Science fiction stories are often thought of as their own genre, but they can be anything including horror films, and here are nine to watch this Halloween.
Whether it’s Halloween or you’re just someone who thinks every day is Halloween, it’s always good to have some spooky fun on tap. Since we here at Redshirts Always Die cover all things Star Trek and science fiction, we thought we’d give you nine suggestions to watch that both double as science fiction and as a scary movie.
So let’s hop into them.
Classics
The Terminator
The Terminator may not seem like a horror movie, but it’s basically a slasher film, only with guns and no slashing things. The Terminator could be a stand-in for Jason or Michael Myers. The only reason he isn’t seen in the same light as his horror counterpart is because he’s a machine from the future. Not too dissimilar from Jason X.
Predator
Very similar to the Terminator as a film type goes. Same idea, a silent, menacing monster stalks a ’90s action icon without showing much in the way of emotion, or itself. Switch out the titular Predator for an ’80s slasher icon, and it’s basically Nightmare on Jungle Street.
Alien
Horror movies sure love to have people getting stalked. Similar concepts to the previous two movies, the action icon gets chased down by an evil alien, but beyond that, the film is a bit different in tone. In Predator and Terminator, the main characters were either soldier or accompanied by soldiers. In Alien, it’s a movie about a cargo ship crew, dealing with a violent and aggressive alien species, who wants to hunt them down and devour them. Forcing the viewer to see the main character, Ripely, in a different light than say the hulking Dutch.
Cult Classics
Cube
The Cube is about several strangers who wake up in a giant mase, designed like a cube with rooms stacked up, down, and all around them. The film forces the characters to figure out the puzzles in order to escape the cube, but one wrong move can lead to death or worse. The film does a great job highlighting just how fear can cause teammate work to break down and how very fragile we are as a society when forced into tough situations.
The Faculty
A personal favorite. A retelling of the classic alien bodysnatcher story, only this time starring Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett. An alien parasite starts infecting teachers at a small-town Ohio high school, and it’s up to a cast of crazy misfits and smattering popular people to figure out why, and how to stop them. Less horror than others on this list, but still a relatively spooky good time. Plus, since it came out on Christmas Day, it doubles as a Christmas flick too.
Pandorum
Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, and MMA legend Cung Le star in this thriller. Exploring the depths of space for a new habitable planet, members of a space ship find themselves lost, having just woken up from hibernation. Now their ship is overrun with monsters who want to rip and tear them apart. They have to figure out how to get rid of these creatures while looking for a way to get their bearings and find a new settlement. While the monsters on the ship are an obvious threat, there lies another right under their noses. This spooky good time is a treat for anyone into the zombie genre of horror movies and isolated space films like The Martian or Passengers.
Those you wouldn’t consider
Pitch Black
Yes, it’s Vin Diesel, and yes he’s all brooding and whatnot. What Pitch Black is also is a film about a group of survivors on an alien planet, trying to outrun terrifying monsters who hunt in the darkness. There’s jump scares, monsters, violence, and even weird twists. All the things that a typical horror film contains. It just so happens to be science fiction in nature.
Frankenstein
Arguably the original science fiction story. Whichever version you choose to watch, it’s the same idea. A mad scientist uses technology to bring the dead back to life just to prove that he could. Created of bits and pieces of people, the monster becomes a cautionary tale that is told and retold still to this day; just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
The Thing
The original is fine, the remake is better and the prequel/sequel is a thing. The remake is the way to go, however. Better special effects, better suspense, and a better cast. Keith David and Kurt Russell, the film centers around an alien who can change its appearance to anyone or anything, causing once close friends to turn on one another throughout the course of the film.