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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Years ago I wanted to show my then girlfriend Them. Her original comments were that it was full of cliches and things done a thousand times. I pointed out that Them wasn't full of cliches, because it was the first. The cliches were established as cliches by the imitators and derivative films. She thought about it and changed her whole attitude to the old films. My wife now seeks them out as much as I do. Except spiders. She hates spiders.

And I would like to offer the recent Mummy films to the list. Yes, they had comic relief and were not something where I could suspend my belief, but they were true to the genre.

There is another film that I don't know if you want to call it Science Fiction, that was one of the few films that actually scared me. The Serpent and the Rainbow gave a view of voodoo with toxins and drugs that put you in a state where you no longer were sure what was real and what were images provided by the priest, where you no longer had any control over your environment. That was very scary.

This list needs a little Pandorum (2009).

It's one of the best sci-fi/horror movies ever, and so underrated/unknown.


Also, TNOTLD is a zombie movie, and does not belong in sci-fi genre discussions.

You also forgot T2, and Aliens (which was arguably better than Alien).

Not particularly good sci-fi come to think of it either. Both enjoyable though.

You are of course entitled to your opinion, but I respectfully disagree!

Both are good movies, both had elements of horror in them, and many DO consider Aliens to be > Alien,

From now on I'm going to categorise Aliens as a romance then.

I understand your sarcasm here, but not your logic.

I think most would agree that Aliens falls into both the horror and the sci-fi genres.

I was neither horrified nor scared. I've watched Alien several times, despite knowing the entire story, it still has the power to make me flinch.

To me it's boo moments that make a good horror film, not gore, not really weird looking monsters, it's every body expecting the big bad monster to come out in the open, and then discovering the ships cat, then the sigh of relief being cut off by a swooping shadow and a despairing scream of pain.

Most films that are sold as horror are just gore fests, a better name might be shockers, the only horrifying aspect about them is how crap they are.

Aliens was an action film set space with a rare and convincing female lead. There was a horrific monster in it (Burke), and some aliens as well.

"Aliens" is a totally different style of movie to "Alien".

Actually I agree with all of the points you raise in this post.

Starship Troopers. Thus it would be Military-SciFi. The reason Alien was horror was due to the dark helplessness of those being pursued by the monster(s). I never considered the marines in Aliens helpless, just overwhelmed. I also consider Predator to be Military-SciFi opposed to Horror-SciFi.

Horror films involve elements of our nightmares. Not personal ones but collectively - a killer of our own creation; animals that want to feast on us; being trapped with someone/something that wants to hurt us; the dark; our phobias. These tropes make up horror films. These are visceral fears.

Science Fiction typically includes its own set of fears wrapped in allegory. But these are more cerebral - being replaced or misunderstood; fear of the unknown or the future; fear of choices made. A Sci-Fi/Horror film should both tell a cautionary tale with visceral fears to cement the tale itself. The Twilight Zone went from Sci-Fi to Horror to Sci-Fi again, sometimes in a single episode.

Aliens, Starship Troopers have "us" entering foreign lands walking tall, so to speak, and then finding ourselves overrun by something we've no respect for. Being overwhelmed IS a nightmare people have constantly.

I agree that war is horrible hence the term "Horror of war". Would you place "Saving Private Ryan" in the genre "Horror Movie" because it has nightmarish qualities?

Like Tony I have to have a startle, boo, unknown darkness quality to place it into that genre. As a matter of fact one of the worst scenes in Alien was where we saw it full body and all of a sudden it was a guy in a suit instead of this terrifying monster popping out of the darkness unseen.

So for me to declare something in the horror genre it requires the horror unseen. Alien had it, Aliens didn't. Even though you are correct that there was horror aplenty in both.

I've never heard of the military/sci-fi genre. The book was about war but the movie was sci-fi action with elements of horror. Of course, to creepy kids with horror mags and dark notebook doodles, the critters may not be a fright at all. When I saw it with friends some of them were freaked out by the giant bugs. It's either a fear of insects or being overrun by something or the lack of a face which made them hard to read. But it worked as horror the same way zombie movies do. I went a few more times with different dates and got similar responses (to my benefit).

Zombies, monsters, demons, poltergeists, mutated creatures, and intense phobias give movies an element of horror, if not making it an outright horror movie.

But you can create whatever categories you want if it helps you keep these things in order.

I've never heard of the military/sci-fi genre ...

Therefore it must not exist, right? Some reading for you -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_science_fiction

You can't go wrong to start with David Drake's 'Hammer's Slammers'. David Weber's Honor Harrington series (starts with 'On Basilisk Station') is less grim. Timothy Zahn, John Ringo, or Larry Niven's Man - Kzin stuff are all good.

Of course, much of it goes back to 'Starship Troopers', but we've already hashed that out. By the way, while it used military settings as a backdrop for RAH's opinions on civic responsibility, it wasn't about war.

Oh, Wikipedia has an entry so it must exist. Unless I open an account there and completely rewrite that to "Military-SciFi doesn't exist as a sub-genre. Please see Science Fiction or SciFi."

That would be one less page to read/reference for all of us.

Seriously?

Has nobody seen Pandorum (2009)????

It is the pure definition of Sci-fi/Horror!

Nobody saw Pandorum.

Is there any scientific basis for either? I don't watch horror movies, so I may be missing what makes these sci-fi.

Not sure about the remakes, but the original NotLD talked about a "radioactive satellite" that had fallen to Earth. IIRC, George Romero played the on-screen government spokesman being interviewed on the news.

As for VotD (original, sequels & remake), it's about small villages around the world being used by an alien race to "increase the species", analogous to cuckoo birds (i.e. they hide their eggs in other birds' nests, then let the other birds raise them). Aliens, check; alien abduction, check; psionic abilities, check; threat of alien invasion, check. All hallmarks of sci-fi, especially 1950s sci-fi.

Village = PSI/psionic/aliens among us
Living Dead = Reanimation along with Hot Zone like issues of transmission (radiation)

As I noted, this isn't my genre. I appreciate the information.

James Arness as the giant carrot.............

It may not belong on the list, but if you are making a list of movies to watch using this list, add this to your list.
Twisty!

The 60's movie with Gene Barry, not the awful remake with Tom something

Soylent Green

YUM!!!

There was no femme fatal, getting fataled to a crescendo of of music, so it doesn't count

Earny Borgnine opting for euthanasia doesn't cover the lack of a femme fatale?

I have several quibbles with the list concerning the definition of what is a science fiction horror film. While I love Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still and the films have some scary moments; they are not horror movies.

I propose we remove those films from the list and substitute these entries:

Godzilla
The Quatermass Xperiment

Both feature icons, the giant nuclear powered critter and the cold determined scientist determined to experiment results be damned.

I like the list, must admit not knowing Collossus, adding it to my must see list.
I would give "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still lower numbers", in the Top 5.
They are the absolute Classics of the Genre. I would move "The Fly" down a bit, not that scary.
Totally agree "The Thing" is top 5 and "Alien" Is Number ONE. also agree, stop at one sequel, they beat that one to death 4 times.

klaatu barada nikto for the Win.

IMHO.. you've hit the nail on the head. Those where the best, and the current SciFi can't even touch them.

I love Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Would you consider it horror as well as scifi based on the themes of

Mad Scientists
Monsters
Oppression of a population
Technology run amok

For sheer visual scope and setting the bar for future movies it would trump Frankenstein. What do you think?

Thanks for the HyperLinks to the "Internet Movie Data Base" website. I know that "Night of the Living Dead" was viewable in its entirety, for free, last Halloween from IMDB.com. There may be several of the others accessible for free from various sources as well.

The first time I saw this movie, It was like haveing a heart stress test, running through the steam to get to the escape ship felt like I was there. Watching the Alien movies after the first time was never as heart pounding as the first movie.

I suppose you could evade 2001: A Space Oddity by calling it pure sci-fi, and not a hybrid, but any list that includes Colossus: The Forbin Project really needs to tip its chips to HAL, I think.

As for some of the comments, while Pandorum is a terrific movie, I don't think it has a place on this list. For one thing, it's simply not a classic, and very few people have seen it. I'm also a great fan of Event Horizon, but it also doesn't have the stuff to qualify: it never appealed widely enough. I could probably make a stronger argument for the first of the Resident Evil pictures - it's still guilty-pleasure territory for me, but I have a feeling it may prove one day to be one of the immortals.

Phantasm

"Re-Animator"
I still LMAO during the scene where Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) battle the undead cat.
I still cringe when West can't resist injecting corpses and body parts that he "finds" (despite all of the previous disasters).

Quote
West: "I had to kill him!"
Cain: "What? He's dead?"
West: (reluctantly) "Not any more."

Santa Claus versus the Martians was way better

I guess you don't like "Return of the Living Dead" either.

at all. Found it boring to be honest. Perhaps if I mention that my all time favourite sci-fi film is Silent Running, you'll see why.

I thought that "Silent Running" was thoughtful, but I wouldn't describe it as exciting.

The first time I saw "Return of the Living Dead", I didn't enjoy at all.
I watched it expecting to see a "serious" movie.

The next time I saw it, I watched it as a comedy and it became one of my favourite "Sci-Fi Horror Comedy" movies.

certainly don't see many of them in Hollywood's version of exciting.

Comedy films, would cease around Abbot and Costello's hay day, for me.

Come on time to snip the apron strings, take on some semblance of adulthood etc...

I suppose it could be a die hard Reanimator fan, and the Hollywood movie mogul com back again...

"... certainly don't see many of them in Hollywood's version of exciting."

"You know what this movie needs? More slow-motion explosions for the heroes to run away from."

I found it a bit preachy. The message was pretty heavy-handed.

My best friend in high school loved it, especially the music. Several years later I found the soundtrack on LP for him.

I think one of the things I like about it most, is Hollywood are not going to do a remake of it.

Ever.

It had a profound impact on me. I saw it on TV one night probably back in the 70's. I must have watched hundreds of movies, TV shows (space, 1999 anyone?) and read a hundred sci fi books... few stuck out and made me think like silent running. I was 'haunted' by it for weeks, thinking about the implications, which of course cemented long term memories. Some of my memories of every day life of that time are tied to that movie... 'that was around the time I saw this movie...'

Same with one of the opening scenes of Forbidden Planet, a scene chopped out to shorten it to TV specs. The crew step onto pads that turn them into some kind of plasma, so they can survive the transition from light to sub-light speeds. waaaaayyyy ahead of it's time.

I saw that scene and the rest of the movie was a blur, first time through. All I could think about was what science would be entailed; in light-speed travel, in that transition state, how they'd be turned to plasma, then made coherent again... oh, there's a robot!

If they do, it will bear little resemblance to the original (only the name will be the same).

A remake would have to with a more successful airline for the product placement. Virgin Atlantic maybe, or even Virgin Galactic!

it's like seeing the PanAm logo in '2001'. At least Marty McFly's asking for a 'Tab' is still semi-relevant.

.

The bizarre cinematography of this movie in itself creeped me out, made the whole event seem surreal, not sure anything was actually "real" so far as the (so called) story was concerned.

There was also the unknown state of 'grandpa,' was he alive? Or dead? You never did know...

Do those 2 factors make Texas Chainsaw Massacre "sci-fi" on top of the obvious horror? If so, it would be on my top 20 list. It's just so different in overall appearance from anything else I've ever seen.

A friend of mine forced me to watch it a decade or so ago, and I'm glad he did. Unusual experience. (ps- this guy is a first officer for American Airlines... the operator of the environmental ships in Silent Running. We started our aviation careers together, I went corporate, he went airline... I told him he'd end up flying for the US equivalent of Aeroflot. We're almost there!)

as a horror movie in any sense - it just never sets out to scare you. Counting mangled monkey-men, I think 2011: A Space Odyssey has roughly the same body count. I tend to have the same reaction to Forbidden Planet on a horror list, although the Id Monster is pretty intense. I'd suggest that the giant irradiated monster category is somewhat underserved. I tend to think of Godzilla as more of a disaster movie than a horror flick, but The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms or Them! would probably make my list.

the one with that howling invisible energy monster, the one they had to bombard with paint cans before they could see to electrocute it? That thing scared the water out of me.

Huh? 'Film'? Oh. Never mind.

You have your list, and since I have not seen all possible movies, I think your list is good. But would 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the malfunctioning, sentient and sulky HAL not fit the top 10?

I just saw a movie called "Horror Express" starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
I'd never seen it before and I thought I'd seen every horror movie those two were in.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068713/

It reminded me of "The Thing".