George R.R. Martin and Mixing Sci fi with Horror

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I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the holidays. Me? I had a great, but very busy Thanksgiving with the family and so had to skip a weekend of posting. As far as the holidays go--I’m getting there. What I’m looking forward to right now, though, is the new science fiction-horror series that premieres this Sunday night on the SyFy channel, Nightflyers!

George R.R. Martin’s Nightflyers

Nightflyers is based on a novella by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. According to the LA Times, he novella actually had two versions, the shorter version which was published in 1980 and an expanded version published three years later. Then in 1987 a movie based on it came out but, because it got so scant of an audience, it fell into oblivion. It fell into oblivion to everybody except those who are into B-rated and cult films such as myself although I haven’t seen this one. Neither have I read either version of the novella. In fact, tomorrow’s TV adaptation will be my first time experiencing anything by Martin. So, no, I have not even read or seen Game of Thrones. I’m not a big high fantasy (or sword-and-sorcery as some call it) fan, although I will read it and watch it now and then. But I haven’t covered that genre like I have science fiction and horror.

Martin’s novella combines science fiction and horror. In a Los Angeles Times interview, Martin even defends the mixing of these two genres when he speaks about his response to a critic’s comment: “Around 1978 or ’79 I was reading some science fiction criticism by a writer doing history of the genre, but he put forward the theory that science fiction and horror were opposites — they were fundamentally incompatible, you couldn’t blend them. And when I read that I said, ‘Well! I’ll see about that.’ . . . ‘Nightflyers’ was one of those that came out of the ’70s and early ’80s when I was on that kick.” And so his science fiction-horror novella came out of that argument, an argument I totally support.

However, another novella of his was also inspired by this argument: Sandkings. Martin says in an article at The Verge, that the success of of this science fiction-horror book “inspired him to keep blending SF and horror . . .” The article also says that, in response to the upcoming Nightflyers series, Hulu is streaming a film adaptation of Sandkings. It’s actually a pilot episode for the 1990s revival of the 1960s Outer Limits TVseries which often mixed horror with sci fi.

Why Science Fiction and Horror Mix So Well

So what makes science fiction and horror mix so well? For one thing, they both deal with the unknown. Many people fear the unknown in which, needless to say, fear makes horror. In horror fiction, the unknown traditionally is supernatural: vampires, werewolves, witchcraft, ghosts, etc.

In science fiction, on the other hand, the unknown is natural or technological phenomena: outer space, genetic mutations or engineering, robots, aliens, among others. The science in sci fi is often futuristic or new discovery and so society is unsure of its future impact. But the best example I like is outer space. Starting in the 1950s, many science fiction-horror movies were set in space because it’s been the most unexplored territory in history. Anything can happen out in the cosmos. Like the setting in a lot of gothic horror, space is dark, abysmal, forbidding and even cold. Compare that to an old, dark house in a supernatural horror story (and remember, space, at least by human standards, is pretty damn old)! Like anything can be lurking in a huge, dark house so can anything be lurking in deep, dark, unexplored space. Hence, you’ve gotten movies such as It Came from Outer Space in the 1950s, Alien in the ‘70s and perhaps the TV series adaptation of Martin’s Nightflyers will be a reminder of just how horrifying space and unexplored science can really be.

But another element that space provides in science fiction like dark settings provide in horror is isolation. Martin says in the above L.A. Times interview, “Space is an incredible setting for a horror story because you are isolated.” In much horror there is a sense of psychological isolation if not physical. Often the haunted house is isolated in a far off setting such as the mountains or a remote countryside. But as victims die off, the surviving characters feel isolated and more vulnerable. In science fiction, space is isolating because a spaceship, regardless of its size, is infinitely dwarfed by it and this effects the psychology of the crew in which the result is often madness. Because Nightflyers involves such elements and themes, it can be considered the mixed genre of science fiction-horror.

Nightflyers premieres Sunday night, Dec. 2, on SyFy. And if you can’t wait until then, watch Sandkings which is now streaming at Hulu! Do you plan to watch Nightflyers? Have you read the novella or seen the 1980s movie? Feel free to leave your answers in the box below!

Until next time . . .