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Sci-fi and horror movies have always offered viewers a safe way to stare into the abyss. To reckon with the very worst parts of human nature while indulging in fictitious “what if?” visions of undead hordes, shape-shifting aliens, and interdimensional beasties.
But these days, those comfortingly distant what-ifs have been hitting a lot closer to home. And, as a consequence, many hallmarks of sci-fi and horror films have felt less and less hypothetical. Be it maddening isolation, mass hysteria, or the life-threatening incompetence of callous leadership, the resonances are palpable. Leaving many a genre fan nodding slowly in solidarity at their screens.
Plenty of folks are feeling the rhymes between genre fare and the ongoing global pandemic. And some of those folks are putting all this terrifyingly bountiful spare time to use in pursuit of the noblest art: the humble supercut. Editor Evan Gorski and filmmaker Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) have arranged a montage that is, in essence, a cinematic roadmap of the coronavirus so far, as relayed through impossibly prescient beats in horror and sci-fi.
Their supercut straddles a fine line between cautious optimism and exasperated fear (Gloria Gaynor thumps as we’re reminded of how precarious and uneasy everyday life has truly become; an on the nose combo). Horror and sci-fi have plenty of advice on how to survive in a perilous time. Whether we’ll heed their warnings remains to be seen.
You can watch “EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW TO SURVIVE #COVID19 I LEARNED BY WATCHING SCI-FI & HORROR MOVIES“:
Who made this?
The mashup was created by Evan Gorski and Michael Dougherty. Dougherty is the director behind such genre fare as Krampus, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and the fantastic holiday horror anthology Trick’r Treat.
More Videos Like This
- None of us are going to have company over for a while so here’s a “we’ve got company” supercut to tide you over
- And on that note, here’s a supercut of folks being handcuffed together; a physical distancing violation fantasy for some, a shackled-together-during-the-pandemic reality for others
- “I Can’t Stop Watching Contagion” by Dan Olson of Folding Ideas
- Film Radar on the neuroscience of fear in John Carpenter’s The Thing
- Speaking of survival, here’s Dr. Urdu on the tenacity of the slasher genre
- “The Shining — Quietly Going Insane Together” by Lessons from the Screenplay
- Here’s Jacob Geller on the soothing comfort of horror video game soundtracks
Related Topics: Short Films, The Queue
