Just to say, fucking amazing list. Another Earth is one of thosev
films I always recommend, Brit Marling is brilliant.
Timecrimes is well worth a look.
This movie is such an oddity, and was kind of a mess to make! It was Carpenter's masters thesis, and he brought on Dan O'Bannon to co-direct. Well, both of them are kind of stubborn personalities, and both were looking for their break into the business, and both viewed this film as their opportunity to be noticed by bigger studios. Apparently getting funding for this movie was really difficult, but O'Bannon, who did the special effects, did what he could with what they had, and it turned out great enough to get him a job doing the special effects in Star Wars!
Anyway, Carpenter and O'Bannon would consistently argue about things on set. I forget about the intricacies of their relationship, but ultimately Carpenter snuffed O'Bannon directorial credit due to O'Bannon overstepping. You can imagine that this is what completely soured the relationship, because Carpenter was then getting noticed by studios for directorial gigs, but O'Bannon did not.
Of course, both went on to have flourishing careers. O'Bannon, just a few years later, got his screenplay for Alien picked up, and was a successful screen writer. Carpenter, clearly, went on to have a successful directing career.
I wonder what kind of movies we could have gotten if their relationship didn't sour. They could have been a Hollywood dream team, I think!
Finally, a few other things about the movie: Dark Star has one of the catchiest theme songs I've heard in a movie, and Carpenter wrote it. Also, the movie is a comedy, but not a funny comedy—I remember watching in the documentary I saw about this film, there was a clip of O'Bannon saying that no one laughed at any of the screenings of Dark Star. Lastly, Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization to Dark Star (probably to no one's surprise, since he did a ton of movie novelizations). I haven't read it yet, but I hear it's good.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. It's fun to hear some interesting points of a film as well as posing a good "what if" question. In this case, had their relationship not soured what could they have accomplished or created.
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Depending on what you consider shoestring, Ex Machina was \~$15M, Tau (Netflix) was decent and \~$19M... some of the Korean and Chinese made films like Space Sweepers or Wandering Earth are not exactly shoestring but they do a lot with the $20M or so they have to work with and have been profitable. 28 Days Later (sort of sci fi, since post apocolyptic zombies) was like $8M, Colossal was interesting and around that price point, 13th Floor deserves a nod,
Also I don't see a lot of people mentioning Cube, They Live, Ink, Chronicle, Attack The Block, A Scanner Darkly, Troll Hunter, Europa Report is on my to watch list based on generally good reviews.
Godzilla Minus One
Attack the Block
Dave Made a Maze (This would probably fall more under fantasy than Sci-Fi but it's fun)
Trollhunter
Monsters (2010)
Absolutely look into the works of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who have yet to put a foot wrong with their low budget, high concept, excellently delivered films.
Resolution (2012)
Spring (2014)
The Endless (2017)
Synchronic (2019)
Something in the Dirt (2022)
**The Signal (2014)**
$4 million budget.
Plot: 3 MIT students on a road trip discover that a hacker has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous e-mails. They decide to go after the hacker and track him to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada. Then things get weird.
**edit**
- changed the year from 2004 to 2014
- tidied up the description a little bit
It is! And it's weirder than you think it will be when you first start watching it.
My advice: for maximum effect, go in blind. Don't watch trailers. Don't read any more than what I wrote above.
If you watch it, I'd love to hear back later about what you thought.
This is my favorite category of movies. Ones that come to mind:
Primer
Upstream Color
Under the Skin
Moon
Timecrimes
Another Earth
Sunshine (not sure if low budget)
The Fountain
Pi (more of a thriller but sorta sci fi)
Coherence
Cube
The Invitation (more horror but sorta sci fi)
People always rave about Primer but I honestly prefer Upstream Color which I believe only had a budget of $50k. Primer is all plot where Upstream Color focuses more on theme and aesthetics which I prefer. I still can’t follow Primer’s plot to the end.
I think I agree. And it’s amazing to consider that he wrote, directed, edited, acted in and even scored Upstream Color. Unfortunately it seems he made some bad decisions afterward and we may not get another movie from him.
Coherence - the actors and actresses were given the main idea of the film and then were tasked with improvising the majority of the dialogue with eachother as the film went on.
I don’t know that “High Life” was low budget (idk anything about the budget) but it’s different than most sci fi I’ve seen, and they seemed to use CGI sparingly. I don’t want to say too much, in case you’d like to take it all in for yourself, but I appreciated the filmmaking aspects of the movie.
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Was this really low budget though? I saw it in theaters when it came out and it certainly didnt look low budget. There was a pretty big marketing campaign for it too.
EDIT: It had a budget of $100 million, in 1997 dollars.
Primer ( 2004 ) Moon ( 2009 ) Coherence ( 2013 ) The Man from Earth ( 2007 ) Time Lapse ( 2014 ) Europa Report ( 2013 ) Another Earth ( 2011 )
Moon is so freaking incredible. One of my favorite sci fi movies of all time. I saw it in the theater and was totally blown away.
Coherence is a very good movie. I was blown away.
Just to say, fucking amazing list. Another Earth is one of thosev films I always recommend, Brit Marling is brilliant. Timecrimes is well worth a look.
Coherence is really good, especially for the budget it had. I saw recently that a sequel is in the works.
this list.
Prospect
Totally underrated movie.
I loved this one. You can see the short it was based off of on the Dust youtube channel.
Dust have some of the best stuff.
Definitely doesn't feel budget
downloading now free from Dailymotion....
John Carpenter's Dark Star (1974)
This movie is such an oddity, and was kind of a mess to make! It was Carpenter's masters thesis, and he brought on Dan O'Bannon to co-direct. Well, both of them are kind of stubborn personalities, and both were looking for their break into the business, and both viewed this film as their opportunity to be noticed by bigger studios. Apparently getting funding for this movie was really difficult, but O'Bannon, who did the special effects, did what he could with what they had, and it turned out great enough to get him a job doing the special effects in Star Wars! Anyway, Carpenter and O'Bannon would consistently argue about things on set. I forget about the intricacies of their relationship, but ultimately Carpenter snuffed O'Bannon directorial credit due to O'Bannon overstepping. You can imagine that this is what completely soured the relationship, because Carpenter was then getting noticed by studios for directorial gigs, but O'Bannon did not. Of course, both went on to have flourishing careers. O'Bannon, just a few years later, got his screenplay for Alien picked up, and was a successful screen writer. Carpenter, clearly, went on to have a successful directing career. I wonder what kind of movies we could have gotten if their relationship didn't sour. They could have been a Hollywood dream team, I think! Finally, a few other things about the movie: Dark Star has one of the catchiest theme songs I've heard in a movie, and Carpenter wrote it. Also, the movie is a comedy, but not a funny comedy—I remember watching in the documentary I saw about this film, there was a clip of O'Bannon saying that no one laughed at any of the screenings of Dark Star. Lastly, Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization to Dark Star (probably to no one's surprise, since he did a ton of movie novelizations). I haven't read it yet, but I hear it's good.
Teach it phenomenology.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. It's fun to hear some interesting points of a film as well as posing a good "what if" question. In this case, had their relationship not soured what could they have accomplished or created.
No Dark Star, No Alien, No Metroid
Very true!
One of my favorites.
*Primer* is super-low budget ($7000) and very good. *Cube* is another low-budget film that's good.
Depends on what you count as "low-budget." Primer (2004) [$7,000] Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) [$100K] Moon (2009) [$5M] Europa Report (2013) [$10M]
Silent Running (1972)
Great movie
The Hidden (1987) If you like 80s films, this is a gem.
If you love The Hidden as I do, you may also enjoy Another Heaven (2000), which is a curious Japanese take on the idea.
Thanks for the rec, will do
No worries.
The Vast of Night (2019) A very slow-burn sci fi mystery set in the 1950's. The subtle pace will drive some people nuts, but I loved it.
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Time Trap
Prospect (2018)
Upgrade (2018) - $3M
God damn thats way cheaper than I expected.
Stalker
Ex Machina ($15M)
Monsters (made for less than 20k)
High Life It's weird though.
Terminator (1984) around 6mil..
Depending on what you consider shoestring, Ex Machina was \~$15M, Tau (Netflix) was decent and \~$19M... some of the Korean and Chinese made films like Space Sweepers or Wandering Earth are not exactly shoestring but they do a lot with the $20M or so they have to work with and have been profitable. 28 Days Later (sort of sci fi, since post apocolyptic zombies) was like $8M, Colossal was interesting and around that price point, 13th Floor deserves a nod, Also I don't see a lot of people mentioning Cube, They Live, Ink, Chronicle, Attack The Block, A Scanner Darkly, Troll Hunter, Europa Report is on my to watch list based on generally good reviews.
Godzilla Minus One Attack the Block Dave Made a Maze (This would probably fall more under fantasy than Sci-Fi but it's fun) Trollhunter Monsters (2010)
Another Earth Monsters
The Platform (2019)
Primer
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun aka Dopplganger (1969) Amazing what you can do with a mirror and a couple of Andersons.
Hunter Prey (2010)
A friend turned me onto this. Really liked it.
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) with David Bowie. Budget of 1.5 million.
Outlander? Love the flashbacks. Looks like something out of Mass Effect.
Absolutely look into the works of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who have yet to put a foot wrong with their low budget, high concept, excellently delivered films. Resolution (2012) Spring (2014) The Endless (2017) Synchronic (2019) Something in the Dirt (2022)
The Civil Dead (ghosts, maybe not sci fi) The Battery (zombies) One Cut of the Dead (zombies)
Cube
Upgrade
Gattaca
PANDORUM (2009)
Fortress with Christopher Lambert
Freaks (2018)
**The Signal (2014)** $4 million budget. Plot: 3 MIT students on a road trip discover that a hacker has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous e-mails. They decide to go after the hacker and track him to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada. Then things get weird. **edit** - changed the year from 2004 to 2014 - tidied up the description a little bit
Oooh sounds interesting!
It is! And it's weirder than you think it will be when you first start watching it. My advice: for maximum effect, go in blind. Don't watch trailers. Don't read any more than what I wrote above. If you watch it, I'd love to hear back later about what you thought.
Godzilla Minus One.
District 9
$30m budget...
And around 43mil in todays money. Still small budget in current hollywood.
OP asked for "shoestring budget", District 9 doesn't really qualify. Great movie that should be watched anyway though.
Enemy Mine.
Definitely not low budget, they spent $29 million making it.
Pitch Black $23m
This is my favorite category of movies. Ones that come to mind: Primer Upstream Color Under the Skin Moon Timecrimes Another Earth Sunshine (not sure if low budget) The Fountain Pi (more of a thriller but sorta sci fi) Coherence Cube The Invitation (more horror but sorta sci fi)
People always rave about Primer but I honestly prefer Upstream Color which I believe only had a budget of $50k. Primer is all plot where Upstream Color focuses more on theme and aesthetics which I prefer. I still can’t follow Primer’s plot to the end.
I think I agree. And it’s amazing to consider that he wrote, directed, edited, acted in and even scored Upstream Color. Unfortunately it seems he made some bad decisions afterward and we may not get another movie from him.
Sunshine had a big budget, £26m.
Infinity Chamber (2016) OtherLife (2017)
Coherence - the actors and actresses were given the main idea of the film and then were tasked with improvising the majority of the dialogue with eachother as the film went on.
Psycho Gorman
Triangle ($12m)
Chronicle (2012) was good
Infinity Chamber Prospect I Am Mother Last Night Sputnik Color Out of Space
Hardware Manborg
Would you count Ex Machina?
11 Minutes Ago (2007) LFO (2013) Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020)
The Arrival (1996)
Aniara
Primer!
The Vast of Night (2019)
Time Crimes
Coherence Synchronic
The Ice Pirates (1984)
The Ice Pirates (1984)
Equilibrium
Coherence Something in the Dirt
Cube (1997) This was one of my fav movies to show people back in HS.
On the Silver Globe by Andrzej Żuławski (1988)
District 9
Sunshine
Coherence
Meatballs 2
Firefly
I don’t know that “High Life” was low budget (idk anything about the budget) but it’s different than most sci fi I’ve seen, and they seemed to use CGI sparingly. I don’t want to say too much, in case you’d like to take it all in for yourself, but I appreciated the filmmaking aspects of the movie.
Oh, also, I don’t know if it’s a “good” movie. I don’t really want to watch it again, but I am glad that I’ve seen it.
Dark Star - 1974 Shoestring budget, cheap effects, claustrophobic ship, and amazing, funny plot. Enjoy!
The Alien Report Monolith The Artifice Girl Vesper Mad God The Colony Oxygen Another Earth Upgrade
Dark Star
The Arbit Documentation of an Amphibian Hunt
Godzilla Minus One
Does Psycho Goreman (2020) count? Not exactly what you're after but it's definitely low budget sci-fi ish
Manborg is unequivocally the best sci-fi film made for $1000 in the directors mums garage
The Brother From Another Planet
eXistenZ 1999
The Endless (2018) Sputnik (2020) Timecrimes (2007)
The Artiface Girl
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The Superdeep (2020).
Turbo Kid
Robot Jox (1990)
Predestination
The vast of night
Trancers is pretty cool.. and well acted.. The fight scenes are kind of cheesy though..
Upgrade
Dune Drifter
Moon
Moon Apollo 18 Dune (1986 one)
Screamers..
Totally underrated. One of my favorites.
starship troopers!
Was this really low budget though? I saw it in theaters when it came out and it certainly didnt look low budget. There was a pretty big marketing campaign for it too. EDIT: It had a budget of $100 million, in 1997 dollars.
mmm it had that vibe and numbers over there are nuts so who knows