Many trilogies exist outside the confines of traditional blockbuster films. These trilogies may offer something unique to fans of specific genres, from horror to arthouse, and everything in between. From indie films to B-horror movies, these trilogies prove that there's more to movies than just big-budget productions.
Movie trilogies are often big, even the ones that are made up of small-scale movies, since if your average movie is, say, two hours long, then you watch three of them together, and there goes six hours, which is pretty much a miniseries, or a shorter season of television.
And then, of course, some trilogies feel particularly big because they're made up of blockbuster films, with the three Star Wars trilogies all being great examples… and The Lord of the Rings, too, of course. The following trilogies, though, don’t really feel like blockbusters, and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just something to observe.
These ones stand out from the big movies that want – or need – to make millions upon millions of dollars at the box office, and they're all worth exploring if you want something a little different from your movie trilogies. Some are arthouse, some are horror, a few are generally low-budget, and none are all-out blockbusters in the traditional sense of the term. 8 'Clerks' You wouldn’t expect the Clerks trilogy to end up quite as heavy-going as it does, but Clerks III is almost kind of ridiculous in how downbeat it gets.
Sure, Clerks was about a couple of young and directionless people trying to survive the tedium of their customer service jobs, with a few sequences played for drama there, and then plenty of moments that were supposed to be darkly funny. It wasn’t really depressing, though, and then Clerks II got a little lighter before offering some hope for at least one of its characters, only for Clerks III to have revealed that’s been snatched away between movies.
And then things get worse. It’s such an odd trilogy, to be perfectly honest, but there’s also something weirdly fascinating about it.
And also, these movies are almost as small, low-budget, and intimate as comedies get, especially the first movie, with pretty much all of its scenes shot inside one confined location. 7 'Mexico' Trilogy Just as Kevin Smith managed to make an entire movie out of very little money in the 1990s, when he did Clerks, so too did Robert Rodriguez accomplish the same feat, albeit he wanted to do more of a thriller/action film on a budget. The resulting movie was El Mariachi, and it’s a little too slim, stripped-down, and slight to be, like, a beefy blockbuster action movie, but the ambition here with so few resources did make it a rather incredible watch.
El Mariachi is genuinely exciting, and then the story kind of continues in Desperado, which has more of a budget, but more of a 1990s mid-tier action/thriller budget, rather than the sort Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, or Sylvester Stallone might've been able to work with at the time. Then, there’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico, rounding out the trilogy, and that comes the closest to being a blockbuster, especially with how many famous people keep showing up in it… but it’s also quite offbeat and not for everyone.
Not a full-on crowd-pleaser, but a big movie, compared to Desperado, which was already a big movie compared to El Mariachi, which was tiny, but in a very fun kind of way. 6 'Evil Dead' By the time the Evil Dead trilogy reaches its end, it’s almost in blockbuster movie territory, although it’s like a blockbuster done on a budget, and so it’s also very much a B-movie. That movie near the trilogy’s end, Army of Darkness, pretty much entirely abandons the horror of The Evil Dead , and then it also goes into much more broadly comedic territory than the horror/comedy hybrid that was Evil Dead II.
The first movie was done on the slimmest budget of them all, and then that kind of scrappy charm is retained throughout the next two movies, even if they looked as though they might technically have had quite a bit more money spent on them.
They're not grand in scale, nor big in that crowd-pleasing kind of way, but Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies do eventually go big by B-movie standards . 5 'The Apu Trilogy' Throughout the Apu Trilogy, you see a young boy grow into a young man, all the while he and the members of his family navigate various hardships, with the story largely taking place in rural Bengal, and beginning in the 1910s.
The titular character takes on more of a central role from film #2 onward, and by film #3, when he’s a young adult, he’s largely alone in the world, and beginning to navigate the sorts of things his parents might've had to back in the first film, when he was less aware of how the world worked. So, there’s a cyclical nature to the story that’s quite moving, as is the fact that Pather Panchali , Aparajito , and The World of Apu are all incredibly hard-hitting as dramas, with Apu scarcely being able to catch a break throughout.
It’s certainly a cinematic trilogy, and there’s an epic feel by the end of it, if you watch all the films together, since the narrative spans so many years, but it’s otherwise not really the kind of thing you'd be able to easily liken to blockbuster cinema. 4 The 'Noriko Trilogy' This one’s admittedly quite loose, but there were three movies Yasujirō Ozu directed that all starred legendary Japanese actress Setsuko Hara, and she plays a woman with the name “Noriko” in each one, but always a different Noriko.
The movies tend to be social/family dramas, particularly concerning how life was, in Japan, and at the time, for young single women, with Late Spring being about her resistance to finding a partner, despite her father’s wishes. The Noriko of Early Summer has more relatives to contend with, and the plot there also concerns them wanting her to marry.
She gets a slight break from that as Tokyo Story’s Noriko, since much of the drama in that film revolves around a family not finding time when their elders come visiting. Things get heavy and eventually quite sad in some of these movies, but all in a very understated and realistic way. Emotions are sometimes suppressed, and genuine outpourings of negative feelings are rare, leading to little catharsis.
These movies, at their heaviest, do feel uncomfortably close to real life, sometimes. 3 The 'Qatsi' Trilogy The only truly essential movie in the Qatsi trilogy is Koyaanisqatsi, which is up there among the greatest documentaries of all time. It’s easily one of the most distinctive documentary films of all time, too, since it plays out without any interviews or voiceover.
There’s a small amount of text at the beginning and end, but otherwise, what the film has to say is said without technically saying anything… or it speaks through the visuals and the music used, with the"conflict" here, so to speak, being between growing industrial forces and the natural world. It’s an amazing-looking and sounding film, and those qualities do carry over to the other two documentaries in this trilogy, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi.
They're both still good, and worth exploring if you found Koyaanisqatsi particularly magnetic, but the first is the only one that’s a true classic here. Anyway, being strange, arthouse documentaries, the Qatsi films are pretty far from blockbuster territory, as there’s probably no time in cinema history where you could release a movie like this and expect millions upon millions of people to flock to cinemas worldwide to watch it.
It’d be a cool world if that were the one we lived in, but alas. 2 'Three Colours' Three Colours is hard to break down and talk about without looking at the entire set of movies, which is assisted by the fact that they all came out so close together.
But it’s also difficult to say it’s one massive movie, the way you could potentially argue with The Human Condition and The Lord of the Rings trilogies, as Three Colours is made up of three visually distinct and thematically varied movies, all of them revolving around a different set of characters .
Three Colours: Blue is a psychological drama about grief, Three Colours: White is a grim yet farcical dark comedy, and then Three Colours: Red is kind of a mystery/romance film that feels reminiscent of certain Alfred Hitchcock movies, albeit not too reminiscent of any particular one to feel like cinematic plagiarism. All three are very rewarding in their own ways, and approachable by arthouse standards, though not nearly broad or conventionally entertaining enough to themselves approach blockbuster territory . 1 'The Before Trilogy' The whole conceptual element of the Before trilogy is pretty fantastic, since it’s a series of movies about two people who meet by chance at the start of the trilogy, Before Sunrise, and instantly fall in love. But then they have to go their separate ways, and don’t end up seeing each other again until nine years later, in Before Sunset, which was indeed filmed and released nine years on from Before Sunrise.
Then, after spending the next nine years together, the ups and downs of their long-term relationship are explored in 2013’s Before Midnight, with a kind of middle-aged angst also being at the forefront. It’s removed from the unabashed and youthful romance of the first movie, but very much by design. All these films work incredibly well as dialogue-driven romantic dramas on their own, but then you put them all together, and the resulting trilogy is undoubtedly masterful. COLLIDER.
Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Ten questions will figure out which one. 🪜Parasite 🌀Everything Everywhere ☢️Oppenheimer 🐦Birdman 🪙No Country for Old Men FIND YOUR FILM → QUESTION 1 / 10TONE 01 What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind. ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely.
BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10THEME 02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours? AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10STRUCTURE 03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means. AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10VILLAIN 04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you? AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10ENDING 05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like? AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10WORLD 06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible. AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10CRAFT 07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable. AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10PROTAGONIST 08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you. ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure.
BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10PACE 09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately. AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal.
BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10AFTERMATH 10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want? AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about.
BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM → The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is… Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works. BEST PICTURE 2020 Parasite You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
BEST PICTURE 2023 Everything Everywhere All at Once You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful.
This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about. BEST PICTURE 2024 Oppenheimer You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens.
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
BEST PICTURE 2015 Birdman You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible.
Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all. BEST PICTURE 2008 No Country for Old Men You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning.
The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest.
No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Like Follow Followed Before Sunrise R Drama Romance Release Date January 27, 1995 Runtime 101 minutes Director Richard Linklater Writers Kim Krizan, Richard Linklater Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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