ANIMAL HOUSE: A Sci-Fi Marathon
Our first film will be Night of the Lepus (1972), featuring monstrous
hares made bigger and bigger by a malfunctioning birth-control serum, followed
by Them! (1954), in which atomic radiations produce gigantic ants,
and finally by Black Scorpion (1957), in which gigantic insects are
unearthed to threaten the world.
Small, microscopic creatures reach hideous proportions and become a menace
to be erased at any cost; what scares is both their huge number and the possibility
of their infinite multiplication. The human race is in danger, and the only
solution requires a long, dreadful fight.
Here are three cult movies from the classic science fiction era, the one picturing
man as a victim of his own inventions, giving shape to nightmares of potential,
fatal invasions, looking at the future through the qualms of the present,
those anxieties that unfold disorder and frailty in everyday certainties.
The marathon will start around midnight on Friday, 16 March. Comfort goods
will be provided to the brave who will resist for the whole session.
Featured films
Night of the Lepus (Usa, 1972, 88’), dir. William
F. Claxton
Them! (Usa, 1954, 94’), dir. Gordon Douglas
The Black Scoprion (Usa, 1957, 88’), dir. Edward Ludwig
