The UK now gets an opportunity to ride the Tubi rollercoaster and we give you 15 gems to watch from underrated, undiscovered and forgotten to the enjoyably bad…
Without a huge deal of fanfare, Tubi opened its doors in the UK recently to try and capture the kind of audience pull it’s managed over in the USA. Here’s the deal with Tubi. You watch films for free with a handful of adverts playing through the film. For Indie filmmakers, it’s also a platform which has provided a welcoming home up to this point with seemingly anything and everything being plonked on the US version of the channel. For the UK there are around 20,000 films available from launch (probably around 10 times less than the US version) but that’s still way beyond what the “big” streamers currently offer as part of their subscription.
Of course, there’s another caveat. You might see maybe one or two hundred films you’ve heard of when scrolling through if you’re a casual movie watcher. Currently, the UK selection includes Kill Bill, Insomnia, Happy Gilmore, Magic Mike, Donnie Darko and American Psycho (and a few more) as films you’ve probably heard of. However here’s a good start-up guide of 15 films to watch, with a few forgotten cult gems, some trashtaculars and undiscovered nuggets that you should check out.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
Okay, if you’re over 35 you will surely recognise Elvira (a character across many forms, wonderfully played by Cassandra Peterson). If you’re a little younger then it’s a good time to discover this cult 1980s siren who not only hosted a show celebrating B pictures but got two movies as well. The first of which, Mistress of the Dark is fantastic.
Charming, irreverent, wry and funny, the film is loaded with charms. There’s a boob joke in that last statement probably, but this is 2024. Peterson as Elvira really does carry the wonderfully meta film through to its delightfully silly finish. The sequel, Elvira’s Haunted Hills is also on Tubi, as are a few Movie Macabres (where she introduces a long-lost B movie of yesteryear).
SEE ALSO: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark – The Birth of a Horror Icon
Frog Dreaming
Dusting off long-forgotten cult films is also a staple of Tubi viewing and revisiting Frog Dreaming (also known as The Quest), is a great film to check out either again, or for the first time. For years this was a hard film to find but in more recent years has been nicely restored. If you’re not quite ready to hit a physical copy (you should) for this post-E.T. Henry Thomas adventure film, then give the Tubi stream a go.
Brian Trenchard-Smith, the Anglo-Oz director with as eclectic a mix of films on his CV as anyone had a penchant during the 80s for strikingly unique films like this and Dead End Drive-In, whilst Bmx Bandits was also great fun. Frog Dreaming has a lot of 80s kids adventure film tropes with some darker edges and coming-of-age nuance and it looks great. Henry Thomas is also excellent alongside a seasoned cast of character actors.
Bloodfist Franchise
Okay, I’m cheating here because we’re counting 6 films of the 8 film franchise, and don’t ask me why number IV (sadly one of the stronger entries) or V aren’t included. You can’t watch Tubi, the home of low-budget indie genre films of the past half-century and not include 90s video era icon, Don “The Dragon” Wilson.
Beginning as simple tournament brawlers with the first two films (the second was better than the first), it started to evolve into Wilson playing new characters in each movie and diving into different action sub-genres (including a prison movie, a Die Hard archetype and more). Wilson’s always been an affable hero on screen and this series whilst erratic has highlights, notably the third film Forced to Fight and the Galway set eighth film (one of several sequels which had the Bloodfist name cynically added after initial release).
The Ghost Within
With the UK indie horror scene really productive in the past decade an accusation oft fired at many of the studios is a lack of care in trying to make decent movies. It can be tough, the distributors want content to match a catchy title (and budgets are anaemic), but some managed to push against this whilst retaining a footing in marketable fare. Lawrence Fowler is definitely one of those putting a bit more thought and care into the final product of his films as shown in throwback horror, The Ghost Within.
Atmospheric, nicely shot with a game and engaging cast – especially Michaela Londgen, a regular fixture in the UK indie scene who is always excellent (and soon to be seen in our own UK indie The Baby in the Basket) – The Ghost Within deserves a little attention and is well worth a look.
Mega Twister
Speaking of UK micro-budget genre makers, here’s another selection. It would also be remiss of me to recommend Tubi and not suggest a mockbuster. We’ve just had the easy grinning charm of Glen Powell on the big screen with Twisters, so the UK response at a budget that probably wouldn’t have paid for Glen’s personal trainer for a week is Mega Twister.
Yes, it’s terrible but that’s the point and it approaches the ludicrousness of its concept with such gleeful disregard for logic that you can only admire it. This is the kind of thing that does gangbusters Tubi numbers in America. Get drunk, press play and see why.
The Love Witch
This cult film from Anna Biller has a lot of love but deserves more. It’s time this Witch stirred up a love potion or two to lure British viewers over for a Tubi viewing. A campy and kitschy comedy horror that’s a love letter to technicolour cinema is loaded with charm.
Samantha Parks is fantastic as a lovelorn Witch’s quest to find love descends into murder and mayhem. It’s too long, but this is Tubi and you get breaks.
The Arrival
Forgotten 90s Sci-fi films are a special breed. There were so many with perhaps grander ideas than the current tech could deliver, or just flawed in their deliveries as they attempted to trade blows with the Spielbergs of the world.
The Arrival features Charlie Sheen as an Astronomer. Yes, I know. Sheen had quite the run post his peak movie fame, and pre-sitcom resurgence with a bunch of serviceable-as-all-hell genre films. The Arrival was also the film that gave David Twohy a break as a director a few years before Pitch Black kicked him up a level. It gets a bit daft but it’s well made, and builds a good amount of paranoia even if the ultimate payoff moments haven’t aged brilliantly with the visual effects.
Body Melt
A great Australian body horror comedy sees a nefarious dietary supplement company seeking to peddle a drug with catastrophic side effects. Philip Brophy’s film is absolutely batshit crazy and eye-poppingly (almost ridiculously) gruesome. It’s perfect Friday night horror fare for the streaming audiences who want some undemanding and old school-practical-driven body horror with that inimitable stroke of Aussie humour. It’s also great to see Ian Smith, better known as playing Harold Bishop in Neighbours, cast against his cuddly type.
Braven
As well as terrorising the Fast and Furious crew as a villain or saving the seas as Aquaman, Jason Momoa has done the odd lower-budget film among those. They often go by unnoticed and occasionally for good reason. Braven however is a really engaging and rock-solid action film that perfectly utilises Momoa’s strengths casting him as a beefy logger who has to fend off traffickers.
The small budget doesn’t hinder proceedings, Momoa is a great presence and the film is really lithe.
Sabotage
Mark Dacascos and Carrie-Anne Moss take on the might of Tony Todd in this way above-average mid-90s action thriller from genre stalwart, Tibor Takacs. Injecting the film with an assured style and working from an engaging and intelligent script, this has some great touches that elevate it from many contemporaries of the time and put it light years ahead of most straight-to-video action thrillers nowadays.
Dacascos is great, bouncing off Moss (pre-Matrix) very well and Tony Todd, Graham Greene and John Neville make this one particularly blessed in the cast department.
Split Second
Rutger Hauer might be the most underrated actor of a generation. The guy is so iconic and immense in his most well-known films like Blade Runner and The Hitcher, but he also found himself a staple in B movies with films that often were nowhere near as good as his talent deserved. Whatever the film though, Hauer was never less than stellar.
Split Second is a cult gem that still hasn’t been as widely discovered as it needs to be. Set in a near future, post-flooded and waterlogged London you’re immediately placed in a film that has an interesting world to put a guy like Hauer into. He’s a hard-nosed, anti-authoritarian cop on the edge and Hauer plays it with wry charm, elevating what otherwise could have been an all too generic role. He’s on the trail of a serial killer, only it turns out to be a creature that’s a mesh of a Xenomorph and the Predator. It’s all ludicrous, Hauer knows it and plays up to it. A solid British cast and an added dose of Kim Cattrall make this a winner.
SEE ALSO: A Double Hit of Cyberpunk from 1992: Nemesis and Split Second
Space Raiders
Space Raiders, are an elite brand of Newsagent-dwelling baked corn snacks (that were perennially 10 pence but probably now cost more than a house) in the UK. It’s also the title of a Roger Corman-produced Star Wars knockoff and Tubi is a perfect platform for such. It stars David Mendenhall who later starred opposite Sly Stallone in the ludicrous (but awesome) Rocky does Arm Wrestling Cannon film, Over the Top.
Cheap, shoddy, charming and makes no bones about ripping off George Lucas and his iconic lore. Watch with ample beers and maybe some pickled onion Space Raiders (beef is acceptable) to go with.
The Sword and the Sorcerer
There’s an absolute deluge of old and often bonkers Sword and Sorcery specials from the 80s littered across Tubi. I loved these films as a kid, no matter how awful. However, we’ll go with one of the better ones from the late great, and Tubi staple, Albert Pyun. Seen as a successor to Ed Wood and Roger Corman, Pyun was undervalued as a filmmaker. He had some style when he was given a little more cash and time to play with.
His breakout film, The Sword and the Sorcerer was a big hit, and in its own way (but not as much as Conan) helped pave the way for the limitless copycats which followed in the 80s. From a triple-bladed sword to a memorable villain, this one has plenty of charm and was squarely aimed at adults.
Chopping Mall
From B movie legend Jim Wynorski, it’s Chopping Mall, about a slightly crappy-looking but sentient and deadly robot that rampages (slowly) around a mall slaying teenagers who’ve stayed behind for a late-night party. I mean, come on, do I even need to say anything more to sell this to you?
Atomic Shark
Jaws is for snobs and it’s not on UK Tubi and if you’re going to plumb the depths of a free streamer for some so bad it’s good thrills you have to watch a shark movie. It’s all Spielberg’s fault but the humble shark is a cinematic staple (and he’s the only one to do it objectively well) and we’re now at the point where we have films with titles like Mountain Shark, Malibu Shark Attack, Murder By Shark, Amityville Shark House and of course, Sharknado.
Atomic Shark sees Jeff Fahey doing his dues (probably because Eric Roberts was booked) but giving his hall as Roy Scheider. It’s just as bonkers as you would expect given the title and if you’re expecting great acting, deft directing, artful editing and incredible CGI, what planet are you living on? This is (for better or worse) what Tubi is all about.
Honourable Mentions:
Running Scared (the undervalued and forgotten Paul Walker thriller), Jurassic Island, Prey, Dinosaur Hotel II, Grizzly, 2099: The Soldier Protocol, Boogie Boy, Searching (this is a legit excellent film that not enough people saw in 2018), Death Fighter, Black Cobra 2, Assault on Devil’s Island, Equalizer 2000, A Vigilante, Akeelah and the Bee, Shattered Glass, The Vanished.
Have you checked out Tubi’s selection yet? Let us know what you’ve watched on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
