[Scalzi] What's really scary in Science Fiction

http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2010/10/scary-science-fiction-movies/

[image: John Scalzi - What's Really Scary in Science-Fiction
Film]<http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2010/10/scary-science-fiction-movies/>
 [image: John Scalzi]<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
John Scalzi<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.
full bio of John
Scalzi<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
 A timely question via e-mail:

As Halloween is coming up, can you tell us what's scary to you? And are
there science fiction movies that have this thing in it?

One way to answer this question would be to take it on a surface level and
say, Oh, horrible tentacled aliens scare me, or ghosts scare me, or zombies.
But if you don't mind, I'd like to address this on a slightly more
existential level because the fact is that ghosts and zombies and horrible
tentacled aliens don't actually scare me at all. I remember watching the
first *Alien* movie when I was 10 years old (at a drive-in -- we had those
back then) and not being in the least bit scared -- although I thought it
was awesome when the chest burster popped out. But that was an entirely
different emotion, you see. My point is that even as a little kid I knew I
was looking at special effects.

So what scared me -- and what scares me now -- isn't monsters or gory
special effects. What really spooks me in a horror movie, science-fictional
or otherwise, is the loss of self: transforming into something else,
something you don't want to be and that you have no control over and that
eventually takes over your life, until there is no you left. Yes, obviously,
this is a window into my soul, into all my deep-seated neuroses, and I
should probably talk with someone about them and work through them. Until
then, though, man, that crap creeps me out.

What science-fiction films spook me because of this "loss of self" thing?
Let me tell you.
 *The Fly <http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1986/the-fly/>
*This one goes right to the top of the list because you know what? Jeff
Goldblum's scientist character initiates the loss of self -- not
intentionally, of course, but as a direct result of his own emotional state
and personality flaws. It's also at the top of the list because it's a
genuinely good movie and a truly frightening portrayal of one man's descent
into becoming some other thing, one pathetic transformation at a time. As a
geek I enjoy the excellent makeup and special effects, but as a viewer it's
Goldblum's self-inflicted loss of humanity that gets me every time.

*28 Days Later... <http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2003/28-days-later/>*
It's the film that took the idea of the fast zombie into the mainstream, but
what makes it spooky to me is that it also speeds up the zombification
process so that the change from you to rage-filled killer zombie almost
literally happens in the blink of the eye. This is made explicit in more
than one heartrending scene, and I won't say more for those three of you who
have not yet seen this film. But it's that rapidity that freaked me out the
most and kept rolling around in my brain well after I saw the movie.

*The Thing <http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1982/the-thing/>
*I pick this film for itself (and because I still love watching the head
sprout spider legs and try to scuttle away), but it's also a stand-in for
the whole "body snatcher" genre of film, in which you are replaced by an
alien thing that looks like you, acts like you, and may even think it's you
but isn't. That's doubly spooky. This is also the subgenre that really ramps
up my latent paranoia that there's someone else in the universe just like me
and he's going to show up at my door one day. With a knife. Yes, I know.
Therapy will help with this. Look, I don't need you to tell me these things.

*Re-Animator <http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1985/re-animator/>
*So you're dead. Which is bad enough. But then some mad-scientist jerk
reanimates your tissues and you come back just like you, only slightly
decayed -- and evil. My question: is it really you? Because, remember, you
died. Even if the revenant has your memories and some of your personality,
it's not a given that the creature now shambling about in your body,
planning to do terrible, terrible things, is you. But you'll still probably
be blamed for its atrocities. And again, you're dead, so you probably won't
care. But even so.

*Re-Animator* never actually scared me; it's too campy for that. But the
philosophical question of whether your body qualifies as you is positively
Cartesian. Perhaps we should reanimate Descartes and ask him. That is, if we
can be positive that his first act wouldn't be to try to stab us in the
brain.


Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

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