scifist 2.0

A sci-fi movie history in reviews

Home
Films by year
- 1890-1899
  - 1895
  - 1897
  - 1898
- 1900-1909
  - 1901
  - 1902
  - 1903
  - 1904
  - 1905
  - 1906
  - 1907
  - 1908
  - 1909
- 1910-1919
  - 1910
  - 1911
  - 1912
  - 1913
  - 1914
  - 1915
  - 1916
  - 1918
  - 1919
- 1920-1929
  - 1920
  - 1921
  - 1922
  - 1923
  - 1924
  - 1925
  - 1926
Before the movies
The Trailblazers
Top Lists
- Editor’s Picks
- Top 10 by Decade
About

By Janne Wass on February 22, 2018 • ( 8 Comments )

Before the movies

This blog concerns science fiction films, not literature. But it would be unwise not to pay some homage to the roots of the genre. Here then, is a small essay […]

By Janne Wass on February 21, 2018 • ( 19 Comments )

A Trip to the Moon

This 1902 film about a trip to the moon and an encounter with aliens is in many senses the first of its kind, notable for its large budget, entertaining and fantastical story, state of the art special effects and lavish, moving sets. A true benchmark not only for sci-fi films, but for the medium of film as a whole.

‹ Newer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Search films, creators or keywords

Follow scifist 2.0 on WordPress.com

People, books & franchises

20000 Leagues Under the Sea A.E. Coleby Albert Robida Andre Deed Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur Edeson Ashley Miller August Blom Bernhard Kellermann Bleuette Bernon Burton L. King Camille Flammarion Charlotte Perkins Gilman Conrad Veidt David Aylott Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde E.T.A. Hoffmann Eadeard Muybridge Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Rice Burroughs Edwin S. Porter Enrico Novelli Ferdinand Zecca First Men in the Moon Frankenstein Franklyn Barrett Gaston Velle Georges Melies H.G. Wells Hans Werckmeister Harry Grossman Harry Houdini Herbert Brenon Herbert M. Dawley Holger-Madsen Hugo Gernsback J.-H. Rosny aine J. Ernest Williamson J. Searle Dawley J. Stuart Blackton Jack London Jane Gail Jehanne d'Alcy Johannes Kepler John Barrymore John S. Robertson Joseph W. Smiley Jules Verne Louis Lumière Lucian Luciano Albertini Lucius Henderson Luigi Maggi Marcel Perez Martin Scorsese Mary Shelley Otis Turner Otto Rippert Richard Ganthony Richard Oswald Robert Louis Stevenson Robert W. Paul Robur the Conqueror Segundo de Chomon Stuart Paton The Invisible Man The Mysterious Island Theodor Loos Thomas Edison Wallace McCutcheon Wallett Waller Walter R. Booth William K. Dickson Willis O'Brien

Subgenres

Aliens (14)
- Alien visitation (4)
Conquest of Earth (17)
- In the air (12)
- Lost world (3)
- Round the world (1)
- Underwater (8)
Conquest of Man (15)
- Artificial humanoid (1)
- Human farming (1)
- Invisibility (1)
- Medical alterations (9)
- Resurrection/Prolonged life (2)
- Shape-shifting (4)
- Suspended animation (2)
- Transference of consciousness (3)
- Transplants (1)
Conquest of Space (14)
- Extraterrestrial war (1)
- Interplanetary travel (10)
- Mars (3)
- Message from space (3)
- Moon flight (5)
- Space exploration (12)
- Space Opera (1)
Conquest of Time (5)
- Cryonics (2)
- Time Stais (1)
- Time Travel (2)
Futurism (35)
- Apocalypse (4)
- Dystopia (4)
- Empty World (3)
- Future technology (28)
- Future war & weapons (9)
- Robots (5)
- Utopia (1)
Meta (3)
Monsters (10)
- Giant monsters (3)
- Humanoid monsters (4)
- Man-made monsters (7)
- Natural monsters (3)
- Prehistoric monsters (2)
Proto-sci-fi (6)

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Facebook!

Get our book tips on Instagram!

Tonight I had the pleasure of enjoying H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness on stage at @tikkurilanteatteri in Vantaa, Finland. It wasn't a bad rendition at all, considering we're talking about a community theatre with limited resources. Pretty much all of the story was there, but put in a flashback frame story in which two explorers planning a trip to Antarctica invite the surviving leader of the famed expedition to the mountains of madness to tell his story, i.a. the protagonist/narrator of the book. The show made good use of light, eerie music and sound effects, as well as a small, but well executed video screen. . . Much of the show centered around a sitting-room which made parts of it a bit stiff. It was also a bit talky with long exposition monologues, and I would have liked a bit more "show, don't tell". It might as well have been made as a radio play. However, the dramatic final quarter of of the show made up for eventual staleness in the beginning. I would have taken my editor's red pen to some of the lengthier exposés of the history of the old ones found on the wall engravings: if you're a Lovecraft fan you already know it, and if not, then it's too complex to take in in a stage play as a rapid monologue and doesn't ultimately contribute much. . . However, in its best moments the show does conjure up the claustophobic madness of the novel. The idea of adding the young assistant/pilot as a ghost hovering over the protagonist was a brilliant one (and well acted), and the added ending was a stroke of genius. An intresting and refreshing take on the book, despite the show's minor flaws. We need more horror and sci-fi on stage! . . #hplovecraft #lovecraft #scifi #sciencefiction #horror #theatre #atthemountainsofmadness #cthulhu

I found a post-apocalyptic elevator in Karis, Karis, Nordns Paris. . . #scifi #sciencefiction #postapocalyptic #dystopia #karis

#Repost ・・・ Scifist Reading Tip 007: The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, published in 1666. . . Probably the first science fiction novel published by a woman, The Blazing World is quite an astonishing book. Cavendish tells of a woman who gets kidnapped by a group of men and whisked off in a boat that drifts to the North Pole, where she enters a parallel universe inhabited by strange creatures that are half human and half animals, like bird-men, bear-men, worm-men and fish-men. She seduces the king of this new world and becomes Empress and absolute ruler over the Blazing World. . . For most of the book, the Empress interrogates the scientists about their methods, world and beliefs - making a mockery out of the experimental philosophers, who with their telescopes and microscopes can tell her what everything looks like, but not how it works. After a while she is able to leave her bodily form and exist as a spirit being, and calls to her the Duchess of Newcastle, who becomes her chronicler. In the second part of the book she leads an army of fish-, bird-, and worm-men to her own world, in order to defeat the armies warring against England. . . The remarkable Margaret Cavendish, or "Mad Madge", was a 17th century aristocrat, socialite, feminist, playwright, poet and most importantly philosopher, who published a number of works, was the first woman to visit the Royal Society and loved to make dramatic appearances in public, often cross-dressing and always challenging the perceptions of "femininity". . . The Blazing World contains notions of gender-fluidity, matriarchy, women's liberation, and hints at platonic homosexuality. The book is somewhat marred by Cavendish's idiosyncratic grammar (she was self-taught) and the middle part, aimed at satirising the new empirical science goes on for a bit too long. But as opposed to many other utopian writers at the time, Cavendish's novel actually has some literary merit, and her world and story is one that one easily gets drawn into, and the characters have emotional arcs. . . #scifistreadingtips #margaretcavendish #sciencefiction #bookstagram #scifibooks

I'm writing an article for @ny__tid magazine on extreme right novels. It's basically all sci-fi.

#Repost @scifi_nerds (@get_repost) ・・・ They're back! #terminator #theterminator #scifinews #onset #scififans #scifinerds

Scifist Reading Tip 025: The Unparallelled Adventure of one Hans Pfaall, by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1835. . . A master of gothic horror, Edgar Allan Poe is, as I pointed out in my previous post, often overlooked today as a pioneer of science fiction. Hans Pfaall may be his most traditional SF tale, in that it concerns a trip to the moon, thus following in the long line of proto-SF writers like Lucian, Kepler, Godwin and Bergerac. It is also an example of one of his favourite genres: the hoax. The first half of the 19th century was a golden age for fake news, as magazines and newspapers tried to increase their circulation with wild stories. Poe's Hans Pfaall was published in the June issue of Southern Literary Messenger in 1835, and probably wasn't meant to be taken too seriously, as it was written in a broadly humorous style. However, the story served as an inspiration for one of the most successful newspaper hoaxes of the era, namely the New York Sun's so-called Great Moon Hoax, which ran for six articles in August 1835. . . Poe's wonderfully funny tale is told within a frame story, and begins with Poe's (anonymous) retelling of the great tumult caused in Rotterdam when a two feet tall, strange munchkin-like lunarian descends upon the city in a strange ballon, with a hat as a basket. He is greeted with much surprise and consternation by officials with names like "Professor Rubadub" and "Mynheer Superbus von Underduk". Without landing, the lunarian throws down a letter written by the bellows-mender Hans Pfaall, who recounts the story of how he had built a new kind of balloon in order to escape his creditors, whom he accidentally also happened to kill upon take-off. He describes his how the balloon works in some detail, as well as his voyage to the moon promises to tell more if only both his debts and crimes be forgiven, so that he can return to Rotterdam. The ending of the story, however, has a funny twist which, in fact, lends some realism to the fantastical tale, and is the actual intended hoax. . . Not Poe's best story, nor his most creative, but certainly one of his funniest. . . #scifi #sciencefiction #edgarallanpoe #scifistreadingtips #bookstagram