10 Completely Original Movies To Look Out For In 2018

2. Captive State

Captive State John Goodman
Focus Features

Release Date: August 17

There are a lot of high-concept original sci-fi movies coming out next year, and the enormous success this small corner of films has seen in recent years - Inception, Interstellar, Gravity, Arrival - bodes well for these upcoming attempts.

Captive State is one such original sci-fi. Written and directed by Rupert Wyatt (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, The Gambler) and starring John Goodman, Vera Farmiga and Ashton Sanders, the movie will detail the aftermath of an alien invasion, exploring a Chicago neighbourhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extra-terrestrial force.

Though The Gambler was a bit of a stumble for Wyatt, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is a fantastic sci-fi film that doesn't forget to make its characters feel real and grounded, a factor that only made the movie's drama more impactful.

Hopefully, Captive State follows suit. There is a risk that its premise could result in a dumb shoot-em-up with characters that lack any motivations beside "murder the aliens", but if the film zeroes in on the friction between these people in such a troubling time, there's potential for a tense thriller in the vein of 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Wyatt has proven that he values character, so we have high hopes for this one.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!