Before ‘Black Mirror,’ This Gritty Sci-Fi Masterpiece Series Mixed Aliens With ‘Game of Thrones’

Black Mirror is a standout in the world of science fiction due to its collection of chilling tales, all focused on the ways technology can alter your life — usually for the worst. It really took off when it moved from the BBC to Netflix, allowing it the creative freedom to pursue all kinds of stories while also receiving the bigger budget it needed to tell those stories. Other anthologies, both original like Love, Death + Robots) and based on longstanding franchises like Star Wars Visions, quickly became the norm. However, there’s a series of sci-fi films that have flown under the radar, courtesy of Oats Studios. Co-founded by Neill Blomkamp, Oats Studios features films with A-list actors, truly unique stories, and striking visuals — often at a fraction of the cost of major blockbusters.

Oats Studios Features Outlandish Sci-Fi Stories And A-List Talent

From the jump, Oats Studios was operating outside of the box. Neill Blomkamp wanted to create short films that could be supported by the audience, leading to the decision to use the gaming platform Steam for distribution. “We’ll put up the ability for audience members who feel like they have an idea of where another film in that series can go and we can curate that inside Oats. I actually want to work with this user to see where that stream can go,” Blomkamp told Polygon. It made sense: Blomkamp’s film debut, District 9, started out as a short film before expanding to feature length and raking in an impressive box office haul. The films that Oats Studios put out were just as creatively unique as District 9. Rakka, which Blomkamp wrote and directed, explored the fallout of an alien invasion while Zygote explores a soldier struggling to survive against a crystalline life form that absorbs everything it touches.

What makes Oats Studios’ films so impressive is the fact that they feature blockbuster-level special effects at indie film prices. Rakka, for example, features massive reptillian aliens that actually look like real, breathing things; Blomkamp used a similar approach in District 9 to bring the cockroach-esque aliens stranded on Earth to life. Some other shorts, particularly the three-part “Adam”, utilize cutting-edge animation. Most viewers will likely be shocked by the level of talent that participates in these films. None other than sci-fi icon Sigourney Weaver plays the protagonist in Rakka, while Dakota Fanning is the soldier struggling to survive in Zygote. Blomkamp even reunites with his District 9 lead, Sharlto Copley, for the short film God…which features Copley playing, well, God (who also has a butler!)

One of Oats Studios’ Projects Actually Became A Full Film

Image via IFC Films

Neill Blomkamp might have originally wanted Oats Studios to produce small films, but he took an entirely different track with Demonic. Unlike Blomkamp’s other films, Demonic was intended to be a feature film from the start, and veered sharply into horror territory with its premise. As its title suggests, Demonic centers on the fallout of a young woman named Carly (Carly Pope) discovering that her mother Angela (Nathalie Boltt) is one of the latest series of people to be possessed by a demon. While Blomkamp utilized his unique set of film techniques, even filming through the COVID-19 pandemic, the general reception was the complete opposite of District 9. So were the box office returns, as Demonic didn’t even make back half of its $1 million budget.

The failure of Demonic might have affected Blomkamp’s approach to filmmaking, as he’d go on to make Gran Turismo in 2023, and has plans to bring a remake of Starship Troopers to the big screen. Those projects might fare better due to built-in recognition, but Blomkamp should return to making projects for Oats Studios. He showed Hollywood that you don’t need to break the bank to make a sci-fi epic or draw talent to your project.

Oats Studios

Release Date

2017 – 2019

Writers

Terri Tatchell

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  Eugene Khumbaniyiwa

  Sarah / Karyn

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  Robert Hobbs

  Militia #1 / Bill