Syfy has recently unveiled its original film slate for the next year, with a heavy focus on adaptations of fairy tales. The films to be produced include Red, in which a young girl brings her fiancee home, only for him to be bitten by a werewolf; Hansel, set 12 years after the Brothers Grimm story; The 8th Voyage Of Sinbad; Aladdin; and Black Forest, in which a group of travellers are menaced by mythical creatures.
Syfy movies have a peculiar affection in the science-fiction community, mainly for their unabashed approach to B-movie filmmaking. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a few of the gems that the channel has put out over the last few years.
SS Doomtrooper
Released: 1 April 2006
Director: Berkeley Anderson
Starring: Corin Nemec, Ben Cross, James Pomichter
If the name intrigues you slightly, think again. This film is woeful, even with the addition of that-guy-who-played-Jonas-on-Stargate.
Boa Vs Python
Released: 24 May 2004
Director: David Flores
Starring: David Hewlett, Jaime Bergman, Kirk BR Woller
Although it’s apparently not a sequel to the Python series, events from those films are directly mentioned in this one.
Frankenfish
Released: 2004
Director:Mark Dippe
Starring: Tory Kittles, KD Aubert, China Chow
Yeah. It’s a really big fish, one that has a taste for human flesh and some of the most bizarre title song lyrics we’re ever encountered beyond Titanic.
Mansquito
Released: 5 March 2005
Director: Tibor Takács
Starring: Corin Nemec, Musetta Vander, Austin Jordan
A clever portmanteau of the words ‘man’ and ‘mosquito’, we couldn’t help but watch this when we got our hands on it. Now, we’ll never get those 90 minutes back.
Mega Snake
Released: 28 July 2007
Director: Tibor Takács
Starring: Michael Shanks, Siri Baruc, John T Woods
Even Shanks admitted that the only reason he took this role, without even reading the script, was to renew his US work visa. Classy.
