Editorials
What Are Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Horror Filmes?
The thing that I love about horror is how effortlessly it can be injected into other genres. Want a musical with some bloodshed? Repo! The Genetic Opera it is. Need to laugh along with your scares? Evil Dead 2, baby! Gotta have some terror in your animation? Vampire Hunter D, at your service.
Science Fiction is a perfect genre to mix with horror because both tackle the fear of the unknown. Just as many people have a terror of oceans and their depths (who knows what lurks beneath?), so to do people have a fear of what lies beyond the stars, of what happens when man tries to play God, of what can occur science decides to turn on humanity. Each of these fears, and more, have been put to film and the results can and have been absolutely terrifying.
So, let’s talk about some of the great films that tackle science and the horrors that it can put forth. As usual, I’ve got a few of my favorites and then I would love for you to leave some of yours in the comments below!
Pitch Black
This is a movie that I can happily put on repeat and leave on in the background. Great characters, a simple yet robust story that doesn’t force awkward explanations, and a wonderful world that is fascinating and hypnotizing, Pitch Black deserves all the praise it receives and more.
Predator
There’s a reason that this movie has earned a place amongst other “timeless” classics. It’s got a razor sharp plot that it never deviates from. The characters are charming and given enough attention that you feel like their team feels real. The villain has an iconic design and is a delight to watch. And godDAMN is it entertaining!
The Fly
David Cronenberg’s body horror masterpiece ranks as one of the greatest remakes of all time, thanks to brilliant acting from nearly everyone involved, stunning practical VFX, a gorgeous score, and a story that is haunting.
The Thing
Is there anything I can write about this movie that hasn’t already been said? Carpenter’s remake may be one of the most important horror films of all time and it’s one of the barometers by which other horror fans “test” each other. If you haven’t seen this movie, eyebrows will be raised.
Alien
We all knew this was coming, right? Ridley Scott’s sci-fi/horror masterpiece pretty much revolutionized the genre and created a film that not only introduced an icon in the Xenomorph but also one of the greatest protagonists in the form of Ellen Ripley. There aren’t enough words to write about the importance and wonder that this movie has to offer.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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