Sci-fi horror is a fascinating subgenre of horror that blends elements of science fiction and horror, often resulting in a unique exploration of humanity’s fears of the unknown, the future, and the macabre. This subgenre gained significant popularity in the mid-20th century.
A classic examples is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and film adaptation Frankenstein (1931). This film is a tale of a mad scientist obsessed with creating life from death. The iconic depiction of Frankenstein’s Monster, a simple-minded but easily angered creation, became a symbol of the horror that can result from unchecked scientific ambition. Many of the themes that involve human technology acting as God reverberate in much later scifi horror examples that straddle the two genres such as the Alien franchise, Westworld (1973), and 2,001 A Space Odyssey (1968).
Related Genres and Tropes
Alien Horror | Cosmic Horror | Mad Scientists | Time Travel in Horror
Cody Meirick on November 12, 2023