Discussion on:

The top 10 sci-fi horror films of all time

There's certainly been some horrific sci-fi films. Battlefield Earth and Starship Troopers for instance.

Starshp Troopers was AWESOME!!! the 2 movies after it sucked.

If you have, you'll know why the movie sucked.

Doesn't mean that the movie "sucked", though. It's extremely hard to find movies that are 100% faithful to their book origins, even ones that are as successful as, say, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Of course, for every LotR series (or even Harry Potter series), you have...things... like Twilight, where you wish they weren't as faithful to the books as they are.

If you had never read the novel, though, then Starship Troopers would easily be classified as a successful summer blockbuster. And even if you have read the novel, just remember there's a lot of events that go on in the novel that get very little attention in a book setting, but would require a lot of onscreen time... like the various invasion sequences. Not to mention the invariable complaints as to whether the "Mobile Infantry" suits were "good" adaptations of the book's descriptions or not. Irregardless, considering that my wife enjoyed it, & she's not exactly a sci-fi fan (horror, yes; monsters, somewhat; serial killers, especially cannibals, cue Mr. Burns saying, "Excellent!"), I think we can call it a success. #2, not so much; can't say on #3, haven't seen it yet.

Of course, it could be worse. It could have been the complete opposite, where the movie is much better than the book. I remember reading the novelization for the first Christopher Reeves Superman movie. Don't remember all of the details, but I do remember that not only was the nuclear missile issue completely missing from it, but the 2nd half involved Lex Luthor & Superman traveling to an alien planet (Luthor using a spider-shaped spacecraft), and having to defeat an alien version of the Pied Piper that nearly took over Earth. *shudder*

I thought Troopers strayed too far, keeping only the action and leaving out most of RAH's social commentary underpinnings regarding the responsibilities of citizens, role of the military in society, etc.

I'm surprised Tony didn't point out the horror that was 'I, Robot', a film with nothing in common with Asimov's collection of short stories except the title. Not a truly bad movie, and I could excuse it if they'd just called it something like 'Fresh Prince of Caves of Steel'.

I thought it was a commercial.
I think the level of trauma I suffered watching that made me bury it in my subconscious.

Some would say you've done me a favour by making me relive the experience.

No I'm not one of them.

I won't even mention 'Dune'.

Oops...

perhaps there should be a rule that is 75% of the original story isnt included in the film (or series of films) they can't use the name of the book / comic etc.

As I recall, there are no legal protections on the use of a title. Completely different books, songs, and movies can legally have the same name. A movie titlled 'Starship Troopers' could be a western or a biblical epic.

What is the book about, you'll have to read it, because it isn't in the film.

It was like doing Saving Private Ryan the only child, but with no brilliant opening, and crap actors.

The only good thing about it was the ladies, especially the naked ones.

As a soft porn spoof film, It had credible story line, but not enough porn, is about the best I can say of it.

Even without reading the book, the entire premise of "The bugs hurled a rock across an entire galaxy from one side to the next and hit the town they were aiming for, which (even if they hurled the rock at the speed fo light, whcih they didn't) would not have existed yet, let alone tracking the orbit of planet Earth over billions of years to predict where it might be by the time the rock arrived" while at the same time trying to find proof that "the bugs are intelligent" made me "WTF" so badly I couldn't even enjoy the giant spiders properly.

The book wasn't about the bugs. They were simply a horrible enemy we couldn't communicate with. A parody, or an allegory perhaps. But as far as the science fiction aspect of the book is concerned they were scenery, nothing to do with the premises at all.
One being that only those who are prepared to risk their lives for their country are fit to have a say in how it is run...

I was going to make fun of people who read books... and their insistence that movie scripts adhere to said books. But I thought this was a good example of both book and movie being, separately, good.

Heinlein's book is this "what if..." about the government that's geared towards the military without being a military dictatorship in the classic sense. Civics 101 wrapped around an interstellar war. It's pure science fiction.

The Starship Trooper movie is a satire of military propaganda with a horror element (if you got a fear of bugs). The marketing bumpers asking you to "Join the Mobile Infantry!" The go-go attitude of the characters before they realize that war is ugly and actually dangerous. Then there's the bugs! Rarely do movie-goers get to see an non-anthropomorphic enemy. The bugs have no faces or pupils to focus on, multiple legs, fast-moving, shrill screamers. But instead of being these dumb wooden ducks to shoot at, the bugs actually display a good amount of tactical thinking. Anyways, similar to Robocop, Troopers ridicules at our attempts to make War into an activity we WANT to participate in while scaring the crap out of us with these beings we can't relate to. Well, unless you're NPH, who's the only one allowed to "Pet the Worm".

That reminds me: Jurassic Park III. (All the velociraptor moments are horror scenes.)

is that they're taking advantage of those who've read the book in order to build their audience.

But if books aren't your thing, let's switch gears to another medium that is now being adapted frequently to movies: comic books. Imagine you pay to see a 'Spider-Man' movie based on what you've read in the comic, but Uncle Ben isn't killed by a criminal Peter Parker side-steps. The 'With great power comes great responsibility' message, the entire underpinning of Spidey's crime-fighting activities, is tossed out the window.

That's how the 'Starship Troopers' movie made me feel. By using a title to attract those familiar with the book / comic / original medium, Hollywood implies certain characters, themes, scenes, settings, motivations, and actions will be present. The greater the deviation, the greater the likelihood that I'm being sold a pig in a poke. Just name the movie something else and I'll shut up.

I call it, the "Only the name's the same, to sucker in the unwary" syndrome.

Anime/manga fans are always outraged when Hollywood releases "based on ..." movies.

Hollywood does it with US movie remakes too (e.g. Rollerball, Total Recall).

I don't watch a comic book movie to see the comic adapted verbatim from the original. Comics change every 15 years to fit the times. The core should remain timeless but some of the story devices have to change. New writers add stories to fill in gaps in a character's history. Backstories are put in place where certain things were never explained. As long as the core is intact I won't trash it (much). Good core: Batman Begins. Bad core: Batman and Robin. Good core: Hulk. Bad core: Incredible Hulk.

or perhaps more accurately whether we enjoyed it or not. That's it relationship to the book it was meant to be based on was at best fleeting is however indisputable.

If they'd have called it Unrealistic space bugs kill off B movie actors and some naked women, I might have watched it in the spirit it was made. As it is, they called it RAH Starship Troopers, and reaped the consequences of their deceit.

is definitely one of my favorites in this list. Definitely a great classic! I personally think it holds its own and aged well.

Then again, I grew up watching a lot of movies made before the 70s.

It's one of my favourite movies (with an important message, just like "The Day the Earth Stood Still").

" It hasnt aged well, especially effects-wise, ..."
I disagree with this though.
How many 60 year old movies have better effects than "Forbidden Planet"?

This was the first movie that flashed into my mind when I saw the lnk to this thread. I first saw this when I was 13, and it scared the dickens out of me. I can still see that steel door bending from the assault.... That scene, juxtaposed with the comedy of Robbie, make this an unusally appealing film. Now I've got to go find a copy of the darned thing, just so I can see it again.

Some of my favourite quotes.

Robby:
"No sir. Nothing coming this way."

Doc:
"The blasted thing's invisible!"

Commander Adams:
"Monsters from the Id ..."
"Monsters from the subconscious. Of course. That's what Doc meant."

Commander Adams:
"Look at your gauges. Look! That machine is going to supply your monster with whatever amount of power it requires to reach us."

Morbius:
"My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it!"

John Carpenter's "The Thing", which is absolutely brilliantly scarey, is also quite true to its original source material, a novella called "Who Goes There?", right down to the nihilistic ending.

I found Event Horizon to fall well and truly into this category.
Primer was also very good, but although it's tense and scary, I don't know if it actually falls into the "horror" category.

Some great films there to be sure but there has been some terrific sci-fi flicks in the last 25 years, none of which seems to make the grade here.

is to exclude derivative works. I'm trying to think of an original Sci-Fi + Horror concept that doesn't draw on the above list and am coming up blank. E.G. I liked Demon Seed, but it draws a lot from Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Also I think Horror and Sci-Fi started to bulk up in their respective venues over the past 25 years to the point that you don't really market Sci-Fi AND Horror anymore.

If that's the one I think it is (i.e. an AI put in charge of a house that decides it needs to contribute its own "legacy", so to speak), I think that's based on a Dean Koontz novel. Not to say Dean didn't borrow from the other movie, but that might fall more under the "book adaptation" category".

This was an adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel. I just read the 1973 synopsis under wikipedia and the original novel sounds even more like The Forbin Project. E.G. Proteus was an external supercomputer that took over the house Susan was living in, not a construct of her husband (movie). Thanks!

I just checked the date on Harlan Ellison's I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream. It predates Koontz by six years...

...they never made a movie of it. And we're talking about movies.

Literature when Dean Koontz came up. I'm a fan of Ellison and it pains me when I see stuff ripped off from him. That was the point, not the implication that a movie was directly made. It is not inconceivable the Forbin Project and Dean Koontz's work were influenced by Ellison's prior art (along the lines of Terminator.)

Addendum: my earlier post used the Forbin Project in place of Koontz. Confusing am I, thx for catch!

I agree with much of this, but my FAVORITE thing you did was name two remakes to the list. "The Thing" and "The Fly" were okay in their original format and for their time, but the remakes were superior. I also liked the remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," but like you, I believe the original was superior.

I have a friend who still likes the original "The Thing" and I just can't figure out why he is afraid of a mushroom. Just throw some red wine and garlic on him and lunch away. As far as "The Fly," it was a very good moment when Brundle vomits on the donuts. What he did next was THE FREAK, man!!!!

Thanks again...

Something about the half human fly in the spider web in the last scene always gave me the chills!

Alien/Aliens
John Carpenter's The Thing
Species
Videodrome
The Relic
Predator
Attack the Block
Hollow Man
The Fly
Forbidden Planet
The Faculty
Tremors
The Crazies
Pitch Black
The Blob (both versions)

*An unordered list.

I'm taking it home to the wife, now we have some fodder to get us thru this wet and dreary Michigan Fall weekend!

Saturn 5!!!

No discussiion of horror/sci-fi would be complete without at least one William Castle film. His opus "The Tingler" was campy and weird but sent dozens screaming from the theatre. OK, so some were paid to scream and fake a fainting spell, and some were helped by vibrators under the theatre seats, but the movie was a great success.
I remember going to the movies and seeing his gender/bender "Homicidal" . Couldn't sleep for several nights. Great stuff.

I agree with your inclusion of "The Fly" and "The Thing", but you did not even reference that these were remakes (1958 and 1951, respectively). I like the remakes, but both originals had worthy endings that were not in the remakes, so they're still worth a look. I'm pretty sure the spider-head is much scarier than the giant carrot, though!

I have both and really like to watch them back to back to compare and contrast how the movies portray societal outlooks on the military and scientific establishment.

I saw both Alien and The Thing without having any idea of what the main story line was about (Alien on opening night, no date), so the fright scenes embedded in each definitely made me jump! I don't frighten easily while watching movies but I could feel the goosebumps while watching both.

One of their first VHS movies they owned was Alien. And just about every Sunday, they'd sit down to watch it while eating spaghetti...

Man, you have a way with words!

Unfortunately you don't have a way with top ten movie lists. Turn the numbers around, Forbidden Planet being #1, and I'll let you slide on your "top 5," only one of which would make my list of top 100.

"The Thing" is disturbing to the point I'd burn every copy of it and expunge it's very existence from the human canon. Gross for grossness' sake doesn't cut it.

i dont watch a lot ,but Green Hornet is a good one

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