How to Read SF-Horror

Story Structure

Horror-narrative story structure unfolds in similar ways to that of science fiction: an unknown or outside force—human, alien, etc.—disrupts the social order, members of a small community or a larger swath of people fall prey to the force and eventually fight back, and then usually one side prevails victorious to either restore the initial social order or discover a new way of living. Narrative closure comes in different forms: the humans learn a valuable lesson after defeating the outside force, different beings learn to coexist and forge a future together, the outside force decimates humanity, or the story remains open-ended which allows the reader or viewing audience to decide what happens next – a question often answered in a short-fiction or book series or film franchise. In Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers (1955), the community of Mill Valley, California represents small-town America in which everyone knows each other’s name and most of the residents have lived in the location their entire lives. An alien force of pods that mutate into doppelgangers of the townspeople start to take over the community members one by one; however, a group of friends work together to uncover the alien ploy, but things do not go as planned and half of them succumb to tragic ends. Miles and Becky–the heroes of the story–fight back to drive the invaders from the town to salvage human life. The story ends open-ended, as we do not know where the remaining extraterrestrial beings will go after leaving Mill Valley, but two everyday people like us secure the win for their town and all of humankind.

For a cinematic example, we might examine Paul W. S. Anderson’s Event Horizon (1997). A space crew heads out to investigate the Event Horizon, a scientific vessel that vanished years ago and suddenly reappears in distress. The ship has the power to travel to different galactic dimensions with an innovative gravity drive, and the crew discovered hell in space that led to their demise. The rescue crew investigates the derelict ship only to fall victim to some of the same tragedies that befell the original ship’s members; however, in the end, the remaining crew members manage to fight off the effects and horrific results of the gravity drive to escape and seek safe haven by going into stasis in hope of being rescued. Although one of the crew members wakes from stasis to see an evil, dead crew member from the Event Horizon, we learn that he and his surviving comrades have been rescued and his vision was only a nightmare. Or, was it? In this scenario, the story ends–yet again–somewhat open-ended because we do not know if we can trust the nightmare or perceived reality. Both The Body Snatchers and Event Horizon follow a narrative structure that starts from a place of safety and takes the audience along with the characters into an unknown, foreboding scenario that forces them to fight or flight and survive or perish; all the surviving characters’ lives have been changed forever. Furthermore, these texts, and others within SF horror, connect through their use of similar narrative elements within their story structures.

Literary Elements

Science fiction often presents audiences with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and medicine (a modified STEM). Within those fields, aliens, time travel, space, and new worlds comprise a majority of the story elements that create conflict for the protagonists. Horror, on the other hand, parallel to science fiction, concentrates on innovative machines and architecture, genetics, the concept of home, surgical procedures, people groups (different cultures), childhood/youth versus adulthood/aging, and travel (unknown lands). When the two genres come together as SF horror, these narrative elements take center stage to showcase fear, anxiety, and dread regarding their implementation, development, corruption, exposure, and experience.

Stephen King’s “Trucks” (1973) serves as an exemplary short story we can examine for these elements and then compare to a film production, as well. In the story, semi-trailer trucks and other vehicles become sentient and take over a local truck-stop station. They kill some humans at will and force others to fuel them to keep them alive. The story ends with a grim realization that there is no victory in sight for humankind, as the narrator assumes even the planes he sees flying have no pilots. Although the story was written in the 70s, a time in which the concern over Artificial Intelligence (AI) was not as much of a real-life concern as many would argue for the 21st Century, the focus on technology and machines and our fear of losing control over that which we normally wield power creates the impact of terror and horror upon the reader.

In a comparable manner, we might look to Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed (1977). The evils of machinery and technology are once again highlighted from the 70s, only this time it is in the form of an computer-assisted home that becomes overtaken by Proteus IV, an AI with a desire to produce offspring like a human. The system takes its inventor’s wife hostage, and through the horror of unchecked technology Proteus IV creates a child that embodies the thoughts and memories of the AI before it is destroyed; the system found a way to make itself human. The speculative nature of science fiction, assisted by horror’s trifecta of fear, anxiety, and dread, produces “Trucks” and Demon Seed to answer the question, “What if machines and technology become too advanced, learn to think for themselves, and/or figure out how to proliferate?” As we find ourselves ever so dependent on our smartphones, tablets, and laptops for daily activities, robotics for common and groundbreaking surgical procedures, vehicles for travel, and integrated computer systems for home security, experimentation, and human progress, the fiction of these stories give us a glimpse at surreal realities that might not be too far-fetched to actually happen (I made “fetch” happen). And because these stories quite often feature plots that intersect with life as we know it, their ideas establish patterns we can identify within the hybrid genre.

Themes

Prejudice, religious fanaticism, class division, xenophobia, individualism versus groupthink,  imposter syndrome (not a resulting condition from playing Among Us), and life, death, and the afterlife represent a few thematic topics within SF horror, all built around aspects of humanity. For that reason, many of the narratives may be explored regarding social commentary–socioeconomic, political, gender, queer, ethnicity and race, religion–at various points throughout history, something accomplished via close readings of the texts, forming an argumentative thesis, and writing to review, interpret, evaluate, analyze, and research – pillars of the academic classroom. Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017), generally considered a horror film, can be labeled SF horror: the foundation of the story rests upon the idea that a mad scientist figure (Roman Armitage) has figured out a way to transfer consciousness from one body to another and he has made the process an Armitage family tradition that extends beyond to anyone with the proper connections and financial excess. The horror of the story comes from our protagonist, Chris, realizing the family has been conducting the procedure for years and targeting African Americans based on racist ideology about the physical superiority of Black bodies. One close reading of the film may reveal an argument that stipulates: Peele’s film uses the SF horror genre to highlight the ways in which Black bodies in America have always been considered commodities of capitalist society since the slave trade and how African Americans continue to face discrimination, stereotyping, and unequal systems of power and authority in present-day society. Someone taking this perspective might point out a scene for analysis to support their argument, such as when Chris wakes to find himself restrained to a chair and forced to watch a video of Roman explaining the transfer-of-consciousness procedure. Roman’s video reveals his perception of African Americans, and soon after Chris picks cotton fibers from the chair to stuff into his ears to avoid any audible sounds meant to surrender him to hypnosis. The scene details contemporary stereotyping and visually accesses an image of slave labor from the past to illustrate a brief, truncated history of the African-American experience. When we conduct a close reading of a written story or a film and then decide on a path of argumentation–dependent on an assignment’s instruction and guidelines–this section’s discussion of theme and sample analysis of Get Out represent just one process of reading a text, interpreting a text, and writing about a text. Continuing in this direction, we now transition into a section featuring specific creators of SF horror and their respective narratives within the fantastic to put academics into action.