Fear of the unknown has always been the other side of the urge to know. Our distant ancestors knew that something terrible awaited them in the darkness around the flame. And when space exploration opened up the boundless darkness of outer space to millions, our imaginations were filled with new terrifying fantasies: mysterious monsters attacking starships and hostile aliens abducting people or insidiously penetrating their bodies. We have collected the best sci-fi horror films that shocked the audience decades ago and still do not leave them indifferent today.
Content
Year of release: 2022
Director: Jordan Peele
IMDb rating: 6.8
It has become a tradition that every next film by the master of «smart» horror Jordan Peele reinterprets genre tropes. In the sci-fi horror film Nope, he takes us to a remote horse ranch in California, whose owners, brother, and sister Otis and Emerald, notice an unusual phenomenon in the sky.
When a mysterious «something» appears over the valley, the animals start to get worried and the machinery breaks down. Gradually, it becomes clear that this is not just a strange cloud, but a living, aggressive, and predatory extraterrestrial being. And the attempts to set a trap to catch the giant alien on camera turn out to be much more dangerous than anyone could have imagined.
The film contains so many references and layers that the debate about its true meaning has not died down to this day. Some say that Nope explores the nature of fear, while others see it as a satire on our obsession with spectacle and our willingness to risk our lives for a good selfie and a bunch of likes on social media.
Year of release: 2020
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
IMDb rating: 6.5
Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary body horror master David Cronenberg, has followed in his starry father’s footsteps and created a disturbing sci-fi horror full of blood splatter and heartbreaking violence. However, its technological premise is also interesting.
The film’s protagonist, Tasia Vos, uses brain implants to take over people’s minds and use their bodies to commit murder. At the same time, their memories are not deleted, as, for example, in the FOX series «Dolls Club», but remain somewhere on the edge of consciousness. During her latest mission, this puts Tasia in danger when the sinister personality of her new victim, Colin, begins to resist enslavement and causes a violent identity crisis.
It should be noted that we also wrote about the transfer of consciousness into other bodies in an article dedicated to clones in science fiction movies. In particular, they mentioned the cyberpunk series «Altered Carbon» based on the novel of the same name by Richard Morgan and another work by Brandon Cronenberg, and the sci-fi thriller «The Infinite Pool».
Year of release: 2020
Director: Lee Vannell
IMDb rating: 7.1
Australian director Lee Vannell has turned the familiar H.G. Wells sci-fi story into a chilling tale of domestic violence and abusive relationships. Elisabeth Moss plays Si, the wife of a wealthy engineering genius and billionaire Adrian Griffin, who virtually holds her captive and controls her every move.
When Griffin seems to die, it seems that the heroine has finally gained her long-awaited freedom. But soon Xi realizes that her husband is alive. Moreover, he uses his inventions to stay close to her and ruin her life while remaining invisible.
Throughout the film, the authors skilfully stir up our suspicion, focusing on seemingly empty interiors for a long time and making us peer into every dark corner where an invisible threat might be hiding. You think that the curtains in your room have just fluttered because of a draft… but is it really?
Year of release: 2009
Director: Christian Alvert
IMDb rating: 6.7
The fear of the unknown, the cold of limitless space, the madness that engulfs the characters in prolonged isolation, and terrifying monsters — all these elements of space horror are gathered in the 2009 film «Pandorum», which follows the well-trodden path of «Alien» and «Beyond the Horizon», but manages to be unlike any of them.
The film takes place on the interstellar ark «Elysium», which carries 60 thousand colonists in a state of hypersleep to one of the habitable remote planets. After an indeterminate amount of time, two crew members, Corporal Bauer and Lieutenant Peyton, wake up to find that something has gone wrong. The power is out, most of the passengers are dead, and hordes of mutants roam the ship’s corridors.
As if that weren’t enough, the characters have lost their memories and have no idea who they are, what they’re supposed to do, or what happened. Confused and disoriented, they can’t get to the Ark’s control center and contact the rest of the crew, but they must restart the reactor and return the ship to its original course at all costs. After all, the Earth to which they could return ceased to exist eight years after their launch.
Year of release: 2018
Director: John Krasinski
IMDb rating: 7.5
In the world of «A Quiet Place», silence is not just golden, but a chance to stay alive among the terrifying alien monsters with supernatural hearing that have overrun the planet and are forcing the remnants of humanity to survive in remote «A Quiet Place».
Watching the emotional film by «Office» star John Krasinski is like walking on a knife’s edge. The slightest deviation from the rules or even a quiet whisper can lead to an instant disaster or a face-to-face meeting with a monster that will make you beg for death.
Year of release: 1999
Director: David Tuohy
IMDb rating: 7.0
A ship carrying a dangerous prisoner, Riddick, is heavily damaged and crash-lands on a desert planet in a three-star system. Taking advantage of the unplanned stop, the prisoner escapes. But while the survivors search for him, they are hunted by local creatures that avoid daylight but are deadly in the dark.
Soon the heroes realize that the planet is about to plunge into darkness during a total eclipse of all three stars. And if they want to survive, they have to trust Riddick with his unique eyesight. As the eclipse begins, flocks of creepy creatures resembling flying starfish with shark teeth emerge from the caves.
Deprived of prey, they do not hesitate to attack and devour each other in the air, showering those below with blue blood and entrails. The only defense the team has against the monsters is the light of their homemade torches. However, when their lights begin to fade and the voracious creatures gather on the edge of darkness, the path to salvation turns into a nightmare.
Year of release: 1997
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
IMDb rating: 6.6
Continuing in the tradition of «Alien», Event Horizon tells us a fairly familiar story: an abandoned spaceship, a crew sent to explore it, and an unknown enemy lurking in the dark labyrinths of the corridors. However, the director’s vivid imagination creates something more than just terrifying, but still flesh-and-blood monsters.
According to the plot, the spaceship «Event Horizon», which is believed to be lost in deep space, suddenly returns to orbit around Neptune. A rescue team led by «Matrix» star Laurence Fishburne tries to figure out where it has been all these years and what happened to the crew.
It seems that the mystery of the ship, which looks like a torture chamber and a Gothic cathedral at the same time, can be rationally explained by wormholes, artificial black holes, hyperdrives, and other fantastic achievements of future science. But its demonic engine not only «adds up to» space, but also destroys the boundaries of our reality, letting in hellish evil and plunging the team members into their worst nightmares.
Year of release: 1978
Director: Philip Kaufman
IMDb rating: 7.4
The second cinematic adaptation of Jack Finney’s novel «Body Snatchers» tells the story of an alien race that secretly replaces humans with perfect biological copies. The film takes us to San Francisco, where strange flowers start appearing that have never been seen before, and many people notice that their partners have suddenly become cold and distant.
Health Department inspector Matthew Bennell tries to get to the bottom of the problem. His psychiatrist friend, played by «Star Trek» star Leonard Nimoy, explains the strange behavior of people with a kind of «psychological flu». But Matthew sees with his own eyes a half-formed copy of his friend and realizes that they are dealing with a targeted attack by some mysterious forces.
«Invasion of the Body Snatchers» is filled with gruesome scenes that capture the imagination for a long time. Just think of the human heads crawling out of alien flowers like strange fruits. Or the eerie moment when the protagonist hesitates, not daring to smash the cocoon that becomes an exact copy of him right before his eyes.
Philip Kaufman’s paranoia-soaked horror also has one of the most striking final twists. We see Matthew performing the horrifying gesture that aliens usually use to indicate uninfected people, and we realize that one of the last members of the resistance has been replaced by a copy.
Year of release: 1986
Director: David Cronenberg
IMDb rating: 7.6
David Cronenberg’s fantastic horror films are enough for a whole selection. We can only mention «Scanners» and the bizarre «Videodrome». But we chose «The Fly», where the director’s favorite mutations and bodily transformations are depicted in all their glory. In the story, an eccentric scientist Seth Brandle develops a teleportation technology, for which objects are «disassembled» into molecules in one device, the so-called «telepod», and then reassembled in another.
After a successful test on the monkey, Seth decides to teleport himself. He does not notice that an ordinary housefly has accidentally flown into the telepod. During the process, the DNA of the hero and the insect mix, and Seth gradually turns into a nightmarish hybrid of a man and a fly. This transformation is shown in eerie detail, and the most striking thing is the simultaneous loss of his inner «me».
Year of release: 1982
Director: John Carpenter
IMDb rating: 8.2
A group of scientists at a research station in Antarctica finds a mysterious alien that can assimilate living beings and take on their appearance. When the heroes realize that any of them could be infected, the station is plunged into an oppressive atmosphere of mutual suspicion and paranoia.
Even 40 years after its premiere, the film’s terrifying visuals continue to be a real source of nightmares. And its extremely ambiguous ending still causes controversy and has given rise to many crazy fan theories.
For example, that the creature did not initially show aggression, and that it was forced to attack people because of their reckless behavior. Or that it was created by an alien race of Engineers from the «Alien» franchise to be used as a biological weapon against xenomorphs. I must admit that it would be quite interesting to see such a crossover.
Year of release: 1979
Director: Ridley Scott
IMDb rating: 8.5
More than 45 years ago, viewers first met the crew of the space tug «Nostromo» and witnessed Officer Ripley’s deadly battle with a sinister xenomorph. However, «Alien» continues to top the rating of nightmares about space. The reason is that the authors managed to combine a whole bunch of our biggest phobias in the movie.
Thus, the fear of confined space is amplified by the opposite fear of the icy hostility of the boundless space. And the claustrophobia in the narrow corridors of the ship is exacerbated by the presence of a flawless alien predator somewhere nearby and makes us feel as vulnerable as the characters in the movie.
The second part of the eerie puzzle «Alien» — is our subconscious fear of illness and invasion of the body by something alien. The face grabber acts like a perfect parasite that paralyzes the victim, penetrates inside and places something alien and deadly inside. This appeals to our basic instinct — the innate desire to survive and maintain the integrity of the body.
Another group of phobias that make Ridley Scott’s horror so effective is a distrust of technology. The android Ash in the film looks no different from humans, but he is completely devoid of compassion and acts against the interests of the crew from the very beginning. It’s hard to think of a better illustration of the fear that intelligent machines are just waiting for the right moment to get out of control and rob us of our future.
The final proof of the cult status of the «Alien» franchise is its prolificacy. Seven films have already been released in the main series alone, including the latest and highly successful horror «Stranger: Romulus». And in August 2025, we will see the premiere of a fantastic TV series «Alien: Earth»which will be a prequel to the first movie and will feature at least five types of monsters, including the usual xenomorph for the series.