Any great Indie Sci-Fi films?

[-zach-]

an over the top "superchick gone bad" scenario.

First thing I thought of when I read that was High Tension.

 

[Mike Conway]

First thing I thought of when I read that was High Tension.

No, superchick in HAUTE TENSION. That was lesbian delerium. Not saying that THE AWAKENING is wholly original, but it's no FATAL ATTRACTION or slasher movie.

 

[MarkG]

Yes, a lot of that lighting was very rushed and there was no crew for it. I took on way too much - I set up the lights, the mic on a stand, the camera..... and played the lead male.

Wow! I'm impressed that you managed to even get the movie finished in those conditions... I've worked on plenty of movies with sizeable crews that are still 'missing in action' years later.

 

[Mike Conway]

Thanks, Mark. You still make a good point on the lighting - and that is, bad lighting lends to an impression of a "cheap" indie.

I think the biggest improvement one can make, is to trust in other people to pick you up, where you are weak. I'm making a point to get some help, for the new sci-fi movie, which shoots in 3 weeks. How it "looks" will be at the top of my agenda.

 

[Sad Max]

Also, has anyone here mentioned a movie called "Screamers" with Peter Weller? Not really indie too much, but lower budget and a decent idea.

I just watched Screamers again recently, and was much less impressed the second time around, than the first. Peter Weller pretty much carries the film all by himself; he pretty well eclipses the remaining cast, without seeming to try. Although the basic story is pretty arresting; props to Phillip K Dick.

I'd vote for Deathrace 2000, Stalker, THX-1138 (the theatrical release version with Robert Duvall, not the student film version with Mister Bean) and The Quiet Earth, which I suspect qualifies as 'low budget/indie' by comparison to pretty much anything coming out of the studios or their affiliates, now.

And the revived Outer Limits, while not an indie film, has done some really amazingly good bits of science fiction storytelling on limited resources, mostly (I think) thanks to Naren Shankar. And, if indie (well, darned close to it) television counts, then I'd also nominate the first four seasons of Babylon 5, along with the first couple of B5 features.