Tempest FugID

hough today’s feature is immediately sited as a science fiction classic, Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956) is perhaps just as well remembered for its majestic original robot and pinup infused movie poster design (that is still, to this day, a costly collectible)... though the art is quite misleading when you know what the movie is actually about. Following a narrative loosely inspired by William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, which, for those who do not know, is about a man forced to live stranded upon a magical island with his daughter, until he causes a shipwreck that brings with it possible rescue (and a man who may fall in love with his daughter)... this futuristic feature follows a somewhat similar sci-fi blueprint.

An over the top, campy kitsch cult classic that plays like a wildly fun rock opera, Flash Gordon (1980), directed by Mike Hodges, and based on the Alex Raymond comic strip first published in 1934, is perhaps most intriguing for attracting the rock band Queen to compose and perform the theme song and score with the help of orchestral scorer Howard Blake (though much of his work was cut in favour of Brian May). Produced by the famed Dino De Laurentiis, this would be his third and final creation of a former comic strip, with the first two being Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, both released in 1968

Despite not being written or directed by the famed special effects expert Ray Harryhausen, that latter honour going to Nathan Juran instead, there is no denying that the magic man’s hands are all over this horror infused sci-fi monster bash. Spawning the unique concept originally titled as The Giant Ymir, while also suggesting it be set in Rome, Italy instead of the United States (why you may ask... he simply always wanted to vacation there), whilst also being in charge of the stop-motion animation that makes this feature succeed, the final product eventually became known as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957). A strong warning of the fears of moving too quickly into ‘futuristic’ ways, which is clearly a callback to ample anxiety revolving around the atomic bomb... which, with it, could bring possible nuclear annihilation, here we have the result of space exploration of the planet Venus.

A clever reworking of the Predator franchise, 2022's Prey, a prequel co-written and directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), is set some 250 years prior to what we thought was the alien species first arrival opposite human beings on Earth. Set in the vast Great Plains in 1719, the story follows Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman who has been trained as a healer, though not so secretly yearns to be a hunter. Overshadowed by her successful bow and arrow wielding brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers), she uses whatever free time she has to continue training at the useful skill. It is worth noting that the familial relationship is nicely crafted, not simply one of brutish sibling rivalry (like we’ve seen in other motion pictures), instead holding within it a nuanced combination of direct competition, hunting mentorship, and much needed cooperation.

An Indie sci-fi film on the precipice of where we might be heading, Creep Box, written and directed by Patrick Biesemans (and based upon his own short from 2022), ruminates on a hybrid artificial intelligence that is both intriguing and terrifying. Following Caul (Geoffrey Cantor), a PHD in psychology and parapsychology at HDTH Corp, he is currently working on a sleek black tech box... a device that can be used to collect the memories of the dead, which are then fused with an A.I. that can utilize the past of the deceased to not only communicate with loved ones, but also gather information that could lead to solving crimes of those who have been murdered.

Before there was John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), there was The Thing from Another World (1951). If you know John Carpenter, it is not overly surprising that he would remake this film, for when I interviewed him back in 2017, he could not stop speaking of his love for film maker Howard Hawks (citing him as a major influence on his career, he was enamoured with his genre jumping films – be it western, drama or horror)... and Hawks’ fingerprints are all over the 1951 version. It is also worth noting that Carpenter, just five years before making The Thing, had Hawks’ original make a screen appearance in his legendary Halloween. Still debated as to whether it was Hawks who directed the film or the co-credited Christian Nyby, not even the cast has been able to agree. Some called Nyby the director but Hawks the boss, while other recollections remembered Hawks doing most of the work. Without ever having a true answer, it seems most likely that Nyby directed under the tutelage of Hawks, with the elder statesman taking charge from time to time (hence why the film has such a feeling of the veteran film maker’s work). There is no denying that he co-wrote and co-produced the film.