Category: Science Fiction

A crop of the cover and title text for The Cloven, with a lot of vegetation and action going on with some fuzzy goat legs in the mix all behind the text of the title

The Cloven Is A Conspiracy Thriller For Everyone Just Wanting To Exist

By Elijah Beahm • September 19th, 2023

This is a cohesive creative vision the likes of which most could only dream of.

a screenshot from The Primevals with a towering Yeti covered in fur in the mid shot, a tiny gaggle of humans behind, and three lizard people with medieval weapons at the front

Science and Sensation: A Blast from the Past Courtesy of The Primevals (2023)

By Orrin Grey • July 26th, 2023

The Primevals is pure pulp, hearkening back to the golden age of adventure stories.

close crop of the cover of the Arrow Video boxed set featuring a comic illustration of many characters from the movies, including adorable couple in matching robes, undead orc and his precious dolls, mullet wizard, and a whole bunch more in a video store in the background

Building Empire: Arrow Video’s Enter the Video Store – Empire of Screams Collection

By Orrin Grey • July 13th, 2023

In their latest boxed set, Arrow Video pays tribute to these days of amazing trash at your local video store, with a collection of five films spanning nearly the entirety of Empire’s short tenure.

Crop of the Japanese poster for Shin Kamen Rider 2023, featuring an illustration of the titular rider with his grasshopper helmet, high collar jacket, streaming scarf, and brooding energy

Happiness and Pain: Going Cold into Shin Kamen Rider (2023)

By Orrin Grey • June 2nd, 2023

There’s more visual punch in any 15 minutes of Shin Kamen Rider than a dozen other blockbusters.

The title card for Invaders for Mars, featuring the text of the title over some planets and stars

Dreams & Nightmares: Invaders from Mars (1953) Painstakingly Restored on 4K

By Orrin Grey • January 26th, 2023

Ignite Films has planted their flag as a company to watch for what their own logline calls “classics for the future.”

Title card for Silent Running, with a beaming sun visible just over the top of a spiked geodesic dome floating through space

Everyone Has a Job: The Future of Silent Running (1972)

By Orrin Grey • December 13th, 2022

Anyone who complains that modern movies are too didactic probably shouldn’t watch Silent Running, which puts all its theses into the mouth of Bruce Dern’s space-bound ecologist.

A crop of the cover for No Escape, featuring Vincent's brother looking concerned, a gangster staring down the scope of a rifle launcher, and the reasonable Ghostbuster with a very fierce expression on his face

Not in the World: The Unlikely Precognition of No Escape (1994)

By Orrin Grey • December 8th, 2022

In fact, to the extent that No Escape has anything more novel to say than “prisons are bad” – which they are, and it’s great when movies say so, but like “war is hell” it may be true but it’s also a bit of a cliché in pictures like this – it’s probably something to do with its many meditations on guilt, and what guilt should cost us.

I Played It, Like, Twice...

The tite from the Doom board game (2004) cover of the rules with the mid-era cyber Doom font and the spooky Diablo font

Fragged!: Translating DOOM to the Tabletop via a Somewhat Unlikely Route

By Orrin Grey • July 26th, 2022

Despite the box art and the demonic miniatures, DOOM is fundamentally an action game that isn’t particularly interested in horror.

I Played It, Like, Twice...

figures from the game Space Hulk, blue and red, moving across a tabletop.

They’re Coming Out of the Goddamn Walls: Reliving a Moment with Space Hulk

By Orrin Grey • February 28th, 2022

It is difficult, for me at least, to separate the game itself from that dream, solidified by glossy magazine photos of massive Space Hulk boards set up.

Performers from the David Lynch Dune movie, specifically Sting and Patrick Stewart are visible.

The Sleeper Has Awakened: Watching the David Lynch Dune for the First Time in this, the Second Year of the Plague

By Orrin Grey • October 14th, 2021

So, nearly forty years later, in a world with a very different cinematic landscape, on the cusp of a new, much bigger-budget adaptation, did I come out knowing that I’ve seen Dune?

Feature Excerpt

Imagining the Future in Games

By Ruth Cassidy • June 24th, 2021

A vision of tomorrow, today!

Antiracist Cosmic Horror

By Noah Berlatsky • April 13th, 2021

A companion to Noah Berlatsky’s March feature story!

Always Autumn

Post-Post-Apocalyptic: Come Along with Me

By Autumn Wright • March 23rd, 2021

What comes after what comes after the world ends?

Feature Excerpt

A poster of two people guarding against Morlocks.

Eugenics from Morlock to Shoggoth: The Origins of Cosmic Racism

By Noah Berlatsky • March 17th, 2021

What horror lies in the heart of men?

The Growth and Adaptation of Samuslikes

By Don Everhart • May 26th, 2020

Samus Aran, videogames’ own Strong Sci-Fi Female Protagonist, echoes through the medium just like the design of Super Metroid.

Lightsaber Dueling Pack

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • May 4th, 2020

Relive the duel between Luke and Vader over and over again, without breaking a sweat! No lightsaber toy necessary!

No Accounting for Taste

Movies Could Be More Boring

By Adam Boffa • April 9th, 2020

The Star Wars sequel trilogy is too exciting to be interesting.

Try Reading...

New Kid on Earth

By Harry Rabinowitz • April 9th, 2020

Space Boy Volume 1 proves that – even eons into the future – moving still sucks.

Feature Excerpt

Accepting Death as the Sun Goes Out

By Ryan Cooper • April 2nd, 2020

The Outer Wilds’ tragic time-loop helps Ryan Cooper process real-world struggles.

Star Frontiers

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • March 30th, 2020

Join us in the far reaches of known space as we explore Star Frontiers!

The Shadow People

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • March 23rd, 2020

Descend into the depths of the earth to meet The Shadow People!

No Accounting for Taste

Lost in Space, Out of Time

By Adam Boffa • March 19th, 2020

In Outer Wilds, the clock is always ticking.

Star Wars Galaxy Guides

By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • December 9th, 2019

Everyone is talking about Star Wars right now, and so are we! We take a stroll through the 12-volume series of Galaxy Guide sourcebooks for the West End Games Star Wars RPG.

Rookie of the Year

Star Trek: The Sex Generation

By Matt Marrone • October 8th, 2019

The ladies of the USS Enterprise want to get it on. Badly.

Here's the Thing

The Last Unicron

By Rob Rich • September 11th, 2019

With the recent announcement of a crowdfunding campaign to create a new, massive Transformers Unicron toy, Rob ponders the reactions and possible reasoning behind it all.

Another Look

Evangelion and Endings

By Yussef Cole • August 1st, 2019

Twenty years later, what’s it like to watch the anime that made you stop watching anime?

The Devil is Only Human After All

By Pascal Wagner • May 20th, 2019

Depictions of Satan fluctuate depending on the media, but they all touch a part of our subconscious.

Feature Excerpt

Crack the Network: It’s Called Cyberpunk Not Cybersecurity

By Liam Conlon • November 23rd, 2018

While disappointed by Cyberpunk 2077’s announcement to exclude a non-binary option, Conlon thinks it’s necessary to desire more than small kernels of representation.

Deep Space Nine is More Important Than Ever

By P.J. Kryfko • November 2nd, 2018

Looking back on Deep Space Nine, it seems ahead of its time, but maybe we’ve just been backsliding.

The Heavy Pour

New Gods

By Sara Clemens • November 2nd, 2018

New York Comic Con is a monument to hype with amusements deliberately designed to part fans from their money and/or time, but Sara would hate to miss the fantasy.

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