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The "Golden Trio" of the Sci-Fi/Horror subgenre is.....


1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
2. Alien (1979)
3. The Thing (1982)

They don't make films like this anymore and it's so sad.
Any films to add?

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So true. They remake or do sequels.

Star Trek
Star Wars
The Exorcist

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The ironic thing about the original list is that two of the three films on it are remakes or sequels.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a 1956 film that starred Kevin McCarthy.
The filmmakers of the 1978 film acknowledged this by giving McCarthy a cameo in their film.
The Thing from Another World was a 1951 film that took place in the Arctic, while the The Thing took place in Antarctica.

My Golden Trio would be ...
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Exorcist (1973)

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You're absolutely right about The Thing from Another World (1951) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) BUT let's be honest - the 1978 Body Snatchers and the 1982 The Thing made (plus Alien) made the Sci-Fi/Horror subgenre that popular. We got so many films in this genre during the 80's and early 90's.

The Thing (1982) was more loyal to the novel than the 1951 film and added so many fresh moments. The 1978 Body Snatchers were scarier than the original as well

I love your golden trio but The Exorcist is not Sci-Fi/Horror

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Actually, Alien could be considered as a remake of 'It! The Terror From Beyond Space' (1958). The plot is extremely similar, including the scene with one guy trying to kill the Alien with fire in the air ducts, or the way they finally kill the Alien.

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I'll have to try to check that one out. I've never seen it.

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It's bad. I mean Atomic Era SciFi bad. It's an interesting watch, though, since you can compare with Alien which, using more or less the same plot, it's a masterpiece.

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"FORBIDDEN PLANET" is also one of my GOLDEN TRIO FAVORITES:

1. FORBIDDEN PLANET

2. BLADE RUNNER

3. BLADE RUNNER 2049

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They don't make films like this anymore and it's so sad.

Times have changed.

They were so good because they were based in the 70's and 80's realist cinema. Alien broke the usual 'heros in space' style in scifi to bring a drama about blue collar workers facing an unstoppable creature in an isolated spaceship. It felt real, that's why it was so scary. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) felt like a realist drama about a man against the system and how he slowly realizes that there's no hope.

They weren't soap. They weren't preachy. They established a scifi base and then built a realist movie on it.

That doesn't exist anymore. Movies don't try to be realist anymore, not even indie ones.

If you haven't watched Outland, watch it. It's not horror, it's a scifi western, but it has that same gritty realism from Alien. In iMDB, it scored 6.6. I think it's a masterpiece but, what do I know?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYc2GQyrAlw

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Thanks. I've seen "Outland" and I really LOVE it! For me, it's a masterpiece too but I may be biased here. I adore almost everything about Sci-Fi films taking place in space

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There was something about those old movies that I loved. The characters felt real, they felt like they were acting on their own. In modern movies and show, characters are just puppets. Sometimes you see clearly the threads and the agenda, other times it's just something feels off, like they are empty shells trying to pass for real people. You watch Outland, or Alien, or the Thing, and the characters seem real people making real choices.

That's something I loved too about the old Stephen King novels. He could set a playground, and the characters seemed like people with independent volition trying to survive. It's not by chance that his best period is the 70's/80's too. There was a realism, a lack of agenda in stories that I miss.

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Absolutely! These old films had the real ATMOSPHERE. You could feel it. Modern-day fanatics don't even know what "atmosphere" is. Our modern blockbusters are made in front of green screen - no real locations, no practical effects, no interesting story line or pacing with twists & turns.

Also, I loved to see older characters as the leads in those films. In modern films we have brainless and soooo annoying teen characters as the leads. What do they know? Why should I even care about them? So sad

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“These old films had the real ATMOSPHERE. You could feel it.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAyz1coj44

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You might really enjoy Prospect (2018). It's more Sci-fi/Thriller than Sci-Fi/Horror, but very well done.

Interesting story, lots of practical F/X, and gritty.
https://moviechat.org/tt7946422/Prospect

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Thanks!

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[deleted]

28 Days Later
The Fly

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I FIND THE 78 BODY SNATCHERS TO BE BORING...WOULDN'T BE ANYWHERE NEAR ANY LIST I MADE.

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a psychological horror movie

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Boring? Hmm that's interesting. I find the 1978 version to be the most exciting and intense among all 4 Body Snatchers films

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