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Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
The Ten Scariest Science Fiction Movies (Including Poll)
September 3rd, 2009
I’ve always been a fan of horror. I loved monster movies — the old Universal movie classics — as far back as Star Trek at least. Maybe longer. A lot of my early science fiction sales were stories with horror elements. Even today I like horror movies and my favorites tend to be science fiction with strong horror elements. I mean, I’m tired of the supernatural body that always gets up no matter what you do to it. It’s old and cliched. But a robot or alien, with some physical limitations, albeit limitations far beyond those of humans, that’s still scary without the “Oh come on!” factor.
So here’s my list of ten favorites. I hope you have some others to suggest because I’ve surely missed some.
1. Alien. The all-time greatest science fiction horror movie, as far as I’m concerned.
2. Event Horizon. Sort of dumb sometimes, but it builds a spooky mood and is downright awful at times. Sam Neill with no eyes creeps me out.
3. The Cell. Beautiful and scary at the same time, like a dream, with the same terrifying power dreams can have.
4. The Thing. Maybe this one should be higher. A total classic. A friend of mine is going on a scientific mission to Antarctica in a few months and I’m urging him to see it.
5. The Terminator. I’d take the Terminator over Jason any day. Relentless and scary.
6. Predator. I’ve seen this one enough times it isn’t scary any more, but I remember the first time I saw it, the jungle coming to life, the instant death, the flayed bodies…
7. Cloverfield. The reality element to this, and some of the real-life sorts of injuries that happen amidst all the speculative elements, gave me that feeling in my stomach for hours.
8. Pitch Black. Aliens in the dark.
9. Signs. OK, it’s dumb, but watching that video on TV with the alien at the birthday party, the hands under the doors…it WAS scary! Until the end anyway.
10. Hardware. A little film, but I remember being scared as this was a robot that was harder to kill than the Terminator. Worth checking out.
Honorable Mentions: Species, Resident Evil, Donnie Darko, Dark City
What do you think?
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September 3rd, 2009 at 8:07 am
I can never watch Signs again without picturing Scary Movie 3. If the kids get scared by a particular movie like The Grudge, watching the retarded version of it via a Scary Movie scene lets them sleep at night (and probably lowers their IQ)
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:11 am
I knew there must be some point to those retarded spoof movies!
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Andromeda Strain was way scarier that the ones you mentioned. Perhaps because it is the classic “we created the monster” theory.
On another note, Sherrie shouldn’t let her kids watch those movies and especially the spoofs. For Pete’s sake, make them watch Disney! Isn’t Pocahantas scary enough.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
OK, I’m going to have to watch the Andromeda Strain…I may have seen it when I was rather young, but I’m not sure. It’ll be new to me either way, I guess!
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:32 am
You forgot Armageddon. A truly horrifying movie. Nary a physicist/astronomer, nor sane person even can sleep after watching it or avoid vomitting.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
One word: David Cronenberg. Maybe that is two. I LIke your list; SF and horror sort of blur together; in my mind, when the supernatural element becomes primary, you call it horror; so, Event Horizon, tho it takes place on a spaceship, is a horror movie because the icky thing is a doorway to hell. The movie is sort of a bait and switch. Love the production design. So alien is pure SF. Andromeda strain is great in places; it was the first PG movie I saw in the theater with my dad and it was an amazing experience. There are a few utter-bullshit random Crichton plot turns, mixed in with the dead-on perfect details, which is troubling, as always. Armageddon’s conservative propaganda stuff emanating from Willis (NASA US Government BAD, private oil drilling contractors called in to save the earth GOOD) is so infurating that it’s hard to really judge it; Deep Impact explores similar ideas without the polemic. The recent movie Knowing made me feel really bad, not such scary as really depressing. Scary too I guess.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Signs is really scary and atmospheric until the end when it turns out to be a really stupid twilight zone episode / shaggy dog story. I wanted my money and the two hours of my life back.
yes, most likely, aliens invading earth will use hand to hand combat to resolve the conflict, and be meltable with tap water.
God will reveal himself as being real by providing a failed priest with a baseball wielding relative and a girl who leaves glasses of water lying around. Thus the meltable aliens–who want to invade earth even though they melt in water– can be defeated. by the guy with the bat, see, whacking the water glasses at them.
God must exist.
Oh, and the aliens, if they wanted to fuck with us, don’t use hand to hand combat; they drop rocks on us till we cry uncle. Or use tailored virus’s. Of course, having the technology to get us, most likely, there’s no reason for invasion, but we’ll let that go.
Um. Did anyone read this script before giving Night the bazillion dollars? Can I meet the people who give Night his money and talk to them?
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Maybe you guys will laugh, but I was completely terrified of that robot (apparently with a human incarnated in him, cant remember) in the Walt Disney movie BLACK HOLE… well, it was a long time I watched it… I think I was still a teen…
As for SIGNS, I hate the movie. Its just too stupid, the idea that aliens came to invade a world so deadly to them. Where death falls from the skies (rain) and every creature has “poison” making up most of their bodies.
Come on! Didnt they notice the HUGE water vapous clouds which are visible from a big distance?
The alien in the birthday scene btw is supposed to be in Bagé, not very far from Porto Alegre, Mike. Although they seem to speak spanish in the movie haha (or portuguese with spanish accent, just like in Hulk)
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I love all of them except signs, which I really thought was crap.
May I recommand “Alien Raiders” ? Low-budget but clever scifi flick, from last year I think. The director compensates the lack of budget by a nice plot and good dramatic tension. Worth a look if you manage to find it.
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Hey, Rogerio, you’re not alone here. That robot (I think its name was Maximilian ?) haunted my childhood dreams well before Terminator. And I still find him scarier.
September 4th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Ah, yes Jay, Cronenberg! The Fly should have gotten at least an honorable mention here, if not made the list. And Videodrome too, perhaps.
Signs gets my vote for worst sf movie ending ever. And I loved so many other elements early in the movie, because the atmosphere and fright factor was very much present indeed.
I’ll look for Alien Raiders.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] Mike Brother’s list of Top 10 Scaries Sci-Fi Movies (might have to scroll down a bit when the site pulls up). Mike hit the nail on the head when he [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
[...] Brotherton names his picks for The Ten Scariest Science Fiction movies. Me, I vote for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. That thing gave me nightmares for a [...]
September 5th, 2009 at 7:11 am
The Cell: Visually stunning film in parts. Stupid plot throughout. Laughable when they show the crafts spacesuits. One noticeably larger than the others. Obviously meant later for Vince Vaughn who is 6′5″.
Event Horizon: Plotholes throughout the film. Terrible movie. And they smoke on a spaceship (some of the actors had smoking contracts from cigarette companies to smoke in movies they were in), which is filled with enriched oxygen. Those cigarettes should have been flames.
September 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I’m not the best person to list the best scary movies, since even scary movies don’t ever scare me much. But that seems like a decent list. With the exception of that crime against humanity that is Signs. I should re-watch Hardware; it’s been so long I barely remember it.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:20 am
The strangists part the remake of THE THING is WILFRED BRIMLEY as a weirdo scienists
October 8th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
You musn’t forget the original War of the Worlds!!
January 11th, 2010 at 1:38 am
Kale your right the origional WAR OF THE WORLDS when their in the farmhouseand that alien lays its creepy hand on her shoulder thats absolutlu unerving