The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Cryogenics (sometimes referred to as cryonics) is the science of freezing the human body in a suspended state and then reviving it at a later period.
In science-fiction, cryogenics is used as a means of dealing with lengthy space voyages – there are a number of stories where astronauts wake from sleep to find things gone wrong.
Another popular story is of the cryogenic sleeper who wakes up in a changed future or the present-day, which includes popular characters like Buck Rogers and Captain America. Cryogenics is also seen as a popular means of punishing criminals.
Fantasy regularly deals with suspended animation as in the story of Cinderella pricking her finger and going to sleep for a hundred years. Also popular have been a series of films dealing with dinosaurs and cavemen revived after being frozen in ice.
For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Films About Cryogenics and Suspended Animation.
One of the more cheesily entertaining among the Italian-made ripoffs of Mad Max 2 during the 1980s (as well as more than a few dashes of Escape from New York). The film works up a moderate head of steam
A disappointing end to George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy. The script lazily wraps up loose ends while sidelining the new characters introduced the last time, and the climax rehashes the climaxes of the two other films
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a multi-media phenomenon that has developed a cult. The tv series with a less-than-stellar BBC budget was not the most effective incarnation of these but still hits the wittily absurd nerve of Douglas Adams’ humour
The major distinction this has is as starring murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. An SF comedy made in the aftermath of Star Wars where Stratten is an android on a ship voyage romancing her human commander
George Lucas’s first sequel to Star Wars and a work that holds up every bit as well as its predecessor, in many places betters it. The story darkens the mythos and introduces new characters, while the special effects sequences are the peak of the series
One of the most influential films on this site, producing a host of sequels and making the careers of all involved. At heart, a simple monster on a spaceship film, it is made into a classic through Ridley Scott’s relentless suspense and H.R. Giger’s design work
In the aftermath of Star Wars, the comic-book/serial hero was revived in this heavily Star Wars influenced remake that was released theatrically and then served as the pilot of a tv series
TV mini-series released as a theatrical film in some parts of the world that resurrects Captain Nemo in the present-day. It is Irwin Allen returning to his tv roots where Captain Nemo’s adventures become a blatant attempt to copy Star Wars
The third of the films based around Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II concept where a cryogenic sleeper awakes in a post-apocalyptic world
John Carpenter’s first film, made as a student project in collaboration with an also unknown Dan O’Bannon. A send-up of the boldly going space exploration of Star Trek, this features a ship where the crew are going stir crazy. The results are quite hilarious
An unsold Gene Roddenberry tv pilot that is a fascinating almost-ran in sf. Roddenberry was trying to rehash Star Trek by way of Buck Rogers in a post-holocaust setting. The set-up could have made for a worthwhile series
Hilarious Woody Allen film in which he plays a contemporary man unthawed in the 22nd century. This satirisises SF cliches and has some side-slitting comedy sequences
A X-rated, German-made adaptation that blends together several fairytales. The result should be seen for its sheer bizarreness
The greatest science-fiction film ever made? Stanley Kubrick goes against all convention – the film is slow, has no clear story and reaches an enigmatic ending and yet it is a work of brilliance, both visually and in terms of effects technology, groundbreaking in a number of ways,
The film that started it all. This takes what could have been a jokey premise and delivers it in bold, exciting stokes. What elevates the film is Rod Serling’s script. filled with embittered soliloquies that become a biting commentary on the human condition, before the film reaches one of the great cinematic twist endings
Pearl White was the original serial heroine in The Perils of Pauline. During the 1960s Batman craze, the serial was revived as this campy comedy
The fourth of Hammer’s Frankenstein films and the most conceptually wild with Frankenstein conducting soul transplants, including transferring his assistant’s soul into a woman’s body
This was the third of Hammer’s Frankenstein films. A usually overlooked entry in the series, this is made into something vivid and memorable by Freddie Francis’s direction
One of the finest of all Disney animated films, an adaptation of the fairytale made with the full artistic resources that studio could bring to bear
Underrated 1950s SF film, a murder mystery as the equipment at a space research laboratory tries to kill people. Contains the first ever depiction of a computer virus
Essentially Metropolis remade as a Broadway musical, one of the first US films to depict the future