Every once in a while I come across a film that I never heard of before, often a cheap tape or DVD. Usually they aren't great and are low budget but good enough to enjoy watching. I recently picked up these oddities that I found fun:

Hell's Highway - Grisly and humorous car chase film, teens pursued by a demon of the devil incarnated as a hot teen girl.

The St Francisville Experiment - Cash-In of Blair Witch that entertains with some spookiness as college kids investigate a supposed haunting.

The Evil Behind You - Interesting premise, which isn't original, is a combination of GHOST and FROM BEYOND, with strong religious tones but done with gusto.

Carnage - 1980s Andy Milligan haunted house film, likely his best and one that's not hard to follow, with his always fun low-budget grisly effects and a decent plot.

Anyone have other recommendations?

good topic! although sinse were talking about obscure movies it'll be tough for us to recognize each others posts, but ive got a couple:

Sex and Bullets is a pretty funny low budget judd nelson movie, with a great amateur feel to it. It has everything; drugs, sex, partying, and gay gangsters lol.

Light years: a french animated movie origonally called "gandahar" its a pretty weird epic fantasy movie that came out in the early 80's, its epic but weird, for one thing their are t**s everywhere, i mean everywhere! the queen of gandahar actually wears a dress with openings for her t**s to pop out haha

My brother and I meet up every now and then for "Beer and Bad Movie Nights." We've seen a lot of rubbish but we do find the occasional gem. The best two discoveries to date have been Hercules Returns and Tongan Ninja.

Hercules Returns is an Australian comedy about a newly refurbished cinema showing an old 60s muscle man film for their grand re-opening only to find out five minutes before the curtains go up that the film is in Italian with no English dubbing or subtitling. The rest of the film is a genuine 60s muscle man film dubbed by Australians who are making up the dialogue as they go. An interesting note is that one of the stars is Bruce Spence (Mad Max 2/3, Return of the King (Extended), the last Matrix film).

Hercules Returns Trailer.

Tongan Ninja is a New Zealand kung fu comedy...no words can really describe it, it just has to be seen. When I watched this in university it was the first time I encountered Jemaine Clement who later went on to be an international star as part of Flight of the Conchords.

Tongan Ninja Trailer.

Other lesser known films that I would recommend that don't come under the comedy "Bad Movie" moniker would be:

The Flight of Dragons - Without a doubt my favourite childhood film, it even survived being watched as an adult.
No actual trailer for the film as far as I know but here's a video I made of my rather laser rot eaten LD.

Furia - French science fiction film set in a sort of post-apocalyptic future. Heavy 1984 themes and a scrore composed by Brian May of Queen! Can't find a trailer to demo it but it took me almost ten years to track down a copy of the film to watch. It's now finally been released in the US, I don't think there's been a region 2 release yet though. Odd since it's a French film and the director and female lead went on to be rather well known in Hollywood, Alexandre Aja and Marion Cotillard respectively.

Birds of Prey ... David Janssen ... Helicopter duel between brutal bank robbers who kidnap a bank teller and a former WWII flying ace.

Ride Beyond Vengeance ... Chuck Connors ... (star of The Rifleman TV series) leaves his wife to make his fortune in buffalo hunting. When he returns home, he has his life savings stolen and seeks revenge on the men who left him for dead.

Posse ... Kirk Douglas & Bruce Dern ... Cat and mouse game between an ambitious sheriff with political aspirations and a street smart outlaw ... begins like all western but ends like no other.

Siege of Firebase Gloria ... Wings Hauser & R. Lee Ermey (History Channel Mail Call/Lock & Load) ... Classic and unforgettable dialog from R. Lee Ermey. Vietnam war flick.

The Final Option ... Lewis Collins ... British SAS forces storm building to rescue hostages being held inside.

The Driver ... Ryan O'Neal & Bruce Dern ... Cat and mouse game movie between Ryan O'Neal (Getaway Driver) and Bruce Dern (Cop who bends the rules). Great car chase sequences.

Lawmen ... Burt Lancaster, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Ryan & Robert Duvall ... one of the best anti-western hero films ever made. An unglamorous western.



These are some of my obscure favorites

Those are good ones, especially the one with Chuck Conners. He was great at portraying either good guy, or bad guy as in 99 44/100 Percent Dead.

I'd forgotten about 2 I got at the 99 cents store:

Dead Birds - Western bank robbers end up hiding out in a haunted house. (anybody who would like a copy, let me know as I got several on VHS they were so cheap)

Playgirl Killer aka Portrait of Fear - A 1966 Canadian film released in 1968 about a deranged artist who kills his models and places them in poses for portraits. Has some really great looking Canadian girls in bikinis, especially Jean Christopher, and Neil Sedaka singing at a pool party.

some of my favorite lesser know films are Photographing Fairies, Outland, The Linguinie Incident, Geronimo probably more if I could think of them.

highway to hell - Chad Lowe was funny as heck.

wizard of speed and time. - I cry everytime I watch the yardsale scene in the movie.

Yea...
Wizard of speed and time is most excellent ....
Just hits you like no other movie can !!!!

The amount of comics that passes between hands value wise is enough to fund several hi budget movies, lol.

The Taking Of Beverly Hills with Ken Wahl is an obscure and cheesy ld. It's actually a fun watch. Blue Tiger, of which I just sold my copy to a lucky winner on ebay to, is pretty scarce. Here's a few more:

Fatal Vision (rare to laser 80s tv movie)
Judgement Night with Emilio Estevez (surprisingly good action)
Buried Alive with Tim Matheson/Jennifer Jason Leigh (only available on VHS)
Nails (a weird and sub-par Dennis Hopper direct to video laser)

There are so many direct to video "erotic thriller" lds (some pretty good, others unwatchable) that you could list a few pages.

I'm a big Judd Nelson fan so I'll definitely have to see that one. Always thought he was a great actor and have tried to watch every film he ever starred in.

Obscure films - I've always loved Alejandro Jodorowsky films like El Topo, The Holy Mountain or Santa Sangre - certainly very different from anything done by Hollywood.
The photography and film techniques used are beautiful and you see something new every time you watch them. I own any of his movies released on laserdisc as they are so unique and different. In fact I don't really have much interest in mainstream films as they are shown so often on TV anyway.

I agree completely with.
Such as
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Grandrieux
Pierre Zucca
Jean Paul Civeyrac
Jean Claude Brisseau
Bruno Dumont
Joel Seria
Bertrand Blier
Fernando Arrabal
Werner Schroeter
....And much more

Watching the trailer and I like it whistle as sexy girl walking in then punches the guy “She’s hired” LOL
I’ll have look around for this one looks like it would be laugh.
Brad, we’ve got a problem
What
Its in, Italian
What
The film Its in, Italian.
Its an, Italian!!
Shhh!


Can you find it I can't see it titled as Hercules Returns (1993)? Unless its under a diffirent title?
http://www.lddb.com/search.php?search=H ... format=vhd

No worries mate if it didn’t make it to Laserdisc there are lots of them on eBay DVD!

Would you believe it if I said nearly all the rest of titles are in Australia!
What?
You have to ship them from Australia!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... Categories

Interesting if you wasn’t aware nor was I even aware I and thought it was spelling mistake at first but when reading the rest. The Film was titled “Who Dares Wins” in the UK cool film with The Professionals (Lewis Collins).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083941/

The Driver is also another cool film been some time since I watched it and is the film “Drive” 2011 based on the on same idea?

Zatoichi,the blind samurai series is most excellent...
Late 50's to early 60's around 20 plus episodes were filmed in Japan.....
Don't know how popular they were however very obscure in my opinion.....

Also Ralph Bakshi's "Fire and Ice" Circa 1983, Though a Commercial flop at the box office........
Also the Creator of "Wizards" that was released circa 1977 and was way overshadowed by StarWars...
Seems commercial success sidestepped all his major works....
Lord of the Rings, American Pop, Wizards, and the most obscure "Fire and Ice" with artwork featuring Frank Frazetta.
Bakshi used rotoscoping, a filming technique involving live action scenes traced onto animation cells.
Due to watch some of his works again as it has been many years........

More popular Rotoscope productions...

Don Bluth's "Titan A.E" 2000
"It's Flashbeagle,Charlie Brown" 1984
"Heavy Metal" 1981
A- ha video "Take on Me" 1985
"Sun always shines on T.V." 1985
"Train of Thought" 1986
"Waking Life" 2001
"A Scanner Darkly" 2006

Fire and Ice - CED Great Movie, Wizards - Great Movie. I love Ralph. You have to see the South Park take on Heavy Metal it is classic.

I have met Bruce Spence. Totally cool guy!

Shaolin Soccer - With Subtitles - See how many times the people say Kick the Soccer.

Beyond the Mind's Eye
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Mind's Eye
The Gate to the Mind's Eye
A Boy and His Dog
Dark Star
Wizards

to mention a few.

Damnation Alley (1977) With its nuclear apocalypse theme of bizarre day/night-time strange looking skies due to Earth’s tilted axis has produced giant killer cockroaches.

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) I haven’t seen this one in years and it kinder reminds of The magnificent Seven meets Battle Beyond the Stars. As it has Robert Vaughn in it.

The Last Starfighter (1984) one first many to use early stages of computer integrated effects, Tron (1982) used backlighting when I thought it was computerized? An alien requites a young boy to help him fight the bad aliens basically. Cool opening score Craig Safan.

All of which I haven’t got on Laserdisc or DVD much less bluray so flame me! I’ll promise to order these titles in January as they are cool cult sci-fi late 70’s and 80’s films that I’ve seen on VHS and TV in the past as well as the cinema with “Battle Beyond the Stars”.

I’d like to also get this one on DVD!
The Vanishing Point (1971) starring Barry Newman from that Petrocelli series, goes travelling on the road and meets a few strange people along the way.

Oh and one more that I have seen at the cinema and many times on TV.
Meteor (1979) its only days before two enormous planet killer meteors impact with the Earth can 007 (Sean Connery) save the Earth in time with other world government leaders before we are annulated!

Explorers (1985) now this I do have on DVD and its charming sci-fi fantasy of “its the stuff that dreams are made off”. It’s a marvellous cult film that didn’t do well on its theatrical run. I never saw it at the cinema I saw on VHS a year after its release. Smashing Jerry Goldsmith score in 6track Dolby stereo.

Got this on DVD
Silent Running (1972) giant spacecraft arks carry the last forests of Earth. It’s an adorable film that has in-between tragic turning point.

Another one that I like to get on DVD this was a favourite of mine in the early 80’s I’d watching over and over while being on the CB radio myself thou I wasn’t called Brother, “Rubber Duck” LOL

Convoy (1978) Kris Kristofferson leads a convoy of trackers from state to state, while mean Sheriff Lyle is hot on his heels to bring him to justice for the fun of it, but the Duck won’t stand for it and will put the foot to peddle and keep on trucking till the end.
Cool opening title song by C.W. McCall.

An FYI on Silent Running:

Some of the footage of spacecraft in Silent Running was left over from 2001.

Do you where or which scene in the film I wasn’t aware of that and I heard that Stanley Kubrick had all the models destroyed so they couldn’t be used in other films?