Introduction: Mutant bears, defrosted parasites and cellphone swarms: Creature features and the environment

For years, the two of us have had a ritual of binging on creature features while drinking wine and eating chocolate together. Bridgitte shares this ritual (minus the alcohol) with her kids, and Christy has had many bad-movie parties with other friends, too. We get a lot of joy from this, laughing at scientists’ bad decisions, at oversized and sinister insects, at often horrible dialogue. Anyone who has seen Birdemic: Shock and Terror (Nguyen US 2010) knows the joy of the terrible. Anyone who has seen Night of the Lepus (Claxton US 1972) knows the beauty of rabbits destroying a model town. Why is this so pleasurable, though? What makes a movie so bad it’s good?¹ The two of us are not alone in loving movies like these; a shared passion for the weird and unruly builds community, and this communal experience tends to be important to their enjoyment.² As a subgenre of ‘science fiction film and television’ featuring nonhuman creatures at odds with humanity, creature features have been popular for decades. They combine pleasure, fear, horror and sf, which is perhaps part of their draw – the familiar surprise of them. Recognisable tropes of scientists with god complexes, folks wandering into dark spaces as we yell at them not to, and surprising and entertaining mutant creatures all evoke strong – and not necessarily negative – audience response.

In this special issue, we take seriously a category of sf that is often not taken seriously. The general assumption has long been that creature features are silly, don’t focus on big ideas and don’t show off the best of the genre.³ And this assumption isn’t exactly wrong. Creature features are typically not meant to be taken seriously. They are frequently B movies, produced on small budgets and messier than Hollywood’s norm in terms of creature design, props, plot and performance. They are sometimes exploitative, relying on shocking creatures or violence to draw attention and to entertain. They are also a mix of sf and horror, a bit monstrous themselves. This hybridity is at the heart of creature features. Although creature features can be silly and not all are (or aspire to be) good, we argue for taking these unserious texts seriously while still having fun, for both finding pleasure in them and using them to think with. While they are often unserious, after all, they do take up serious issues. More specifically, we argue that creature features provide a space for considering environmental issues. Through fun and fear, they often lead viewers to identify or empathise with the creatures and against the humans making bad decisions, and such responses make creature features especially fruitful texts for environmental messages and analyses.

The pleasure found in creature features is multifaceted. There is not one simple answer to the question of why we enjoy these films and shows, but we can offer some possibilities. Some of these films’ pleasures are located in the creatures themselves. As the term ‘creature feature’ itself indicates, these movies feature some kind of creature: prehistoric beasts come back to life, gigantic animals, hordes of creepy-crawlies or simply ‘normal’ animals attacking humans. Some movies also turn to less tangible or less recognisable creatures, like microbes, fog or blobs. In any case, there is some creature for the audience to fear – or perhaps to root for. The explanations for the creatures also give audiences a chance to consider the what if of science-fictional speculation. What if dinosaurs were resurrected (accidentally or intentionally)? What if oversized spiders invaded? What if, as in Frogs (McCowan US 1972), telepathic frogs ordered other animals to attack rich, polluting humans? These can be intriguing thought experiments while also being something to laugh at.

The films’ methods of presenting the creatures are another source of pleasure. The creatures might be scary, sympathetic, silly or a combination of all three. But each of these reactions brings its own kind of fun. For example, kaiju suitmation makes Gamera’s acrobatic fight in Gamera vs...