Science Fiction Archives - Unwinnable

A screenshot from The Substance with Demi Moore staring into a mirror with bold red lipstick and a red dress, gold earrings, and an intense look on her face

You Can’t Escape from Yourself: The Substance (2024)

By Orrin Grey • October 3rd, 2024

One of my pet peeves in modern horror films is when the central premise works only as metaphor, not as actual text.

A picture of all the bits of Starquest Arcadia Build a Bot expansion, with some space pirate like minis with guns and computers as well as a red board and smaller space ship boards to move the minis around on

Space is the Place: Starcadia Quest and the Mystery of Aesthetics

By Orrin Grey • July 16th, 2024

It may be unsurprising to learn that Starcadia Quest is pretty much the exact same game as Arcadia Quest but in spaaaaaaaaaace!

A collage of images from The Cloven with the title in distressed type in the middle. Someone with short hair and no clothing is running through trees and red light, a hand is displayed, legs jumping, a face smiling in the dark, all drawn with brushstrokes to indicate action

Hoofing It With The Cloven’s Garth Stein and Matthew Southworth

By Elijah Beahm • May 30th, 2024

“Telling a story is all about a dialog between the presenter and the audience, right? The reader and the writer and and the readers trying to figure it out.”

A screenshot from The Bat Woman where a fishman is on underwater camera maybe or some other ancient monitoring device he's just swimming around loving life

Wrestling and Sex: Three Mexican Wrestling Films from Director Rene Cardona

By Orrin Grey • April 19th, 2024

While all three of the films that we’re discussing today may not have been released in alternate cuts with sexo in the title, all three are definitely films that are skirting Mexican censors of the late ‘60s and using sex appeal to help sell their stories of masked wrestlers, lycanthropes, mad science, swinging spies, and… lepers?

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.