The Top 10 Best Space Horror Movies
5. Prometheus
One of the biggest questions in the history of man is, “where did we come from.” While a lot of people like to think a bearded guy in the clouds made us because he was bored one day, the next film on this list of space horror movies has a very different idea. The film revolves around a group of explorers that discover an ancient civilization of what they dub to be “The Engineers.” These aliens used advanced technology to break down and reshape DNA in order to create new life on planets throughout the universe. Well, the humans that discover these aliens decide to go messing about with things they don’t understand and you can guess how that goes. Of course, it doesn’t help that they have a psycho android with them who is really curious to see what happens to humans when they are exposed to this technology.
4. Sunshine
Not all space horror movies have vicious aliens in them. Sometimes being out in the endless nothing just gets to you, man. In his quest to tackle every genre known to man, director Danny Boyle took to the stars for Sunshine. The film follows a group of scientists on a journey to restart our dying sun with a colossal bomb. I’m no astrophysicist, but I don’t think that’s how stars work. Still, it’s best not to nitpick the science of space horror movies. On their journey, they discover the distress signal of the failed first mission to restart the sun. They make a detour to see if there are any survivors and that’s when everything starts going wrong. See, space madness is apparently a thing, and the lone survivor of the previous ship has a real bad case of it. He sneaks aboard the Icarus II and proceeds to wreak chaos on the ship and her crew.
3. Pandorum
The thing about space horror movies is that more often than not, they’re guilty pleasures. I’ll be the first to admit that Pandorum is kind of stupid when you take a step back and look at it. However, it’s just so engrossing when it’s playing that it gets pretty easy to ignore its faults. In the far future, mankind has wrecked the Earth to the point that several ships were sent out to find new worlds with 60,000 cryogenically frozen humans on board. Two officers are supposed to be awakened every so many years to maintain the ship and make sure they don’t fly into the sun or anything like that. Well, when the newest batch (Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid) unfreeze for their shift, they quickly realize something is very wrong. The ship is in severe distress and they aren’t the only things awake onboard…
2. Event Horizon
It’s arguable that Event Horizon is an absolutely terrible film. However, it’s also one of the best space horror movies ever made simply because of how absurd it is. It’s one of those “so-bad-its-incredible” films that you can’t help but love. In the distant future, a new method of faster-than-light travel has been invented that holds the universe to connect two points. Now, I already think nothing good can come of messing with the fabric of reality like that. However, horror movies wouldn’t exist if people played it smart. It straight up disappeared for seven years before being rediscovered with no signs of the previous crew. As a new team investigates it, they discover a Lovecraftian horror at the center of the mystery as it appears that the ship actually went to hell and came back. Turns out the supernatural and space mix pretty well, and I’m looking forward to seeing the upcoming series based on it.
1. Alien
Usually, I try not to include multiple films from the same franchise on lists, but Prometheus was a different enough concept that I felt okay making an exception for this collection of space horror movies. Besides, Alien is one of the best films of all time, so of course, it was going to earn the top spot here. It’s a twisted gothic horror tale with one of the scariest aliens in film history doing battle with one of the greatest final girls of all time (and her kitty). The claustrophobic feeling of the cramped ship with a shadowy figure lurking in the vents hunting down everyone on board the ill-fated USS Nostromo. Alien will make your skin crawl with its perfect blend of suspense, body horror, and haunting imagery. The film famously advertises that “in space, no one can hear you scream,” but that won’t stop you from trying during this masterpiece of horror.
Those are my personal picks for the best space horror movies. There are a lot out there that might be more high brow or better examples of cinema, but the ones above are a perfect combination of fun and well-executed. Still, if you think there’s one I should have included, make sure you tell me in the comments below. As always, I’ll be updating this list as new and improved space horror movies hit the big screen. So, be sure to check back from time to time in order to see how the rankings might change.