As the ads for Ridley Scott's Alien stated, "In space, no one can hear you scream." Outer space has long been a perfect setting for horror films. The cold, the dark, and the silent isolation lend itself to a proper horror atmosphere. Filmmakers as diverse as Mario Bava, Stanley Kubrick, and Stanley Donen and have all tried their hands at the perils of deep space.
From outer space monsters, to space vampires, to otherworldly entities, cinema has long breached the deepest realms of space to give audiences universally frightening terrors that make outer space horror one of the most chilling of all genres.
Ghosts Of Mars (2001)
In the future, Mars has been colonized and designated a mining colony. Members of the Martian police force arrive to transport a dangerous criminal when the colony is overtaken by villagers who have become monsters.
Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, and blaxploitation icon Pam Grier star in John Carpenter's unique horror action film. The creatures are people who have become possessed by an entity and have defamed their flesh, each one looking like a heavy metal version of characters from the Hellraiser universe. The film is exciting and, at times, edge-of-your-seat thrilling. Carpenter fans were split on the film, though many consider it an undervalued Carpenter gem.
Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Roger Corman produced Galaxy of Terror, an unashamed knock-off of Ridley Scott's Alien. A crew of astronauts answer a distress signal and go to rescue a ship and its crew. Monster attacks, giant worms, and self-mutilation ensue. The film is low budget and reuses sets from other films but is well done and has that old Roger Corman charm.
With a cast that includes Ray Walston, Grace Zabriske, and eventual Rob Zombie movie regular Sid Haig, Galaxy of Terror is one of the best of the Alien rip-offs. While an obscure film amongst the sci-fi horror genre, the film has some creepy and quite effective moments.
Planet Of The Vampires (1965)
In Italian director Mario Bava's outer space horror oddity Planet of the Vampires, a group of astronauts land on an uncharted planet and begin to go mad due to an evil presence that exists on the surface.
Working with a low budget, Bava managed to keep his signature style of beautifully designed color palates and interesting camera placement. While some sets can't hide the film's budget constraints, it still has a good overall look and Bava manages some tense moments of his unique brand of Italian horror.
Forbidden World (1982)
Forbidden World was Roger Corman's second Alien rip-off in as many years. A group of scientists at an outer space research lab are being eaten alive by a monster spawned from an experiment gone wrong and must be saved by a space marshal.
The film does take a lot from Ridley Scott's monster film and also steals thematically from 1956's Forbidden Planet but while critics trashed it, Holzman's film achieves some effective tension. The tight spaces are used to great effect and the film's low budget lends to its creepiness.
Event Horizon (1997)
In 1997's Event Horizon, a space ship that disappeared in a Black Hole has returned with demonic entities that threaten a rescue crew.
Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neil headed the cast of this harrowing and frightening outer space horror film, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson of Resident Evil movie franchise "fame." While the film borrows heavily from Clive Barker's Hellraiser, the gruesomeness is effective and there are moments of extreme terror that become more than palpable.
Solaris (2002)
Based on the 1972 film by Andrei Tarkovsky, Steven Soderbergh's Solaris is an intimate psychological space thriller that achieves a tension found in many creature features. A depressed psychologist is sent to a research station that is being mentally manipulated by the planet it orbits.
Considered one of Steven Soderbergh's best films, this sci-fi mood piece gets soulful while balancing the terrors of the mind that manifest themselves beyond our flesh. Eerie silences and a moody score make this film a truly unnerving experience.
Pitch Black (2000)
In the old-fashioned creature feature Pitch Black, a spaceship's crew becomes stranded on a planet where monsters come out at night to feed on flesh. The crew figures out how to survive the nocturnal beings until there is an eclipse that will last almost an entire month.
Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, and Cole Hauser star, and writer/director Twohy amps up the nail-biting tension in this non-stop sci-fi horror thrill ride, using the darkness to great effect. The creature design is well done and the performances match the screenplay's serious tone. Following Alien's lead, Pitch Black's sequel moved away from horror and went more sci-fi, though the movie wasn't nearly as successful as the original.
Lifeforce (1985)
Originally titled "Space Vampires", Dan O'Bannon adapted Colin Wilson's novel about a plague that hits London and infects its inhabitants who begin to drain the life out of their victims. Tobe Hooper signed on to direct and delivered a 2-hour and 18-minute horror film that infused the mysteries of Haley's Comet with space alien vampires and a message about the futility of war.
Hooper proved— as he did with 1982's Poltergeist— that he could handle bigger budgets and created a massive sci-fi horror tale that takes place in space for a good section of the film before returning to Earth for its apocalyptic second half. The film is frightening and exciting, boasting amazing work from Hooper and some excellent special effects.
Aliens (1986)
A rollercoaster ride, an action extravaganza, a visceral horror film— James Camerons' Aliens is all of these things. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley and joins with a battalion of space marines to battle the xenomorphs, this time meeting the Queen Alien.
Cameron kept the soul of Ridley Scott's original while making this one his own. While Scott's film is a pure horror film, Cameron's take mixes the terror with action and non-stop pulse-racing excitement. This film was an enormous hit and one of the most praised and respected films of the 1980s.
Alien (1979)
The classic that began the modern "monster in space" craze, Ridley Scott's film is considered by horror fans and film critics to be a pure masterpiece of outer space terror. Seven crew members answer a rescue beacon and run afoul of an alien monster that "hatches" and grows inside their vessel while killing off the crew one by one.
Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon originally wanted a low-budget, 1950s-style monster film— but producers Walter Hill and David Giler conceived the idea of the crew being a working-class, blue-collar bunch and wanted the tone to be much darker. Scott became one of the most sought-after filmmakers in cinema after this film. The director gave audiences an edge of your seat monster movie unlike any they had ever seen.