Top 10 Scariest Alien Movies 2022. Nobody can hear you pee your pants in outer space. Yes, I am aware that the actual meaning of the tagline is different, but I felt that the lede best captured our current situation. We’re here to talk about the top 10 most frightful Alien films, after all. Sci-fi nerds, are you ready? Why don’t we start now?
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Top 10 Scariest Alien Movies 2022
Species (1995)
I strongly support Roger Donaldson’s infamous creature feature. If you can see past its cynically required alluring moments, there’s a good sci-fi horror film lurking in the mix. Yes, it’s essentially an erotic B-movie with baps to the breeze laser-focused on titillating a young adult male demographic.
You know, the cast is stacked to the gills with Hollywood legends, in addition to the eye-catching and stunning monster design, owing to a certain artist by the name of H. R. Giger (you may have heard of him?). There is a star-studded ensemble waiting for you to say, “Oh, I didn’t realize he was that good. From Reservoir Dogs’ Michael Madsen to Rogue One’s Forest Whittaker to experienced stage actor and Sexy Beast star Ben Kingsley to Spider-Man 2’s Alfred Molina.
Not to mention Natasha Henstridge, the supermodel extraterrestrial siren who played the central role and went on to star in two of the less successful sequels that followed. Seriously, Species is the ideal illustration of diminishing returns if you’ve ever wanted to know what that phrase meant.
Pitch Black (2000)
What happens when you combine Radha Mitchell from Silent Hill, Vin Diesel from The Fast and the Furious, Keith David from The Thing, and Cole Hauser from Olympus Has Fallen into one sci-fi action-horror movie? Why, of course, David Twohy’s egregiously underappreciated Pitch Black!
Even though the monster designs may be somewhat mediocre, the tension and atmosphere are perfect for providing the thrills and excitement needed to earn a spot on this list. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena are two pretty good video game tie-ins that resulted from it, so it’s still relevant today, okay?
Signs (2002)
When I was younger, Signs’ excruciatingly slow buildup made movie incredibly dull for me. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate it far more for what it is—a brilliantly innovative and eerily terrifying alien invasion thriller. Signs is undoubtedly one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best movies, and that’s saying a lot considering his filmography is chock-full of masterpieces and, well, The Happening.
Signs, a film about a tiny family in Pennsylvania, centers on Father Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), whose property unexpectedly becomes a prime location for enigmatic crop circles. A modern, albeit subtle, sci-fi classic is created by adding an increasing sense of dread, stellar performances from a star-studded cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix from Gladiator, and a typical Shyamalan surprise that will rip the rug out from under you.
The Faculty (1998)
The Faculty will particularly resonate with you if you’ve ever believed your instructors were strange and from another planet. That’s because the teachers in Robert Rodriguez’s trendy sci-fi thriller are, sort of, from another planet.
Written by Kevin Williamson of Scream, this film shares a lot of similarities with Wes Craven’s highly popular slasher series in terms of tone and aesthetic. The majority of the action scenes involve hiding and running like a cat and mouse, and the identity of the alien queen is a secret until the very end of the movie.
And that’s not even considering The Faculty’s impressive cast, which also includes Elijah Wood from The Lord of the Rings, Josh Hartnett from Black Hawk Down, Robert Patrick from Terminator 2, and Jordan Brewster from The Fast and the Furious. reasonably underrated? Yep. Completely necessary? Indeed.
Cloverfield (2008)
The Blair Witch Project helped the found footage genre gain a lot of traction in the late 1990s. However, the sub-genre was catapulted into the limelight once again in the late noughties by Matt Reeves’ grittily believable portrayal of a modern-day New York that’s being secretly invaded by a hostile otherworldly presence.
Cloverfield doesle out the scares in a methodical drip-feed style, like many of the best found-footage shockers out there, and doesn’t spend too much camera time revealing the actual appearances of its monsters, which ultimately results in a much more effective creature thriller.
In addition to helping Matt Reeves become well-known (he later directed a small film called The Batman), Cloverfield also gave birth to two franchise spin-offs: the passable but underappreciated 10 Cloverfield Lane from 2016 and the unimpressive The Cloverfield Paradox from 2018.
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War of the Worlds (2005)
War of the Worlds wants to introduce itself while we’re talking about extraterrestrial invasions. Another extraterrestrial invasion occurs in Steven Spielberg’s grounded version of H.G. Wells’ iconic original material, but this time… they were here all along. (Duuun, duuun, dun!)
The sci-fi adventure War of the Worlds, starring Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise, award-winning I Am Sam actress Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto from The Lord of the Rings, and Tim Robbins from The Shawshank Redemption, sharply focuses on a family in distress while the world around them also implodes.
War of the Worlds succeeds as both an epic disaster movie and a more intimate family story, with top-notch acting from everyone involved, a fantastically atmospheric John Williams score, several spooky set-pieces, and excellent cinematography.
Prometheus (2012)
It is as impossible to find someone who liked Ridley Scott’s notoriously contentious Prometheus as it is to find a living thing in the vastness of space. But they really exist, I swear! In any seriousness, I think Prometheus is a sci-fi masterpiece that is sometimes neglected.
I hope we can all agree, despite the critics, that Scott’s prequel is a philosophically sophisticated work of science fiction and horror cinema that poses important existential themes like, “Where do we come from?” Who was our creator? Why did God make us in the first place? It’s obvious that the movie moves forward due to Scott’s deep, philosophical puzzles, and it’s difficult not to admire the British director’s sheer ambition in taking on this undertaking.
After all, this isn’t a generic Alien clone like the passable but uninspired horror movie Life from 2017. Prometheus, on the other hand, is novel, new, and strikingly daring in its story, style, texture, tone, and delivery.
Predator (1987)
Although a fantastic Predator prequel has lately graced our tiny screens, John McTiernan’s original would just barely prevail if we had to compare Prey to the original killing machine from the 1980s.
Yes, not only does the macho, gun-toting classic actioner star the Austrian Oak himself in an iconic performance, but its superb visual effects are still impressive today. The platoon at the center of the movie has great chemistry and is authentically bawdy and full of banter, while Alan Silvestri’s iconic score is a standout. Like, anyway, what the hell is a sexual Tyrannosaurus?
In other words, if you’re one of the three individuals in the world who hasn’t seen Predator yet, you should get on it right away!
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s reimagining of Christian Nyby’s 1951 science fiction classic The Thing From Another World is more in line with the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., the original source material, in that it explores themes of assimilation and hiding in plain sight rather than a large plant-like creature killing a group of scientists one by one.
The Thing is an exciting science fiction horror film that centers on a research team in Antarctica who unintentionally discover an ancient extraterrestrial lifeform that can mimic the physical appearance of Earth-based life. It’s full of paranoia, claustrophobia, and, uh, spider-heads with lizard-like tongues. shudders
The Thing is a lightning in a bottle film that will stay with you long after the final credits have rolled. It features an incredible ensemble cast, including Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Charles Hallahan, and David Clennon, some of the best practical effects ever put to film, and an eerie, atmospheric score by award-winning composer Ennio Morricone.
Alien (1979)
Despite the fact that Alien is the oldest movie on this list, it still looks amazing by today’s standards. Yes, Ridley Scott’s original film is a sci-fi masterpiece that combines grotesque body horror with believable science fiction.
Alien is a high-concept, dark, futuristic thriller that answers the age-old question: what if life in space is not only hostile but actually depends on us as part of its reproductive process? It is supported by one of the coolest monster creations ever made (thanks to the nightmare and twisted vision courtesy of artist, H. R. Giger) and supported by an excellent ensemble cast led by the one and only Sigourney Weaver in a career-defining performance as badass
Despite the fact that Alien went on to inspire a whole media universe, the first movie is likely the scariest of them all due to its cramped space location, the crudeness of the Nostromo’s armaments, and the sheer ferocity of a single Xenomorph threat. Definitely required watching!
