The Dead Space games have earned widespread critical acclaim and popularity among gamers for their perfect blending of science-fiction and horror aspects with a distinctly cinematic edge throughout. Fans of the games that are looking for movies that live up to that same high standard can find many similar films beyond just the two animated Dead Space prequel movies that were released alongside the first two games, though sci-fi horror is a subgenre that can be difficult to navigate if going in blind. The best movies like Dead Space aren't hard to find, but it's helpful to know where to look.
As the Dead Space games incorporate even more specific subgenres of horror into the design of each game beyond just sci-fi, like demonic horror and body horror, it's useful to know which of these elements are prevalent in certain films, as some fans of the games will be more interested in certain aspects over others. Whether it's mutated monsters, mysterious lore, or good old-fashioned gore, the best movies like Dead Space have something for every kind of fan of the franchise.
10 Pandorum (2009)
- Stream on Tubi
In Pandorum, a crew member of a spaceship (Ben Foster) carrying thousands of occupants from a dying Earth suddenly awakes from cryogenic sleep to discover that something has gone horrifically wrong. With the decaying ship overrun by mutated humanoid monsters and his own fracturing mental health to deal with, time works against him in his quest to figure out what happened to the ship so that he can save what's left of the crew, including himself. In terms of production design and overall premise, there are very few movies that are as similar to Dead Space as Pandorum, and the talent both behind and in front of the camera make it a rare high-concept sci-fi experience in general.
9 Cube (1997)
- Stream on Tubi and Prime Video
Cube follows five strangers who awake inside a large metallic room and quickly come to realize that their environment is some kind of sadistic kill box designed to either test them or torture them. In their efforts to escape, their personalities begin to shift as the horrifying cube breaks down their psyches and eviscerates their bodies. Though the movie is relatively small-scale sci-fi, its themes are actually hugely ambitious and impressively well-executed. Though very consciously claustrophobic, each terrifying room of the demonic structure that the main characters are trapped within finds a way to be as surprising and engaging as any epic challenge presented in the Dead Space games.
8 Life (2017)
- Stream on Starz
In the vein of Ridley Scott's original Alien, Life tells the story of the discovery of a small alien organism that quickly evolves and begins to take over a modern-day space station, with the movie making up for any lapses in originality with its impressively star-studded cast, and it's gorgeously slick cinematography. The film's more contemporary setting also doesn't hold it back from the hallmarks of sci-fi monster movie fun, with Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick consistently finding ways to keep the action flowing in such a restrictive environment, which fans of Dead Space's fundamental survival horror mechanics will appreciate.
7 Underwater (2020)
- Stream on Hulu
In Underwater, a catastrophic incident at a deep-sea mining installation in the Mariana Trench begins a hellish journey by a group of survivors that leads them further and further down into a world that's just as dark and threatening as the ones in the Dead Space games. Aside from the science-fiction elements and the clear exploitation of thalassophobia, the movie also progressively leans into demonic horror as otherworldly monsters begin to attack. The film's systematic ratcheting up of its tension and danger is also not dissimilar to a video game, with an entertaining Lovecraftian lore unfolding as the story goes on.
6 Aliens (1986)
- Stream on Starz
Aliens sees the lone survivor of Ridley Scott's Alien, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), return to the planet where her crew discovered the mysterious species that killed them so that she can face her fears with a group of Space Marines on an ill-fated mission. Any and all of the movies contained under the Alien banner are essential viewing for a Dead Space fan, but James Cameron's sequel to the original movie really taps into the action side of things in a way none of the other movies do. Some of the most impressive production design ever seen in a sci-fi movie makes Aliens a survival horror gem of near-unparalleled proportions.
5 Prometheus (2012)
- Stream on Hulu
Director Ridley Scott returned to the macabre universe of his original film Alien with Prometheus, a prequel of sorts that focussed on some of the wider themes and more briefly-glimpsed ideas from the first Alien movie. The film follows a scientific expedition in deep space that's searching for an alien race that may hold the answers to humanity's origins only for the explorers to stumble across a sinister instillation filled with mutagenic substances on a barren world. Fans of the occult imagery in the Dead Space games will have just as much to chew on throughout the film as the fans of the genetic aberrations that have made either franchise famous.
4 Annihilation (2018)
- Stream on Showtime and Paramount+
Based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation is a high-concept science-fiction film that's peppered with plenty of action and body horror, but it's most highly recommendable to those who enjoyed the psychological aspects of the original Dead Space games, particularly Isaac's guilt in the first game. Writer and director Alex Garland places an emphasis on the characters and their own inner struggles, which takes precedence over the beats of a conventional surface-level plot about a team of scientists investigating a dangerous and unpredictable area surrounding a crashed meteor.
3 Event Horizon (1997)
- Stream on Prime Video
Paul W.S. Anderson's cult sci-fi favorite Event Horizon, much like Dead Space, wears its allusions to the Alien franchise openly and proudly. The film follows the crew of a deep space rescue ship on a mission to respond to the distress signal of the titular spaceship Event Horizon, which has been missing for seven years, with the ship's designer accompanying them. Aboard, they discover that its experimental gravity drive has taken the ship to something akin to literally hell and back with the unashamed amounts of gore and the gothic influences in the production design being clear influences on the look and feel of the Dead Space games.
2 Pitch Black (2000)
- Stream on Netflix
Vin Diesel created a unique screen icon in his legendary space fugitive Richard B. Riddick, who debuted in this relatively small-scale story about the occupants of a spaceship that's crash-landed on a hostile alien world. Trapped on the soon-to-be perpetually dark planet with a swarm of monsters that hunt at night, Riddick's night vision eye augmentation means that the least trustworthy man on the planet is the castaways' only hope of survival. Besides the survival horror of the film itself, fans of the Dead Space games should also take note of the story for its notoriously underrated video game prequel, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
1 The Thing (1982)
- Rent or purchase on Prime Video
Although the outer space aspect is minimal, Dead Space fans must note that the pinnacle of alien body-horror action is still John Carpenter's cult icon The Thing. Though mauled by almost everyone upon release, this paranoid tale of a shape-shifting alien menace picking off the inhabitants of an arctic research station has rightfully been cemented as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and it's a must-see for anyone who can't get enough of Dead Space's terrifying abominations. 20 years after the movie's initial release, it would also receive a fondly-remembered video game tie-in which showed just how significant the film's impact on survival horror really was.