Good Sci-Fi, Mystery and Horror
Good Science Fiction - whether hard or soft, good Mystery/Suspense (including Slipstream), and good Horror/Spooky, of any budget.
This list is in no particular order! It's just as I thought of them I added them.
This list is in no particular order! It's just as I thought of them I added them.
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18 titles
- DirectorShane CarruthStarsShane CarruthDavid SullivanCasey GoodenFour friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.Hard Science Fiction, very stylish, made for $7000, and possibly the best hard SF film ever made (and yes that comparison includes 2001: A Space Odessy). Shane Carruth is just a hero. His follow-up effort, Upstream Color, isn't quite as ground-breaking as Primer, but it's also just an amazing, gripping and beautiful film.
- DirectorMike FlanaganStarsKatie ParkerCourtney BellDave LevineA woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.I can't actually tell you too much about Absentia without spoiling. It's low-budget, but wonderfully executed. The concept is brilliant. The tension, scares and weirdness exist aplenty. Lovely little piece of work.
- DirectorJohn Erick DowdleStarsPerdita WeeksBen FeldmanEdwin HodgeWhen a team of explorers venture into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.I went in with low expectations, left amazed. This is a bizarre little supernatural horror, that builds and builds. It's just SO well done. I can't believe it gets compared to The Descent (which is a piece of crap). Watch out if you get Claustraphobic, the vast bulk of this film is tunnels, chambers and caves.
- DirectorDerek LeeClif ProwseStarsClif ProwseDerek LeeMichael GillTwo best friends see their trip of a lifetime take a dark turn when one of them is struck by a mysterious affliction. Now, in a foreign land, they race to uncover the source before it consumes him completely.Can't tell you much about it, other than it's a low-budget horror. It also looks like a high-budget horror, thanks to the grace with with it is done, and dumps on Hollywood efforts from a great height.
- DirectorNeil BurgerStarsBradley CooperAnna FrielAbbie CornishA mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100% of his brain's abilities transforms a struggling writer into a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with many dangers.Ignore the critics and haters, it's a very good film (Lucy, is not). It has about 3 plot-holes you could drive an Abrams tank through, but they don't destroy it. It's just a good film, that's all, and it's very underrated.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJake GyllenhaalRobert Downey Jr.Mark RuffaloBetween 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.This is a Mystery, based on truth. Wonderful film, beautifully, grippingly, tensely executed. Yet another vehicle for Jake Gyllenhaal's great talents.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsJake GyllenhaalMélanie LaurentSarah GadonA man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.Jake Gyllenhaal does it again. This might be a bit 'abstract' for some people, but I love it. Falls firmly in the 'Slipstream' genre for me.
- DirectorDan GilroyStarsJake GyllenhaalRene RussoBill PaxtonWhen Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.While I was thinking about Jake Gyllenhaal films, I thought I'd throw in one of the best films, in general, I think I've ever seen. This is an edge of the seat thriller, and also what I'd call an example of 'Slipstream'.
- DirectorJames Ward ByrkitStarsEmily BaldoniMaury SterlingNicholas BrendonStrange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.Low-budget, zero special-effects, subtle, stately, hard-SF masterpiece. Anyone who down-rated it is just poorly educated and too stupid to realise it. This is a brain-massaging film, so you need a brain in the first place to have it massaged. Quite tense, get's very edge of the seat as it goes on. Possibly 'Slipstream', but really it's just good, hard SF.
- DirectorDuncan JonesStarsJake GyllenhaalMichelle MonaghanVera FarmigaA soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.Has its faults. I understand the physics and ramifications of Quantum Computing, but - unfortunately - Source Code dodges its questions and smooths over the technical issues a little too much. I've brooded at great length on how to make it make sense. Doesn't stop it being a brilliant film, though. And yet again - Jake Gyllenhaal kicks ass.
- DirectorUbaldo RagonaSidney SalkowStarsVincent PriceFranca BettoiaEmma DanieliWhen a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.Most people are not aware that 'The Omega Man' and 'I Am Legend', are based on a book from the 50's - entitled 'I Am Legend'.
This film version of the book was made in 1964, and stars a younger Vincent Price. It is the best of all the tellings, despite the limitations of the time it was made. A B&W masterpiece of dark Science Fiction. - DirectorShane CarruthStarsAmy SeimetzFrank MosleyShane CarruthA man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.Shane Carruth's other masterpiece (next to Primer). I say 'other' because he's only managed two films so far - both on a shoestring budget, and he did almost everything for them himself.
Stylish and beautiful, and quite tense, this film is perhaps not as 'hard' SF as Primer (actually, that's arguable), but it's just as involving. Brain massaging, and quite moving. - DirectorHideo NakataStarsNanako MatsushimaMiki NakataniYûko TakeuchiA reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.Ok let's get all this clear for you. This is the real film, the Japanese one. If you can't handle subtitles, go away. The American remake is a complete disaster and very, very embarassing - in part because this film could not possibly be remade, it's far too unique.
Also - this film is not called 'Ringu'. Somebody made that up, and it's stuck, like spinach having lots of iron or jet fuel burning at absurdly low temperatures (it burns at around 2000 Centigrade, FYI). The Japanese title of this film, as far as it can be transliterated into English, is simply... 'Ring'.
First film in a couple of decades to scare the living **** out of me.
Masterpiece.
(It also has a sequel that is very good, a prequel that is quite good, if a little confused, and a third sequel that is a disastrously awful, tacky mess.) - DirectorVincenzo NataliStarsNicole de BoerMaurice Dean WintDavid HewlettA group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.Anyone who doesn't like this film should be shot. And that's it, really.
Scary, tense little archetypal nightmare. SF, Slipstream, Mystery and so much more.
The acting is apalling. The story is so good it doesn't matter. - DirectorMike FlanaganStarsKaren GillanBrenton ThwaitesKatee SackhoffA recently released inmate from a mental asylum learns from his sister that the murders he was convicted of committing were actually orchestrated by a supernatural entity, the Lasser Glass mirror.Great little horror, with some mind-bending'ness done well. It's probably a bit over-rated: I wouldn't call it an 'enduring classic', but I would definitely call it a 'bloody good horror film'.
- DirectorDon CoscarelliStarsChase WilliamsonRob MayesPaul GiamattiA new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return no longer human. Can two college drop-outs save humanity from this silent, otherworldly invasion?Hard to categorise this one. It's kind of Buffy-level horror, and it's really funny in a few places. But the story and the way it's told is just so damn good. A reality-bending mystery, told by two guys who just happen to be the ones caught in the middle. One of my favourite films, ever.
- DirectorJames WanStarsPatrick WilsonRose ByrneTy SimpkinsA family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.This horror film has probably been over-hyped to the max, but it deserves it. It's a little masterpiece and extremely, actually, scary. It's a "has you looking over your shoulder, after" type of film. The story is clever, and even includes some well-placed comic relief.
I only have one criticism, the director needed to learn about audio Dynamic Range: having scare moments go super-loud doesn't impress anyone - it just annoys them and makes them turn on the Limiter function on their home theatre. But this doesn't wreck what is, overall, a great film.
Unbelievably, ALL the sequels are good. When does that happen? - DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.I guess it's remotely possible that some of the younger audience haven't seen the best SF space-horror ever made. Ever. If so, see it - and there is a bonus test: If any of your friends don't like it, that means they're stupid! Quite handy.
It's sequel, Aliens, is an action film and not as good, but very watchable.
Such a pity that, like the Matrix, they NEVER, EVER, made any further sequels....