I love fan made films. There’s no big time producer breathing over their shoulders to snip away creative control, no red tapes, if you look at these films, some of them are way better than what Hollywood could do. Let’s face facts, there have been so many movies – gaming, super-hero ones, that just didn’t feel right, just didn’t have that soul to it. Despite the big budgets and names, some of them don’t have the chops to pull it off. Now, don’t get me wrong..there’s a ton of crap out there too that come from fan films, but we’ve chosen the top 5 of them that will have you glued to the edge of your seat. Let’s get started:
#5. Batman: Dead End
Batman: Dead End was released way back in 2003, but 10 years later, it’s still regarded as one of THE best fan made films, if not anything, it is THE best Batman fan made film to date. The movie was directed by Sandy Collora, and was praised by several comic book experts as the “The truest Batman film ever made.” Sandy Collora spent $30,000 of his own money on the film, its not a lot considering typical super-hero movies back then had budgets in excess of $75 million – and we know one particular Batman movie (Batman and Robin) that is pretty much the worst of the lot back then.
#4. ENTER THE FREEMAN: Half-Life Film
When Half-Life, the game, was released, it quickly rose to become one of THE best first person shooters of it’s generation. It spawned several DLCs and 1 sequel (Half-Life 2). Even today, Half-Life 2 is considered to have one of the best storylines in video games. But the main character through those games that emerged, was Gordon Freeman. There was always talk amongst the gaming geekdom of a Half-Life film..Of course, any film version would be under immense pressure to live up to the sort of quality we’ve come to expect from the Half-Life series. Luckily, “Enter The Freeman” doesn’t disappoint. The atmosphere is creepy, the acting is believable…not to mention head-crabs and Freeman with a crowbar!
#3. Spider-Man: Eclipse
“Spider-Man: Eclipse” was independently made by Bokeh pictures as a challenge to The Amazing Spider-Man. The goal was to portray him as a more realistic character that’s in dark world and they’ve managed to do that successfully. There have been very successful Spider-Man movies, so this one had a lot to live up to, but thankfully it does and does it really well. No big budget or big set pieces, but it manages to hold its own and come off looking really good.
#2. “Pac-Man: The Movie”
Now, this blew my mind! At first, when saw the movie listed, I wondered, how in gods name do you take a yellow sphere that eats small yellow dots and is chased by ghosts through a maze and make THAT into a movie? It all made perfect sense after watching this! the possibilities are now limitless, should this actually become a full fledged film. Made by production company Steelhouse under the working title of “Project Yellow Sphere,” this Pac-Man fan film has Hollywood levels of quality, and does NOT disappoint at ANY level.
#1. Left 4 Dead “Impulse 76″
As I started watching this, I was really not prepared for anything great to come out of it. I mean, we’ve seen so many zombie movies in the past, does this even live up to it? But then I thought, If PAC-MAN can blow your mind, then let’s give Left 4 Dead “Impulse 76″ a fair chance…instead it ended up giving me a nerdgasm! “Impulse 76″ is the product of Northern Five Entertainment and features a staggering 60 member cast! That’s a huge number for a fan film! It not only matches the game in terms of atmosphere, but the actors are superb at portraying their computer game counterparts: Francis, Bill, Zoey, Wade, and Louis. The movie pretty much starts off like ‘The Walking Dead’ -slow and dark and dreary…then it steps on the gas pedal and goes from ‘meh’ to ‘AWESOME’ in no time!!
Watch for the plot twist and identify as many cameo’s as you can!
Honorable Mention:
The Super Mario Brothers Trailer. While it’s not a movie by any means, it shows us what can be! and WE LOVED IT!! Had this been a short film instead of a trailer, it would have made it to our top 5.
Fan made films are typically short in nature, 10-30 mins tops. You’re right when you say it isn’t the same…neither are their budgets. The ‘celebration’ here is what someone can do with so little of a budget vs. some of the ‘epics’ which have failed to impress given their large pool of resources.
Are any of these films actually feature length? Doing a 10 minute film isn’t the same as a 2 hour epic blockbuster.
Fan made films are typically short in nature, 10-30 mins tops. You’re right when you say it isn’t the same…neither are their budgets. The ‘celebration’ here is what someone can do with so little of a budget vs. some of the ‘epics’ which have failed to impress given their large pool of resources.
watch and enjoy and stop trolling.