The science fiction genre has produced a surprising number of scary movies over the years, but an oft-forgotten cult classic from the ’60s is one of the scariest of all time. While sci-fi generally explores new technology and the promise of a brighter future, it also offers a look at where technology can go wrong.
Early sci-fi movies were fantastical and imaginative, but that soon changed as the world entered the atomic age at the end of WWII. With new technology revolutionizing the Western world at an alarming rate, creators couldn’t help but imagine scenarios where the future wasn’t nearly so bright as promised. Real fears were exploited to make some truly compelling science fiction.
The B-movies of the ’50s gave way to more mature and introspective films in the ensuing decade. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes defined ’60s sci-fi, but one of the best of the decade slipped by unnoticed. Even 60 years later, the prescient chiller is still the stuff of sci-fi nightmares.
Seconds Is One Of The Scariest Sci-Fi Movies Of The ‘60s
Though it lacks outright terrors like later sci-fi horror films, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds pushed a lot of boundaries in 1966. The plot involves a mysterious company that performs full-body plastic surgery in order to give people entirely new lives and identities. As is always the case, body swapping comes at a high emotional price.
The science fiction elements are light, and it mostly plays out like a psychological thriller. Seconds moves slowly as the main character adjusts to his new life, only to find that he is just as unsatisfied as he was before. The horror comes from the tragedy of it all, and how helpless people become the victims of a sinister corporation.
The twist ending feels earned, and it helps to heighten the tragic storytelling and adds a moral lesson for the viewer. Like all great sci-fi movies, the themes of Seconds are applicable to real life, even if the plot is mostly impossible. However, it’s just possible enough to give the viewer nightmares as they contemplate their own fate.
Seconds Has Aged Surprisingly Well After 60 Years
Seconds is certainly a product of its time, and its themes speak directly to the culture of the mid 1960s. However, it still has power in the 2020s, especially since many of its concepts were prescient. Viewers in the ’60s had seen firsthand the horrors of misguided medicine, but modern viewers have witnessed the dehumanizing effect of technology.
Seconds was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards.
The movie is all about the loss of identity, something that is just as important now as it was back then. Society was changing rapidly in the ’60s, with massive cultural shifts happening overnight. Today, huge revolutions in technological advancement have interconnected the world at an impossible speed, but that comes with side effects.
The scariest part of Seconds is that the main character makes the choice he thinks is right, but it’s revealed he was never really in control. Free will is a theme seen consistently in science fiction, and it becomes even more important as a lot of the fantastical concepts of decades gone by become reality in the modern day.
Seconds
- Release Date
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October 2, 1966
- Runtime
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106 Minutes
- Director
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John Frankenheimer
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