Editorial collections

Hand-picked selections: sagas, creatures and phenomena that deserve to be watched together.

• Every Transformers mockbuster5 titlesThe saga Hollywood "reimagined" with an extra $150 million: every giant transforming robot that reached the video store before, after and alongside the blockbuster of the day.
• Disney and Pixar mockbusters5 titlesThe animation the big studios would have signed with less budget and more hurry: cooking mice, speedy little cars and fighting pandas, straight from Brazil.
• The Asylum movies you can watch for free90 titlesThe official, legal catalog of the studio that perfected the art of releasing before Hollywood. Player included; popcorn not.
• Very tough guys13 titlesClenched jaw, aviator shades and a script that asks for exactly one thing: that the hero make it to the closing credits alive. These are the action heroes who save the world on half the budget and twice the conviction of their Hollywood cousins.
• Very tough women10 titlesThey are not waiting to be rescued: they are the ones doing the damage. Spies, archaeologists, gunslingers and fairy-tale princesses with a short fuse, all promoted to lead in movies where the budget went on ammunition.
• The return of the dinos15 titlesA lab, an island, a syringe full of DNA and the absolute certainty that this time it will work out. It never works out. Sixty-six million years of extinction have not stopped the video store from reopening the park again and again.
• Not very natural disasters13 titlesThe weather goes mad, the crust splits open and the Moon, for some reason, is getting closer. All of it handled by a team of good-looking scientists, a rented helicopter and digital effects that give up right as the tsunami arrives.
• Cheap scares16 titlesShaking cameras, dark corridors and a little girl who is no longer exactly a little girl. Low-budget horror knows something the expensive kind forgets: what you cannot see is scarier, especially when there is no money to show it.
• Teens with too many hormones5 titlesCampuses, cheerleading camps and a countdown to graduation. The American teen comedy multiplied by zero budget, where the dramatic conflict always fits inside a bikini.
• Animals on drugs5 titlesA stash falls into the water, an animal tries it and nature makes a terrible decision. It is a whole subgenre with its own rules, and this is its board of directors: a shark, an alligator, a werewolf, some crabs and a Soviet chimpanzee with very bad luck.
• Extreme historical accuracy16 titlesRome, Troy, Camelot and the Titanic rebuilt with four columns, a green screen and enormous nerve. If a documentary is a source, this is an alternative source: we recommend checking elsewhere before the exam.
• Extremely large animals14 titlesScale is the cheapest special effect there is: just park a car next to it. These are the catalog animals somebody decided to multiply by a hundred — snakes, fish, spiders and apes — without consulting biology first.
• Sharks by the truckload14 titlesSince 1975, every small studio has known that a fin on the horizon is cheap and always works. The catalog has piled up prehistoric, lunar, drugged and airborne sharks; some of them even swim.
• Creatures back from the dead13 titlesThe zoo, the aquarium and the pet cemetery share one management problem: their residents no longer respect closing time. The undead here come with fur, with scales and, when required, in uniform.
• Turkey reinvents Hollywood11 titlesBetween the sixties and the eighties, the Turkish industry solved the copyright problem in the most elegant way available: by ignoring it. Out came a Superman in a knitted cape, a Star Wars with footage borrowed from NASA and a Rambo with a moustache.
• Princesses that aren't Disney's18 titlesSame tale, same dress, different factory. When Disney releases, half a dozen studios rush their own Cinderella into the video store: similar cover, shorter running time and a very different price.
• Aliens on a tight budget16 titlesThe alien invasion is the most forgiving genre in cheap cinema: all you need is an overcast sky, a recycled explosion and an actor looking upward with a grave expression. Here are all the aliens who reached Earth without going through the checkout.
• Bargain-bin superheroes13 titlesMarvel and DC spend hundreds of millions on a suit. Here it is solved with tights, a green screen and unshakeable faith that the viewer will not look too closely. The result includes a Thor with continuity problems and a hand-painted Hulk.
• Full-throttle racing7 titlesEngines, illegal bets and a camera glued to the tarmac to disguise the fact that the car is doing forty. Motor action shot with whatever was on hand, where the finish line is always just past an empty lot.