Vintage Poster Exhibit: Science Fiction Double Feature

On display Spring 2025: a vintage poster exhibition from writer & collector Barry Yuen.

By special request, I’m putting together an exhibit on Science Fiction films, which is a genre I don’t normally collect on. It’s a difficult genre to collect, because the most desirable titles, from Science Fiction’s Golden Age, are very difficult to find. I would have liked to have things like EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS or THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN or I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, but no dice. (The best I can do is show you reproductions of the poster art.) But I do have some pieces on hand to display. Science Fiction has been an enduring genre since films began, with George Melies’ A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) being one of the earliest examples, along with METROPOLIS (1927). The Science fiction genre can be used to instill a sense of wonder (see Spielbergs’ CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND), but more often than not, it served as an expression of society’s fears, like fear of invasion (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) fear of technological advances and a distrust of science (think of the many “Mad Doctor” movies and their crazy experiments which bring about havoc, and the many giant bugs on the loose movies, like TARANTULA and THE DEADLY MANTIS, some of which were the result of mankind playing around with atomic radiation) and fears that the future might not as wonderful as we hoped it would be (many visions of a dystopian future, like FAHRENHEIT 451, SOYLENT GREEN, LOGAN’S RUN, PLANET OF THE APES, etc).

“Live Long and Prosper”
Barry Yuen (January 2025)
“Remember: Future Events like these will affect you – in the future!” – Plan 9 from Outer Space