One of the latest enduring norms of Western Civilization is that, pound for pound, science fiction movies (arbitrarily including fantasy and horror films) are, as a class, the mongoloid children of the film industry. There has been a veritable population explosion of giant ants, crabs, moths, leeches, teen-agers, pterodactyls and diverse other megalo-creatures who stomp around the countryside and dutifully destroy papier-maché Tokyos, Londons and New Yorks—while unforgivably sparing some egregiously poor actors. Indeed, if some enterprising masochist were to hold a film festival of the worst movies ever made, this genus would be well represented. Strictly speaking, though, most “science fiction” movies are not sf at all. They are usually fantasy and/or horror films, which is not to say they are automatically bombs. Them and Dracula, for example, were well-done, enjoyable flicks, but they were not sf.
Well then, you may ask, what is sf?
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