Recent Scifi Films That Didn't Need Big Budgets To Be Amazing. Low- budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B- movie greatness in the 1.

Here are our favorites from the past few decades. Another Earth (2. Director Mike Cahill (I Origins) and star Brit Marling (The Sound of My Voice, Netflix’s The OA) co- wrote this tale of guilt, grief, and cosmic second chances.

Marling plays a brilliant woman named Rhoda who makes a terrible, tragic mistake: causing a car accident that kills a woman and her unborn child, leaving the woman’s husband, John (William Mapother), physically and mentally devastated. Rhoda makes another terrible mistake when she first tries to set things right, seeking out John but failing to tell him who she really is.

But possible redemption comes from an unlikely place: the “mirror Earth” that looms above—represented by a very simple but effective visual effect—where the people and places are identical to those on our planet, with the key difference being that certain crappy life decisions may never have transpired. John Dies at the End (2. This cult horror- scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho- Tep, Phantasm) features quite a few outrageous special effects, as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti, but it was still made for less than a million bucks.

Based on David Wong’s novel, it’s about a pair of buddies who experience increasingly bizarre hallucinations and circumstances (alternate dimensions, aliens, etc.) when they encounter 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 heroic dog, and a monster that cobbles itself together from a freezer full of meat. Computer Chess (2.

Filmed in black- and- white using period- appropriate video cameras, writer- director Andrew Bujalski’s offbeat and intricate study of a computer chess tournament is set in 1. It was actually made in 2. Authentic nerds (not Hollywood nerds) converge on a bland hotel to determine whose program will achieve chess supremacy, though the backstage dramas and micro- dramas outside the competition provide most of the real interest. Though Computer Chess is mostly an awkward comedy, it ventures into scifi when it begins to suggest that one team’s artificial intelligence software is way, way more self- aware than most anyone realizes or is willing to admit.

Vaccines are good. Dogs are good—in fact, very very good, aren’t you girl? Unfortunately, some bad owners who have bought into scientifically unsupported anti. Tonight is the two-part finale of Twin Peaks: The Return, the beginning of the end of a promise that began with the words of Laura Palmer over two decades ago: “I.

Low-budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B-movie greatness in the 1950s, but they’re still going strong today—proving. Ever notice how Christopher Nolan’s movies (Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige) feel like an anxiety attack? Well, maybe that’s overstating things a bit. But. Instagram, Facebook’s hotter, snootier subsidiary, may have a massive data breach on its hands. This week, a security flaw within Instagram allowed hackers to. The classic US stereotype of attempted Iranian ideological indoctrination via chants of “Death to America” and such has been old hat for quite some time. As noted. The first look at the game’s Starfighter Assault mode has the Millennium Falcon, bright lens flares, and yes, Yoda manning a laser turret.

Luke Plunkett. Luke Plunkett is a Contributing Editor based in Canberra, Australia. He has written a book on cosplay, designed a game about airplanes, and also runs.

The American Astronaut (2. Another black- and- white entry, The American Astronaut manages to meld the genres of scifi, Western, and musical. Writer- director Cory Mc. Abee, who once described his work as “Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers,” also plays the title character—an intergalactic cowboy/rare- goods dealer who becomes entangled in a scheme to deliver a man to the all- female planet of Venus (but it gets way more complicated than that)—and his band, the Billy Nayer Show, provided the tunes.

Unsurprisingly, the end result is something completely unique, enhanced by the film’s use of hand- painted, lo- fi special effects in most cases. Monsters (2. 01. 0)Before Gareth Edwards did Godzilla—and then achieved his lifelong dream of making a Star Wars movie with Rogue One—he worked as a digital effects artist and applied those skills to his first feature, Monsters. As the title suggests, it’s a monster movie, but it’s uniquely set in a world where humans and aliens have been co- existing on Earth for a number of years, and while the tension and fear may not have deflated, the novelty has.

Strangers (real- life couple Scoot Mc. Nairy and Whitney Able) team up to re- enter the US from Mexico, but the trip is complicated by a border that has become exponentially more hostile. Edwards, who also wrote the film, did the cinematography, and did the production design, makes the most of a budget that’s just a tiny fraction of what he’d get for his future blockbusters. Robot & Frank (2. Lonely, technology- averse, and intermittently forgetful retiree Frank acquires a companion robot from his well- meaning son, and soon realizes his new sidekick would be the perfect partner in crime, literally. Download Clerks: The Lost Scene Online.

Robot & Frank is a poignant study of aging, but it also does an incredible job making a robot character (and it is a real, developed 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 voice of the robot, though a different actor actually wears the suit) further elevates this inspired effort from first- time director Jake Schreier and first- time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford. 8. Sleep Dealer (2.

In Alex Rivera’s thriller, it’s a future in which illegal immigration between Mexico and the US has been completely outlawed (thanks to a border wall..). However, since the US economy would collapse without a steady stream of people willing to work for nothing, would- be prospective citizens toil in grim factories where they’re physically plugged into virtual reality machines that control robots doing labor stateside. Within this uneasy mix, we meet a man who dreams of hacking into a massive corporation to restore water to his region; a woman who peddles uploaded memories; and a drone pilot who has a crisis of conscience.

Sleep Dealer is obviously a politically- minded tale that’s really about globalization, but it also manages to be completely thrilling at the same time. Moon (2. 00. 9)At the very end of a three- year solo stint on the Moon, the man overseeing an automated mining facility (Sam Rockwell)—who has only his AI (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for companionship—realizes he’s not as alone as he once thought. He also starts to suspect that his corporate employers are not as benevolent as he once believed. Director Duncan Jones (Source Code, Warcraft) is working on another film set in the same universe as Moon, called Mute, which will also have scifi elements though it’ll be set on Earth this time; eventually, he hopes to do a third and make it a trilogy. The Signal (2. 01. College kids on a road trip take a detour to track down their nemesis, a mysterious hacker who lures them to an alien encounter, after which they’re whisked to an apparent government facility that’s experimenting with alien technology.

On humans. Including them. Aside from its imaginative plot, which keeps you guessing until the end (and even then leaves you with a great “Huh?” image), it’s production design that evokes 2. A Space Odyssey and supporting turns by Laurence Fishburne and Lin Shaye that make The Signal especially memorable.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2. Following in the footsteps of Gareth Edwards, director Colin Trevorrow made his feature debut with this budgeted- under- a- million indie before taking on Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode IX. An intriguing magazine ad seeking a time travel companion (“this is not a joke”) piques the interest of a trio of Seattle journalists (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni), who track down the man (Mark Duplass) to see if he’s a nutcase or the real deal—or, as it turns out, kinda both. The script (by Derek Connolly) was inspired by a real (but fake) ad that once ran in Backwoods Home Magazine, a fact which helps ground the film’s quirkiness—as do its performances (Plaza is perfect) and its portrayal of time travel as something ordinary people might explore for their own deeply personal reasons. And yes, there are Star Wars jokes. The One I Love (2. Yep, another one with Mark Duplass.

Charlie Mc. Dowell’s debut feature—filmed mostly at co- star Ted Danson’s house—is about Ethan and Sophie (Duplass and Elisabeth Moss), a married couple who try to salvage their relationship by going on a weekend getaway. Things soon 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.

Maybe Leave Dogs Out of This Anti- Vaccine Nonsense. Vaccines are good.

Dogs are good—in fact, very very good, aren’t you girl? Unfortunately, some bad owners who have bought into scientifically unsupported anti- vaccine propaganda have begun choosing not to vaccinate their dogs, fearing that choosing to properly inoculate their canines will give them dog autism, the Daily Beast reported . Dog autism, of course, is not really a thing.“We see a higher number of clients who don’t want to vaccinate their animals,” the Veterinarian Wellness Center of Boerum Hill, New York’s Dr.

Amy Ford told the Brooklyn Paper. This may be stemming from the anti- vaccine movement, which people are applying to their pets.”“I had a client concerned about an autistic child who didn’t want to vaccinate the dog for the same reason,”added Dr.

Stephanie Liff, who works for Clinton Hill’s Pure Paws Veterinary Care. We’ve never diagnosed autism in a dog. I don’t think you could.”According to Pet. MD, research since 1. But Pet. MD noted that it’s very difficult to translate a complex psychological condition in humans to a direct doggie equivalent—and “a number of other difficult- to- diagnose canine conditions (e.

A dog with autism might require different behavioral management strategies than other dogs, Pet. MD noted, but this would mostly extend to helping the dog avoid whatever triggers atypical behavior or identifying activities which will reduce its stress.“For instance, if your dog becomes fearful and aggressive when approached by strangers at the dog park, don’t go to the dog park,” Pet. MD wrote. “A walk down a quiet trail is a better option.”But this is all somewhat beside the point, since the scientific community is very clear there is no link whatsoever between vaccination and autism—and the whole ant- vaccine movement is deeply rooted in senseless and offensive stigmatization and fear- mongering.

The idea of subjecting your poor good boy or girl to the risk of preventable illnesses like rabies, which will definitely kill your dog, because of something Jenny Mc. Carthy or discredited scientist Andrew Wakefield said is deeply sad.

They’re good dogs Brent. While a few anecdotes does not a widespread social trend make, it’s probably best this one gets nipped in the bud.[Brooklyn Paper via the Daily Beast].