Oddball Sci Fi Films Of The 1. Somewhere between 1. A Space Odyssey and 1. Star Wars, something happened in the culture. The Internet Movie Database offers cast and crew credits, plot summary, user comments, and links. From Doctor Who to Dollhouse, these are the series that told their greatest TV stories in worlds far away from our own. With so many great scifi flicks out there, youve probably read a few lists on different movie sites that have touched on the forgotten gems of the genre. The Phantom came out in 1996, making it a late entry in the decades retrosuperhero movie trend. It suffered from being too similar to the movies thatd come. TV Funhouse Movie Online. Storytellers, perhaps inspired by the fizzling out of the hippie counter culture, the still dragging on war in Vietnam and post Watergate disillusionment, began to look at the future in a somewhat darker, more idiosyncratic way than had been the case before, shifting focus to recurring themes of environmental disaster, utopias gone sour, and the end of all things. The result is one of the most distinctive and self contained periods of sci fi movies in the history of cinema, one where the films proved weirder, more distinctive and trippier than at almost any other time. One such example, Michael Crichtons curious westernsci fi hybrid Westworld, hits Blu ray for the first time this week, and celebrates its 4. And so we thought this felt like a good opportunity to run down 2. Check out our list below, and let us know your own favorites in the comments section below. The Andromeda Strain 1. Very much the model of the restrained sci fi film theres very little eye candy on display, including the star free cast who play the rare movie scientists who look like scientists The Andromeda Strain marks the first movie adaptation of a novel by doctor turned novelist and filmmaker Michael Crichton, the author whod later bring us the worlds of Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere and Timeline among others and wholl figure several times elsewhere on this list. Cult Sci Fi Movies The Simpsons Movie ' title='Cult Sci Fi Movies The Simpsons Movie ' />In honor of ComicCon, weve dug up 15 TV flops from the world of comic books, scifi and fantasy that missed the current nerdgenre era. Cult Sci Fi Movies The Simpsons Movie ' title='Cult Sci Fi Movies The Simpsons Movie ' />And while theres an alien threat at work in the film, its literally a tiny one, though no less dangerous for its size. The movie, efficiently directed by chameleonic veteran journeyman Robert Wise The Haunting, The Sound of Music gets underway when a government satellite carrying a microscopic alien organism crashes in a New Mexico town, gruesomely killing all but two of its inhabitants, an old man and a baby. The survivors are brought to a secret underground facility where a team of scientists prepared for this kind of eventuality attempt to find out what happened, and how to stop it. While Wises film doesnt include much in the way of spectacle beyond some impressive production design from Boris Leven, who got an Oscar nomination for his troubles, its no less gripping for it, although its dry in spots. And Crichtons background in medicine shows that, aside from the alien origins of the organism, the whole thing is terrifyingly plausible, at least until it shifts into a disaster movie in its closing stages. The Black Hole 1. While now almost completely forgotten about, despite some idle talk about Joseph Kosinski Tron Legacy hadling a big budget remake, The Black Hole is a true sci fi oddity, for a number of reasons. Firstly it was directed by Gary Nelson, a filmmaker whose most notable contribution to the artform seems to be the Jodie Foster version of Freaky Friday. Secondly, it was the most expensive movie ever produced by Disney up to that point and its first to carry a PG rating. It was also, maybe most importantly, something of a technological breakthrough, particularly when it came to the computer generated sequence that started the movie at the time it was the longest in history. The filmmakers also developed a technology that would allow panning over a stationary matte painting, after being denied the use of similar equipment from Industrial Light Magic. The movie, about a spaceship crew on the precarious edge of the titular gravity mass, is pretty weird too it follows a similar derelict space station motif that Alien would share that same year and has a stellar cast that includes a spry Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins who gets murdered by robots in the movies best scene, Robert Forster, Yvette Mimieux and Ernest Borgnine. The production design by Peter Ellenshaw and John B. Mansbridge, too, is genuinely jaw dropping, as is the score, by Bond composer John Barry that main theme kills. Its pretty existential too read slow, with metaphysically knotty notions of heaven and hell sprinkled in amongst the telepathic robots. While it became the 2. Disneys most expensive film to date, that was hardly a major victory. Critics at the time were also very mixed on it, but its such a strange outlier for the company, its worth checking out for that alone. A Boy And His Dog 1. L. Q. Jones, a renowned character actor from dozens of westerns, saddled up as a director with a young Don Johnson, Harlan Ellison, Ray Manzarek yes, the garrulousnerdy keyboardist from The Doors, the dog from The Brady Bunch and members of the Firesign Theater for this weirdo post apocalyptic tale of telepathy, rape and popcorn. Johnson and his shaggy pup roam the desert, looking for food and love. The telepathically talking dog, Blood adorable, by the way, is basically in charge, and leads Johnson to easy sex in exchange for food. Its kinda like Knight Rider except its a dog instead of a car and they arent busting smugglers, theyre being not so scrupulous scavengers. Eventually the pair are lured to an underground city where the men are sterilized and Jason Robards wears white face paint. Shockingly, once you get into the groove of the bizarre film it does have some witty dialogue it actually kinda works. This one is in the public domain, so you can watch the film in full on any video streaming site without feeling guilty. Ray Manzarek also contributed music to the film along with Tim Mc. Intire and Jaime Mendoza Nava. Dark Star 1. Imagine taking all the dread and horror of Alien and replacing it with a loquacious, stoner vibe and that is, pretty much, what you get with Dark Star. Co written, starring and edited by Alien co creator Dan OBannon and directed by John Carpenter, Dark Star is a shaggy dog film about a low rent crew busting their hump in space, destroying planets for The Man. The space crew workers ever malfunctioning ship no toilet paper faces increasing obstacles, like a pesky alien mascot really just a painted beach ball who wont go where hes told and the belligerent sentience of one of their world killing bombs. The pictures finale features bearded space hippies trying to calm down this freaked out Thermostellar Triggering Device through a dialogue of rather heavy post grad philosophy. While the directors later films such as The Thing and Escape From New York would feature memorable endings of their own, few films in the Carpenter canon can compare with mass death spawned by robotic Cartesian doubt. Carpenters early synthesizer score only makes it better. Demon Seed 1. 97. Science fiction perverts love to talk about sex robots, but no one wants to address the dangers of robot rape. In this strangely effective adaptation of Dean Koontz Demon Seed by Donald Cammell the oft forgotten co director, with Nicolas Roeg, of Performance Julie Christie isnt just violated, she is impregnated by an artificial intelligence that her own husband Fritz Weaver created Robert Vaughn co stars. The Proteus IV computer program has the sum of all human knowledge in it, so you know that isnt going to end well. In classic sci fi manner, Proteus tries to test its limits, especially after it is relegated to simple chores around the WeaverChristie place. Proteus refuses to shut down, bunkers in the basement and mutates into a surprisingly chilling form that kinda resembles golden air conditioning ducts contorting like a Rubiks Snake. Storywise, Demon Seed is trash, but it is treated so seriously and the design not just the villain, but the science labs and early computers are so nifty that one cant help but get sucked in. Logans Run 1. A remake of Logans Run is one of the more elusive projects in Hollywood. Its been in the works for over a decade, with filmmakers including Bryan Singer who got as far as pre production back in 2. Monsters in Motion, Movie, TV Collectibles, Model Hobby Kits, Action Figures, Monsters in Motion.