Sci-Fi is Getting Scarier

by Jake Thompson

You know that rush you got when little Haley Joel crawled into his homemade tent in The Sixth Sense? And that dread of knowing the shark was stalking below the too small boat in Jaws? These are great horror moments. They make you jump, make your heart beat fast, and then when it’s over, you laugh. Maybe not right away, but you look back on these films like you would a roller coaster, because despite the scares, you were entertained.

Science fiction horror is a little different. Apart from Alien, I struggle to think of a sci-fi film that gives this thrilling kind of terror. Most often, sci-fi horror isn’t found in creatures, or killers, or ghosts, but in the human condition. I remember reading 1984 and Brave New World and watching Blade Runner in high school, which in their own way were scarier than any of the horror movies I snuck to my friends’ houses to watch. But instead of doubling my heart rate, these stories left me with a lump in my throat.

My only real comfort in these is the notable physical contrast between our world and theirs. The Blade Runner universe, despite looking somewhat like Tokyo, feels like another world. Orwell and Huxley worked the same way, painting a stylised world that used symbolism to convey their social commentary. These futures are certainly grim, but the fact is they dealt more in fiction than science.

This week I’ve been immersed in a similar, more up-to-date kind of utopia I can’t laugh off. I’m currently working on a TV series script that would see a world just a slight (mis)step ahead of ours. And as I research (read procrastinate), I’m watching films like Her, and reading books like The Circle by Dave Eggers. While these modern sci-fi stories share ground with 1984 for example, the symbolism is basically vanquished, instead showing us a completely believable world future. And that is much more disturbing.

Play melancholy song.

Her is by no means a horror film. It has a lovely aesthetic, and a romance that could have been creepy, but is more often sweet. And yet as I watched, I had this feeling that it’s such a small push forward it could have been a documentary sent back from 2020. And I found this much more unsettling than Alien, because I can’t see myself having to battle space creatures. Even if I was, that’d be kinda cool. There was even comfort to be had in Brave New World, because despite its comments on past and present politics and society, there were enough differences (names, foods, clothes) that it was simple to separate myself from the story world. Compare this with Her. How easy is to imagine you or your friends talking more to computers than real people?

Privacy Policy: N/A

The Circle pushes this further as it shows the formation of a technological Utopia. An advance, expansive company (think Apple meets Facebook) vies for total control, with the endgame to rid the world of privacy, where all is known. Again, it differs from classic dystopian novels in that it’s much more science than fiction. Or, more accurately, it’s some kind of technological fiction – tech-fic – that takes our current technology – internet, smart phones, fitness watches – and pushes it to its limits. As you enter the Circle world, and see dark secrets shared as readily as status updates, and tiny cameras monitoring everyone and everything, it’s so easy to see a timeline where this could become reality. Just this month we’ve had some technological faux pas with stolen photos and the free U2 album spliced right into your iTunes playlist. On their own, these could be shrugged off as missteps (mostly the former. The latter I was fine with). But only so many missteps can be taken before a path is completely altered.

It was as I watched and read these tech-fic tales that I realised their horrific power. I’m pretty good at separating life from make believe. I enjoy building my own characters, and though a certain friend says I talk about them like real people, I know where fiction ends and real life begins. But there were some instances this week that gave me that confused feeling. You know the one where you wake up after a dream and can’t quite remember if it was real? I’d place my bookmark, and check Facebook (of course, that’s what we do right?) and an acquaintance would be raving about the power Apple has if it can silently drop an album onto his or her computer, and suddenly I’m right back inside the book.

What is real?

I’ve shone a negative light on the above examples, which wasn’t the aim. Both Her and The Circle are executed thoughtfully and brilliantly. And being able to entertain an audience while showing them a truth about themselves takes a great deal of talent. It’s just not the kind of entertainment I personally enjoy. When I can go to the cinema and find a sense of wonder, joy, fear, hope, love, disgust and amusement, I’d rather not experience a shot of nervous apprehension I could just as easily get by watching the news. It’s a brand of horror I’m not sure I can get on board with. As I continue with my own tech-fic (can this catch on?) script, I plan to keep some proximity to our current social state to maintain realism. But I’ll be sure to keep an even keel between science and fiction, because my aim above all is to entertain, and not to cause the kind of dread currently in the pit of my stomach.

Now I think I’ll go watch The Exorcist. It’s a much nicer kind of scary.