The setting is important in any kind of story, but it’s often so key to scary stories that the location becomes a subgenre. One of the most iconic subgenres of horror ropes science fiction into the mix to create space horror, and it’s got a long rich history in film.
The seminal space horror film is unquestionably still Ridley Scott’sAlien. The simple tale of a group of space-faring company workersdealing with a hostile extraterrestrial monsterhas been hugely influential on the genre. There are tons of fascinating space horror films that examine the nightmares, real and theoretical, that may float just beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Updated on June 28, 2025 by Joshua McCoy:There are loads of horror films that take place in space, but not all of them count asspace horror movies. Horror icons like Jason Voorhees, the Cenobites, and the Leprechaun had entries that brought their unique evil beyond the atmosphere, but those are slashers or body horror films with unique settings. Real space horror is about what could be out there and why it’s so horrific. Space is cold and hostile, and human imagination is fantastic at picturing horrific things out in that big black void. As spooky season occurs once again, there are yet more haunting tales that make the viewer happy that we live here on Earth.
Sunshine
This 2007 sci-fi filmwritten by Alex Garlandfollows a group of engineers on a do-or-die mission to reignite the burned-out sun. It’s got a solid ensemble cast and a soundtrack that has been borrowed by a ton of other big-name features. It’s a simple film with a weighty atmosphere of doom about it.Sunshinestarts from the position of the Earth slowly freezing to death and the mission to save the world feels like guaranteed suicide, even if they are successful.
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Director Danny Boyle, better known for human drama pieces likeTrainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire,andSteve Jobs, takes a looser hand with the science to convey a more emotional story.Sunshineis grim yet beautiful, sad yet glorious, and haunting yet awe-inspiring. Though it becomes more frantic as it goes on, becoming something akinto an 80s slasherby its third act, it’s a wonderful ride.
Pitch Black
Vin Diesel is best known for his portrayal of two characters: Dominic Toretto from theFast & Furioussaga andRichard B. Riddick.Pitch Black, released in 2000, is the first and best appearance of the latter. Diesel loves the character so much that he only returned to theFastfranchise in 2006 in exchange for the rights to Riddick.
Pitch Blackfollows the crew of a prison ship after a crash landing on a hostile desert planet. When the world’s predators threaten the survivors, they’re forced to turn to the most dangerous of their convicts for survival. The film was made on a small budget and became a sleeper hit. Fans of the character Riddick flocked to the sequels and video game spinoffs, butRiddick hasn’t appeared inthe same type of horror film since.Pitch Blackis a solid action/horror/sci-fi feature that has a ton of fun with its concepts.
This entry in theDead Spacefranchiseis less of an adaptation and more of a companion piece to the beloved game series. The film takes place before the first game but after the tie-in comic book series. It offers some additional context to fans of the game and gives them plenty of the gory sci-fi action they’ve come to love. However, it’s still worth a watch for newcomers to the series.
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Downfallfollows the USG Ishimura, a ship in the process of illegally strip-mining entire planets as part of a fanatical religious movement. When a horrific outbreak turns the ship’s interior into an ocean of blood and its crew into monsters, a handful of survivors will have to struggle to survive. It’s a deliriously gory film, more concerned with disgusting the audience than with creating suspense, but it’s still a fun film. At 74 minutes, thishorror movie is a quick sit, but it’s as long as it needs to be.
High Life
French director Claire Denis’s first English-language film puts a small army of death row inmates on a suicide mission to extract alternative energy from a black hole in deep space. Interestingly, Denis states that the script came to her in English because she simply can’t envision people speaking French in space.Robert Pattinson stars asone of many convicts being used as living science experiments in disgusting unethical trials by one of their crazed interstellar cellmates.
This is a deeply unpleasant film, and not in the fun gory sense that many other space horror films occupy.High Lifedeals with abhorrent assault and violence with an unflinchingly direct portrayal that cuts into the viewer’s psyche. The film is drenched in symbolism and its story is told deliberately out of order. It can be a tough watch for some, but the genuinely effective writing and haunting human drama make it worthwhile.
Pandorum
Though it was panned upon initial release, Christian Alvart’s 2009 sci-fi horror filmPandorumassembles its horror like a puzzle. There’s unquestionably a lot of DNAcribbed from other worksin and outside the genre, but the film manages to find an original cocktail in the mixture.
Ben Foster stars as Bower, one of a handful of crew members who maintain a deep-space ark designed to colonize a far-off planet. When he and his coworker find themselves awoken unexpectedly, they discover a new threat has taken over the ship. It’s a fast-paced, well-shot nightmare buoyed by Foster’s excellent performance. It’s got some cheesy moments, butPandorumis well worth a watch.
Stowaway
Among viewers of a certain age, Joe Penna is best known as YouTuber MysteryGuitarMan, but he’s also a unique and interesting filmmaker with a coupleof harrowing survival stories. His second film dropped on Netflix last year with a stellar cast and a solidly simple premise. The film depicts three astronauts on a two-year mission to Mars when they discover an unintentional fourth member of the crew.
An accident leaves the four desperate professionals with limited oxygen and a ticking clock. Unless they figure out a solution, the four of them will asphyxiate just before they reach Mars. It’s aHitchcockian thriller that forcesits heroes to make impossible decisions. The film suffers from some pacing issues and the ending is somewhat divisive, but its power lies in well-executed raw human drama.
Oxygen
Director Alexandre Aja, ofHigh Tension,Horns, andCrawl, brought this smart claustrophobic space thriller to Netflix last year. The film stars Mélanie Laurent as Elizabeth, who wakes up suddenlyin a cryosleep chamberon a deep space voyage. Unaware of who she is or how she got there and rapidly losing breathable air, Elizabeth must use a nearby artificial intelligence to remember her life and escape this harrowing situation.
It’s a clever sci-fi twist on a simple story, like a version ofBuriedset hundreds of years in the future. The film is tight, tense, and simple, but it’s got some clever ideas to play with once it gets where it’s going. At 101 minutes,Oxygenis a non-stop thrill ride that will leave the audience holding their breath.
Life
Yes, Daniel Espinosa’s 2017 sci-fi horror film is anAlienclone. It’s about a crew of astronauts on the International Space Station who discover a hostile extraterrestrial that picks them off one by one. It’s nakedlyinfluenced by Ridley Scott’s classic, but that doesn’t make it bad. It features some great performances, some excellent horror direction, and a very creative alien design.
The film might not be pushing the conversation forward, but for people who want another pulse-pounding horror experience with some real character behind it,Lifeis still a solid experience.
