The Many Influences of the SciExploitation Sci-Fi Anthology
NSFW: Retro Bombshells From The Future, Cave-Girls, & Comic Books for Grownups.
SciExploitation Sci-Fi Anthology (formally known as Girl in the Window) isn’t so much a result of my love of the old retro style space movies of the fifties or sixties, the dubbed Japanese or Italian imports or even the low-budget knockoffs of Star Wars and Alien that ran from the seventies all the way into the nineties. They’re all influences in both technique and style but what really sparked off the idea for this series of stories isn’t so much what these movies are but my early and incorrect recollections of what I thought they were.
I’m not talking about the mainstream stuff. My memories of Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker, Ripley, and HAL-9000 are all crystal clear. I’m talking about the amalgam of movies that aired on local stations, the overpromising VHS box art of movies I never got to see, and all the other stuff that came with it, mashed and mixed in a hazy dream of the past, as seen through my childhood mind. The stories I want to tell aren’t based on any of these but rather the emotions brought on by my incomplete nostalgic memories of their colors, their artifice, the promises they made to my imagination.
Rewatch them as research, you say? Yeah, I’ve since put many of them on to see what they were actually like but very little of it is useful to what I want to do. Some I had never seen, like Barbarella which is sadly god-awful, others were completely different than I had remembered, sometimes surprising me at how good they actually are but most often making me wish I had stuck with my incorrect reconstructions. I should also note that there were a lot of comic books that also fit the bill. I’ll be talking about those, too.
Maybe, my faulty reconstructions of what I thought they were, come from adolescent ideals, a universe that needs you to be a hero, where everyone is either extremely pretty or extremely ugly, mysteries are everywhere, danger nips at your heels, and there’s always a woman in distress to fall in love with. Love is actually a very important factor in a young man’s adventure despite what today’s modern feminists think. In the darkest hour of the adventure, when she’s alone with her protector and scared, she gives herself over to him because he is worthy and her feelings for him are like no other emotions she has felt before. Granted, she was never uptight about the galaxy’s apparent fabric shortage but all the same, their experiences together change them, bring them together, thrill them in ways that are new, undefinable, and dangerous.
Okay, okay, so there’s a hormonal aspect to these stories but everything I wrote above is true. Young men are falling in and out of love all the time and who can blame them, within the safety of a fantasy story? But, that’s what makes these kinds of stories fun. They could never be experienced in the real world, at least in such over-the-top terms. Life is too complicated and the consequences too heavy. In the realm of fantasy, though, they’re a fun way to escape without judgment or harm. The only risk is in how these stories can stir your soul. What you see on your screen or read may not be real but the emotions you feel when you experience them certainly are and boy can they be wonderful. How could anyone not want to tell these kinds of stories, read these kinds of stories? I believe it’s only through fear of judgment that more people aren’t.
Let me relate to you the three categories I place these space adventures into and why while none of them quite touch on what it is I want to create, different aspects of them will contribute to all of it. There are, of course, acceptions to all of these to some degree but I haven’t found any that truly satisfy the parameters of what I want to create.
Those Which Deliver But Play It Safe
There are some great futurist movies that I love watching that deliver on the style and story that I’m after. Forbidden Planet and Robinson Crusoe on Mars are examples of colorful, engaging stories that are at the pinnacle of their class. On my first time watching Crusoe I had hoped he might meet a beautiful Martian woman instead of a hippy caveman but it’s still one of my favorites when it comes to these types of movies. Let’s face it though, what single guy would have chosen that over being invited by Anne Francis to go swimming on an alien planet with no one around for miles to bother you? Unfortunately, if you look close enough, and most young boys have, you’d realize that she was indeed wearing a swimsuit that matched the color of her skin.
Other movies like Battle Beyond the Stars, Planet of the Vampires, and Green Slime also made great use of creative yet low-budget sets, miniatures, monsters, and beautiful women, all making the adventure worth while.
Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t change a thing about these movies and if they had been made more adult, I would be missing a big chunk of my childhood but as I grew older, for some reason, I always noticed that these were grownups having these adventures. I felt that there must be a side to these stories the kids could not be privy to. The fear these characters felt in the face of danger, the way they clung to each other in dread of the rubber creatures they had to face, silly to us but to them, they were deadly serious existential threats.
Those That Promise But Don’t Deliver
And this is not to say that they all directly promised but to a young imagination it’s like the promise of a smile. A lot of times, like I said before it might just be the box art at a video store or the posters and still of actresses you’d see in movie magazines.
The movies of Ray Harryhausen with their princesses in clingy outfits or the films of Hammer and their cavewomen (who were miraculously good with hair and makeup for the era) had those moments in between the suspense that had us leaning forwards in our seats, even if in our early days we didn’t quite understand what was pulling us in that direction.
Even though it wasn’t that great of a film, Flash Gordan teased us with Princess Aura, daughter of Ming the Merciless, who was both beautiful and dangerous. A seductive foil in the unwitting love triangle between herself, Flash, and the more pure-hearted Dale Arden. It was never in doubt who he would choose but it’s flattering to know women are plotting against each other to win your heart.
For the most part, though, it’s reasonable to understand why these productions would want to stop just short of what they were suggesting. There’s a bottom line to think about but it’s clear by a lot of artwork created for comic books, paperbacks, and illustrated magazines that people around the world knew what lay just beyond the edge of the cinema screen. Here are some examples of what the realm of sci-fi/fantasy had to offer in print.
If you’re going to fight for survival on distant planets or prehistoric realms, it’s nice to know there’s some attractive company on your side.
Those That Push The Boundaries But Fall Short
Then of course there were the movies that delivered. Some of these movies were charming in a corny kind of way, mostly produced by the kind of B-movies, Roger Coman. Movies like Sorceress, The Warrior & The Sorceress, Galaxy of Terror, and most famously Cannon Films’ Life Force all try their best to have some legitimate entertainment value but they are exceptions, rather than the rule.
On most occasions, being risque was more of a substitute for any kind of fun or engaging story. It was something that the cynical production companies would do, believing that they could make a quick buck just by throwing naked women up on the screen, not giving any care to the cheap sets, bad camera work, and non-existent story. I guess they were right to some degree but honestly at that point, why even bother? If all you want is naked women then just go into adult entertainment. I know this sounds like an odd thing to say but that’s not why I’m here.
It’s A Recipe For Thrills And The Ingredients Need To Work Together
No, it’s true. I want to create something that takes everything I’ve talked about and puts them together in the right combination.
If we were talking about food, this would be like creating a spicy dish that would be too much for the kids (you’d be a bad person for letting them eat it) and sometimes even the adults but consumed with a pint of Logar from time to time hits the spot.
We’re not talking about a night out at a nice restaurant or health food but we’re not talking about fast food, either. It’s the rich colors, the cheap but creative sets, the creatures, the heroes, and a few more sprinkles of sexy than you’d normally allow, all mixed together and given a modern twist that is the advances in filmmaking technology that we have available today.
There’s an audience for it. If that weren’t so, then why would society feel the need to put Kate Upton on a Zero-G airplane…
…or heap attention on Princess of Mars cosplayers?
It’s more than that. It’s the promise that the adventures to be had will come with stories to tell that would make any listener’s eyes go as wide as their knuckles turn white.
What Is The Perfect Combination?
This is something I’ve not only been thinking about for years but experimenting with. I’ll write another time about the first attempt at a Girl In The Window all green screen, grindhouse-style short film. Miniatures were built, storyboards were drawn, VFX were created, and actors came in to play the roles, yet a final product didn’t come together, although you can get an idea of what it would have been from this video.
I will be coming back to that particular script someday but for now, I’m focused on a new story for the anthology called Escape From Planet Omega-12, the story of a woman marooned on an alien world where she must fight for survival. I’ve posted some other artwork for that in previous articles but here are a few of the early sketches I made as the seeds of the idea started to take shape.
This particular project will be in a more stripped-down style, probably animated, to start us off but as we move forward I hope that we can jump into all sorts of different styles, including live-action.
I don’t know what it will ultimately turn into but I know that where we’re heading looks awesome. The fact that we’re doing it on a budget with miniatures, green screens, puppets, and kit-bashed props will all add to its charm. We’re not going for real. We’re going for make-believe where we don’t have to worry about reality for a few hours. I hope you’ll be in on the journey with us for the long haul.
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