From 2000 to the present day, Syfy (formerly known as Sci-Fi Channel) has produced and financed a number of low-budget, Z-grade horror and sci-fi movies. Many are made by the Mockbuster studio known as The Asylum. The films are notorious for their poor quality that makes them wildly hilarious.
A list of Syfy Channel Original Movies
#
- 100 Feet (2008)
- 100 Million BC (2008)
A
- A.I. Assault (2006)
- Abominable (2006)
- Alien Apocalypse (2005)
- Alien Express (2005)
- Alien Siege (2005)
- Anaconda 3: The Offspring (2008)
- Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009)
- Android Apocalypse (2006)
- Anonymous Rex (2004)
- Attack of the Sabretooth (2005)
- Aztec Rex (2008)
B
- Basilisk the Serpent King (2006)
- Bats: Human Harvest (2007)
- The Beast of Bray Road (2005)
- Beauty and the Beast (2009)
- Beyond Loch Ness (2008)
- Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009)
- Bigfoot (2012)
- The Black Hole (2006)
- Bloodsuckers (2005)
- Boa (2002; aka New Alcatraz)
- Boa vs. Python (2004)
- Bone Eater (2008)
- The Bone Snatcher (2003)
C
- Camel Spiders (2011)
- Carny (2009)
- Caved In: Prehistoric Terror (2006)
- Cerberus (2005)
- Children of the Corn (2009; TV movie remake)
- Chubacabra: Dark Seas (2005)
- Copperhead (2008)
- Croc (2007)
- Cyclops (2008)
D
- Dark Relic (2010)
- Dark Waters (2003)
- Darklight (2004)
- Dead and Deader (2006)
- Dinocroc (2004)
- Dinocroc vs Supergator (2010)
- Dinoshark (2010)
- Disaster Zone: Volcano Under New York (2006)
- Dragon Dynasty (2006)
- Dragon Fighter (2003)
- Dragon Sword (2004)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (2005)
E
- Earthstorm (2006)
- Epoch (2001)
- Epoch Evolution (2003)
F
- The Fallen Ones (2005)
- The Feeding (2006)
- Fire & Ice: The Dragon Chronicles (2008)
- Fire Serpent (2007)
- Flying Virus (2001)
- Frankenfish (2004)
- Frost Giant (2010)
G
- Ghost Shark (2013)
- Ghost Town (2009)
- Ghouls (2008)
- Goblin (2010)
- Gryphon (2007)
- Grizzly Rage (2007)
H
- Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy (2005)
- Harpies (2007)
- Haunted Prison (2006)
- Headless Horseman (2007)
- Heatstroke (2008)
- Hellhounds (2009)
- High Plains Invaders (2009)
- House of Bones (2010)
- House of the Dead II: Dead Aim (2005)
- Hydra (2009)
I
- Ice Spiders (2007)
- The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake (2009)
- Infestation (2009)
J
- Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
K
- KAW (2007)
- King of the Lost World (2005)
- Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006)
L
- Lake Placid 2 (2007)
- Lake Placid 3 (2010)
- The Land That Time Forgot (2009)
- Lavalantula (2015)
- Lightning Strikes (2009)
- Living Hell (2008)
- Lost City Raiders (2008)
- Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (2008)
- Lost Voyage (2001)
M
- Malibu Shark Attack (2009)
- Mammoth (2006)
- Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)
- Man-Thing (2005)
- Mandrake (2010)
- Mansquito (2005)
- Manticore (2005)
- Mega Piranha (2010)
- Mega Snake (2007)
- Megafault (2009)
- Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)
- Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2009)
- Minotaur (2006)
- Momentum (2003)
- Mongolian Death Worm (2010)
- Monster Ark (2008)
- Monster Island (2019)
- Mothman (2010)
- Mr. Stitch (1995)
- Mutant Chronicles (2008)
N
- Never Cry Werewolf (2008)
O
- Odysseus Voyage To The Underworld (2008; also known as Odysseus and the Isle of the Mists)
- Ogre (2008)
- Out for Blood (2004)
P
- Painkiller Jane (2005)
- Phantom Racer (2009)
- Piranhaconda (2012)
- Pterodactyl (2005)
- Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes (2006)
- Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud (2007)
- Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys (2004)
- Python (2000)
- Pythons (2002)
- Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators (2013; Known in the UK as Alligator Alley)
- Raging Sharks (2005)
- Raptor Island (2004)
- Red: Werewolf Hunter (2010)
- Reign of the Gargoyles (2007)
- Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)
- Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005)
- Rise of the Gargoyles (2009)
- Robocroc (2013)
- Rock Monster (2008)
- Sabretooth (2002)
- Sand Serpents (2009)
- Sands of Oblivion (2007)
- Sasquatch Mountain (2006)
- Savage Planet (2006)
- Scream of the Banshee (2011)
- Sea Beast (2008)
- Shark Hunter (2001)
- Sharknado (2013)
- Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)
- Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015)
- Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)
- Sharknado 5: Global Swarming (2017)
- The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018)
- Shark in Venice (2008)
- Sharktopus (2010)
- Showdown in Area 51 (2007)
- Sinbad and the Minotaur (2011)
- Snakehead Swamp (2014)
- The Snake King (2005)
- Species III (2004)
- Species: The Awakening (2007)
- Splinter (2008)
- SS Doomtrooper (2006)
- Star Runners (2009)
- Stonehenge Apocalypse (2010)
- Supergator (2007)
- Swamp Devil (2008)
- Swarmed (2005)
- Tasmanian Devils (2013)
- They Found Hell (2015)
- Thor: Hammer of the Gods (2009)
- Triassic Attack (2010)
- Vipers (2008)
- War Wolves (2009)
- Warbirds (2008)
- Witchville (2010)
- Wolvesbayne (2009)
- Wraiths of Roanoke (2007)
- Wyvern (2009)
- Yeti (2008)
- Zombie Apocalypse (2011)
- Zoombies (2016)
- Zoombies 2 (2019)
The following tropes appear in these films:
- Armies Are Evil: Or at least the American military is. It's also damn near omnipresent, as one movie shows that they have a secret base within almost literal spitting distance of Stonehenge (because they are, of course, hoping to weaponize it).
- Basilisk and Cockatrice: Basilisk: The Serpent King has a centuries-old basilisk being unwittingly reawakened by archeologists during a solar eclipse after it was originally petrified thanks to a gold scepter.
- Bioweapon Beast: Often the monsters in these movies were intended to be some kind of bioweapon for The Government or a sinister Mega-Corp.
- B-Movie: Syfy's become the biggest North American outlet for B movies in The New '10s.
- Disaster Movie: Many movies that aren't monster flicks are instead about some sort of disaster, though the special effects are usually lacking for these to an even greater extent. Taken to its apex by the Sharknado movies, which combine the two genres.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Seriously. Just look at the list of movies in the folder.
- Insect Gender-Bender: Mansquito has a human-mosquito hybrid killing people and drinking their blood. Problem is it's a mansquito, so he's not growing any eggs and shouldn't require blood at all. While this COULD be written off as the radioactive gunk also changing his gender (if it can make a mammal part-insect, why not?) it enters flat out ridiculous territory when he begins pursuing a WOMAN who has been mutated to a lesser extent. And while even that could be written off as a twofer Gender Bender, the fact that SHE also craves blood completely extinguishes the possibility for any amusing Fanon theories.
- LEGO Genetics: Animal genes can often be injected into people willy nilly to create part-human hybrids like Mansquito, Sharkman, or Snakeman. This is also the usual explanation for the Mix-and-Match Critters.
- Mayan Doomsday: This was a very popular subject for them for awhile. Some were even made after it.
- The Mockbuster: If a hot new fantastic genre film is hitting the big screen on Friday, expect to see the mockbuster version of it on the Saturday night small screen.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Though it didn't start there, the relative success of Sharktopus has prompted a noticeable increase in beasties that combine one or more existing creatures: Piranhaconda, Whalewolf, Pteracuda, etc.
- Nuke 'em: Rarely is there a situation in one of these films where someone won't default to "nuke the crap out of it." The few that don't feature that option are usually the "trapped on an X" variant with a tiny cast. In Deep Shock, the attempt to seal the rift the alien eels have opened involves over 200 nukes.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: To be expected, given the ultra-low budget of each film (some high tech firearms appear to be repainted Nerf guns).
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: If it's a cryptid and it's even remotely plausible that it would eat people, it's bound to have starred in one of these.
- Rock Monster: The SyFy Channel Original Movie... Rock Monster.
- Science Is Bad: A disproportionate number of these movies seem to advance the theory that science inevitably leads to the creation of giant mutated animals, and explosions are the only thing that can rectify such mistakes.
- Shark Man: SharkMan, a.k.a. Hammerhead, where the monster is a man who became part hammerhead shark after being injected with shark DNA.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Unsurprisingly, Zombie Apocalypse is an example of the trope.
