Lumping it all together is just plain wrong.

For Ask The Movie Whore 5, Kim OJ had asked my thoughts on the lumping of SciFi and Fantasy films. I felt afterward there was so much more to say and that I had barely scratched the surface. People do lump several genres or sub-genres if you will under the ScFfi heading. Let’s take a look at and see what the problem is. Well besides being too lazy and people being too stupid to know and care.

First we are going to look at what makes up the overall genre referred to as Speculative Fiction which encompasses more than you may know.

Sub-Genres Of Speculative Fiction

• Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic: They really are so similar that it should be one title. Either way it is a story set after society has come to a depressing end and the people that inhabit this world typically are full of despair without hope. Think Children of Men, A Clockwork Orange, Water World (I know), Soylent Green, Equilibrium and other various films. The problem comes in that sometimes it that most people have no idea what Dystopian means, so you throw it under Scifi rather than make the uneducated get educated.

• Horror: It happens often that there is an element of the super natural or magical or even mythological in horror films. In particular, horror films that deal with monsters and demons. Typically speaking anything having to do with magic and myth would traditionally fall under Fantasy. However what happens here is that again fantasy gets thrown under the Scifi banner when it should be Speculative if consolidating genres. Think Pumpkin Head, Leperchaun, Demons, Jeepers Creepers and any other horror film involving magic or myth.

• Supernatural Fiction: Ghosts or supernatural abilities are the tell tale signs. Often these stories have a horror element to them and thus are thrown under horror. Think Carrie, The Sixth Sense, House on Hunted Hill, Poltergeist and other films containing a story centering around ghost rather than demons.

• Alternate History: This is just what the name says. Think Southlands Tales, which also has elements of SciFi when you consider the time travel aspect of the film and the invention of Fluid Karma to provide a never ending source of energy. Any time you are dealing with our world only slightly different it can fall under this category, which means just about any movie can fit under this category. To prove my point, look at the films Dave and The American President. Either of these films could be considered Alternate history if you use a simplistic definition of Alternative History. This is vague category that most people do not even know about.

• Fantasy: Fantasy traditionally conjures images of knights, dragons and wizards, well at least for me it does. Fantasy is fantastical. It involves myth and legends of worlds that exist nowhere but the mind of the creator. Typically modern technology is nonexistent. The people or are primitive and the legends and myths are very real. Think Clash of the Titans, Sinbad, Conan, Willow, Krull and other various films that contain such elements.

• Science Fiction: Involves Science as the name applies. Typically there is some technological element to the story. Time travel and aliens are also prevalent. Now something I touched on in my response to Kim was the expansion of consciousness and understanding of the universe. To become something more than what you are. Think Dune. Of course this also involves myth and legend and the Weirding way can be seen as a type of magic or supernatural ability. Through the course of the film one of the main plot points is that Paul is evolving and becoming more than he is. His consciousness is expanding and his understanding of the universe is also expanding. Also look at Bicentennial Man. Either the book or the film. The main plot of this story is a machine expanding its understanding of the world around it and figuring out how to fit in the world and be accepted for what it is. To do so it makes itself practically human be to be accepted by other humans. Over the course of this 200 year journey you watch the machine grow and watch its way of thinking evolve. The way it looks at the world is constantly changing and evolving much in the same way it happens for the rest of us. Science Fiction at its best is the story of the human condition and where it going. However over the years SciFi has taken on a simplified definition allowing you to lump anything with a spaceship under the category.

• Superhero Fiction: Combines elements from several of the other forms of Speculative Fiction. Each gives an alternate history. Superman is an Alien. Iron Man uses technology and The Mandarin uses magic and technology. X-Men is the evolution of man. The Hulk explores human enhancement through science and what lurks deep inside us all. Thor is a god from Norse mythology. However the one commonality is that each is a hero of sorts and fights evil in whatever form it takes.

To summarize my points, it is only when take a closer look into the story and what is being conveyed that you can accurately decide what is the best category for a movie. Story telling is at the heart of any good movie regardless of its genre. If you have a crappy story about dragons and mythical treasures, then you have a crappy movie. Instead of focusing on finding a good movie in a particular genre focus on finding a good movie. Instead of focusing on making a particular genre of movie, just make a good movie. Genre does not matter if you can tell a good story.