Sci-Fi Horror Movies

Sci-Fi and Horror have a chocolate-and-peanut-butter thing going on. Sci-Fi is great on its own and you may well know someone who consumes it exclusively, and obviously we love horror more than life itself. They're great alone and there's nothing wrong with that. But have you tried them together?

At first glance, Event Horizon (1997), The Thing (1982) and Attack The Block (2011) don't have much in common, right? You see where we're going with this--they're all Sci-Fi Horror. Now, that might not be a self-contained subgenre itself, but you'll always know it when you see it. There's no common formula for a Sci-Fi Horror, there are just common thematic threads: For instance, isolation is a key fear played on in all these movies. Isolation is central thematically not only with those first three we mentioned, but also in Alien (1979), They Live (1988), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2008) and Ex Machina (2015). Besides the obvious (all alone in deep space) these movies explore social and mental isolation as well, probing into notions of what it means to be human, what it means to be alive, and the nature of constructs like “society,” and “morals.” You know, deep shit like that.

Sci-Fi Horror is also the traditional realm of psychedelic, heavily symbolic, beautifully shot, low-dialog midnight movies. Le Orme (1974), Under The Skin (2013), the already mentioned Beyond The Black Rainbow, and yes, the last two acts of 2001: A Space Odysessy (1969) all fall into this category. These movies are often, but not always, lower on the substance side, but cranked all the way to 11 on the style side. Proceed with caution: if it isn't one of those nights, these movies may not be the best choice for you.

If you're just looking to crush a couple brews and see some teens have sex and then die--in space--HorrorRated's got your back. SciFi Horror is a broad and general term that applies to badass astroslashers like Event Horizon (1997), and Jason X (2001) too. It's hard to go wrong with a good Scifi Horror.

If none of the classics we mentioned here are doin' it for you, or you've just seen them all, feel free to browse around our collection and see if anything jumps out at you. If you come across something you've already seen, as always, please rate it before you move on. Your ratings are what make HorrorRated such a great resource!

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