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Science Fiction-Horror Films see all Horror Film DVDs The blending of science fiction with the horrror film genre happened early on in cinema, but had some high points in the Universal Classic Horror films of the 30's, the 3-D movies of the 50's. since then, there have been a few great contributions to this hybrid genre, and here, we've attempted to give you some suggestions for the best science fiction horror films that could be fun for viewing as Halloween movies, or whenever you want a bit of sci-fi fun. |
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Mad scientists abound in this excellent collection of classic horror films. In THE BLACK CAT (1934), Newlyweds David Manners and Julie Bishop are en route to Vienna, when their train compartment is shared by Bela Lugosi as a Hungarian psychiatrist. After an accident on the road during a thunderstorm they are forced to stay the night in a spooky old castle owned by Boris Karloff, who is as we are soon to discover a follower of the Devil, and an old enemy of Lugosi's during the war. A pre-code tale of revenge and Satanism set in a spectacular art deco mansion built on the site of a bloody World War I battlefield. . THE RAVEN (1935) sees Lugosi as a demented, Poe loving, plastic surgeon who disfigures Karloff and blackmails him into aiding him in a plot to punish a woman who has scorned him. Both films are perfect vehicles for their two stars and represent the well-mounted, quality horror product Universal became famous for. In MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932) Dr. Mirakle (Lugosi) poses as a perverted Darwinian who cross breeds apes and humans. For this requires test subjects, one of which is a Cesare-like gorilla to carry girls from rooftops on his behalf. Aided by another servant, he carries out his experiments in his own private laboratory. In THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936) Scientist Boris Karloff is obsessed with finding the Nebula Ray of Andromeda to discover it's secret powers of solar energy. He adjourns to Africa with an expedition crew along with a benevolent doctor (Bela Lugosi), his wife, and others. The discovery is a success, however it exposes Karloff to the gamma rays. At intervals his body glows and his touch is fatal. When his fellow scientists abandon his research claiming his discovery for their own, he seeks blood revenge on them all. |
The
Bela Lugosi Collection (Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Black Cat
/ The Raven / The Invisible Ray / Black Friday) (1934)-DVD
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Mad Scientist Classic Horror Films
Frankenstein - The Legacy Collection (Frankenstein / Bride of / Son of /
Ghost of / House of) (1931)
It's alive! Alive!" shouts Colin Clive's triumphant Dr. Frankenstein as electricity buzzes over the hulking body of a revived corpse. "In the name of God now I know what it's like to be God!" For years unheard, this line has been restored, along with the legendary scene of the childlike monster tossing a little girl into a lake, in James Whale's Frankenstein, one of the most famous and influential horror movies ever made. Coming off the tremendous success of Dracula, Universal assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley's famous novel with Bela Lugosi as the monster. When Lugosi declined the role, Whale cast the largely unknown character actor Boris Karloff and together with makeup designer Jack Pierce they created the most memorable monster in movie history: a towering, lumbering creature with sunken eyes, a flat head, and a jagged scar running down his forehead. Whale and Karloff made this mute, misunderstood brute, who has the brain of a madman (the most obvious of the many liberties taken with Shelley's story), the most pitiable freak of nature to stumble across the screen. Clive's Dr. Frankenstein is intense and twitchy and Dwight Frye set the standard for mad-scientist sidekicks as the wild-eyed hunchback assistant. Whale's later films, notably the spooky spoof The Old Dark House and the deliriously stylized sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, display a surer cinematic hand than seen here and add a subversive twist of black comedy, but given the restraints of early sound films, Whale breaks the film free from static stillness and adorns it with striking design and expressionist flourishes.
The Vampire Bat (1933) DVDIn a small town in europe, people are dying. The blood is being drained from their bodies, and puncture wounds are found on the throat. The Burgermeister and his council are frantic. Is it the work of vampire bats flown in from south america? Or worse, could it be an actual vampire?? Lionel Atwill plays doctor Neiman, a seemingly benign scientist who just might have a dark side. Fay Wray (King Kong, Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game) is his oblivious assistant. Dwight Frye (Frankenstein, Dracula) is Harold, the town crackpot and number one suspect. I love him in anything! THE VAMPIRE BAT is a lot of fun, and only about an hour long! A movie made in the tradition of Universal Horror Classics from a smaller film company of the same era, Majestic Pictures. Well worth owning.
The
Invisible Man (1933)-DVDClaude Rains practically owns his film debut in The Invisible Man, despite the fact that his face (let alone his body) is seen only for seconds in the final moments. As the brilliant scientist who discovers the secret of invisibility, Rains steps into the film wrapped up like a mummy behind a layer of bandages and blanketed in heavy clothes. When he removes his garments, there's nothing underneath, a simple but effective bit of 1930s movie magic that, apart from a few glitches, works as well today as it did in 1933. Like Frankenstein, another cautionary tale of science gone horribly wrong, the consequences of the doctor's experiments are dire: the chemicals drive him insane. Director James Whale infuses the film with plenty of humor, much of it arising from the quaint quirks of the local villagers, but it turns to black comedy as the doctor transforms from an impish prankster upsetting bicycles and taunting tavern patrons to a megalomaniac bent on world domination. It's slow going even at 71 minutes, but full of delightful touches and boasts a terrific performance by the all but unseen Rains, whose rich, cultured voice envelopes the picture in a kind of omnipresent fog. Vincent Price took up the role in the sequel, The Invisible Man Returns.
Get all the films (The Invisible Man/Invisible Man Returns/Invisible Agent/Invisible Woman/Invisible Man's Revenge) in Invisible Man - The Legacy Collection(1933)
Doctor
X (1932) VHS OnlyA delightfully campy MGM horror film, featuring Lee Tracy as a fast-talking news reporter on the trails a moonlight serial killer to a special research academy headed by the lofty Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). An interesting, if uneven, mix of horror and comedy, balancing over-the-top scenery chewing by a truly bizarre collection of mad scientists with Tracy's slapstick interludes.... Fay Wray is completely dishy as Dr. Xavier's sassy, wise-cracking daughter. Best of all, though, is the pioneering early version of Technicolor, which perfectly accentuates the beautiful German-influenced impressionistic cinematography. A fun film, and a total hoot.
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Dr.
Cyclops (1940) VHS OnlySpecial effects took a clever step forward with the release of Paramount's Dr. Cyclops in 1940. This wasn't the first movie to deal with the miniaturization of human beings (The Bride of Frankenstein and The Devil Doll addressed the issue earlier), but it was the first to devote its visual effects to depicting the dangers of being tiny in a full-scale world. Introducing themes and images that would later be perfected in The Incredible Shrinking Man, the story is set in a remote Peruvian jungle, where the bald, bespectacled mad scientist Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker) uses his secret "radium machine" to reduce humans to one-fifth normal size. When two American explorers stumble upon the doctor's lab, they're captured and shrunken, suddenly finding that cats, chickens, and even raindrops now pose a deadly threat to their survival. The doctor and his experiments must be destroyed, and the film winds down to a predictable conclusion. Dr. Cyclops is now merely a curio for science fiction fans, but it's blessed with the same spirit of adventure and innovation that was gloriously evident in director Ernest B. Schoedsack's best-known previous film, the original King Kong. Photographed in three-strip Technicolor, Dr. Cyclops earned an Academy Award nomination for its visual effects (losing the Oscar to The Thief of Baghdad), and remains an enjoyable milestone in imaginative cinema.
The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1966) -DVD
The last film ever made by the great Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, The Big Heat), this fascinating thriller combines elements of film noir, horror, and science fiction. Gert Frobe (Goldfinger) stars as police commissioner Kras, trying to uncover the sinister secret of the mysterious Hotel Luxor, ground zero for a massive crime wave. The crimes show all the hallmarks of evil genius Dr. Mabuse--but he died 30 years ago! Digitally restored from original studio negatives.
Science Fiction-Horror Blends 1950's-Present
The Thing from Another World (1951)
With its modest special effects, lean plot, and small cast of lesser stars, this 1951 thriller remains a sturdy blueprint for fusing horror and science fiction. The formula has been employed countless times since, fleshed out with more extensive and elaborate production values, and manned by higher profiled marquee names, but the results have yet to improve on The Thing from Another World, Howard Hawks's lone foray into sci-fi. The story begins as military airmen are dispatched to a remote Arctic research station where scientists have detected the crash of a spacecraft. An effort to retrieve the saucer-shaped vehicle fails, but the team returns to the station with the frozen body of its sole occupant. When the extraterrestrial pilot is accidentally thawed, the crew, headed by a tough-talking pilot (Kenneth Tobey), grapples with a massive, chlorophyll-based humanoid (James Arness) thirsty for blood and in no mood for galactic diplomacy. Hawks takes only a production credit for this low-budget exercise, but his filmmaking style transcends Christian Nyby's nominal direction: rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue, an ensemble of comrades whose professionalism is tempered by wisecracks, and unsentimental female characters (embodied by feisty romantic interest Margaret Sheridan) recall Hawks's signature works, while propelling the plot over any potential gaps in credibility. It's hardly surprising, then, that The Thing from Another World remains among the most influential science fiction movies ever shot, or that it remains exciting entertainment a half century later.
them!That ol' cinematic devil the A-bomb has spawned a colony of giant murderous ants bent on destroying humanity in this, the seminal big bug movie (an obvious and oft-credited influence for Alien among countless others). The special effects may be dated, but this brilliantly rational-sounding film has held up wonderfully in all other regards, including some starkly effective location work in the high Arizona desert, a genuinely inspired sound design guaranteed to bring on the creepy-crawlies, and an unexpectedly dry sense of humor (mainly personified by Grade-A egghead scientist Edmund Gwenn). This is essential viewing for all those who consider themselves science fiction or horror fans. Heroic hardcase James Arness previously played for the other team as the titular character in The Thing from Another World.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Jack Arnold's horror classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon spawned not one but two iconic images: the web-footed humanoid gill-man with a hankering for women and the leggy, luscious Julia Adams, the object of his desire, swimming the lagoon in a luminous white bathing suit. Not since King Kong has the "beauty and the beast" theme been portrayed in such sexually charged (though chaste) terms. Arnold turns an effectively B-movie plot--a small expedition up a remote Amazon river captures a prehistoric amphibian man, who escapes to wreak havoc on the team and kidnap his bathing beauty--into a moody, stylish, low-budget feature. The jungle exteriors turn from exotic to treacherous when the creature blocks their passage and strands them in the wilds. Much of the film is shot underwater, where the murky dark is animated by shimmering shards of sunlight, creating images both lovely and alien (the studio-built sets of the creature's underground lair are far less naturalistic, but serve their purpose). As with most of Arnold's '50s genre films, he's saddled with a less than magnetic leading man (in this case the colorless but stalwart Richard Carlson) and a conventional script, but he overcomes such limitations by creating a vivid and sympathetic monster (helped immeasurably by a marvelous suit of scales and fins) and establishing a mood thick with atmosphere. The film was originally shot in 3-D.
Get all the
films (Creature from the Black Lagoon / Revenge of the Creature / The Creature
Walks Among Us) in
Creature from the Black Lagoon - The
Legacy Collection (1954)
The Crawling Eye (Widescreen European Edition) (1958)
A classic science fiction terror thriller about a weird creature from outer space which survives in the rarefied atmosphere of the Swiss Alps and terrorizes scientists in a remote high-altitude research station. This hideous monster hides in the fog-shrouded cloud of mist and kills its victims by decapitation. As the mysterious cloud descends on the Swiss village of Trollenberg, United Nations science investigator Allan Brooks (Forrest Tucker), Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell) and a young woman with psychic powers (Janet Munro) must find a way to stop the monster's murderous rampage before it's too late.
Alien - The Director's Cut (Collector's Edition) (1979) DVD
A landmark of science fiction and horror, Alien arrived in 1979 between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as a stylishly malevolent alternative to George Lucas's space fantasy. Partially inspired by 1958's It! The Terror from Beyond Space, this instant classic set a tone of its own, offering richly detailed sets, ominous atmosphere, relentless suspense, and a flawless ensemble cast as the crew of the space freighter Nostromo, who fall prey to a vicious creature (designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger) that had gestated inside one of the ill-fated crew members. In a star-making role, Sigourney Weaver excels as sole survivor Ripley, becoming the screen's most popular heroine in a lucrative movie franchise. To measure the film's success, one need only recall the many images that have been burned into our collective psyche, including the "facehugger," the "chestburster," and Ripley's climactic encounter with the full-grown monster. Impeccably directed by Ridley Scott, Alien is one of the cinema's most unforgettable nightmares.
If Clive Barker had written an episode of The Twilight Zone, it might have looked something like Cube. A handful of strangers wake up inside a bizarre maze, having been spirited there during the night. They quickly learn that they have to navigate their way through a series of chambers if they have any hope of escape, but the problem is that there are lethal traps awaiting if they choose their route unwisely. Having established some imaginative and grisly punishments in store for the hostages, cowriter and director Vincenzo Natali turns his attention to the characters, for whom being trapped amplifies their best and worst qualities. The film is, in fact, similar to a famous episode of Rod Serling's old television series, though Natali's explanation for why these poor people are being put through hell is a lot closer to the spirit of The X-Files. Cube has some solid moments of suspense and drama, and the sets are appropriately striking: one is tempted to believe at first the characters are lost inside a computer chip.
The Thing - Collector's Edition-DVD (1982)
Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss.
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