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.
Phantom from Space (1953)
4/10
Director: W Lee Wilder
Starring: Dick Sands
A cop and a pair of scientists are lured to an observatory by a series of murders, links to an invisible alien (Dick Sands) who has crash-landed on Ea... Read more
It Came From Outer Space (1953)
6.6/10
Director: Jack Arnold
Starring: Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Richard Carlson, Russell Johnson
Amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiancee Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) are stargazing in the desert when a spaceship bursts from... Read more
Robot Monster (1953)
2.9/10
Director: Phil Tucker
Starring: George Nader, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong, Gregory Moffett, Pamel...
Ro-Man, a sex starved robot monster (dressed in a gorilla suit and diving helmet), has destroyed all of humanity with the exception of a small band of... Read more
The War of the Worlds (Blu-ray) (1953)
7.1/10
Director: Byron Haskin
Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne
Based on the HG Wells novel, this film about a Martian invasion of the Earth is a superior sci-fi and won an Oscar for its special effects. It was or... Read more
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
6.7/10
Director: Eugene Lourie
Starring: Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway
Atomic testing in the Arctic revives a gigantic "rhedosaurus" frozen in the ice for millions of years, and soon the creature is cutting a path of dest... Read more
Invaders From Mars (1953)
6.5/10
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt
A seminal film in the annals of Science Fiction Cinema, INVADERS FROM MARS has the ability to provoke the frightened child in all of us. A young boy h... Read more
The War of the Worlds (1953)
7.1/10
Director: Byron Haskin
Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne
Based on the HG Wells novel, this film about a Martian invasion of the Earth is a superior sci-fi and won an Oscar for its special effects. It was or... Read more
Sci-Fi Double Feature: 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' & 'Them' (1953)
6.7/10
Director: Eugene Lourie, Gordon Douglas
Starring: Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Joan Weldon, James Arness, James...
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms: 1953. Atomic testing in the Arctic revives a gigantic "rhedosaurus" frozen in the ice for millions of years, and soon t... Read more
Red Planet Mars (1952)
4.9/10
Director: Harry Horner
Starring: Herbert Berghof, Peter Graves, Andrea King, Walter Sande, John Hoare
A scientist (Peter Graves) uses Nazi radio equipment to contact Mars. When he gets an answer, he finds that Mars is a true Utopia and that the message... Read more
Five (Blu-ray) (1951)
6.3/10
The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk. Read more