We’re no stranger to wasting time on YouTube, clicking an endless stream of inventive home movies, sports highlights, silly dog videos, film trailers, news clips—you name it, they’ve got it. Once in a crazy blue moon one might stumble across blips of Hollywood blockbusters, helming titles such as “BATMAN PART 1/7,” but aside from unreliable, the shelf life of these are brief.
But in 2011, YouTube inked deals with major Hollywood studios and since have added thousands of titles to their library from five top studios, in addition to the sea of independent films that live under YouTube’s “Movies” tab, where visitors can rent or purchase a growing variety of flicks for a nominal fee.
Unlike Netflix, YouTube also offers a collection of movies free of charge, available to anyone passing through for instant streaming, not requiring a membership or credit card number. An odd collection, sure, but Paste has done the dirty work and plucked the most notable freebies of the bunch that are highly worthy of some classic, YouTube time wasting. We’ll update this as new movies become available (last update January 2013).
12. Spun
Year: 2002
Director: Jonas Åkerlund
A drug fueled ride of dizzying proportions, Spun may not be award-worthy but its choppy, darkly comedic, and hyper depictions of the daily ins and outs of various lowlifes (Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo) involved in a crystal-meth drug ring is fascinating, visceral and never boring.—Caitlin Colford
11. Plan 9 from Outer Space
Year: 1959
Director: Ed Wood
The “best worst” horror movie of all time. Whether its the stringed hubcap flying saucers, visible pillows found in the graveyard, or even the very concept of aliens destroying humanity by reanimating the dead, this movie is just so ridiculously flawed in the best way possible. The debacle starts with an alien monologuing that “future events such as these will affect you in the future.” With apologies to Troll 2, it’s safe to assume that this was, is and will always be the best worst movie of the past, present, and, indeed, the future.
10. King Corn
Year: 2007
Director: Aaron Woolf
The most subsidized and ubiquitous American crop is explored in this documentary about two friends who plant an acre of corn and follow it from seed to food products. Director Aaron Woolf presents a provocative film about America’s increasingly controversial agricultural staple.—Emily Riemer
9. White Zombie
Year: 1932
Director: Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin
Bela Lugosi may be remembered as the cinematic face of 1931’s Dracula, but the Hungarian icon hypnotized audiences a year later as a voodoo master in White Zombie, considered the first feature about the walking undead. While the modern zombie subtext tackles such millennial fears as disease and social anomie, this grim tale and those it influenced focus on such evils as slavery and exploitation (check out 2008’s Dead Girl for a modern interpretation). Brothers Victor and Edward Halperin direct an atmospheric nightmare about a Haitian wedding from hell, creating a new horror genus in the process.—Sean Edgar
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