History of Science Fiction Cinema: Universal Horror, Space-Age Heroes, and a Giant Ape Falls in Love

When asked what the dividing line between horror and sci-fi is, a friend once told me that if the monster is chased by torch-wielding villagers, it is horror, when the military gets involved, it is sci-fi.  Sound theory, I would say, especially when coming from this aforementioned friend, the kind of person one would call, up on such things.

So sound, in fact, that I am going to completely ignore said theory, and include James Whale's classic 1931 Universal Horror film, Frankenstein, in my look at the history of Sci-Fi Cinema.

But hey, I am also going to take a look at the equally classic 1933 monster movie, King Kong, full of plenty of military involvement, so that makes it all even steven, right?

Right. But, enough of this babble, let's get on with the story.

The science fiction genre, which had been growing bigger and bigger as the history of cinema grew, began to stagnate a bit in the early days of the sound era, and in its place came a slew of horror films, mostly from Universal Studios, whose name would become synonymous with the genre of horror.


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