This is SF!


The movie takes place in an alternate reality, war-torn Sweden. Interesting how genre never is applied to Bergmans movies. I´m certainly not the only fan of SF and horror that would love his work. I would also argue that Whispers and Cries and especially Hour of the Wolf are Horror Movies.

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To me, the essential defining element for something to be "science fiction" is that it includes some fictional science or technology. I can't think of any such tech (or science) in Shame, so I wouldn't consider it to be SF.

If being set in some alternate reality or time line was something that defined a work as being "science fiction", then you would have to call *many* things "science fiction" that *nobody* *ever* applies that label to. All of the movies that take place in (or about) fictional contries / kingdoms would then have to called SF. That includes such things as: lots of 1930's musical comedies including a number starring Maurice Chevalier and / or Jeanette MacDonald; some Marx Brothers comedies; even some Three Stooges comedies. These are not science fiction as anybody that I've ever seen defines it, but settings in countries such as "Freedonia" does put them in alternate realities.

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Of course "Hour of the Wolf" is horror, and is widely regarded as such.

"Shame" isn't science-fiction, but belongs to a similar genre called 'speculative fiction.'

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I wouldn't exactly call it a sci-fi film--just an intriguing 'what-if' treatise on war, making an island and its properties being wrestled over, as if by the two superpowers of the Cold War. Though Hour of the Wolf is definitely horror, I don't believe Cries and Whispers to be--it just seems the ennui of two sisters being completely unable to connect. Though it's not a pleasant experience, it's a distinctly different one from horror. Interesting theories though, and a good post, herlofsen.

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Where's the science?

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Uh, I don't think Ingmar Bergman would agree with you that he made science fiction and horror movies. And neither do I.

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I don't think it is science fiction either. On the other hand, I would go out and say Shame is a dystopian work that precedes a lot of other dystopian works whether it is The Long Walk by Stephen King, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and its subsequent film adaptation, The Hunger Games trilogy, and The Walking Dead TV series. This film seems to be ahead of its time when you combine it with those other works of fiction and the screen.

I watched Shame last night and even read the screenplay. What a great movie!


Cast Away...It's like Forrest Gump, but on an island.

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I would not agree that Cries and Whispers is a horror film, although I certainly see where you are coming from: there are elements in the film that are horrific; but if you were to recommend the film to most horror fans, I think they wouldn't see it as horror, although hopefully they would enjoy it regardless.

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