Horror Vs Sci-Fi

Most people tend to have one particle genre they enjoy. People who are really into comedy don’t necessarily enjoy dramas. Big fans of romance tend to not like action flicks. But most people who like horror also tend to enjoy science fiction. There is just something about the two genres that allows for a crossover appeal (PODCAST PLUG!)

Now first let’s differentiate between these two genres. Sometimes horror films can have a science fiction element to them. Resident Evil certainly falls into the horror genre yet it can be argued that the origin of the T-virus is definitely science fiction. But for the most part I tend to place horror in the realm of magic and science fiction in the realm of, well, science. Even the horror films where the killer is just a simple human have a supernatural aspect to them in the simple fact that the killer is usually impossible to kill.

Science vs. Magic

So why is it so important to clarify a difference between magic and science? They are both being used to tell stories that are in a realm of fiction, why differentiate? The simple answer is because these two entities represent two even bigger entities and that is The Past and The Future. Magic and magical tales are a product of a time when humans were ignorant and superstitious. We gave a mystical explanation to what we did not understand. Science fiction is for the most part set in the future, when mankind’s quest for knowledge has discovered secrets we probably were not ready yet to learn.

So Horror v Sci-Fi now becomes the sins of our past versus the recklessness of our future. The monsters of Horror are ghosts, vampires, creatures of myth and legend who remind us of the atrocities mankind once committed. The monsters of science fiction are the monsters we create in our pursuit of knowledge. Frankenstein is classified as horror, but it is really science fiction. The doctor is pursued by his own creation. When man plays God, it never ends well.

Similarly Night of the Living Dead shows the most negative aspects of human nature. Fear and consumption. When humans lose all that makes us human we are left as nothing but mindless wanderers seeking to feed. Same with most of the monsters of horror. Each is a representation of a different aspect of humanity. Ghosts are usually the rage that is left when we have nothing else. Vampires are representative of human lust. Werewolves are our loss of control. They all represent a more primitive version of the human mind that we usually try to oppress and control when we are among polite society.

The monsters of Science fiction on the other hand are usually our own atrocities coming back to haunt us. The majority of human civilization has been about one technologically superior culture decimating an inferior one. The many films that depict tales of alien invasions are merely an extension of that. Except it is now the once dominant society being loomed over by an even more advanced society.

It has often been said that human achievement is limited only by our ambition. But so too must then be our capacity for atrocities. Human history has shown what we were capable of and our technological development shows what we will one day be capable of. As I said in a previous entry (see here) we learn our sense of morality from pop culture and it is up to the makers of these stories (of which I consider myself to be one) to continue to show us warnings from the past and future through horror and science fiction.