Science Fiction
Science fiction as a genre of film making has been an element of the cinema experience since the earliest days of the motion picture industry. These films have explored a great range of unique topics, including many that cannot be readily presented in other genre. Science fiction films have been used to explore sensitive social and political issues, while often providing an entertaining story for the more casual viewer. Today, science fiction films are in the forefront of new special effects technology, and the audience has become accustomed to displays of realistic aliens, space battles, energy weapons, faster than light travel, and distant worlds.
This genre has produced many memorable films, as well as a number that can be considered mediocre or even among the worst examples of film production. It took many decades, and the efforts of talented teams of film producers, for the science fiction film genre to be taken seriously as an art form by many critics. The very best of these films may be scrolled below, or for Sci-Fi TV Series, select the green 'Televison Shows' heading on left, and then the 'TV Sci-Fi' option.
The Last Woman on Earth (1960)
6.1/10
Director: Roger Corman
Starring: Antony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland
On a boat in the Caribbean following WWIII, a gangster and lawyer fight to decide who'll get to repopulate the planet with the titular female, the mob... Read more
The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)
3.8/10
Director: Edgar G Ulmer
Starring: Douglas Kennedy, Marguerite Chapman, James Griffith
This sci-fi schlocko concerns a crazed scientist who, hoping to create the perfect henchman, renders a crook invisible. Unfotunately, the unseen under... Read more
The Time Machine (1960)
7.6/10
Director: George Pal
Starring: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Tom Helmore, Sebastian Cabot
Here today, gone to tomorrow. When George (Rod Taylor) sits at the controls of his new creation, he has all the time in the world. He's invented a Tim... Read more
Battle Beyond The Sun ( Nebo Zovyot ) (1959) / Star Pilot ( 2+5: Missione Hydra ) (1966) (1959)
7.6/10
Director: Francis Ford Coppola, Pietro Francisci, Mikhail Karzhukov, Aleksandr Kozyr
An americanised version of Nebo Zovyot was the product of Roger Corman's acquiring the rights to the Russian film and exploiting it for all the specia... Read more
The Killer Shrews (1959)
3.9/10
Director: Ray Kellogg
Starring: James Best
No, it's not Shakespeare's long-missing sequel! It's the hilariously bad monster movie about a horde of outsized man-eating rodents that run amok on a... Read more
The Giant Behemoth (1959)
5.8/10
Director: Eugene Lourie
Starring: Gene Evans, Andre Morell
A Cornish fisherman is found covered with what looks like radiation burns. Before he dies, the fisherman utters the word 'behemoth', citing a monster... Read more
The Brain Eaters (1958)
4/10
Director: Bruno Vesota
Starring: Ed Nelson, Alan Frost
Strange things are happening in Riverdale, Illinois. A mysterious cone, 50-feet tall by 50-feet across at its base, is discovered sticking out of the... Read more
First Man Into Space (1958)
5.5/10
Director: Robert Day
Starring: Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards
"A better than it looks" tale of a daring pilot who disobeys orders and becomes the title character, returning to Earth a dust-encrusted, blood-drinki... Read more
Beginning Of The End (1957)
3.8/10
Director: Bert I Gordon
Starring: Peter Graves, Peggie Castle
Audrey Ames, an enterprising journalist, tries to get the scoop on giant grasshoppers accidentally created at the Illinois State experimental farm. Sh... Read more
The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)
5.3/10
Director: Nathan Hertz
Starring: John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller
Two brains from outer space land on our planet, one is good, one is bad. Both must possess bodies to accomplish their goals. Who will be taken next? C... Read more