Reminds me of Dr. Who. Take out the nationalism, that won't fly today, and not just because its politically incorrect. It just doesn't fit the times, at least not in the US.
The difference between a thriller and horror is that in horror, the hero can't hope to fight the antsgonist and win; its too inhumanly powerful. The best anyone can do is outsmart it, usually by discovering its single critical weakness in time. The hero has to be smart, not tough.
The optimism might have to be adjusted as well. Unquestioning enthusiasm is seen as naive now. Overall, the tone might need to be darker, more "realistic" than it was back then. Unless you want to go for a deliberately retro feel. We may be about due for a backlash against the whole antihero thing anyway.
I've watched plenty of old '50s and '60s sci-fi movies over the course of my life, and however campy many of them have been, I just can't help but notice that once one looks past how goofy and flawed the special effects were, at their core there were some very important themes to those flicks that would do well in a modern day revival of the Atomic Horror (now called Science Horror) Genre. I will start this post by describing all of the things that made the genre what it was in detail:
SCIENCE: Always a crucial part of the genre, whether it be a means of creating monsters or a tool for the heroes to put down those same monsters. It could also be a tool for the dirty communists or alien invaders, but the bottom line is that whatever the weirdness going on in one of these stories the supernatural would not be behind it. There might be reference to God now and then, but that was secondary to the plot.
THE FUTURE: The attitude towards it was always optimistic. With the science and technology at our disposal, we were going to change the world for the better. At least that's what the heroes are trying to do. There were all sorts with different agendas in mind, which brings us to...
PARANOIA: Whereas towards the future there was plenty of optimism, for the present there was just as much fear. Fear of communists, fear of aliens, fear of juvenile delinquents, fear of organized crime, and I really could go on and on. The people of 1950s America were taught always to be on the lookout for all sorts of folk looking to bring and end to the all the be good and just. And this last yet most crucial part of the Science Horror genre of that era is...
NATIONALISM: Any hope for the future portrayed in these movies lay in the U.S.A, the nation the audience called home. The paranoia held in the present was held because those the audience were supposed to fear were threats to the American nation and thus, it was said, ultimately the world. The science and technology were potential tools to be used for either good or evil, and nationalism is a key part of how good and evil were defined,
Much of this, is more the zeitgeist of the times. What I want to now is two-fold:
1.How can I update this genre for today's zeitgeist? 2.Will it be any different from the techno-thriller genre if I do so?
edited 1st Oct '13 10:28:46 PM by goldenerasuburb