Science Fiction Movies: Then (1950s) And Now

By | March 8, 2019

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The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). Source: (bfi.org.uk)

There are many different tastes in movies with varying genres including drama, comedy, romance, action, and science fiction. Science Fiction movies started out very primitive and quite a low budget. In fact, all genres started out as low budget movies, but science fiction especially did.  Since its inception, it has changed dramatically to what we call science fiction today. Yesterday’s science fiction movies would be comedies today, because of their very basic scene development and limited props. The majority of the early science fiction movies seemed to be quite obsessed with outer space, landing on the moon, aliens or Martians, or any other creatures from outer space.     

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The Thing From Another World (1951). Source: (midnitereviews.com)

In this 1951 science fiction movie, a flying saucer is found buried in ice and the “alien” pilot is frozen. Once he is thawed out, this creature or thing begins feeding off of the blood of animals in the area. Throughout the movie, he is never really shown much. Using the technology available at that time, the suspense for the viewers was built up using sound effects. The rest relied on the imagination of the viewers.