Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

Simon

So the recent topic about Film Franchises got me thinking. Sure, we all love the big budget, mainstream releases that are so successful they spawn never-ending (it sometimes seems) sequels. Who doesn't? We could watch Marvel and Star-Wars movies for the rest of our lives (and we might just ...).

But y'know what I love? Obscure but brilliant movies. So, here's a chance to share some movie-gold that other people might not have seen.

Now, I'm a sucker for time-travel movies - it's often a great plot device but many movies have huge paradoxes and the time-travel aspect is a cheap trick that hasn't been fully thought through.

How about instead some movies that make you have to think, sometimes you're still thinking about them days later (maybe it's just me).

The first one is called "Time Lapse". It's about a group of people who discover a camera pointing at their window that takes photos. Yeah, but the photos it takes are from 24 hours in the future.

At first things are great, you can pass messages back ... like the results of horse races. But then what if the picture shows something you don't like? Do you need to make it happen? Can you avoid it happening? Is the future something we can make happen or something we're a slave to? What if you try to change the future by sending a message back - will that work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzYpF24LpY

The next one is also a time-travel movie and one of the most complicated time-travel plots you will encounter - part of what makes it so good. It's ultra-low budget but utterly brilliant and it's called "Primer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nj5MMURCm8

I enjoyed them both and definitely recommend watching them if you get chance. If you do watch Primer and are still confused, there's a useful explainer video - after all, it is possibly the most complicated time-travel movie ever (warning, contains spoilers!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUzy-xPf0MI

Feel free to share your favourite non-mainstream movies and why you like them.

Xanthippe

The Abyss, an underwater movie about petroleum engineers working with a navy SEAL to locate a submarine sunk under mysterious circumstances. They discover alien life living in our oceans but not in the Doctor Who, humans with funny heads mode. Quite unexpected and fascinating.

There's an amazing scene where the female lead has no alternative but to drown and then hope they can revive her, tense. Twists and turns, who's working for who, what's really going on, good stuff.

smiddy3

When were Primer and Time Lapse released ? they look interesting .

Abyss was a movie I loved some years ago.

Anybody remember "Robinson Crusoe On Mars ?" I saw that years ago on TV and have never seen it anywhere since.

" The Man From Planet X" a British film if I remember correctly maybe around the 50`s or 60`s ?

"The Time Machine" with Rod Taylor and their was another interesting one with Roddy Mcdowell and/ as jack the Ripper using the Time Machine .

I love these movies .

Nevuela

The Point was a low-budget animated movie from 1971 featuring songs by Harry Nilsson. A little-known fact about this particular film is that the song "Me and My Arrow" originated from it and the Arrow in question is actually the protagonist's dog, not a car, despite the song being far better known from a car commercial. This was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, and I still love it today. In fact, my dog (a Belgian Malinois) is named Arrow.

The only problem with the film is that, for some reason, they couldn't decide on a single narrator, so there are different versions out there with different narrators. The one I grew up with was Alan Thicke, but others have included Alan Barzman, Dustin Hoffman, and Ringo Starr. The only version available on DVD (and indeed anywhere in existence nowadays) is the Ringo version. Not to insult the man, but his bored and drunk sounding delivery pales in comparison to Thicke's. But maybe I'm biased.

Nevuela

There was also a made-for-TV movie from the early nineties called Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme, and while it is rather low-budget in terms of set design (which is still very creative nonetheless), it features an all-star cast, including Jean Stapleton as Mother Goose, Shelley Duvall as Little Bo Peep, Cyndi Lauper as Mary (Had a Little Lamb), Woody Harrelson as her lamb, Little Richard as Old King Cole, Paul Simon as Simple Simon, Art Garfunkel as Georgie Porgie, Howie Mandel as Humpty Dumpty, Ben Vereen as the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and ZZ Top as the Three Men in a Tub.

The costume designs and the songs are very out there, like something out of a late eighties/early nineties music video. This was another favorite from my childhood. If you ever get a chance, check it out.

notsurewheretogo

I'm a big fan of horror films and whilst the supernatural kind are alright I prefer pyschological horror.

And some of the low budget films/ not mainstream are astonishingly good...I think the original Blair Witch Project was a masterclass in producing fear without seeing anything.

One of my favourites is a film called Megan is Missing. It's a brutal subject but it is about two girls aged 14 and 15 and the dangers of internet chatrooms and is based on a true story. The last 20 minutes are pretty hard to watch but again the film masterfully captures the fear.

The film was endorsed by the parent of the child that the film was loosely based on.

As for The Abyss surely that is mainstream? It has a cult following and is deemed a classic?

Still Totally ADD

Simon is the movie Time Lapse a take off from a old 1960' s Twilight Zone TV show? Crooks who had a camera that took pictures of things that would happen hours later. I will have to check this movie out. Thank you. Still Totally ADD

_Morpheus

Lol xan, the abyss is the exact opposite of a low budget quirky film 😂😂 In fact, the special effects with the creatures making the face out if water and exploring were cutting edge :)

one if my picks isnt exactly low budget either but it is very quirky and died at the box office only to be come a classic as it moved to the home market- Fight club. It makes interesting comentary on modern life constantly and has tons of details to find after you seen it the first time

ttdtt

Can't wait to check it out!

dubstepped

Can't get much quirkier than UHF by Weird AL. I haven't seen it in years, but it always made me laugh hard. There's no way the production quality of that had a huge budget.

The Abyss was a great movie. Like Morpheus said though, no so sure it was low budget. I forgot about that one.

I haven't watched a movie in many years and my knowledge is virtually nil. I'm not a movie person for the most part.

Favourite Quirky / Low Budget / Non-Mainstream Movies

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