The Top 10 Best Space Horror Movies
In Space Horror Movies, No One Can Hear You Scream.
Some call space the final frontier, but I like to call it one of the best settings for horror films. That’s why I’ve decided to pull together a list of the best space horror movies of all time. Honestly, space absolutely terrifies me. There’s the empty void of vast nothingness that you can just drift off into for all eternity, every kind of radiation under (and from) the sun spreads out with nothing to stop it, micrometeorites are flying around at 22,500 mph, not to mention the whole not being able to survive more than 90 seconds in the unforgiving vacuum of it all. Space is pretty scary all on its own, but throw in a monster or psychopath, and it becomes the ultimate example of “nowhere to run” cinema. Now, a lot of horror franchises have sent the likes of Pinhead, Jason Vorhees, and even the Leprechaun out into space, but those films were also pretty awful. I’m hoping to give you some better films on this list. The only rule is that the film has to take place almost entirely in space (this includes alien planets). So, make sure the pod bay doors are functioning and you have plenty of oxygen because this list is starting docking procedures.
10. Infini
I’m starting this list of space horror movies off with a flick not a lot of people have heard of. I actually stumbled upon Infini late one night on Netflix, and it looked like the typical B-scifi flick that you’d expect to see released straight to video. I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Set in the far future, soldiers use dangerous teleportation technology to instantly travel across the galaxy to where they’re needed. Not everyone survives the dangerous journey, but the ones in this movie do. They arrive on a science outpost that’s had a biological outbreak. It turns out the specimen is an alien life-form that can infect, mimick, and dominate any biological tissue it encounters. As this becomes clear, the soldiers begin to suspect that they might not all be human anymore.
9. Europa Report
Up next on this list of space horror movies is a pretty intriguing mockumentary about the first manned mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Apparently the company behind the mission believes there might be life there under the frozen surface of the moon. The team consists of several experts from around the world played by a few recognizable actors like Sharlto Copley, Daniel Wu, and Michael Nyqvist. Things seem pretty okay at first as they venture further than any human has ever traveled. Once they reach the moon, things start to head south fast. At first, it seems like accidents are claiming the astronauts’ lives, but it soon becomes clear that something more is at work. “Luckily,” the company decides to release the footage to scare the crap out of all us civilians.
8. Predators
I love the Predator series (Yeah, even The Predator). However, all of them take place on Earth except for the third film Predators. The twist this time is that the intergalactic big game hunters have abducted the most dangerous humans they could find and released them into an extraterrestrial game preserve to be hunted. Now, when I say “most dangerous humans they could find,” I mean exactly that. The group consists of assassins, mercenaries, cartel enforcers, and even serial killers. At first, they aren’t exactly team players, but a common enemy quickly changes that for them as they realize their best chance of survival is working together. Predators might not be the best in the franchise, but it’s definitely not the worst. In fact, it’s a personal guilty pleasure.
7. Pitch Black
One thing that always comes in handy in space horror movies is an unstoppable alien killer to help even the odds a little. There have been a lot over the years, but Vin Diesel’s Riddick has always been a personal favorite of mine. He first appeared in the low-budget, but well-executed Pitch Black. He’s among a group of space travelers that crash lands on a planet with three suns. At first, the survivors are worried that the heat and lack of water will kill them, but that concern is quickly moved to the back burner when they discover that the planet is infested with nocturnal apex predators. The whole three suns thing should keep them safe, right? Well, you’d think that but a solar eclipse quickly changes all that. Good thing they’ve got a monster of their own to release on the aliens.
6. Life
In the immortal words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, “life, uh, uh, finds a way.” One rule of space horror movies is to never let anything on your ship, no matter how tiny and harmless it might seem. Sure, I get the whole science argument. After all, who wouldn’t want to have some cool alien named after them? Well, the characters in Life learn the hard way that the arrogance of movie scientists often leads to their downfall (if not the downfall of mankind). When astronauts aboard the international space station retrieve a deep space probe, they discover that a tiny life form has hitched a ride on it. The little bastard soon starts a reign of terror on board as it continues to evolve and mutate the more it eats. Realizing how bad it would be if the thing got down to Earth, the astronauts desperately try to escape before it can make a meal out of them.