Normal is seriously overrated: there’s more fun to be had on the genre fringes. Sure, everyone’s into science fiction and fantasy these days, and maybe even a little horror for flavour, but the real good stuff is mined from more edgy territory where genres blend and mix, and even seasoned fans are surprised or shocked by the strange alchemy that results.
So if you’re looking for something a little – or a lot – beyond the quotidian, cue up one of these unusual offerings.
SF8
Hailing from South Korea, SF8 follows in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, offering us an anthology of chilling visions of the future from eight of the nation’s finest directors. Whether it’s a world in which police officers are implanted with artificial intelligence “partners”, one where the care of the elderly and infirm is entrusted to android nurses, or one where public online shaming has become a lucrative form of entertainment, SF8 offers a range of possible futures that are often all too similar to our own strange times.
Trickster
Based on the best-selling YA novel Son of a Trickster by Indigenous Canadian author Eden Robinson, Trickster has been described as “Stranger Things on a First Nations Reservation”, which is a heck of a pitch. Joel Oulette is Jared, an Indigenous teen more focused on selling drugs through the local fast food drive-thru than on his tribal heritage, until he starts encountering weird things like talking crows and a skinless monster fossicking through the rubbish bins. Jared soon twigs that his bloodline is not just Indigenous but supernatural, and he finds himself drawn into a magical twilight world that exists parallel to the mundane reality of the Rez. Combining Canadian mythology with closely observed sociological detail, Trickster is a unique spin on YA fantasy.
Hungry Ghosts
Set in Melbourne’s Vietnamese–Australian community, Hungry Ghosts is a rare Australian spin on the urban supernatural thriller. On the eve of the Hungry Ghost festival, the vengeful spirit Quang (Vico Thai) is accidentally unleashed from a tomb in Vietnam, and he’s bringing the dead back with him. In Melbourne, three different families are forced to confront both the supernatural and their own personal histories as refugees from the Vietnam War. The task of laying Quant to rest falls to third-generation May Le (Catherine Văn-Davies), and her quest to do so becomes a journey into her own heritage. Suzy Wrong, Bryan Brown, Ryan Corr and Clare Bowen co-star in this unique four-part chiller.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Let the show that inspired The X-Files inspire you. The great Darren McGavin is dogged reporter Carl Kolchak, whose rumpled suit and pork pie hat cannot armour him against the supernatural threats he encounters on his beat. Back in the ‘70s, when Mulder and Scully were still in kindy, Kolchak took on vampires, werewolves, aliens, ghosts, ancient gods and more, all in search of a good headline. Combining hardboiled drama with an “anything goes” attitude to High Weirdness, Kolchak is an absolute blast and, along with Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, one of the seminal genre TV works.
The Feed
Not to be confused with the SBS current affairs program, this 10-part British offering gives us a look at a nightmarish version of social media. In not-too-far-off London, tech billionaire Lawrence Hatfield (David Thewlis) has invented The Feed – a surgically implanted social media device that lets people share thoughts, feelings and memories instantly – and constantly.
As anyone who has spent too long doomscrolling on Twitter knows, this is a recipe for disaster, and security vulnerabilities in The Feed lead to a range of awful outcomes beyond the wildest nightmares of even the most committed Luddite. While brains are hacked and deep secrets exposed, megalomaniacal Lawrence, his wife Meredith (Michelle Fairley), and estranged son Tom (Guy Burnet) are locked in a power struggle that plays out like a near-future version of Succession. Fans of corporate power-gaming and bleak dystopias will be well served by this cyber-thriller.
Paraíso
It’s a kids on bikes show! But the kids are dead! That’s the essential premise of Spanish-language series Paraíso. After three teenage girls disappear at the titular nightclub, young Javi (Pau Gimeno), his mates Quino (León Martínez) and Alvaro (Cristian López), and school bully Zeta (Héctor Gozalbo) investigate, but a mysterious fire kills three of the four. Now on the other side of the mortal veil, the dead boys find that being ghosts gives them an edge when it comes to investigating, but a mysterious out of town cop (Yoon C. Joyce) seems bent on quashing any inquiry. With notes of Stranger Things, Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, Paraíso is a superb supernatural mystery.
War of the Worlds
This modern riff on H.G. Wells’ 1898 science fiction classic sees humanity absolutely decimated by a ruthless alien invasion. While robot alien dogs hunt for survivors in the ruins of civilisation, a mixed bag of survivors scattered across Europe, including Gabriel Byrne’s haunted scientist, Bayo Gbadamosi’s refugee and Daisy Edgar-Jones’ traumatised teen, search for a way to fight back against our so far unseen invaders – who may have more in common with us than we realise. It’s a grim, dystopian epic, but a thoughtful and considered one that puts a human face on the apocalypse.
Dark Matter
Six people wake up on the starship Raza with absolutely no memory of how they got there or indeed, who they are. Struggling to overcome some natural mistrust, One (Marc Bendavid), Two (Melissa O’Neil), Three (Anthony Lemke), Four (Alex Mallari Jr.), Five (Jodelle Ferland) and Six (Roger Cross) quickly resolve to get to the bottom of things, with the help of the ship’s initially antagonistic android (Zoie Palmer), but their dark and mysterious pasts soon come back to haunt them. A novel take on the old ship + crew formula (Star Trek, Firefly and all points in between), Dark Matter is a treat for space opera fans.
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