7 Obscure Sci-Fi Movies You Can Watch for Free on YouTube
I love science-fiction in all its forms, and I'm just as likely to watch the latest blockbuster as I am to watch some indie film with a weird premise and no budget. Even some of the worst sci-fi usually has at least one interesting idea, after all.
The other day, I stumbled over some classic sci-fi movies on YouTube that are available in full and are legal to watch, which got me wondering what obscure treasures might be lurking in the world's biggest repository of videos. Ultimately, I dredged up some stuff your eyes won't believe.
I didn't compile this list to be a "best" list or really anything to do with the merits of the films themselves. Some are bad, some are good, some are so bad that they're good. However, I was looking for something different from what the mainstream services are showing in the sci-fi genre, and boy did I get more than I bargained for!
The Lost World
First, if you know anything about the history of film, then The Lost World is, of course, not obscure at all. It's one of the most important movies in history. However, it's also 100 years old now, so I doubt most mainstream audiences have any clue about this film that has been preserved in the United States National Film Registry. Because of its age, the movie is also in the public domain, which means you can watch it almost anywhere, including YouTube.
Decades before Jurassic Park , this adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book thrilled audiences with stop-motion reproductions of dinosaurs. This is one of the first (if not the first) movies that used models and stop-motion as a primary special effect, and despite being a silent film, I think it's absolutely worth watching today. You might recognize some plot similarities to King Kong and Willis O'Brien, who did the stop-motion for Kong, did this movie first.
I've met some people who refuse to watch silent movies just on principle, but just because something is very old doesn't mean it's not worth watching. At least, that's what I tell myself every time I binge my 90s DVD movie collection.
The Last Man on Earth
You've probably heard of Will Smith's I Am Legend , based on a book of the same name, but in 1964 the book was adapted as The Last Man on Earth, starring horror legend Vincent Price.
While the plot is pretty much the same as in the modern adaptation, the tone and performances are very different. I like the modern I Am Legend just fine, but there's something much more melancholy and introspective about this version of the story. If you liked Will Smith's version, it's definitely worth watching this older take on the book.
Interestingly (and spoiler alert),this movie and the theatrical release of I Am Legend both end with the main character dying, though in the case of Will Smith's film, this is an act of self-sacrifice. In Price's film, the vampires kill him. The theatrical ending of I Am Legend is no longer considered canon, and the alternate ending from the home video release is now canon. Which is why there's an I Am Legend 2 on the way, believe it or not!
Ghost Planet
Imagine The Expanse, but made with zero budget, by people who clearly have some talent, but very little idea of what they're actually doing, and you have Ghost Planet . It's such a weird experience watching this movie, because clearly it's not good. The acting is cheesy, the cinematography is bad (which is one thing they could have done right), and the computer effects are primitive.
And yet, if I had made this movie I'd be pretty proud of myself. I mean, it's a real movie, and it's actually entertaining to watch. It has props, it has a plot. It's really hard to even hate it.
As for the plot, well it's not that creative. A crew of people go to a mysterious planet in search of treasure, and instead find death and horror. It's been done before, but nonetheless, I beg you to give Ghost Planet an hour and a half of your time.
Our Man in LA
Our Man in LA centers around a character named Percival who makes a living finding and selling illegal alien technology to the highest bidder. Except it seems that's not enough to keep his head above water, and money troubles follow him everywhere. Percival needs to recover a UFO to get his life back on track, but it's not going to be easy.
The acting in this indie film is pretty decent, at least when it comes to the main character, played by Guy Birtwhistle. The effects are decent, the cinematography competent, and the story is worth the time it takes to watch. It's not a good movie, if I'm being honest, but it's also not a bad movie. I also like the cheesy VR sections.
The Conspiracy of the Dark Falls
A small mountain town with an ominous name, special government agents, a dude trying to find out what happened to his father—it actually reads like the plot to a bonkers Japanese survival horror game, but really the main influence here is The X Files and maybe some The Da Vinci Code . Well, if they were shot by students who only used long, static tripod shots, and had actors who seemed like a vampire had just drained all their blood before the director yelled "action!".
Yeah, this is an awful movie, but it's also unintentionally hilarious. Like when the special agent gives a police officer a long-winded explanation as to why she should see a body, and the cop just says "OK". I don't expect anyone to make it past the first 30 minutes, but by George you need to see some of it. I like this sort of thing for the same reason some people like to watch compilations of car accidents on YouTube.
Space Probe Taurus
The most interesting thing about Space Probe Taurus is that it came out only three years before 2001: A Spacy Odyssey , yet you wouldn't think so to look at it. This is a movie that exemplifies the cheap and campy way space travel was depicted in films like Flash Gordon before Odyssey hit cinemas. However, it's still a pretty good movie for the most part, and the whole premise of humans developing a new propulsion system, and using it to find new planets to colonize would be right at home in a modern film.
Despite being a low-budget movie from the 1960s, the acting, cinematography, and overall quality of the movie still manage to be better than the indie movies above in this list, despite having access to all that modern computer technology. Do watch 2001: A Space Odyssey after this if you haven't already. It really makes you appreciate how much Kubrick pushed the medium forward.
Rakka
Here's a lovely palate cleanser for you— Rakka is a short film by acclaimed movie director Neil Blomkamp of Chappie and District 9 fame. Made on a shoestring budget (though he did manage to rope in Sigourney Weaver), this 22-minute film looks like it should have cost tens of millions of dollars, but instead had a budget probably measured in the thousands of dollars. We don't know, because this indie never had its budget disclosed.
Blomkamp uses these shorts as enticements for big studios to pick up his ideas and finance full big-budget movies, but sadly that has yet to happen for Rakka .
Luckily, this is pretty much a self-contained story, and in it, we get to see the Earth invaded by aliens who start to terraform the surface to their needs, driving the remnants of humanity underground. There's resistance, of course, but since these aliens have mind-control powers, anyone fighting them needs special protection, and supplies of those protective devices are limited.
The story jumps around to different characters and different parts of the war, but manages to sew together a compelling, visually-stunning story within its limited runtime nonetheless.
YouTube is filled with all sorts of treasure. It's actually sort of daunting to consider just how much video content is on the service. If you want to do your own bit of diving for treasure (or digital dumpster diving), all you have to do is put "Full Movie" into the search terms, and perhaps add the genre in there as well.
I can't guarantee you'll find anything good, but you'll find something unforgettable for sure.
