The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Fandom refers to any kind of group that comes together around an interest in a particular film, tv series, celebrity, author or hobby. While fandom can equally be applied to rock groupies, model train enthusiasts and stamp collectors, the fandom we are concerned about here is genre fandom.
Fandom usually groups together in local clubs or online communities and especially at conventions. Conventions bring together authors or stars of a particular work, where people sell merchandising, autographs and memorabilia, hold talks and discussion panels and where fans engage in cosplay (dressing up in often elaborate costumes and makeup as their favourite characters). Conventions have grown to become major commercial events.
There have been a number of documentaries that depict the vagaries and (usually eccentricities) of fandom, beginning with Trekkies (1997) set around Star Trek fandom. A number of other fan niches have been covered.
There have been some fictional films depicting the lives of fans or works where fans are dragged into an adventure. These usually focus around SF fans, although there are some lesser depictions of horror and fantasy fans.
Filmmakers themselves are frequently fans and another form of fandom comes in terms of Genre Homage, where filmmakers are constantly paying tribute and making references to their favourite works.
A film spun out around a YouTube channel of videogame reviews. This sinks down into unfunny fannish in-joking, while the attempts to be a mock bad movie only seem silliness for its own sake
Fan-produced documentary about the making of the Back to the Future trilogy. The filmmakers get face time with almost everybody involved. Far less interesting are the scenes dealing with DeLorean restoration
Unclassifiable film about two fans trying to enact Mad Max fantasies. About the point when this delves down into a seriously disturbed mental space, the results are quite stunning
Joe Dante makes a zombie comedy. Dante is in his element and the film overspills with classic horror references but Dante feels like he is playing slow catch up with what the zombie genre has become
Documentary where William Shatner interviews the actors who played the captains in the other incarnations of Star Trek. The entire show is hijacked by the Shatner ego as he constantly overrides his interview subjects
An hilarious mockumentary directed by Mark Hamill set at the San Diego Comic Con, this spoofs various aspects of comic-book fandom and includes assorted celebrities sending themselves up
Documentary-maker Morgan Spurlock of Super-Size Me fame visits the San Diego Comic-Con and follows several attendees but comes away finding surprisingly little to say about the nature of fandom
Documentary about the comic-book that ends up trying to address everything and being so hopelessly watered down it feels like an attempt to explain everything to someone who has never read a comic-book before
Documentary about the popularity of zombie films, this covers the history of the genre in reasonable depth, even examines the historical origins and provides an amusing glimpse into the zombie’s pervasion of popular culture
A documentary devoted to the extras and bit players who appeared in Star Wars. Gently affectionate, it tells the story of people who never much else notable and how being part of such a cultural landmark impacted their lives
Affectionately made road trip film about four Star Wars fans on a journey to break into Skywalker Ranch. Packed with lots of witty fannish in-jokes and cameos, this comes out as enjoyable if broad at times
Forget The Fabelmans, this is a superlative autobiography of a filmmaker and the influence Star Wars had on his life. Neck-deep in fannish enthusiasm for the genre and the love of Super 8 filmmaking
Documentary about the life of Leonard Nimoy made for the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. Directed by Nimoy’s son Adam, this is mostly a biography tracing Nimoy’s life with some fascinating material showing the evolution of Spock
A charming Coming of Age story about kids who think they have discovered the Frankenstein monster. Comes packed with numerous genre homages and quotes
Two SF fans encounter real-life idol William Shatner. A film that writes about fandom knowingly and comes with an hilarious series of in-jokes and asides. Not to mention features Shatner parodying his own image
Science-fiction fans go time travelling in this British film that offers a good many wry fannish in-jokes mixed with a modestly clever time travel scenario
Documentary devoted to a fan following that grew up around Bret McKenzie who had only a single shot appearance as an elf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
An extremely funny parody of Star Trek that sends up both the show, the actors and the fandom. A very witty and knowing script that has definitely been written by fans
Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess visits the same territory with this comedy in which teenager Michael Angarano has his manuscript stolen by SF writer Jemaine Clement
The William Shatner directed documentary can be a unique beast. Here he makes a quite reasonable effort to examine what is at the heart of Star Trek fandom
A documentary that explores the intersection between heavy metal music and horror and the frequently intertwined relationship of the two
The Jeepers Creepers films created a highly original boogeyman with some creepy effect. Mired in controversy, the fourth entry in franchise emerges from Finnish director Timo Vuorensola
This has a winning concept – live-action roleplayers are forced to face a demon they accidentally conjure. Only it becomes a one-joke film with characters delivering mock mediaeval dialogue in falsettos
A fitfully amusing H.P. Lovecraft fanboy comedy. Lovecraft, a noted conservative, would likely have deplored the idea of the nerd comedy but this gets the flavour of Lovecraft’s works down better than most
A documentary about the making of the 1980 Flash Gordon and following the career of its star Sam J. Jones afterwards
A documentary about the making of the Child’s Play/Chucky films, this becomes an oddly touching work about family connections. Made by the daughter of series makeup effects artist Tony Gardner.
Satiric Argentinean animated film about a Martian stranded on Earth
Horror host John Stanley directs a film with an amusing premise where a famous horror actor known for playing a vampire turns out to be a vampire for real, causing problems when he turns up for a convention
Hilarious Simon Pegg-written homage to science-fiction fandom and alien visitor cinema. imagine Starman recast with two science-fiction fans and tv’s sarcastically wisecracking ALF (voiced by Seth Rogen)
Documentary about Star Wars fandom that critically takes on George Lucas’s merchandising and disappointment with the prequels
Strong and intelligent Spanish film that readily homages Philip K. Dick in its mind-expanding story of a science-fiction fan being contacting aliens
Revival of the Disney Witch Mountain films of the 1970s. Now the films have been dragged into the post-X Files era and flashy effects added to negligible result
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, a scene-for-scene remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark, shot on video by two teenagers over seven years, has become the stuff of legend. This is a documentary about its making, filled with hair-raising story of seat of the pants filmmaking
From the film’s poster, you could easily mistake this for a generic fantasy film – instead, we get a film about gaming nerds on a road trip. Much is drawn from Fanboys and this is not a particularly funny variant, although there are occasionally cute scenes that mimic Lord of the Rings
Film that concerns itself with slash – a form of fan fiction that imagines sexual relationships between the two male leads of various film and tv series. Some passable discussion of the fandom has been grafted onto a Coming of Age story in ways that only awkwardly gel
Occasionally amusing comedy where a group of fans set out to rescue the heroine’s unrequited crush from a house of vampires
Whether you loved or hated the crude and raucous, un-PC stoner/fratboy humour of Ted, Seth MacFarlane is back with exactly the same mix here. This manages to be offensive in an amiably inoffensive, even occasionally quite funny, way
A sequel to the Star Trek fandom documentary Trekkies. Here the filmmakers and Denise Crosby return to take in international fandom in all its permutations
A mind-boggling and frequently hilarious documentary that charts the eccentricities of Star Trek fandom, profiling the lives of several fans and how the fandom is part of their lives