By Joshua Taylor | Published
Movies set in outer space open up endless possibilities. Series like Star Trek use it to explore hopeful what-ifs. Star Wars uses it as a backdrop for high adventure and complex galactic politics.
In fact, in the boundless and airtight void, people must struggle to survive. When science fiction explores this, the results are often some of the scariest stories ever told on screen.
These are some of the scariest movies ever made, set in the dark, cold depths of outer space.
11.Supernova
2000 movies supernova What happens when Hollywood tries to clone event horizon Ultimately an autopsy of its own genre. It tells the story of a rescue ship that responds to a distress call near a collapsing star, only to discover a glowing alien artifact that amplifies human instincts: greed, lust, and self-destruction.
James Spader and Angela Bassett float among the ruins of a confusing, ambitious, strangely hypnotic film. supernova It’s not perfect, but it burns with a reckless imagination that modern science fiction rarely dares to touch.
But, we’ve only just begun, so hang in there because the next movie on this list is going to scare you.
10.Aniara
Aniara is a 2018 Swedish science fiction drama adapted from a 1956 poem by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson. The story begins when a spaceship accidentally veers off course while transporting colonists from Earth to Mars. As the years pass and the passengers no longer have any hope of returning, they slowly descend into despair, cultism and madness.
Critics praise Aniara’s Haunting realism, minimalist design, and philosophical depth make this one of the bleakest space movies ever made. What is frightening is not violence or aliens, but existential horror: the realization that human optimism, technology, and faith mean nothing in an infinite void, where hope is lost long before the body is gone.
9. Europe report
Europe report is a 2013 found footage-style science fiction thriller about a private space mission to the Jupiter moon Europa in search of life beneath the ice. Recovered mission logs tell the story of the crew’s unraveling of their mission due to isolation, technical glitches and company secrecy.
The film was praised for its authenticity, scientific accuracy and down-to-earth tone, and received critical acclaim despite its limited budget. In a place completely beyond rescue, the crew’s curiosity becomes its own executioner, with a chilling fear of discovery, silence, and death.
Even in the final moments when the film’s heroes are dying, they’re still trying, still trying, still trying to learn all there is to learn.
8. High quality life
high quality life It’s a slow, hypnotic descent into cosmic despair. Directed by Claire Denis and released in 2018, the film stars Robert Pattinson as Monte, one of several death row inmates sent into deep space toward a black hole under the supervision of Dr. Dibbs, and Juliette Binoche in a weirdly sexy role. Obsessed with creating life in the void, she conducts fertility experiments, turning the ship into a sterile nightmare of isolation, sex, and violence.
The crew disbanded, the mission failed, and Monte was left alone to raise the child born of Dibs’ twisted science. As they get closer to the black hole, time, sanity and meaning collapse together.
Critics praised its haunting images and original performances, but be warned that others found it nearly unwatchable.
7. Pandorum
2009 Pandorum is a claustrophobic sci-fi horror film that plays like event horizon crossed with alien Mixed with a dose of psychological breakdown.
Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster star as two crew members who wake up from their sleep on a massive colony ship with no memory of who they are or what happened. The corridors are dark, systems are down, other crew members are missing, or worse.
As they explore, they discover that the ship is filled with mutated cannibal humans, the result of an experimental genetic serum gone wrong, and that they have been drifting in space for centuries. The ship’s true destination has been reached; it crashed long ago.
6. Life
Life is a stylish, nihilistic sci-fi horror film that feels like alien Falling within a more modern technological environment. Despite its large cast, the film was mostly ignored when it was released in 2017.
It happened aboard the International Space Station, where six astronauts, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds, discovered a microbe from Mars. They named him Calvin. It evolved quickly, too quickly, and soon revealed itself to be a predatory, super-intelligent murderous life form.
As the crew struggles to contain it, they die one by one, victims of their own curiosity. The final twist: The last surviving astronaut sacrifices himself to trap Calvin in an escape pod, but the escape pod is swapped, sending the alien safely to Earth.
5. Alien: Romulus
2024, Alien: Romulus Dragging the screaming Alien franchise back into the shadows where it belongs. Directed by Fede Álvarez, the story takes place in alien and alien Cailee Spaeny stars as a scavenger aboard an abandoned space station with her synthetic “brother” Andy. They search for freedom, but instead unleash a hive of aliens, turning the corridors into a meat grinder.
Every inch of Renaissance Station is filled with claustrophobic tension: flickering lights, damp metal, and the hissing sound of something nearby breathing. The film’s stark brutality and practical effects make each death feel disturbingly real.
4. Sunshine
Sunlight Often described as a film about “astronauts blowing up the sun to save humanity,” this fails to capture the scope of Danny Boyle’s film. The crew of Icarus 2 are all celebrities of today, before they were stars. These include Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh and Rose Byrne.
We made a whole video just focusing on Sunlightif you want to learn more.
It’s more about the crew versus the weight of the mission, the isolation of space, and what to do when the sun itself is trying to kill you. The first 45 minutes of the film focus on the development of the crew and their relationships, so the last third of the film hits the audience hard. The film turns into an all-out horror film set in space, which makes some people uncomfortable, but it’s completely effective and terrifying.
With its stunning visuals, clever dialogue, and emphasis on science within science fiction, Sunlight Either a cult classic or one of the worst movies ever made, depending on who you ask.
3. Alien: Resurrection
Alien: Resurrection yes alien The series’ 1997 mutant offspring: weird, stylish and incredibly feisty. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and written by Joss Whedon, the film resurrects Ripley 200 years after her death. Alien 3 Through cloning, a half-human, half-alien version of the hero is born.
The military is breeding aliens for research aboard the USM Auriga, but predictably, containment fails and the creatures turn the ship into a floating slaughterhouse. Ripley joins a group of mercenaries, including Winona Ryder’s synthetic summons, to survive the carnage. It all ends with a grotesque “newborn” hybrid creature that sees Ripley as its own mother and dies screaming in a hole in space.
Critics are divided, but Resurrection has achieved cult status.
2. Event Horizon
event horizon Literally starts with a rescue mission and ends with a descent into hell.
The 1997 film, directed by Paul WS Anderson, tells the story of a crew sent to investigate the missing ship Event Horizon, which disappears and suddenly reappears. They find no survivors, just blood-stained walls and a gravity drive that doesn’t warp space, it rips apart dimensions. What this ship brings back is not alien life, but pure chaos. A state of agony takes over the crew and turns their guilt into hallucinations.
Sam Neill’s transformation from scientist to zealot is unforgettable, and his final act of madness seals the ship in hellfire. Critics dismissed it upon release, but event horizon Became a cult classic.
If you’re looking for more information, we’ve also done a deep dive into this event horizon.
The ship named after the movie is so perfectly designed that it almost plays a malevolent character in the movie. Event Horizon looks like a baroque cathedral turned torture chamber, and it’s one of the most horrific locations ever captured on film.
Anderson’s film also earned a well-deserved spot on our list of the most extreme, graphic sci-fi films. event horizon It’s a horrific ride to hell.
1. Aliens
It’s hard to say enough about Ridley Scott’s original 1979 alien Movie. Every moment of the film is sci-fi horror perfection. No other movie on this list is number one.
exist alienthe crew of the commercial spacecraft Nostromo investigates a distress signal on the distant moon. There’s nothing special about the Nostromo, in the sense that her crew is basically just space truckers. They feel less like future space heroes and more like regular people you might know.
The men discover alien eggs on an abandoned ship. One of them hatches and releases a deadly creature that stalks them in the hallways. The crew is slaughtered one by one as they struggle to find a way to survive in space where no one can hear you scream.
All these years later, it still holds up well thanks to still-creepy practical effects and stunning cinematography. It’s even better viewed in a movie theater, where the cold, dark, empty space that engulfs the room you’re watching the movie in contrasts with the confined space aboard the Nostromo.
Sigourney’s Ellen Riley is the ultimate Final Girl and deserves all the praise, but the rest of the cast is just as good. They just can’t survive.
Watch it on the biggest screen in the darkest room you can find. no toppings alien.
Obvious and terrible omission
I wonder why a sequel was made alien Not on this list? It was just as good as the first movie, but it was more of an action movie than a horror movie, so I gave it up.
I also avoid watching great space movies with horror elements but less of a horror focus. For example, Hal can be scary sometimes 2001but it’s not really a horror movie. Instead, this is a list of pure outer space horrors.
