It is very good to recover science fiction classics from among the dozens that we have on streaming platforms. But sometimes even more satisfying is dig into the little hidden gems that went partially unnoticed in their day and that can be a pleasant discovery among all the tidal wave of weekly news. We’ve rounded up some of the not-so-well-known sci-fi movies you can enjoy right now on Netflix to show that there’s so much more on your screen than blockbusters to pay attention to.
Timetrap (2017)
A very nice curiosity about a group of young people who remain isolated in a cave where time passes at different speeds than outside. What could have given rise to a story type ‘Twilight Zone’ (when they go out they meet their grandchildren, or something like that), decides to step on the accelerator of nonsense, and works as a speleological adventure film and, at the same time, as a piece of tiny excessive science fiction. A fun and shameless little gem.
Okay (2017)
Between ‘Snowpiercer’ and ‘Parasites’, Bong Joon-ho directed this interesting and controversial film, with a furious and forceful environmental message, and that attacks the meat industry and the capitalist system disguised as a youth adventure film. In it, a girl tries to rescue a huge pig that is going to be slaughtered as part of a completely new and inhuman food industry, and Bong Joon-ho uses that starting point to pose a satire that leaves no puppet with a head, of the irresponsible carnivores to naive activists.
TAU (2018)
The great Maika Monroe (from ‘It Follows’ and ‘The Guest’, perfect for these resourceful sufferer roles) is victim of an artificial intelligence programmed by a wacko, in a claustrophobic thriller and aesthetically very suggestive. Fast, violent and intense, this ‘TAU’ may have problems in its final stretch, but the truth is that it delivers exactly what it promises: humans against robots in cold and hostile environments.
Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2018)
In the near future the two Koreas have reached an agreement to unify, while the sectors against the union are increasingly violent and aggressive, even committing terrorist acts. A police force is created to contain them in this dystopia of impressive action sequences inspired by the mythical anime ‘Jin-Roh’. a superb block buster which makes clear the superpower of cinema that Korea has become thanks to the good work of authors such as Kim Jee-woon, director of films like this one, ‘I found the devil’, ‘The good, the bad and the weird’ or ‘2 sisters’.
Annihilation (2018)
Partially unsuccessful, inferior to the Jeff VanderMeer book on which it is based, but ambitious and worthy of much more luck than it had. Initially produced by Paramount, it had an erratic distribution and ended up being released as a Netflix exclusive in many countries. Drinking from the atmosphere and some plot elements of Tarkovsky’s legendary ‘Stalker’, tells how a group of scientists enter a zone of unknown origin and where physical laws do not apply. A marvel from Alex Garland, director and screenwriter of ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Devs’.
Stowaway (2021)
A small crew travels to Mars, but they have an unexpected (and unwitting) stowaway on board. When his presence is revealed, they will have to make a series of tough decisions to ensure the survival of the crew. Claustrophobic but also emotional little film produced by Netflix that with very few elements manages to create an estimable situation of suspense. Terrific Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae Kim.
The Hole (2019)
It didn’t go unnoticed (in fact, thanks to Netflix it became an international success) but we shouldn’t forget this stupendous Spanish dystopia, of highly metaphorical content but that can be interpreted almost literally: the system is eating itself. A huge pit serves as the setting for a macabre survival game in which random positions determine who gets to enjoy what the others leave behind. Superbly acted and with considerable venomous humor, it’s one of the most inventive and feisty sci-fi movies of recent years.
I Am Mother (2019)
An interesting science-fiction thriller in which a teenage girl (Clara Rugaard, the film’s great discovery) is raised in an underground shelter by a robot mother. The relationship between the two is threatened when an unknown woman (Hilary Swank, also wonderful) appears who makes the protagonist doubt everything the android has said to the young woman about the outside world. A film that recalls the genre in its most literary aspect, by combining fun and suspense with torpedo messages, direct to the waterline of our beliefs about ourselves.
Oxygen (2021)
The master of French horror Alexandre Aja, whom we thought lost between assignments in Hollywood with very little chicha, signs this piece of extreme claustrophobia with a single protagonist: Mélanie Laurent, who wakes up in a futuristic capsule accompanied only by the burdensome and ultralogical voice of an artificial intelligence. Desperate in the progressive lack of oxygen, she tries to find out how she got there and how she can get out. of the capsule. Tense and spectacular, it poses some strict rules that it does not break and that make it a little jewel of minimalist and suffocating science fiction.
The Wandering Earth (2019)
A true Chinese blockbuster, which unlike many other films that succeed exclusively within the country’s borders, has achieved international relevance thanks to Netflix. Here and based on a novel by the great star of Chinese literary science fiction, Liu Cixin, the Earth is destined for catastrophe, and the idea that is carried out to rid the planet of its destiny is to remove it from its orbit. But… what happens when Jupiter’s gravitational pull is too strong? Humour, adventure, family drama and a lot of spectacular science fiction for a film that is very different from the usual Hollywood catastrophic cinema.
Sound & Fury (2019)
Halfway between the music video and the experimental anime, ‘Sound & Fury’ is a post-apocalyptic animated film that puts images on the album of the same name, sixth in the career of multi-award winning country artist Sturgill Simpson. It is directed by a group of directors such as the historical Kôji Morimoto or Junpei Mizusaki, who recently signed ‘Batman Ninja’. An amazing trip to a dystopian future to the rhythm of acid rock guitars that make up a type of experiment that we would like to see more often on music platforms. streaming.
Midnight Sky (2020)
Two movies in one (a low-key post-apocalyptic drama and a space adventure) that have some difficulty coming together, but whose whole it is worth it thanks to the care that George Clooney, director and protagonist, puts in portraying his characters. On an Earth doomed to extinction, a scientist refuses to leave his laboratory in the Arctic, trying to warn orbiting ships on various missions of the planet’s fate. But one day he finds a girl who has stayed with him by accident, and with her he will try to contact an approaching ship. Emotional and hopeful.
Space Sweepers (2021)
In 2092 the Earth is uninhabitable, and while the privileged have settled in an Eden that generates a large amount of space debris, others with less luck dedicate themselves to subsisting by reselling this junk that floats in the cosmos. A group of these space sweepers finds in one of her jobs a humanoid girl wanted by different forces, since she carries a powerful weapon inside her. Another recent Korean blockbuster, familiar and full of humor, with first-class special effects and secondary characters as great as that talkative but efficient robot.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism