Horror is a genre, sci-fi is a genre, and even sci-fi horror is a genre. But whereas a movie like The Faculty is sci-fi horror, it doesn’t take place in outer space. Outer space horror is a beast all of its own. Combining traditional horror elements with the claustrophobia, the desolation, and vast emptiness of space, a whole new level of terror can be added to a movie.
Unfortunately, outer space horror is a rarety in the film world. They require big budgets, excellent scripts, and a talented cast that can bring the sci-fi elements to life. But throughout the decades, a few solid films have been made that are everything horror and sci-fi fans could possibly want. Here are the 10 best outer space horror movies of all time.
Life (2017)
Based in the near future, Life chronicles what happens when the crew of the International Space Station discovers life on Mars. Shortly after reviving the dormant organism recovered from the planet, the crew soon learns that it’s much stronger than humans. Even worse…the more it eats, the faster it grows.
What makes Life so interesting is that it’s based in the not-s0-distant future, so rather than the crew has all the hi-tech tools of normal sci-fi movies, the ISS team in Life is forced to fight using the still-primitive outer space technology of today.
Pitch Black (2000)
Pitch Black was met with mixed reviews. The movie centers around a transport ship that’s headed to a distant planet. A comet destroys the ship, causing it to crash on an uninhabited planet. The planet is kept in constant sunlight thanks to numerous suns. However, lurking in the caves are ferocious aliens…luckily they’re photosensitive and can’t handle the daylight. But uh oh…there’s an eclipse on the horizon, which allows all of the blood-thirsty aliens to roam the planet.
Luckily, on-board the ship was Riddick, a criminal who has altered his eyes to be able to see in the dark. The film is insane in that way that all Vin Diesel films are. Yet, like all Vin Diesel films… You somehow get drawn in and can’t help but love them.
Pandorum (2009)
A massive space station that’s heading for a distant world is full of cannibalistic humanoids. Thousands of humans are locked in hypersleep, but those who are awake, are forced to fight, kill, and outwit not just the creatures, but each other. Worse yet, the ship receives a transmission from Earth that all life has been lost.
The floating station is all that remains of the human population. Dennis Quaid leads the cast, and the film was met with mixed reviews, being loved by sci-fi and horror fans, but being panned by critics.
Jason X (2001)
Jumping the shark is when something once-popular desperately tries to shock and awe…only making itself even more of a joke. But what happens when becoming the biggest joke ends up saving the brand? That’s exactly what happened with Jason X when someone decided that Jason Voorhees should leave Crystal Lake and instead run rampant around a spaceship in the year 2455.
The film was (obviously) decimated by critics, but has since gone on to be one of the most famous Jason films of all time. The horrific costumes, cheap scenery, and craptastic acting were just what the exhausted Jason brand needed.
Solaris (1972)
Director Andrei Tarkovsky made Solaris show that sci-fi didn’t have to just be about robots and spaceships. Instead, he wanted something haunting and powerful. The movie centers around a spaceship that’s orbiting a planet called Solaris. Strangely, the crew onboard the ship has fallen into a strange malaise, so a scientist is sent to investigate.
Once onboard, he too succumbed to the condition. There’s also an issue of dead people spontaneously appearing on the ship, which drives the few remaining crewmembers insane. The movie is a maddening psychological horror, and that’s exactly what the director wanted.
Ghosts of Mars (2001)
John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars was a massive box-office blow and led to Carpenter taking a long hiatus from directing. However, the movie’s failure wasn’t necessarily due to it being a horrible movie. The year before, both Red Planet and Mission to Mars had been released in theaters. By the time Ghosts of Mars came around, the nation was feeling a bit of a Mars fatigue.
The movie feels like Carpenter’s 80s flicks and is literally about ghosts…on Mars. If watching this movie feels eerily similar to Escape From New York, there could be a reason why. Many insiders claim this was originally supposed to be the third film in the series, titled, Escape from Mars.
Aliens (1986)
Aliens play out more like an action film than a horror film (it was directed by James Cameron after all…) But regardless, there are still tons of terrifying moments, and numerous elements from the movie have gone down in pop culture history, like the alien queen, Ripley’s power loader, and of course, Newt.
Fans regularly debate if Aliens even surpasses the original, and the fight has even made its way into film. Regardless of whether it’s better or not, everyone can agree, it’s one of the best in the franchise, as well as in the sci-fi horror genre as a whole.
Sunshine (2007)
This indie film has since gone on to be a fan favorite. In the year 2057, the sun is dying and a team is sent to drop a bomb into the middle of the sun to restart it. But on their way, the crew intercepts an abandoned spaceship that turns out to be not so abandoned after all.
The movie has a superb ensemble cast including Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, and Michelle Yeoh, and went on to be nominated for various awards.
Event Horizon (1997)
Ironically, Event Horizon is now beloved in both the horror and sci-fi communities. It’s seen as a paramount example of the genre and there are retrospectives galore. But when the movie came out, it was a total bomb, earning less than half of the film’s budget. The plot centers around the spaceship Event Horizon that uses black holes to transport itself faster.
Alien (1979)
Ridley Scott’s classic, Alien, is one of those special few movies that never gets old. It is timeless, and to this day, it’s just as scary as it was back when it was released. The story centers around the Nostromo, as its making its way back to Earth. The ship picks up a distress signal from a small moon and alerts the crew.
There, the team finds an alien lifeform…the now-infamous xenomorph. Whereas Aliens was more action, Alien is pure suspense and terror. The alien gets loose onboard the ship, and the rest is history.
