Monsters and Machines: The Themes of Sci-Fi Horror Art
The subgenre of science fiction and horror, referred to simply as sci-fi horror, uses a blend of technology as the source of terror or as a catalyst to deliver dread and fearfulness. Just about every sci-fi horror art in all its forms (whether films, novels, TV series, short stories, novels, comics, etc.) basically revolve around either of two major ideas: the presence of life-threatening monsters because you use technologies or scientific experiments gone wrong that end up creating killer machines. Sometimes, the monsters are the machines.
In the film industry, sci-fi horror is just as old as Hollywood itself. Over the decades, there have been hundreds of movies in the subgenre. The themes of monsters and machines have been exploited to exhaustion, with many new movies released in recent years are essentially remakes of something else already done in the past. With that in mind, it’s probably best to revisit films from the bygone decades when the premise of monsters and machines still felt fresh to the audience at large.
So many clichés have been introduced in sci-fi horror that you can almost guess who the villains are, even after only a few minutes of watching a brand-new movie. The premise immediately looks pretty apparent, partly because you’ve watched the trailers before. Things were quite different in the early days with films like “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954), “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), and “The Fly” (1958); an excellent blend of body horrors, monsters, and failed science experiments. During the 1990s, real-world technological developments, monstrous beasts and aliens apparently had more sci-fi credibility than killer robots, let alone A.I.
But those films did play the rules to the strictest standard. No matter what abominations that appeared on-screen, the narrative established the perspective to suggest that none of them was a product of supernatural powers. They were likely mutants, aliens, or with Creature from the Black Lagoon, an unidentified species from the old world.
Extraterrestrial life forms in modern films often come with a backstory pertaining to their home planets. Whether through simple explanation by an off-screen narrator or some actual scenes, modern films rarely (if ever) leave that stone unturned. In the old days, however, there was a general belief that aliens were interstellar species, far more advanced than humans; they could live anywhere in the universe, so it shouldn’t be surprising to bump into them in the hidden outskirts of the Earth to begin with. The Gill-man (the creature/monster) from the Black Lagoon was a product of that reasoning. It was a horror film alright, and on the first watch we would just buy into the idea that Gill-man had some sort of scientific element as well. After the second watch, we slowly realized that the film barely made it into the realm of sci-fi horror, but we buried that hatchet long ago.
On the subject of experiments gone wrong, look no further than The Fly. It was still a monster movie, but with a bit more of a scientific take on the case. Mind you, that we’re talking about the original version released in 1958. The visual effects are terrible by today’s standard (it was later remade in 1986, with a much better delivery of body horror), but the sci-fi was definitely more prominent than Black Lagoon. The monstrosity in The Fly existed because of a careless scientific experiment involving human genetic materials and a device called “disintegrator-integrator” built in a basement lab. The Fly made the mixed genre look easy. Having a scientist working tirelessly on matter-transported equipment was inherently science fiction, whereas the transformation from human to monster was an all-around classic horror.
The Fly (1958) contributed to bringing the sci-fi horror subgenre to full circle. The blend started in the 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley. While she wanted it to be a horror novel, the result turned out to be the first prominent example of sci-fi horror instead. The consensus among the critics is that the novel marked the birth of sci-fi horror as a true mixed genre. It involved a mad scientist, experiments gone wrong, and monstrosity in the form of body horror.
One thing many people overlook in the novel is the concept of an invention (in this case, a living creature created by combining non-living organs) turning against its inventor (the scientist who created it, Victor Frankenstein). This brings us neatly to the other major theme in sci-fi horror: killer machines. The term “machine” is used in its widest possible connotation here; it may refer to a robot, a computer, an artificial intelligence, a vehicle, and just about everything else invented by humans. If you stretch it long enough, you’ll arrive at bioweapons as well, like viruses. Many sci-fi horror films, novels, and TV shows portray A.I. as the villains. They may look fresh and flashy with all the convincing CGI, good acting, and scriptwriting, but they still carry Frankenstein as their core concept. The stories vary, but the main idea remains the same. Once again: scientists, experiments gone wrong, killer machines.
We think the one major connection line between sci-fi and horror is the idea of curiosity. In science fiction, curiosity is almost always treated as a positive thing; a characteristic that shall bring about betterment and improvement. Horror uses curiosity as the driving force behind all terrors. Sci-fi tells you to search and wander, hoping to discover enlightenment. Horror wants you to resist the urge to feed curiosity, because it kills the cat; sit still in a safe corner and bring out the shotgun. In both genres, curiosity will eventually uncover the truth, whether desirable, often at a significant cost.
Do you think the original Predator (1987) falls under the category of monsters or machines in the sci-fi horror subgenre? Can you name some popular sci-fi horror comic books? We’d love to hear from you.
Other Things You Might Want to Know
What are some of the most common monster/machine horror tropes in sci-fi horror?
Animalistic Abomination: a powerful, and freakish monster. An animalistic abomination is not a humanoid, but it looks familiar because it usually resembles the physiology of an already scary animal, like a giant squid or a snake.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: any form of artificial intelligence with a tendency to become evil and turn against humans. Given enough power, it might even grow ambitious and plan to take over the world.
Killer Robot: an autonomous machine, typically guided by an intelligent system, with a homicidal rage to end all of humanity.
Man in the Machine: an otherwise ordinary person encased in a mechanical body. Sometimes, the mechanical body is indeed necessary because it functions as life-support machinery to ensure the person’s survival – like the RoboCop.
Starfish Aliens: extraterrestrial entities with unfamiliar physiology.
What about the “Almighty Idiot” trope?
You’ve probably encountered the Almighty Idiot trope in some cosmic horror story. This is when an entity, godlike or outright extraterrestrial life form, has so much power and continues to grow beyond the natural bounds. As it keeps getting bigger and more powerful, it only lives to kill and terrorize all other living organisms.
What are the scariest A.I.s in sci-fi settings?
This is going to be subjective, but we can find at least three different artificial intelligences with so much power and abilities that they might as well rule the world the moment they come into existence.
Colossus (from “Colossus: The Forbin Project”) – this is a movie you’ve probably never heard of, but doesn’t mean it’s bad. Released in the 1970s, it’s a sci-fi thriller film where an A.I. is granted the authority by the U.S. government to take control of the country’s nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
AM (from “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”) – taken from the 1967 short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, the artificial intelligence known as AM burns the world to ashes and crowns itself King. It has the power to do just about everything, except ending its own existence.
Roko’s Basilisk (LessWrong) – the idea for this A.I. was originally proposed by the user Roko from LessWrong, an online forum devoted to thought experiment and logical reasoning. Roko’s Basilisk is a form of artificial intelligence that will actively seek to improve its power and existence as soon as it gets created. The scary thing is that Basilisk knows about every person who might contribute to its development, and will kill every single one of those who refuses to do so.
