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00:00It's fair to say that there are more great movies releasing every year, nay every month,
00:05than even the most committed film lover can possibly keep track of.
00:10Now, marketing is certainly helpful in maintaining a movie's place in the public eye.
00:15But of course, marketing is also really, really expensive.
00:19A consequence of this is that many great films end up arriving totally out of nowhere,
00:25whether landing in cinemas after a low-key marketing campaign,
00:28or being quietly, even unceremoniously, dumped on streaming.
00:33While all of the following films were raved about by critics,
00:36to general viewers, it seemed like they suddenly materialised out of nothing.
00:41At which point, it's tough not to consider that they desperately deserve more respect on their names.
00:47So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture,
00:49and these are 10 awesome recent movies that came totally out of nowhere.
00:55Number 10, The Last Stop in Yuma County.
00:57The Last Stop in Yuma County feels like precisely the sort of movie
01:02which blows up out of Sundance and becomes a surprise hit.
01:06Yet this stunning crime thriller had a far more low-key rollout.
01:11The film premiered to strong reviews at Fantastic Fest 2023.
01:16Yet this failed to translate into substantial buzz,
01:19and it ended up being quietly released in just 45 cinemas by distributor WellGo USA Entertainment last May.
01:27It grossed less than $100,000 at the box office,
01:31but was soon enough discovered by genre fans on streaming,
01:35who were naturally baffled that they'd heard nothing about this brilliantly crafted neo-western.
01:41Even with a stunning 97% on the Tomatometer,
01:46The Last Stop in Yuma County was barely talked about even in cineast circles,
01:51until it hit streaming,
01:53where it's been largely embraced as a darkly comedic,
01:56expectation-defying, 90-minute chamber piece of a movie.
02:00Number 9. Hundreds of Beavers
02:03Hundreds of Beavers is a film whose very existence feels like a defiant flipping of the bird
02:10to everything we know about modern filmmaking.
02:12A black-and-white slapstick comedy about an Applejack maker
02:17who faces off against a fleet of angry beavers,
02:20the movie was produced for a near $150,000,
02:24having been shot in 2020,
02:26before spending the next two years in post-production
02:30as extensive cartoonish visual effects were developed.
02:34Hundreds of Beavers finally premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2022,
02:39and began a more than year-long global festival run,
02:43where it was largely well-received by critics and audiences.
02:47However, the wider world didn't really learn about the film's existence
02:51until the filmmakers began to distribute it themselves theatrically
02:55in early 2024,
02:57where it became a buzzy, word-of-mouth hit,
03:01grossing more than $1 million at the box office.
03:04Audiences were alternately charmed and baffled
03:07that such a peculiar, if hilarious and brilliantly made, piece of work
03:11could force its way into cinemas
03:13rather than being quietly dumped on VOD.
03:16But considering the mesmerising craft involved,
03:19what a breath of fresh air it was
03:21to see hundreds of Beavers prove
03:23that indie filmmakers can make a sudden impact
03:26without spending millions of dollars on marketing.
03:30Number 8. Grand Theft Hamlet
03:32Grand Theft Hamlet came out of nowhere
03:34because it's just such a peculiar concept for a movie.
03:38This fiercely original documentary
03:40follows a pair of actors
03:41who, during a period of lockdown amid the pandemic,
03:45attempted to stage a performance of Hamlet
03:47inside the video game Grand Theft Auto Online.
03:51The film was shot entirely inside GTA Online
03:55and so could be produced largely in secret
03:57before it premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival last year
04:01and won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature.
04:05Even so, it wasn't until the film's general release at the end of 2024
04:09that film fans and gamers alike
04:12really started paying attention to it.
04:14Between Grand Theft Hamlet's festival success
04:16and rave reviews from critics,
04:18it's quite the staggering success story
04:21for a movie produced entirely inside a video game
04:24and which could have easily just been
04:26another viral flavour of the week.
04:28Number 7. Magpie
04:30Magpie is a neo-noir thriller starring Daisy Ridley
04:34as a woman whose life begins to unravel
04:36when her husband falls in love
04:38with the lead actress of the new movie
04:40their child actress daughter is working on.
04:42Despite premiering at last year's South by Southwest
04:46Magpie had no other major festival screenings
04:49instead spending the better part of 8 months
04:52sitting in limbo
04:53before getting a theatrical release so meagre
04:56its grosses weren't widely reported
04:58and then being dumped on VOD.
05:01But Magpie was largely well received by critics
05:04and those audiences who discovered it on streaming
05:06many ultimately questioning
05:08why a well-made genre film
05:10starring one of the new faces of Star Wars
05:13didn't get more press.
05:15One can only hope that a film
05:16this devilishly playfully savage
05:18can grow an audience
05:20and become a cult hit in the years to come
05:22because it deserved so much better
05:24than this absolute nothing burger of a rollout.
05:27Number 6. Flow
05:29Flow is one of the most inspiring
05:31cinematic success stories of recent years
05:33and storming proof that with enough talent and passion
05:37even a small, little-known project
05:40can win an Oscar.
05:42Flow is a dialogue-free, Latvian animated film
05:45following a cat as it tries to survive
05:47in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world.
05:50And though it had a strong festival run
05:52screening at Cannes
05:53and the Toronto International Film Festival
05:55among many others
05:57all signs pointed to this thing coming and going
06:00where general audiences were concerned.
06:02The film was quietly produced
06:04over a five-year period
06:05by a small team of around 40 to 50 artists
06:09using the free software Blender
06:11only to suddenly surge into contention
06:14as a legitimate contender
06:15for the Best Animated Feature Oscar
06:17at the tail end of 2024.
06:19Many analysts still pegged Flow
06:21to be beaten out
06:22by its decidedly more mainstream rival
06:25The Wild Robot.
06:26But alas, Flow indeed won the Oscar.
06:30A stunning triumph for a film
06:32that few had heard of mere months before.
06:35It arrived amid little hype
06:36charmed the hell out of everyone
06:38and made off with Oscar gold.
06:41Honestly, you'd love to see it.
06:43Number five, small things like these.
06:46Hands up if you had any idea
06:48that Cillian Murphy starred
06:49in one of the best-reviewed films of 2024.
06:52Murphy's follow-up to his Oscar-winning performance
06:55in Oppenheimer
06:56was a low-key Irish historical drama
06:59in which Murphy plays a man
07:01who discovers disturbing secrets
07:02at a local convent
07:04and faces a dilemma over whether to act.
07:06Despite premiering
07:08at the Berlin International Film Festival
07:10to strong reviews,
07:11where some predicted that Murphy
07:13might receive a second consecutive
07:15Best Actor Oscar nomination,
07:17the film's profile soon fell off a cliff.
07:19The bleak drama failed to secure
07:21major distribution outside of the UK,
07:23and with Lionsgate having little prior success
07:26with awards campaigning,
07:28it ended up quietly hitting streaming
07:30at the end of 2024,
07:32where it got thoroughly lost in the shuffle
07:34amid a slew of more crowd-pleasing
07:36seasonal releases.
07:38And so to anyone who stumbles
07:39across the film's thumbnail
07:40while scrolling through a streaming service library,
07:43it must seem a tad strange
07:44that a raved-about drama
07:46from a recent Oscar winner
07:48was just tossed out there
07:49without even a shred of enthusiasm.
07:51Number four, Oddity.
07:53Anyone who saw Damian McCarthy's
07:55superb debut horror film Caveat
07:58should have probably been anxiously
07:59anticipating his follow-up Oddity.
08:02But for the vast majority of viewers,
08:04this thing just blindsided them
08:05out of left field.
08:07McCarthy's sophomore effort
08:08premiered at 2024's South by Southwest,
08:11where it won the Audience Award
08:13in the festival's Midnighter section,
08:15though it was almost another five months
08:18before it began a limited theatrical engagement
08:21for a few weeks
08:22and then was surreptitiously sent to streaming.
08:25And it's on streaming
08:26where Oddity became something of a viral hit,
08:28as horror fans took to social media
08:30to praise the film's atmosphere and performances
08:33and questioned why such a terrific horror flick
08:36wasn't given more of a chance
08:37to flourish on the big screen.
08:39Given that Oddity ultimately landed
08:41rave reviews from most critics
08:43and scored well with both casual horror fans
08:45and die-hards alike,
08:47a ton of money was left on the table
08:49by not giving this a more substantial theatrical blowout.
08:52Instead, horror fans were left to discover it
08:55for themselves when it suddenly materialised on streaming
08:58to little initial fanfare,
09:00as if manifesting out of nothing.
09:02Number three, The Last Showgirl.
09:04Gia Coppola's new drama, The Last Showgirl,
09:07premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival
09:10to positive notices.
09:12Though it was relatively low on the buzzer-meter
09:15compared to other award hopefuls,
09:17which also debuted at the fest.
09:19This was the film's only major North American award stop
09:22before it was released in a single cinema
09:25in Los Angeles in December,
09:27a perfunctory requirement
09:28to make it eligible for Oscar consideration.
09:31Expectations weren't high for its awards prospects
09:33given distributor Roadside Attractions
09:36limited resources.
09:37So it was a genuine surprise
09:39to see The Last Showgirl's profile skyrocket
09:42basically out of nowhere
09:43after star Pamela Anderson
09:45received a surprise Best Actress nomination
09:47at the Golden Globes.
09:49This momentum continued into 2025,
09:52where Anderson and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis
09:54both received Screen Actors Guild nominations
09:57and Curtis also landed a BAFTA nod shortly thereafter.
10:01This dovetailed quite perfectly
10:02into the film's early January theatrical expansion.
10:06And while the film ultimately failed
10:08to secure any Oscar nominations,
10:10it still ended up delivering
10:11a genuine comeback moment for Anderson,
10:15something which seemed like a faint pipe dream
10:17following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.
10:20And given the gritty authenticity
10:22of Anderson's performance
10:24and Coppola's deft, sensitive filmmaking,
10:27it was most certainly well-earned,
10:30albeit wholly unexpected.
10:32Number two, Black Bag.
10:33It sounds ridiculous to say
10:35that a Steven Soderbergh-directed crime thriller
10:38starring the likes of Cate Blanchett,
10:39Michael Fassbender, Naomi Harris,
10:41Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan
10:43could possibly come out of nowhere.
10:46But that's precisely what happened.
10:48Black Bag's marketing presence
10:49was nearly non-existent
10:51until about two weeks before it hit cinemas,
10:54with Focus Features oddly deciding
10:56to forego a festival run for the film,
10:58while only allowing reviews to drop
11:00a few days before release.
11:03And so many heads were turned
11:05when Black Bag opened
11:06to rave reviews from critics,
11:08landing a storming 97% on the Tomatometer,
11:12making it the best-reviewed
11:14major release of 2025 so far.
11:16Yet Soderbergh's film was dumped
11:18with all the disinterest
11:19that suggested it was something
11:21of an embarrassment for Focus,
11:23far from the witty, brilliantly-paced
11:25and superbly-acted genre romp
11:27that it actually is.
11:28As a result, Black Bag underperformed
11:31at the box office,
11:32admittedly against a rather hefty
11:34$50 million budget,
11:35though this absolutely feels like
11:37the sort of tight genre effort
11:39that'll find itself quite the audience
11:41when it does hit streaming.
11:43Number one, Mads.
11:44It's extremely common for buzzy horror movies
11:47to build a head of steam
11:48on the genre festival circuit
11:50before releasing in cinemas or on streaming.
11:53But David Morrow's Mads
11:55opted to speedrun its way to fans instead.
11:58This French single-take horror
12:00chronicling the onset of a zombie apocalypse
12:03premiered at last year's Fantastic Fest.
12:06Though rather than tour
12:07all the expected horror festivals
12:09before releasing to the wider world,
12:11it ended up landing on streaming service Shudder
12:13less than a month after its world premiere.
12:16And so for many Shudder subscribers,
12:18they were left wondering
12:19precisely where the hell
12:20this gloriously chaotic,
12:22brilliantly acted,
12:23one-take banger came from.
12:25Hell, even almost six months after release,
12:27it still doesn't have its own Wikipedia page.
12:30The filmmakers could have absolutely
12:31played the long game with this one
12:33and might have arguably been
12:34all the better for it.
12:36But on the flip side,
12:37it was neat for horror fans
12:38to discover a film
12:39without having their expectations
12:42overinflated by months and months
12:44of foaming festival hype.
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