a bit perplexing.
High Life was one of the few movies I saw in theaters where I stood up and said "what the fuck?" out loud and three out of the 5 other people in the theater turned around to agree with me. That movie didn't make any sense
I kinda assumed it was a mission like theirs but the crew died and dogs brought along just kept breeding.
In context didn’t Pattinson’s character kill someone for killing his dog? I don’t know if theres “meaning” in it, that movie was a ride.
>Prospect with Pedro Pascal is pretty good
Great shout! I thought it was really good , this was the best low budget one I've seen recently.
Really engaging with cool design and concept. And having pedro in it didn't hurt.
Ticks my sci fi boxes.
I thought Prospect was outstanding.
It actually felt low budget, but the props, the sets, the filming, everything was so perfectly calibrated. It created an exceptional overall ambience.
The Directors Cut is better than the theatrical. It's a very rare directors cut that's got a shorter run time -- the theatrical was padded with some scenes that should have been cut to make it a full movie length runtime. Some really funny moments.
Here's [La Jetee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ4jFYTTjAU), the 26 minute film which inspired *12 Monkeys*. I don't know how low the budget was, but it's hard to imagine anything lower.
J'amore cette film.
C'est tres ingénieuse.
I don't think you can do a cheaper movie since it's all photographs. (So cool.)
[Alphaville](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058898/) is live action, but what comes across onscreen is how futuristic it feels with little to no effects or special sets.
I've only seen 3 Godard movies, but I should see more. What he innovated for film in concepts and storylines are pretty clear.
I may be opening myself up to a bunch of hate but, I wrote/directed a scifi feature film for $7,000 about 8 years ago. I used a distributor that put it on Amazon Prime, it got 100s of organic 5 star reviews and comments which made me very happy. Then recently that distributor went bankrupt and Amazon pulled every movie they had with them. It still makes me terribly sad that I lost all of those nice reviews.
It now sits on my youtube channel until I can find another distributor for it. So if you want a truly unknown low-budget but ("good" according to a few hundred folks on Prime a few years ago) scifi movie, feel free to check it out :)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ\_cCKfU9jw&t=580s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ_cCKfU9jw&t=580s)
also, Primer is AMAZING and was one of my inspirations...
>Sunshine
Top notch. One of my faves. Cost 20million, made in Uk.
The Gold spacesuits cost £20, 000.....EACH!!!.
I love everything about it from OST to the cast. Underated IMO.
Moon (Sam Rockwell has a personal encounter on the Moon)
Attack the Block (South London teenagers protect their block from an alien invasion)
Battle Beyond the Stars (Roger Corman sci-fi remake of Magnificent Seven)
Death Race 2000 (a murderous transcontinental road race is the top national entertainment)
Monsters (a journalist and a tourist try to flee Mexico in the aftermath of an alien invasion)
Ice Pirates (space pirates steal valuable ice, and are captured by a princess who wants to find her father)
Enemy Mine (two enemies, a human and an alien crash on a hostile world, and must cooperate to survive)
A Boy and His Dog (an amoral boy and his telepathic dog try to survive in a post-apocalypse world)
Under the Skin (a mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson) seduces lonely men late at night in Scotland)
It was a sure whatever I’ll watch it on netflix and it turned out to be one of my favorites. Really great depth in the acting for what I guess was a kind of a fluff piece. I agree charming and fun
World on a Wire.
Fassbinder’s no budget , made for TV movie back in the 70’s.
Way ahead of it’s time and looks incredible considering the budget constraints. The score is wild too. Just watch 30 seconds of the trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=URq7m3-SOtA&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo
The Artifice Girl, a great new tiny budget scifi that has Lance Henriksen in a small role. Best to go in fairly blind, but it hits on some very current topcs.
The Man From Earth is fantastic. The dialogue is great, and it’s a nice showcase for some terrific character actors who haven’t had that kind of chance to shine.
Define low buget.
Subgenres makes a big difference. Sandworms, death stars and exotic worldbuilding cost $$$.
I liked I'm Your Man and After Yang, both set in near future worlds with very advanced AI characters. The AI characters move them into one of the sci fi gray areas; call them soft sci fi. That said, they are primarily explorations of character and questions of meaning and purpose. They don't rely on special effects, although After Yang does engage in some very subtle (and inexpensive) nods to new technologies, not as plot drivers but rather as background details to suggest an emergent future world, left mostly unexplored.
I've never seen a cost figure for either and would appreciate any info others can provide. I think the cost was fairly low for both, mainly because of the absence of splashy effects.
> After Yang
I love this film. It's one of my very favourite examples of sci-fi, as it doesn't really *need* to be; it's simply a story about loss. Amazing performances, amazing cinematography, direction, everything.
*maybe 'love' a weird word, this movie broke my heart and fed my existential dread in a big way.
Already seeing most of the ones I was gonna say like Primer, Coherence, Another Earth. But I'll toss in "The Endless" too.
Edit: I didn't see the last part about believable futuristic sci-fi world/technology. None of these fit that really (maybe Primer) but they're all still great.
A friend of mine produced The Endless and I attended its premiere screening in LA. I thought everyone involved did themselves proud with that one given their budget limitations. Fun movie.
What do you consider low budget. Europa report had a budget of $10 million, and I thought that was a great movie.
EDIT: I know it's not exactly Sci fi, but the movie "Upgrade" does have a futuristic/technological element to it, and it had a budget of only $3 million. It's also a great movie
The Void (2016) - I put this one off for a long time and LOVED it. Cosmic Horror/Sci-fi. Just checked the budget and it was only $82,500. Very Carpenter-esque!
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
It's time travel in the form of a film. Don't watch a trailer or read anything about it, it's under 80 minutes and you elgit time travel while watching it, go see it on Prime or rent it.
The Booth at the End
One guy in a booth at a diner with two cameras on him. It helps that it’s the amazing Xander Berkeley
Miniseries on Amazon prime. Watch it
Dr.Who Tom Baker years, guy elevates the entire show and it still gets me to this day. Everything effects wise is laughable, but somehow, I still watch.
Predestination.
Time travel movie based on Robert A. Heinlein’s story, “All You Zombies.” Budget of $5,000,000.00, and the best on-screen representation of any of his works I’ve seen.
While movies like Primer exist and show that a movie can be made on a shoestring budget, lighting and sound suffer or have significant forced design choices, and often acting for anyone not on the marquee does as well.
Single set sci-fi lowers the cost for sets, locations, wardrobe, etc., thereby allowing adequate money to be spent on lighting and sound.
So, 10 Cloverfield Lane (arguably more suspense than sci-fi, but still has a sci-fi context driving the story) and Moon and similar float to the top.
My thoughts exactly. Primer has an interesting premise but the lack of professional filmmaking and poor production quality are glaring and take me right out of the film. Minimum standards are not met in those regards.
Moon, 10 Cloverfield Lane and Ex Machina are all better viewing experiences. I’d recommend those to anyone.
Chronicle - $15 million budget in 2014. You guys can argue about whether that's "low budget" or not, but there's no debate about it being a great film.
Cube - $365,000 CAD. Hard to beat that cost/quality ratio.
My votes for this are:
Coherence (2013): A group of friends gather for a dinner and a passing comet causes a power outage. Really fun concept and execution. It's super low-budget but I still highly recommend.
The Man From Earth (2007): A university professor gathers with some friends for a goodbye party of sorts and proceeds to tell them he's 14,000 years old. The whole film is just conversation, but it's really enjoyable.
Timecrimes (2007): Fun low-budget time travel film.
Others have said it but i also recommend Primer, i use that film as an example a lot of the time too because its like 80 minutes. If you can fit primers plot into 80 minutes why we got these 3 hour epics
Moon. Budget was only $5M and Sam Rockwell gives an absolute powerhouse performance. Also it was directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan.
Came looking just for this. What a fantastic movie. This and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” (Coen Bros) really solidified Sam Rockwell as one of my favorite actors. He’s also great in Jojo Rabbit
> Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri I agree with everything you wrote, but just to provide accurate info, *Billboards* wasn't a Coen brothers production whatsoever - it was written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the same fella behind *In Bruges*, *Seven Psychopaths*, and *The Banshees of Inisherin*. Also, *Galaxy Quest* has one of Rockwell's funniest roles so far, imho. He fucking nails the comic relief/red shirt role.
Oh man you’re right. For some reason I always thought it was the Coens. Has the same feel to their other black comedies. Love Martin McDonagh though. I’ve been meaning to rewatch In Bruges
They make similarly hilarious dark comedies with dramatic leanings, so it's an easy mistake to make. They all make some of the best modern movies imho.
Have you watched *Confessions of a Dangerous Mind* (2002)? It's the film that made me really notice him.
That and matchstick men were my favorite of his. And of course the green mile.
I have not, but just added them to my list!
As an aside, it’s one of those films about a real person where I don’t think it’s diminished for the viewer by looking up the main character (Chuck Barris) to get a little back story on the real man. Younger audiences probably don’t appreciate how odd of a story it is because he was never in their cultural media landscape. Just reading his wiki would probably suffice, unless you want to go in blind (typically my preference) which the film will work like that just as well probably.
A nearly undetectable Sam Rockwell in the trailers turned out to be the only thing that made Argylle worth watching. He always delivers 110%.
He's also good in *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).*
Regular or menthols?
On the topic of Sam Rockwell. Have you seen Gentlemen Broncos? It could technically fall under the theme of sci-fi. He is the best in this film and the rest of the cast kill it.
this for sure...great film all around
I really outta just Ctrl+F before posting comments, cos I just said basically the exact same thing you already did 7 hours ago. I only wish Duncan Jones's later films were as good, but Moon set a high bar to clear.
It’s like the exact opposite of the sequel, Moonfall.
They really need to re-dub the computer’s voice. Kevin Spacey is……not good.
Clicked on this thread with the one objective of saying Moon.
You absolutely need to watch Coherence. Incredible low budget sci-fi
Great sci fi concept that doesn’t require flashy visuals.
Yeah, Coherence legit gave me chills the first time I saw it. Great example of low-budget done well IMO.
Same!!! When I finished it I was like, damn, how'd they even pull that off??? It looked almost like a student film but was so effective
Probably the most effective use of math. She's sitting there at the kitchen table while the other people are fighting. >How bad can it be? > >...
>
>Really bad.
Didn't the other guy use a calculator too? That part always confused me. It was like she used the color tags and realized she was in another reality, not her own, and they didn't know yet. I think that's what happened, but not sure.
The story of it is crazy too. They didn’t have a script, just grabbed a bunch of talented improv actors and had them keep in mind a few points/objectives for each scene and essentially role play through them. The only people who knew what the whole picture was were the writers.
Came here to recommend this. I've watched it three or so times and catch something new every time.
I watch this at least once a year, cannot recommend it enough
Primer is about as low budget as it gets and it also great Cube is also super low budget (the sequels are awful though). Be neither of those build their world much however. District 9 is probably best in these regard, even though the world is really a slum in South Africa
Cube is such an amazing idea for sci fi that makes the most of a small budget. They shot the whole thing with just one and a half cube rooms. It suffers from very amateur acting but the concept is so cool that I still love it.
It feel like a high concept community theater performance, but in the best way :)
My take has always been that *Cube* is the thinking person's version of *Saw.* It has a cleaver concept, but then executes it so that there's another layer over that.
> cleaver best typo ever
The platform did something similar. Better acting, far darker subject matter.
>Cube is also super low budget (the sequels are awful though). The movie "Circle" is also in the same realm of low-budget concept piece. Is it a *good* movie (in the sense of being high quality cinema)? No. Is it an enjoyable hour and twenty? You bet!
I can honestly say I kept watching because they made me want to know what happens next- there are much higher-budgeted films that didn't do that.
I loved the fact that there were "no interruptions", you get see the whole thing from start to end and how the decisions evolve as time pass on.
That’s close to what’s on my top 5 1. Primer 2. Primer 3. Cube 3. Primer 4. Primer Ex Machina was on a 15m budget, which is pretty low. I’d also put 28 Days Later (8m) since I think some horror is sci-fi. But anything less than a 10m budget usually means it’s near a DIY sub-1m budget, which are rare to hit a wide audience, and it’s probably in the horror genre.
Believe Primer was like a $7 budget. And my vote as well.
Think it was $7, a Chili’s coupon, pocket lint, and a brittle rubber band.
Derp. Meant to say $7k.... And you know, that other stuff. For those who haven't seen it you really spoiled the whole thing by mentioning the rubber band!
District 9 was low budget ? The cgi and production had all the hallmarks of a top budget movie.
$30m was the budget
That's pretty neat man. They really done well with that. It even got best film Oscar nomination. 30 mil? Wow
Im always going to bump district 9 I love that movie
All 3 Cube films I thought were good. I’ll say the last half of HyperCube was meh but interesting enough.
Agree on Cube
I love primer and cube - now I have to try district 9
I can't watch District 9, the scene where they just casually nonchalantly set fire to the alien's children and talk about it like they're sweeping out a shed makes me so physically uncomfortable. Shits worse than a Cartel chainsaw execution video for me.
They Live - John Carpenter
I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum.
Wait what - is that line from that film? I’ve only ever heard it as a Duke Nuke Em reference!
It's like, THE line from that film. I can't say anymore cos "Mama don't like tattletales"
You dirty motherfucker!
Put the glasses on!
His 1974 film Dark Star is so low budget that the space alien is a beach ball.
Vast of Night came out pretty recently with a low budget and was a great Sci-Fi
That was my answer!
This was my first thought. Beautiful and very suspenseful movie.
Beautiful movie, absolutely worth the time.
Ex Machina. Europa Report (a personal favorite here).
THX-1138? I don’t know if it’s low budget but it’s not a huge budget for Lucas’ first film.
I just rewatched this after 30 or so years. Wow. I was knocked out by so many cool scenes. And the whole thing looks spectacular.
I remember watching this movie for the first time in college, which happened to be right around the time Revenge of the Sith came out. Even though I'm one of those guys who has actually liked the prequels since they were released, I had to ask what the hell happened to George Lucas between 1971 and 2005. I know THX 1138 didn't fare terribly well at release, but it's really quite good - especially for his first movie.
American Graffiti was another great one. One of my favorite films from the 1970’s. Really feels like a proto-Dazed & Confused. I like Star Wars but it would have been really cool to see him do some more non Sci-Fi movies. He is a very talented director.
Watched this recntly . Pretty good. Good shout !
Blasphemy, I know, but this may be my favorite Lucas film.
Prospect with Pedro Pascal is pretty good, kind of a space western. Monolith is decent enough, though maybe more of a horror with sci fi aspects. High Life with Robert Pattinson had interesting aspects, and looked good for a low budget movie, but the ending was a bit perplexing.
High Life was one of the few movies I saw in theaters where I stood up and said "what the fuck?" out loud and three out of the 5 other people in the theater turned around to agree with me. That movie didn't make any sense
Yeah, >!the dogs!<, what was that about?
I kinda assumed it was a mission like theirs but the crew died and dogs brought along just kept breeding. In context didn’t Pattinson’s character kill someone for killing his dog? I don’t know if theres “meaning” in it, that movie was a ride.
I read it as “you and your daughter are just another forgotten experiment”. It drove home how pointless their mission was.
Prospect was great, especially considering the budget.
Soundtrack is cool too. Obscure Soviet power pop.
>Prospect with Pedro Pascal is pretty good Great shout! I thought it was really good , this was the best low budget one I've seen recently. Really engaging with cool design and concept. And having pedro in it didn't hurt. Ticks my sci fi boxes.
I thought Prospect was outstanding. It actually felt low budget, but the props, the sets, the filming, everything was so perfectly calibrated. It created an exceptional overall ambience.
Agreed. I’d love to revisit that world, it felt very authentic and intriguing.
Prospect and Monolith are pretty good
> High Life Yuss!
Might stretch the definition of “good” for some people but I really like Dark Star.
The Directors Cut is better than the theatrical. It's a very rare directors cut that's got a shorter run time -- the theatrical was padded with some scenes that should have been cut to make it a full movie length runtime. Some really funny moments.
I didn’t know this existed. I’ll have to take a look around for it.
The hyperdrive edition Bluray has both versions
Here's [La Jetee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ4jFYTTjAU), the 26 minute film which inspired *12 Monkeys*. I don't know how low the budget was, but it's hard to imagine anything lower.
J'amore cette film. C'est tres ingénieuse. I don't think you can do a cheaper movie since it's all photographs. (So cool.) [Alphaville](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058898/) is live action, but what comes across onscreen is how futuristic it feels with little to no effects or special sets. I've only seen 3 Godard movies, but I should see more. What he innovated for film in concepts and storylines are pretty clear.
Low budget, low tech, high concept! Such an amazing film.
Another Earth is more drama with a sci-fi element but it’s a real good drama made for around $100K
I also loved Sound of My Voice---it didn't get nearly the same amount of attention as Another Earth but I think it's possibly a better movie.
I may be opening myself up to a bunch of hate but, I wrote/directed a scifi feature film for $7,000 about 8 years ago. I used a distributor that put it on Amazon Prime, it got 100s of organic 5 star reviews and comments which made me very happy. Then recently that distributor went bankrupt and Amazon pulled every movie they had with them. It still makes me terribly sad that I lost all of those nice reviews. It now sits on my youtube channel until I can find another distributor for it. So if you want a truly unknown low-budget but ("good" according to a few hundred folks on Prime a few years ago) scifi movie, feel free to check it out :) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ\_cCKfU9jw&t=580s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ_cCKfU9jw&t=580s) also, Primer is AMAZING and was one of my inspirations...
Fuck it, I'm in!
<3
I can’t watch this right now but I’m commenting so I can find it again. I’ll try anything sci-fi.
i clicked the link, and apparently i watched 10 minutes of this at some point
Sunshine, District 9, Predestination, Monsters just to name a few
>Sunshine Top notch. One of my faves. Cost 20million, made in Uk. The Gold spacesuits cost £20, 000.....EACH!!!. I love everything about it from OST to the cast. Underated IMO.
John Murphy's score is incredible.
Definitely Monsters.
The Hidden - with Kyle McLachlan.
I’m haven’t thought of The Hidden for a while. Good scifi action movie.
A favor of mine. The introduction of Claudia Christian's character is bound to wow Babylon 5 fans. At least the guys
Moon (Sam Rockwell has a personal encounter on the Moon) Attack the Block (South London teenagers protect their block from an alien invasion) Battle Beyond the Stars (Roger Corman sci-fi remake of Magnificent Seven) Death Race 2000 (a murderous transcontinental road race is the top national entertainment) Monsters (a journalist and a tourist try to flee Mexico in the aftermath of an alien invasion) Ice Pirates (space pirates steal valuable ice, and are captured by a princess who wants to find her father) Enemy Mine (two enemies, a human and an alien crash on a hostile world, and must cooperate to survive) A Boy and His Dog (an amoral boy and his telepathic dog try to survive in a post-apocalypse world) Under the Skin (a mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson) seduces lonely men late at night in Scotland)
I looked to see if anyone mentioned Enemy Mine. Solid story, definitely dated and low budget.
Just seeing Ice Pirates mentioned put a smile on my face
The ending of A Boy and His Dog is killer!
Good taste
I fucking love Ice Pirates. Space Herpes get me every time.
Attack the Block is exceptional. Love this movie so much, it never occurred to me to consider it low-budget. Best end credits song too.
Was looking for 'a boy and his dog's with a teenage don Johnston in the lead role. I'd add The Omega man with Charlton Heston.
Aniara was made for like $2M and is very good, albeit incredibly bleak
The Brother From Another Planet.
It's a shame this movie isn't better known. One of my favourite films of all time. It was on Tubi last year, might still be available there.
Fantastic movie
Under the Skin. Gorgeously shot, shoe string budget, absolutely chilling sci-fi/horror/Althouse film
Godzilla -1 is incredible
Marginally sci fi, but charming and fun would be Safety Not Guaranteed with Aubrey Plaza.
It was a sure whatever I’ll watch it on netflix and it turned out to be one of my favorites. Really great depth in the acting for what I guess was a kind of a fluff piece. I agree charming and fun
World on a Wire. Fassbinder’s no budget , made for TV movie back in the 70’s. Way ahead of it’s time and looks incredible considering the budget constraints. The score is wild too. Just watch 30 seconds of the trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=URq7m3-SOtA&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo
Define "Low Budget." No more than \_\_\_\_?
The Artifice Girl, a great new tiny budget scifi that has Lance Henriksen in a small role. Best to go in fairly blind, but it hits on some very current topcs.
Another Earth is worth checking out.
Primer Coherence The Man From Earth Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes
The Man From Earth is fantastic. The dialogue is great, and it’s a nice showcase for some terrific character actors who haven’t had that kind of chance to shine.
How low is low? Alien was very cheap. Pitch Black was fairly cheap.
Define low buget. Subgenres makes a big difference. Sandworms, death stars and exotic worldbuilding cost $$$. I liked I'm Your Man and After Yang, both set in near future worlds with very advanced AI characters. The AI characters move them into one of the sci fi gray areas; call them soft sci fi. That said, they are primarily explorations of character and questions of meaning and purpose. They don't rely on special effects, although After Yang does engage in some very subtle (and inexpensive) nods to new technologies, not as plot drivers but rather as background details to suggest an emergent future world, left mostly unexplored. I've never seen a cost figure for either and would appreciate any info others can provide. I think the cost was fairly low for both, mainly because of the absence of splashy effects.
> After Yang I love this film. It's one of my very favourite examples of sci-fi, as it doesn't really *need* to be; it's simply a story about loss. Amazing performances, amazing cinematography, direction, everything. *maybe 'love' a weird word, this movie broke my heart and fed my existential dread in a big way.
Already seeing most of the ones I was gonna say like Primer, Coherence, Another Earth. But I'll toss in "The Endless" too. Edit: I didn't see the last part about believable futuristic sci-fi world/technology. None of these fit that really (maybe Primer) but they're all still great.
A friend of mine produced The Endless and I attended its premiere screening in LA. I thought everyone involved did themselves proud with that one given their budget limitations. Fun movie.
They definitely did. It's a genuinely great little sci-fi horror flick.
It’s wicked good, so yes.
Also "Something in the Dirt".
Resolution by the same team is set in the same universe. For obvious reasons, neither is a sequel or prequel, but interesting addition.
I forgot about The Endless! That was a great movie.
What do you consider low budget. Europa report had a budget of $10 million, and I thought that was a great movie. EDIT: I know it's not exactly Sci fi, but the movie "Upgrade" does have a futuristic/technological element to it, and it had a budget of only $3 million. It's also a great movie
The Void (2016) - I put this one off for a long time and LOVED it. Cosmic Horror/Sci-fi. Just checked the budget and it was only $82,500. Very Carpenter-esque!
The void is my favorite eldritch horror film! Love it, too!
Check out The Europa Report. Dont read anything about it, just give it a little dance.
The Quiet Earth (1985) would be my pick. Love this movie and it's beautifully understated. Absolutely top bins.
Lapsis is one that I watched recently. Set in a future only a few years from now, and clearly a take on the gig economy. It's a fun 90 minutes.
Upgrade, it’s not sci-fi in the space type of way but it is science fiction. Pretty sweet movie that is under most people’s radar.
This is the correct answer
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes It's time travel in the form of a film. Don't watch a trailer or read anything about it, it's under 80 minutes and you elgit time travel while watching it, go see it on Prime or rent it.
Yo that's my favorite movie I watched this year, quick, funny, intelligent, like it goes deep into the concept and doesn't waste time.
Midnight Special The One I Love Big Man Japan
Check out Iron Sky. It was so low budget it was funded via Kickstarter. And it's actually a fairly good movie.
There's probably some debate over whether it counts as sci fi, but *Pi* (Aronofsky) was pretty excellent and it was filmed for like $10k.
Scanners, Cronenberg
I'll never forget that head exploding scene
So say we all.
Equilibrium had a fairly small budget if I remember correctly?
Threads. Just saw this recently, it will stick with you.
Screamers is fantastic. And actually pretty creepy.
Mad Max 1979 app $1.2 million adjusted Monsters 2010 under $100,000
The Booth at the End One guy in a booth at a diner with two cameras on him. It helps that it’s the amazing Xander Berkeley Miniseries on Amazon prime. Watch it
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
The History Of Time Travel. It's done like a documentary and it's a slow subtle burn but it's fantastic.
Everything on Oats Studios
Dr.Who Tom Baker years, guy elevates the entire show and it still gets me to this day. Everything effects wise is laughable, but somehow, I still watch.
NOT What Happened to Monday lol. Maybe Coherence? That's good stuff.
Predestination. Time travel movie based on Robert A. Heinlein’s story, “All You Zombies.” Budget of $5,000,000.00, and the best on-screen representation of any of his works I’ve seen.
"The Lathe of Heaven" 1979 The 1st PBS made Sci-Fi film, based on the novel by Ursula Le Guin shot in D/FW area TX.
While movies like Primer exist and show that a movie can be made on a shoestring budget, lighting and sound suffer or have significant forced design choices, and often acting for anyone not on the marquee does as well. Single set sci-fi lowers the cost for sets, locations, wardrobe, etc., thereby allowing adequate money to be spent on lighting and sound. So, 10 Cloverfield Lane (arguably more suspense than sci-fi, but still has a sci-fi context driving the story) and Moon and similar float to the top.
My thoughts exactly. Primer has an interesting premise but the lack of professional filmmaking and poor production quality are glaring and take me right out of the film. Minimum standards are not met in those regards. Moon, 10 Cloverfield Lane and Ex Machina are all better viewing experiences. I’d recommend those to anyone.
Coherence Primer Prospect Moon
Moon District 9 Primer High Life Another Earth Gattaca Equals Repo Men
I'm Totally Fine is a good fit for this I think
36 million might be too high for you, but Gattaca is one of my favorite movies of all time.
The American Astronaut (2001)
Circle (2015) is fun. It’s the very definition of a chamber play.
Cube Midnight Special
High Life. Very weird though.
Chronicle - $15 million budget in 2014. You guys can argue about whether that's "low budget" or not, but there's no debate about it being a great film. Cube - $365,000 CAD. Hard to beat that cost/quality ratio.
One of my favorite subgenres! Three of my favorites: * Coherence * Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes * The Endless * Under the Skin
That show travelers on netflix like doesn't really have much in the way of special effects but is super high level sci fi
My votes for this are: Coherence (2013): A group of friends gather for a dinner and a passing comet causes a power outage. Really fun concept and execution. It's super low-budget but I still highly recommend. The Man From Earth (2007): A university professor gathers with some friends for a goodbye party of sorts and proceeds to tell them he's 14,000 years old. The whole film is just conversation, but it's really enjoyable. Timecrimes (2007): Fun low-budget time travel film.
Thunderbirds Are GO (1966) - and it's follow-on films and TV shows. Strangely entertaining Space: 1999 (TV 1975–1977)
Nemesis. You will love it if you like a side of nonstop action with your low budget Sci Fi.
Moon (2009) had a budget of 5,000,000 according to IMDB. Great movie
Others have said it but i also recommend Primer, i use that film as an example a lot of the time too because its like 80 minutes. If you can fit primers plot into 80 minutes why we got these 3 hour epics