Classic low-budget science-fiction, fantasy & horror films that you like?

[theenglish]

A classic movie used to be considered 20 Years. Now it is probably 30 to 40. That includes the 70s and the 80s. For me, any Chronenberg film before The Fly would be "low budget" and worth checking out.

When I was a kid, Canadian television played late night SciFi and Fantasy movies late night on the weekends and that's where most of my B Movie education came from.

Gorgo (1961) is a great film to check out. With a twist ending that would leave you in tears if you were stoned.

 

[Anwar]

Does "Miracle Mile" from 1988 count?

 

[Crimson Forcefield]

Have a soft spot for The Giant Behemoth (1959) after catching it on late night TV as a kid.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Can't leave the Japanese out of this, some awesome films like The H-Man. A police procedural about narcotics smuggling running into radioactive mutants eating people.

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[stj]

Sticking to obscure SF....
The Time Travelers (surprisingly imaginative, incredibly cheap)
Creation of the Humanoids (understood robots are a metaphor for dehumanization...happy ending, or NOT?)
It Conquered the World (the mad scientist has a startlingly original motivation)
Red Planet Mars (SF that disembowels itself on screen...has to be seen to be believed)
The 27th Day (high concept, high death toll)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (DEC product placement movie, but still quite good, in my opinion)

 

[Bast]

Does Pitch Black qualify as low budget? Love that one.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Does Pitch Black qualify as low budget? Love that one.

It's an enjoyable movie, but $23 million (according to Box Office Mojo) isn't exactly low-budget. :/

 

[Doc Mugatu]

It's an enjoyable movie, but $23 million (according to Box Office Mojo) isn't exactly low-budget. :/

That's relative. What were the budgets for other films around that same period? Whole Nine Yards for example had a budget of close to twice that of Pitch Black ($41 million). Hanging Up ($60 million). On the flip side: Boiler Room had a budget of only $7 million. *All films released same weekend (02/18/2000).

My point: Pitch Black could be seen either way. Considering it's genre, I tend to fall on the low budget side. Again, could go either way.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

A few I can think of off the top of my head. . .
Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood. All by David Cronenberg.
Shivers being filmed in the very apartment complex he was living in at the time.
The original Mad Max was also a low budget movie.
Then there's the original Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.
Heck, almost any George A. Romero movie could be considered low-budget.

 

[Jayson1]

"Free Enterprise" isn't really Sci-Fi but it's a love letter to Trek and Sci-FI by creating a world were nerds are cool and live in Hollywood meeting the likes of Shatner and making movies and just hanging out with friends.

"The Specials" James Gunn comic book movie about second rate superheros and what they do when they don't fight crime. Stars Hayden Christian Church and others.

"The CUbe" I think it must be cheap. 4 people I think trapped in a cube were each room is booby trapped.

The horror movie that stared the sister from "Dexter" were she and some firemen and residents are trapped inside a apartment and people are slowly getting sick and turning zombie like.

Jason

 

[Smellmet]

I see no one has mentioned 'Trancers' (1984) starring Tim Thomerson and a very young Helen Hunt.

Now that is a proper low budget sci-fi flick at a mere 400,000 dollars.

 

[Anwar]

I see no one has mentioned 'Trancers' (1984) starring Tim Thomerson and a very young Helen Hunt.

Now that is a proper low budget sci-fi flick at a mere 400,000 dollars.

And spawned like 5 sequels.

 

[Qonundrum]

Now there's a movie that exploded onto theaters...

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[Smellmet]

And spawned like 5 sequels.

Yeah we don't mention the sequels which were laughably bad. The original is a decent film though.

 

[Velocity]

I have no idea about the budgets, but I loved the old Bug Eyed Monster movies we saw at the drive-in in the 60s. And anything with dinosaurs like The Valley of Gwangi. Gotta love Ray Harryhausen's work.

 

[Mudd]

Invaders From Mars, obviously. The original, not the remake.

 

[Noname Given]

Another of my Guilty Pleasures from the 50ies era (althiough I don't know if it was considered 'low budget' in it's day) was:
Earth VS The Flying Saucers:

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[TrickyDickie]

The Monolith Monsters (1957) I'm reminded of that every time I see that crystal in the Discovery intro.

X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes
Dark Night of the Scarecrow
Night Terror
Plan 9 from Outer Space
5 Million Years to Earth
Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann
Unidentified Flying Oddball
Stowaway to the Moon

 

[stj]

Ooh! Monolith Monsters! One of the most original monsters ever devised. Loved it.
Invaders from Mars, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers do indeed have their joys.

 

[Redfern]

Was "Colossus: the Forbin Project" the first time we heard what is now considered the "Cylon" voice?