D3athRider t1_iy56iza wrote on November 28, 2022 at 8:53 PM

>The Time Machine isn’t a science fantasy story, it’s a horror story, and it’s entire plot is essentially the author walking into progressively darker and more horrific versions of earth.

My perspective is that's its clearly meant as dystopian fiction rather than horror. H.G. Wells was on the socialist side of the political spectrum for most of his life, and the divide between the Morlocks and Eloi were, at least to me, obviously meant to comment on class war (workers vs capitalist elite/owners of the means of production). But I agree, I don't think I've seen an adaptation that reflects the social commentary side of the story. The message, in either case, is stripped away. Kind of like War of the Worlds was part social commentary on British colonialism.

highliner108 OP t1_iy57f9w wrote on November 28, 2022 at 8:59 PM

I definitely agree that it’s dystopian, I guess I’d just argue that those don’t have to necessarily irreconcilable, if that makes sense? Like, it’s definitely leaning towards the class war angle with Morlocks/Eloi, and with the 2100 society in “The Sleeper Wakes,” but I think when it moves to The Grey Man it’s kind of becoming more horror than social commentary, if only because rabbits and centipedes typically lack political prowess. Not to mention that the tentacle creatures at the end are kind of there own thing and I don’t think we learn where they come from, and they’re definitely more in the realm of horror.

Edit: also, when I say horror, part of it is also cosmic horror. Like, the idea of a giant centipede is scary, but not as scary as the idea that human society could eventually cause humans to become those centipedes.