1. AS Film Studies
Amercian Cinema: Comparison
of two Sci-Fi films

2. The exam question will ask you to comment on the MACRO
aspects of the two films you have studied.
MACRO aspects:
• Narrative
• Genre
• Themes
• Issues
The examiner wants you to compare and contrast the two
films studied in class.

3. Sci-Fi Mood Board
Produce a mood board collage of Sci-Fi film
posters from the 1950s and more recent Sci-Fi
film posters.
What themes and issues do your selected
films deal with? Are there any similarities
between your chosen films? Are there any
differences?
Would you say that Sci-Fi films have changed
with the times? Give reasons for your answer

4. Major themes in sci-fi films
Major themes:
• Science;
• Social concerns;
• Technology;
• Rationality;
• Politics and Ideology;
• Humanity versus science;
• Utopia and dystopia;
• The future
Which themes do you think are found in Invasion of the
Body Snatchers and The Invasion?

5. Mainstream sci-fi films have dealt with lots of
fears and concerns within society.
Although it is a very formulaic genre (many of
the narrative themes are repeated); it has
proved flexible and popular enough to embody
different fears at different times.

6. What fears do you think Invasion of the Body
Snatchers and The Invasion deal with?
You can think of explicit fears (those that are obvious
in the film); and implicit fears (the wider societal
fears the film might be dealing with).
Produce a table of ideas:
FILM EXPLICIT FEARS IMPLICIT FEARS
Invasion of the Body
Snatchers
The Invasion

7. Sci-fi has been very good at including different
genres; lots of recent sci-fi films rely heavily
on action/adventure films; other sci-fi films
have horror, zombie and thriller elements;
Films that mix more than one genre are known
as film ‘hybrids’.
They are blockbusters with A list stars and lots
of special effects;
What started as low-budget B-movies have
grown into multimillion dollar film franchises
with merchandising and video games.