UNDER TEN MILLION? ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE!

The indie horror/fantasy/sci-fi scene has waned slightly since peaking around 2016/2017 ), the accent now firmly on "mockbusters" or disaster movies to the extent that everything else (horror and sci-fi) has been shunted into the sidelines. By indie, I refer to those films made by Asylum (The Global Asylum), Full Moon, Cinetel Films, Castel Films Romania, Nu Image and a host of other names unfamiliar to the average fan. Low-budget features can be produced by the big boys; some hit the jackpot, others fall by the wayside, but at least they're being made. These days, with up to (and over) $200 million being splashed out on the likes of Kong: Skull Island, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Transformers: The Last Knight, Pacific Rim, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and all those superhero escapades, 10 million can feel like small change, so it's that figure that I've kept to as the ceiling to the movies contained within this volume; the majority of films described in the following pages fall far, far short of that figure. Independent film companies exist in a totally different kind of cinematic universe, quite happy to appeal to its niche audience, providing them (via DVD, TV, streaming, film conventions, FrightFests or a very limited and selected cinema release) with a never-ending supply of cut-price goodies and bypassing the masses, most of who are completely unaware of their existence. Cameron's Avatar? Yeah, great movie. Jim Wynorski's Shockwave? Who? What? Battle Los Angeles? Loved it. Battle of Los Angeles? Eh? Thought there was only Battle Los Angeles. The 7 Adventures of Sinbad? Sorry ­surely you mean The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Mega Piranha? Well, I've heard of Piranha but Mega Piranha? Jurassic City? Are you referring to Jurassic World? For those of us weary of the pretentious, who have become blasé to the over-hyped and indifferent to the bloated, are put off by the constant trumpeting surrounding the latest innovations in the field of special effects (and some turn out to be not all that special), or have tired of the parade of self-gratulatory A-listers, products like Hydra, Ice Twisters, Evil Angel, Lake Mungo, Dark Circles, May, The Dinosaur Project, Dr. Moreau's House of Pain, Howl, Ogre, Bigfoot, Autumn, Reptisaurus, Dark Angel: The Ascent, Age of Dinosaurs, Flight 7500, The Reef, Alien Dawn, The Blackout and 2-Headed Shark Attack are like a breath of fresh cinematic air. These features hark back in many ways to the innocence, zeal and creativeness displayed in the fantasy output of the '50s and '60s, the genre's golden decades. Disaster, end-of-world, outer space, aliens, vampires, werewolves, zombies, teen horror, Frankenstein, serial killer, slasher/splatter, torture-porn, psychological drama, medical horror, other worlds, ghosts, mad doctors, the supernatural, asylums, haunted houses, dinosaurs, mutated insects, lost/found footage, weather formations, giant reptiles and mega sharks­­-you name it, it's probably been covered by an indie outfit somewhere; there's something to cater to everyone's tastes, a tasty diet of enriching, altogether more divergent, fodder which otherwise would never have been made or seen the light of day. After all, would any of the big motion picture companies take the financial risk of tackling something as unconventional as The Human Centipede (First Sequence) and its two disgusting sequels? I think not. And as for Nude Nuns with Big Guns ...!