Welcome to Scifist, where we review every science fiction movie ever made, in chronological order.

  • The Walking Dead

    The Walking Dead

    No, this has nothing to do with the TV-series. This is a 1936  gangster/sci-fi/horror film mashup by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, starring Boris Karloff in yet another Frankensteinean role. But despite the derivative and flimsy script, it’a a surprisingly stylish and cosy effort. 6/10 Read more

  • Things to Come

    Things to Come

    H.G. Wells and  William Cameron Menzies take us on an epic journey through the future in this pompous 1936 social prophesy, the last big SF film before the 1950s. The most expensive film made in Britain at the time, Things to Come boasts incredible sets and effects, but the script is stiff, the acting wooden and the viewer… Read more

  • The Man Who Changed His Mind

    The Man Who Changed His Mind

    This rare British sci-fi horror film from 1936 is a tad formulaic, as it rides on Boris Karloff’s mad scientist fame, but it is certainly better written, acted and directed than most of the abysmal Columbia films he would get stuck in later. Great actors and a very witty dialogue help Karloff do one of… Read more

  • The Invisible Ray

    The Invisible Ray

    Universal’s 1936 mad scientist yarn boasts Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in an uneven but entertaining death ray film. Lugosi is seen in a rare heroic role, and Karloff is typecast as a mad scientist. Oh, and human organisms are only part of astro-chemistry controlled by forces from the sun, you know. 6/10 Read more

  • The Devil-Doll

    The Devil-Doll

    Dracula and Freaks director Tod Browning’s sci-fi/horror/comedy The Devil-Doll from 1936 is an accomplished special effects reel concerning shrunken people. Despite the feeling that Browning recycles his old themes, this moral play is one of the best sci-fi films out of USA in the late thirties – and Lionel Barrymore in drag is absurdly fun.… Read more

  • Undersea Kingdom

    Undersea Kingdom

    Inspired by Flash Gordon and The Phantom Empire, the young Republic Studios launched their own sci-fi serial in 1936, and the result was an action-packed, but rather brainless concoction. Occasional good design and an energetic Crash Corrigan can’t save this badly scripted Atlantis-themed hodgepodge. 3/10 Read more

Bela Lugosi Bert I. Gordon Boris Karloff Brigitte Helm Charles Gemora Crash Corrigan Curt Siodmak Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Eiji Tsuburaya Frankenstein Georges Melies George Worthing Yates George Zucco H.G. Wells Haruo Nakajima Invisible Man Irving Block Ishiro Honda Jack Arnold Jack Pierce Jack Rabin Jimmy Sangster John Carradine John P. Fulton Jules Verne Lionel Atwill Lon Chaney Jr. Mary Shelley Morris Ankrum Paul Blaisdell Paul Frees Richard Carlson Richard Denning Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Shayne Roger Corman Sam Katzman Segundo de Chomon Top Lists Top Silents Walter R. Booth Whit Bissell William Alland William Schallert Willis O'Brien