Running out of interesting new SF films to watch?
If you’re a serious fan of SF cinema as I am, you’ve seen most of the classics, a lot of the really good ones, and far more of the indifferent, uninspired and out-and-out bad than you care to admit.
So for you, we offer a carefully curated collection of some of the best little-known and little-seen films featured on this site!
The Classics
The best Island of Dr. Moreau ever made, with a standout performance by Charles Laughton.
Wonderfully atmospheric Mexican horror film — weird and lyrical, with hints of the old Universal Studios horror films.
Agnes Varda’s little seen Nouvelle Vague classic about a strange duel between a writer and a mad scientist. …Or is it?
Danish Nouvelle Vague film, about a man who can make anything with his mind — and we do mean anything…
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s remarkable excursion into virtual reality.
One of George Romero’s best — and a brutal kick to the head of a film!
Wild Hitchcockian thriller about a killer ape. And it might even be Science Fiction!
The Indies
Sui Generis film about a vacation that is going very wrong — and it might even be Science Fiction…
A true rarity: an independent film from China. Elegant, beautiful and intelligent.
Strange and mysterious, with the impossible mixed with something unseen — and yet with a solid and very human story of two brothers to anchor it all. A triumph from Moorhead and Benson.
Harsh, gritty, intensely real, with all the unglamorous dirt and noise of working in space. A Seventies revisionist Western in space.
Two men flee a prison planet in a long abandoned spaceship.
One man trying to stay alive at any cost after the Robot Apocalypse
The star of Ink directs his first film, a strange and poetic mystery set in a ultra-connected future world.
Absolutely incredible film about three guys sitting in a car talking. And first contact with aliens from outer space.
An elegant and thought provoking time travel story, about a man who is afraid that anything he does he will have devastating consequences.
Weird and Culty
Ultra Stylish Mario Bava film which is part gothic, part space-age horror, and one of the major influences on Alien
a strange and insane Italian delicacy, with four-armed killers, women who blow up when you shoot “the thing on their chests,” the most WTF mad scientist plan ever, and a vast flood of goo.
Insanely colorful and delightfully absurd Italian Space Opera
A young woman who has no idea where she has been for the last few days, and a sinister scientist who abandons an astronaut on the moon. A beautiful and strange Giallo film with an ending you won’t easily forget.
From the director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a warped children’s film with time travel, vampires, and a naked girl in a machine.
A retro-cardboard short film which glories in its cheap and corrugated origins! A wacky and very funny film about zombies, spaceships and an indestructible robot hero.
Time travel, alien bears, plant people, a serial killer, and the longest stay in detention on record. Very strange — and very funny.
A warped retro space western musical from Cory McAbee and the Billy Nayer Project! Welcome to Mars!
An absolutely strange action/animation/film noir/Science Fiction hybrid, that takes all the classic Private Eyes tropes and has far too much fun with them.
Mind-bogglingly weird Cyberpunk film about a pizza making dwarf super spy. Brilliant lo-fi film, but only for the brave…
Monsters and Aliens
A strange and unexpected steampunk-ish adventure film that reminds me quite a bit of The Land That Time Forgot (1974) and Hammer’s The Lost Continent. One of the best Italian SF films ever.
A brutal, non-stop killer robot movie. One of the best SF films of the Nineties, even if no one paid any attention to it at the time…
A wild ride of a B-Movie Creature feature that you probably haven’t seen because it was made in China and hasn’t appeared in the U.S. The passengers on an ordinary city bus wake up in the middle of a horrible desert with no idea how they got there, and things just get worse from there…
Made in Japan
An alien stalks the survivors of a crashed jetliner. Hellish and bizarre, with enough style for any three Kaiju Eiga films!
Incredible and stylish Kaiju Eiga mystery film, a surprisingly grown up movie from Tsuburaya Productions which deserves to be seen and appreciated here!
A young girl goes looking for a psychic who isn’t fake for her TV show, while a group of real psychics try their best not to be found. One of funniest films ever made in Japan.
A complex, non-linear film about saving the Earth from a giant asteroid and what that has to do with a forgotten proto-punk song…
An epic three-part movie about childhood games, a mysterious plague, a sinister cult and the end of the world. It may not be quite as awesome as the manga, but that’s still pretty awesome!
Eccentric and comic alien invasion film unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
A stunningly simple time travel comedy, in which the people at a small restaurant discover that their TV can show two minutes into the future… An absurdly funny film from the writer who brought you Summer Time Machine Blues and Go Find a Psychic!
Animated
A fantastic hybrid of live action and animation, designed to look like those steel engravings in the old editions of Verne’s books. Wild, funny, beautifully designed and family friendly!
Lovely puppet film by Czech master Jiri Trnka, about the love between a child and her Grandmother, in a sterile future world..
“A film that defies all logic!” Insane, high-octane Wacky Racers on Acid hand drawn Japanese Anime about the baddest road race in the universe! Wild, unique and dazzling.
A movie about people sitting around in a café talking to robots? Yes, it is that, and far more — and it is better than most of the Anime out there.
One man, hand drawn, and defiantly adult in an age where everyone thinks animation is just for kids. And it looks like it was drawn by one of the great Euro-cartoonists!
Hong Kong Chop Sockey at its Finest!
Robots, Metropolis references, and slapstick comedy. Okay, it’s silly, but you expect that from an HK film. So your mileage may vary!
A pulpy adventure about the legendary pulp hero, with a totally insane final sequence.
Yet another adventure for Wisely, this time with a deadly plant monster from outer space and an ancient warrior in the body of…a dead cat?
The Guiltiest Pleasures
I have no clue what demented mind came up with something this awesomely stupid. All I know is that this clown car trainwreck of a movie is more entertaining than most of the SF films out there.
Quatermass and Other Horrible British Things
The first of the original serials to survive intact, and proof that a good story and cast will beat even the limits of a live TV broadcast.
One of the best SF Horrors of the Fifties, and yet most people haven’t seen it!
The insane finale is a real show stopper! Eerie, Quatermass inspired horror.
Alien invaders, space travel with your mind, and creepy, unsettling British horror. A subtle, slow burn mystery which amply rewards those who love their horror suggested, rather than thrown in their faces.
A creepy and disturbing Nigel Kneale TV play about the next new recording media.
Peter Cushing and Chrisopher Lee face a body-hopping alien on a train stranded by a blizzard. One of the best Hammer Horror films Hammer didn’t make.
Silents — With Rivets
Weird and striking: more of a surreal work of art than a coherent movie, but with a great lab set and a show-stopping reanimation scene!
The best Lovecraft adaptation ever made — and a very scary movie as well.
It Came From Behind the Wall!
Perhaps the funniest SF comedy ever made!
Absurd Czech body-swapping comedy with one of their greatest actresses playing a triple role. One of the weirdest (and funniest) comedies ever made.
Marvelous steampunk Czech comedy: Dime Novel hero Nick Carter takes on…a deadly plant?
A dark mystery thriller about a society closed off from the rest of the world, which suddenly goes off into some truly strange SF…
Stunning — and remarkably faithful — adaptation of the Asimov novel.
And one absolutely incredible film from India:
A stunning arthouse film for children? A wacky comedy with a very serious thought or two behind it? And it came from the Bangala film industry? It’s hard to believe this beautiful film full of ghosts, aliens and gangsters really exists…
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rivets on the poster 