It is not easy to mix the two genres, yet there are many must see movies in horror science fiction. The best science fiction horror movies are often not expensive mainstream movies but low budget independent movies. The categories of science fiction films e horror movies seem to be made to work well with each other. The attraction of science fiction films for unknown worlds and the emphasis is the tension of horror often translate into engaging films with fascinating atmospheres.
Science fiction and horror share many things: fictional themes of science wind their way through horror, and horror enters numerous works that would otherwise be directly science fiction. If science fiction is the literature of the bizarre and impossible ideas of science and horror is the literature of fear, there is plenty of room to mix.
Take Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein. Shelley decided to write a horror story, but in doing so it not only became one of the most important horror books in history, but also wrote what is perhaps among the first true science fiction books. Without Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory experimentation, a scientific fictional projection based on what was understood about electrophysiology in Shelley’s time, the whole story would not exist.
Why do science fiction and horror go so well together? There are many things where the two categories can fit together effectively. Horror is fear, and science can feed these fears: worries of the future, of illness, of death and, perhaps most of all, of concern for the unknown. The greatest innovation can also be the witchcraft for someone who doesn’t understand how things work from a scientific and rational point of view. For some with deeply rooted faiths, science and rationality pose risks to their faith.
Some of the concerns that science can evoke are far more visceral, as any high school student who actually had to dissect a pig fetus in biology class can confirm. The dark side of humanity’s quest for knowledge has a dark side: vivisections, monstrosities in containers, flesh-eating cockroaches, chemical accidents, and failed experiments.
In some horror stories and movies, science fiction themes are not used to amplify fear, but to hook audiences. Writers and directors use components of true science and innovation to develop a richer and more convincing narrative world in which irrational fears have a greater effect.
Science fiction recognizes its dark side, a category that often controls terrible themes in most of its own dystopian subgenres. Many science fiction concepts can be viewed through a dark lens. In science fiction experiences like Star Trek, innovation is interesting and interesting; in The Terminator’s scary fictional science, robotics and artificial intelligence systems rebel and create chaos.
In real life, researchers search for extraterrestrial life with the expectation that any discovery of other civilizations will benefit humanity. In HP Lovecraft’s literature, which was actually at least as important as Frankenstein, humanity encounters absolutely nothing but abject fears. Since then, a variety of fearsome extraterrestrials have been represented through the horror movie about aliens, and most likely the typical science fiction fan will imagine a xenomorph with teeth and bleeding acid when someone asks him to think of an alien.
Apocalyptic fiction was actually a privileged sub-genre for crossing science fiction and horror. Once again, Mary Shelley helped root this branch of terrible science fiction with her 1826 novel The Last Man. After World War II, readers and authors were concerned about the nuclear holocaust and World War III. Today, nuclear war appears distant and less threatening, yet our hunger for apocalyptic stories has not diminished. The main distinction is that the filmmakers and writers have effectively sidelined the Bomb in favor of zombie ravenous crowds, thanks to Richard Matheson’s 1954 sci-fi horror novel I Am Legend, from which the famous film The last man on Earth.
Frankenstein (1931)
film adaptation James Whale was among the first horror films ever made. 1931’s Frankenstein is still a sci-fi horror classic seen and enjoyed. From Boris Karloff playing the monster to distressing scenes that the censors tried to cut, Frankenstein is a cinematic work of art.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Frankenstein’s Wife is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first true sequel to Universal Pictures’ 1931 film Frankenstein. Similar to the first film, it was directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff as the monster and Colin Clive as Doctor Frankenstein. The film takes a subplot from Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein (1818).
His story follows a chaste Henry Frankenstein as he tries to abandon his strategies to create life, only to be lured and eventually blackmailed by his old advisor, Dr. Pretorius, in addition to the risks of building a mate for the monster. The film ran into issues with censorship upon its release. Over the years the film’s fame has expanded, and is currently considered a cult film among the best sequels ever made. Many fans and critics consider it a revamp on the original, and the best Whale film.
Day the World Ended (1955)
It is a 1955 black and white post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, with Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Paul Birch and Mike Connors. NBC’s Chet Huntley, later on The Huntley-Brinkley Report, acted as the film’s narrator. It was launched as B movie in a double feature film with The Phantom of 10,000 leagues.
An atomic war has effectively damaged most of human civilization, leaving the Earth polluted with radioactive fallout. One exception is a separate canyon, surrounded by lead cliffs, where former US Navy Commander Jim Maddison (Paul Birch) looks after his daughter Louise (Lori Nelson) in a home he stocked with products in prediction of such an armageddon. Louise is engaged and about to get married, however her fiancé is lost. He keeps his picture on the nightstand (which was actually a picture of Roger Corman).
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 American independent science fiction horror film produced, written, directed and edited by Ed Wood. The film stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and “Vampira” (Maila Nurmi) and is told by Criswell. The film’s story is about extraterrestrials trying to stop humanity from producing a weapon that could damage deep space. The aliens carry out “Plan 9”, a plan to revive the dead of Earth, described as “evil spirits”. By triggering the turmoil, the aliens hope the crisis requires humanity to listen to them; otherwise, the aliens will harm humanity with armies of the undead.
Plan 9 from Outer Space has often been called the “worst movie ever made” – a cinema that’s so bad it’s fantastic, and has actually garnered a huge cult following. A noticeable shadow of the boom microphone is clearly seen in a cockpit scene, while the script can be seen in Trent’s hand. During the very first airplane cockpit scene, the very first officer checks from a script and a flash of light shows the shadow of the boom microphone.
Lead star Gregory Walcott commented years later, “And he had bad taste and was unrestrained. If he had $ 10 million, Plan 9 would still have been shit. I liked Ed Wood, but I might not recognize him as any genius. His main problem was making her next movie… Years later Vampira remembered “I didn’t have a good dress for Plan 9. The one I was wearing was old, broken. It looks like I had a hole in the crotch of my dress, if you look at… But I thought, “oh well, no one’s ever going to see this movie, so it doesn’t matter.”
Eyes Without a Face (1960
Instructor Génessier, a famous transplant surgeon, is responsible for an accident in which his son Christiane came out alive but with a terribly mutilated face. With the help of an assistant, she lures women to her lab, to take the skin from their faces and use it for her boyfriend’s wounds. An operation so difficult that Génessier needs to repeat it over and over again, after each failure of the grafts. Christiane, a mask on her face, still does not understand anything…
The French critics have stated that it was either a repetition of German expressionism or simply a disappointment for the director’s leap from documentary director to genre film. The British press has claimed that when a director like Georges Franju makes a horror film, one cannot try to find allegories or levels of reading. Eyes Without a Face was released in theaters in September 1986 to accompany retrospectives at the National Film Theater in London and Cinémathèque Française. With a new interest, the film began to be re-evaluated. French criticism was significantly more encouraging than it was at its preliminary release. Audiences found the poetic nature of the film by comparing it with the work of French poet and director Jean Cocteau.
The Mill of the Stone Women (1960)
The Mill of the Stone Women is a 1960 film directed by Giorgio Ferroni. It is considered one of the greatest Italian examples of fantastic horror films. It is the first Italian horror film made in color. Some critics have found literary references to Edgar Allan Poe, Apollinaire and Alberto Martini and stylistic links not only to André De Toth (The wax mask) or Mario Bava (The mask of the devil), but also, in the use of the shots, in Luis Buñuel. Thematically, the story is an unprecedented reinterpretation of the archetype of the mad scientist who sacrifices innocent lives to save that of a loved one, a situation that in those years also inspired Eyes Without a Face, Seddok, the heir of Satan and Gritos en la noche.
Research into Dutch folk art leads student Hans von Armin to meet Gregorius Wahl, a sculptor who lives with his beautiful daughter Elfi. Gregorius owns an imposing carillon inside a mill in which life-size statues of famous heroines of the past appear at the stroke of the hour. Hans will soon be seduced by the young Elves but, later rejected, the young woman will die, due to an illness, which will lead her to crisis.
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror movie based on the novel I Am Legend of 1954 by Richard Matheson. The film was directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow. In the cast Vincent Price and Franca Bettoia. The script for the film was written in part by Matheson, however the writer was disappointed with the result.
It’s 1968 and Dr. Robert Morgan remains in an Earth where every other person has been contaminated with a virus that has effectively turned them into undead, vampire animals that can’t stand the sun, are afraid of mirrors, and are even repelled by the sun. garlic. They would certainly take out Morgan if they could, yet they are unintelligent as well as weak. Morgan performs the exact same ritual every day: he wakes up, gathers his tools and goes in search of vampires, eliminating as many as possible and burning the bodies to prevent them from returning. During the night, he hides inside his house.
The film was not considered a hit at the time of its release, it later became a classic, perhaps Vincent Price’s most interesting role. There was a 1971 remake with Charlton Heston, The Omega Man, but it’s not on the same level.
Watch The Last Man on Earth
Terror in Space (1965)
Terror in Space is a 1965 science fiction film directed by Mario Bava, based on the 1960 short story A 21 Hour Night by Renato Pestriniero. It is mentioned among the best Italian science fiction films and as a source of inspiration for the making of Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott. Forced to deal with a low budget, Mario Bava skillfully exploits horror elements to aesthetically communicate a sense of mystery and risk. With a couple of artisanal techniques, the director produces a world permeated with shadows and covering mists, ready to take off with a lightning flash or a cry of horror.
2 large interplanetary ships, on an expedition voyage to some unidentified locations in the area, receive an SOS from Aura, an uninhabited and unidentified world. The two ships, the Galliot and the Argos, choose to arrive in that world that appears dead and desolate. During the descent to the surface, members of the Argos team are unexpectedly taken by an unidentified force that pushes them to kill each other. Captain Markary has the will to resist, managing to awaken the other team members from the violent hypnotic state.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
is a 1968 American independent sci-fi horror movie directed, photographed and edited by George A. Romero, featuring a screenplay by John Russo and Romero. The story tells of 7 individuals who are captured on a rural farm in western Pennsylvania, which is attacked by a group of carnivorous zombies.
Having actually gained experience through TV commercials and commercial films for their Pittsburgh-based production company The Latent Image, Romero and also his friends Russo and Russell Streiner decided to fulfill their aspirations of making a feature film. By choosing to make a Zombie horror films Russo and Romero mainly used the impact of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I Am Legend. The actors and crew included their family and friends, amateur actors and local citizens. The film was his directorial launch, Romero used many of the guerrilla strategies he had actually developed in his commercial and even industrial work to finish the film on a budget of around $ 100,000. Following its theatrical release in Pittsburgh on October 1, 1968, the film grossed $ 30 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable motion pictures ever made.
Alien (1979)
Aliens is a slow-burning sci-fi horror movie: director Ridley Scott uses the first 45 minutes of the film to describe characters and their relationships, therefore, when a life form unusual begins to creep between them, the audience really feels the fear of the group of astronauts. There are some of the most legendary scenes ever seen in the sci-fi horror movie category.
Scanners (1981)
Scanners are best remembered for the famous scene where a man’s head is exploded by a telepath, but this is simply the tip of the iceberg. The film has a lot more to tell thanks to Michael Ironside as Daryll Revok. The story of an evil company targeting telepaths is just one of the fascinating things in this mix of science fiction and horror, which is also a fierce critique of the power of mass media.
The Thing (1982)
This remake of The Thing From Another World is a claustrophobic and grim story about a team of scientists at an Antarctic station being invaded by a killer alien which can imitate any kind of living being. The characters in the film no longer have anyone they can rely on. Thanks to special effects, John Carpenter and a constant feeling of tension in virtually every scene, The Thing is a work of art in the sci-fi horror category, although it was seriously underrated by critics and audiences at the time of its release. launch.
Videodrome (1983)
Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits and Debbie Harry. Max Renn is the head of CIVIC-TV, a Toronto television station focused on sensational programming. Harlan, the CIVIC-TV driver, reveals to Max Videodrome, a plotless program broadcast from Malaysia that shows people being seriously injured and even killed. Thinking this is the future of TV, Max orders Harlan to start using the unlicensed program.
Videodrome was Cronenberg’s initial film to gain backing from a Hollywood studio. With the highest spending plan of its previous films, the film was a box office failure, recovering just $ 2.1 million from a $ 5.9 million budget plan. It is currently considered a cult classic, mentioned as one of Cronenberg’s best, as well as a vital example of body horror and science fiction.
The Terminator (1984)
The Terminator James Cameron’s included themes of technophobia and self-reliance in his tale of a journey through time involving an innovative robot who went back in time to eliminate the mother’s mother. man who will one day lead a resistance against the creators of an authoritarian government and their battle against humanity. Both a sign of things to come regarding the risks of creating a sentient robot and also a horror-fueled adventure journey with its dense story at a breakneck pace, The Terminator is an impressive horror, science fiction and action film. .
The Fly (1986)
Horror director David Cronenberg has produced some of the best creations of the sci-fi horror subgenre with The Fly, the story of a researcher whose teleportation experiment turns him into a human fly. Jeff Goldblum works well, while Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis’ makeup are wonderfully awful. Inevitably, The film was loosely adapted from a 1957 short story by George Langelaan, but its warnings about the human risks of wanting to be a God can be traced back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Predator (1987)
A spaceship launches a shuttle bus to Earth, where Vietnam War expert Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer and his rescue group armed forces, including Mac, Poncho, Blain, Billy and Hawkins, are tasked with rescuing a minister and his assistant from the insurgents. CIA policeman Al Dillon, a friend of the Dutch during the Vietnam War, is designated to accompany the group. During the trip, the group discovers the wreck of a helicopter and also 3 skinned remains.
Predator was a hit earning $ 98 million worldwide. Early reviews were mixed, but the film is now considered a classic of sci-fi horror action and among the cult horror film of the 80s. The success of Predator spawned a multimedia franchise business of movies, stories, comics, computer games and even toys. Predator is a smarter sci-fi movie than it looks from its mainstream packaging and also has some of the more extreme underrated horror sequences. Traditional science fiction principles, such as HG Welles’ use of modern technology in War of the World’s, morph into characters who are tech killers.
They Live (1988)
They Live is a 1988 American science fiction horror film by John Carpenter, based on Ray Nelson’s 1963 fiction “Eight O’Clock in the Morning”. The film stars Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster. The film tells of a wanderer who discovers through special sunglasses the aliens who hide their appearance in human form to dominate the planet by means of subliminal messages in the media.
The film was a small success at the time of its launch, debuting at number 1 in the North American box office. At first it got unfavorable reviews, which reproached its social discourse. However, like other Carpenter’s films, it later gained status from cult horror film from the 80s, becoming one of the most famous dystopian movies ever. The film entered pop culture, as well as having a long-term result on street art.
A homeless wanderer arrives in Los Angeles to find a job. While on the street, he sees a preacher warning that “they” have actually hired people to dominate humanity. Nada gets a job in a construction company and befriends her colleague Frank, who invites him to a kitchen in a slum run by a boy named Gilbert.
Event Horizon (1997)
It is a 1997 science fiction film directed by Paul WS Anderson and written by Philip Eisner, starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan and also Joely Richardson . Set in 2047, it tells of a staff of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after a missing spacecraft, the Event Horizon, turns up in orbit around Neptune, only to discover that a menacing presence has returned with it. It was rejected by critics and was not a success, then it became a timeless cult favorite of science fiction horror. Mythological fear and quantum physics mix together for an unforgettable and bloody journey.
Mimic (1997)
Mimic by Guillermo del Toro is an 8n science fiction horror film which, 3 years after researchers developed a wild insect to kill cockroaches that were spreading a lethal infection around New York, the insect returns to face its worst opponent: humanity. With an excellent cast with Mira Sorvino and Josh Brolin, del Toro made a sci-fi horror movie with many fears and a hidden message about genetic modification.
Cube (1997)
Apparently a horror film about characters caught in an extremely sophisticated maze, Cube is a film driven primarily by dialogue and its analysis of types of individuality within society. The characters in the film find themselves inside a gigantic structure of interconnected steel cables with no understanding of exactly how or why they are there. Their dialogues, as they try to find out what’s going on and even how they can escape, examine concepts as intricate as they are broad, such as the principles and psychology of authoritarianism.
Prometheus (2012)
A Ridley Scott Alien film that delves even deeper into the director’s themes of famous science fiction films. Prometheus includes concepts of spirituality, as humanity’s pressing desire for answers and meaning. There are many creepy and scary scenes however his real fear originates from the evil killer robotic butler, David, the villain of the story, is played by Michael Fassbender, which makes the character a real horror movie villain in the same genre as the monsters. of Universal, like Frankenstein.
Under The Skin (2013)
Under the Skin is a 2013 science fiction horror film directed by Jonathan Glazer and written by Glazer and Walter Campbell, loosely based on Michel Faber’s 2000 story. In Glasgow, a motorcyclist picks up a dead girl from the side of the road and places her in the back of a van, where a naked woman is wearing her clothes. After buying clothes and makeup in a mall, the woman drives the van, seducing men. Tempt a man in a dilapidated house and the man is submerged in a fluid.
Scarlett Johansson is involved in this auteur sci-fi horror movie about an alien who disguises himself as an attractive woman to seduce men in a lethal capture. With a high level of realism in most scenes, there is little of the emotional excitement of genre films and the tale focuses much more on repressed motives of identification and sexuality, with a minimalist style.
Coherence (2013)
It is a 2013 American science fiction horror thriller film directed by James Ward Byrkit in its directorial launch. Emily Foxler plays a woman who needs to take care of strange events involving the death of a comet.
8 friends staying in Northern California reunite for a dinner at Mike and Lee’s house on the night of Miller’s Comet death. Among the visitors, Emily is reluctant to take her beloved Kevin on a long business trip to Vietnam. To the dismay of the partygoers, their friend Amir brings Laurie, a flirtatious woman and Kevin’s former partner. During dinner, the argument is piqued by the bitterness between Emily’s friend Beth and Laurie, and it escalates when Laurie annoys Emily. The story of the film starts with a simple science fiction idea that has labyrinthine effects. The group of friends attending the dinner in the film do so on the eve of a comet’s death and discover that it has created an unusual event.
Upgrade (2018)
Update is a 2018 cyberpunk science fiction horror film by Leigh Whannell and starring Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel and Harrison Gilbertson. Gray Trace, an auto mechanic, asks his wife Asha to help him return a refurbished car to his client Eron Keen, a major technology company. As he sees his residence, Eron reveals his latest development, a chip called STEM that can take care of a human. On their way home Gray and Asha collide with a car. 4 guys eliminate Asha and shoot Gray in the neck, cutting his spine. Gray returns home months later as a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, under the care of his mother, Pamela. Asha’s death and failure to find their attackers creates concern for Gray. After a suicide attempt he is contacted by Eron who encourages him to try a STEM dental implant.
Before giving his personal interpretation to The Invisible Man, author and director Leigh Whannell went from horror to science fiction for a story of gory revenge on a boy who provides control of his body to an innovative artificial intelligence program that can turn him into an unstoppable killer. The fear of the film is found mainly in the tale, perfectly mixed with some typically horror science fiction ideas about the power of modern technology in the loss of free choice, control and even the human desire to shirk responsibility.
