The best scary movies set in space

Ash Walker • 22 Aug 2024 Features

In space, no one can hear you scream…

Space is inherently scary. It’s an inhospitable void, with no warmth and no oxygen and, as movies have taught us again and again, it’s teeming with alien monsters that want nothing more than to eat us. Or worse.

With Alien: Romulus - the latest in a long tradition of cosmic cinematic nightmares - now in cinemas, we’re looking back at some other classic films that explore the terror of outer space.

Event Horizon (1997)

Credit: Event Horizon (1997) Trailer #1 (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube)

After disappearing on its maiden voyage, the starship Event Horizon mysteriously reappears seven years later in the orbit of Neptune. A rescue crew is sent to investigate what happened. Unsurprisingly, it’s nothing good.

What follows is a descent into hell - literally - featuring some truly disturbing moments and buckets of gore as the rescue crew succumbs to the malign influence of the ship, which has passed through a nightmarish hell dimension and come back sentient and thoroughly haunted.

And what a crew it is, populated with famous faces like Lawrence Fishburne, Joely Richardson and Jason Isaacs. But special mention has to be made of Sam Neill, who turns in a truly bonkers performance as the inventor of the ship’s experimental warp drive - and who ends up going a bit Jack Torrence with his creation.

A classic haunted house movie given a shiny sci-fi coat of paint, Event Horizon is an unhinged masterpiece, and has deservedly become a cult hit since its initial release.

Event Horizon is currently available to stream on Paramount+, which is available at no extra cost with a Sky Cinema subscription.

Sunshine (2007)

Credit: Sunshine (2007) Trailer #1 (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube)

In the near future, the sun is dying and Earth is freezing. In a desperate, last-ditch attempt to set things right, an international crew of scientists are sent out to jumpstart our star with a nuclear bomb.

But perhaps it was tempting fate to name their ship Icarus, because the closer our crew of plucky heroes get to the sun, the worse things become. Tensions rise, equipment blows up and everything starts to get very strange…

Sunshine is director Danny Boyle’s love letter to all the great space movies that have come before - it’s a bit of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a bit of Alien and even a dash of Event Horizon, especially in its utterly bonkers final act.

But this is no mere knock-off. Boasting an incredible ensemble cast - including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans and Michelle Yeoh - and a stellar creative team behind the camera in Boyle and writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Ex Machina), this is top-tier stuff.

A modern sci-fi classic.

Sunshine is currently available to stream on Disney+.

Life (2017)

Credit: LIFE - Official Trailer (Sony Pictures Entertainment, YouTube)

A cynic could easily dismiss Life as yet another Alien knock-off, but this recent sci-fi horror is actually something of an underseen gem, doing something a bit new and different with the classic monster-in-the-house formula and just about managing to escape its predecessor’s gigantic, xenomorph-shaped shadow.

An unmanned probe returns from Mars carrying soil samples that may contain traces of extraterrestrial life. It’s quickly picked up in Earth orbit by the ISS, and the single-celled alien microbes found in the soil soon develop into - you guessed it - a huge, gross, tentacular monstrosity that rips its way through the station crew.

Life has some fun set pieces and some excellent tension, especially when the crew discover that the creature - dubbed ‘Calvin’ by a bunch of schoolkids back on Earth - will grow and multiply exponentially if it’s allowed to reach Earth, potentially spelling the end of mankind.

It also has another absolutely stacked cast, including the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson. An underrated space horror banger, and definitely worth a watch.

Life is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Pitch Black (2000)

Credit: Pitch Black Original Trailer (Arrow Video, YouTube)

Okay, maybe this one is a bit of a cheat, seeing as it’s technically not set in space, but Pitch Black still ticks all of the space horror boxes. Motley spacefaring crew? Check. Isolated location? Yep. Ravenous alien monsters? You better believe it.

In the distant future, a passenger ship crash lands on a deserted planet bathed in perpetual sunlight. Unfortunately for the surviving passengers, the planet is also about to experience a rare eclipse, which will unleash a horde of hungry, light-averse creatures.

But it’s not all bad, because among the stranded people is a mysterious convict called Riddick (Vin Diesel) - a legendary outlaw who can see in the dark, thanks to his surgically-enhanced eyes. Lucky, that.

Perhaps now best known as the film that launched a franchise - followed by 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick and 2013’s Riddick - Pitch Black remains a fun, down-and-dirty sci-fi horror gem, mixing the monster action of Aliens and the morally grey characters of Alien3.

Plus it’s that rare film where Vin Diesel doesn’t spend the whole time talking about family.

Pitch Black is currently available to rent on Amazon Prime Video or Sky Store.

Apollo 18 (2011)

Credit: Apollo 18 - HD Official Trailer 2 (Dimension Films, YouTube)

Another underseen and underrated film, Apollo 18 got a little lost in the explosion of found footage horror films released in the wake of Paranormal Activity. But it’s definitely deserving of a second look.

The movie supposes that the final Apollo mission wasn’t cancelled, as the public believes, but actually made it to the moon… and never returned. The footage we see is allegedly the real story, captured by cameras on the astronauts and in the lunar lander, declassified by NASA following a decades-long cover-up.

So what happened to those ill-fated moonwalkers? Well, it turns out that our moon is absolutely infested with alien rock spiders, and they don’t take too kindly to being disturbed.

On paper it sounds like a wacky b-movie concept, but Apollo 18 is played completely straight. And its brilliantly accurate production design and clever use of grainy, period-appropriate footage really makes you believe that you might be watching an actual NASA moon mission.

But forget the spiders - the real horror here is the isolation of being 200,000 miles away from home, with no one to call for help and no escape. Scary stuff.

Apollo 18 is currently available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.

Alien (1979)

Credit: Alien Trailer HD (Rotten Tomatoes Trailers, YouTube)

Of course, no list of the scariest space movies would be complete without mentioning the granddaddy of them all - Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien.

Responding to a distress signal, the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo land on a desolate moon and discover much more than they bargained for. Before long, the surviving members, including Sigourney Weaver’s iconic Ripley, are fighting for their lives as a monstrous creature stalks them through the dark, atmospheric corridors of their ship.

A true classic, featuring one of the scariest monsters ever put on screen, Alien remains utterly terrifying to this day, 45 years later.

Of course, it also spawned a multitude of sequels, prequels and spin-offs - with mixed results. Read more about how the series progressed, all the way up to Alien: Romulus, in our Alien Revisited retrospective.

Alien is currently available to stream on Disney+.