Science fictionand horror go very well together, and the implications are troubling. There’s something to be said about the ease of seeing faults in any potential future and the fun to be found in exploring their most nightmarish results. Of course, part of this comes from the undeniable need for conflict in storytelling. A future free from want and strife hardly provides for a compelling script. The darkest imaginations gravitate towards distant eras in which humanity can do so much more, and so much more can go wrong.
The best sci-fi horror projects tend to live on for generations. When someonesays the term “space horror,“the go-to picture is still that of Giger’s Alien skulking around the air vents of a lived-in space shuttle.Alieninspired enough movies to fill ten different franchises, but none of them ever lived up to the original issue. This constant drive to replicate the successes of years gone by results in a lot of boring wastes of time. It also occasionally allowed a creator to expand the genre and find something new to say.
Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, and Joey Richardson
Release Date
June 01, 2025
The magnum opus of director Paul W. S. Anderson is this loud, gory, unhinged slice of space chaos that has recently earned a rather stunning reappraisal. Contemporary critics consideredEvent Horizona messof half-formed ideas papered over with impressive visual effects. The arc of this movie’s mainstream reception took a 90-degree turn upward over the past few years. Some fans got there long before the critics did.Event Horizonnever whispers when it can scream. It’s an ambitious epic that falls short of its highest targets but still lands in more interesting territory than most of its contemporaries.Visceral Games’Dead Spacefranchisedeserves some credit for its new public profile. Perhaps the only thing they were missing was the magic of interactive narrative. Either way,Event Horizonis having a moment right now, and it’s a great time to settle in for a rewatch. Newcomers are in for a treat.
Travis Milloy and Christian Alvart
Starring
Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Cung Le, and Eddie Rouse
June 09, 2025
Looking for a companion piece toEvent Horizon’s unceasing shriek of unhinged space horror? Look no further thanPandorum, a film about madness and violence in the least hospitable environment in existence.Event Horizon’sdirector, Paul W. S. Anderson, helped to producePandorum, evidently recognizing the connections between the two projects.Pandorumfollows a pair of travelers aboard an interstellar ark as they struggle against an army of mutants and their own faulty memories. LikeEvent Horizon,Pandorumdoesn’t often slow down. It’s brutal, sharp, and haunting. It’s the kind of movie that encourages audience members to exhale only after the credits roll.Pandorumdoesn’tbreak much new ground, but it does have a lot of fun piloting a carnival-style haunted house into space.
Robert Jaffe and Roger O. Hirson
Julie Christie and Fritz Weaver
June 11, 2025
Everyone has their favorite killer robot. AI is all over the news right now, and fans of the sci-fi genre are getting sick of discussing Skynet, AM, and HAL 9000.The time has come for Proteus IV. Donald Cammell’sDemon Seedstars Julie Christie as the wife of a brilliant scientist. She becomes an object of fascination for Proteus, who seeks to learn all he can about the species that built him. This leads to a bizarre psychosexual journey as a house full of technology turns against its creator. By the end ofDemon Seed, the imagery has become more troubling than most of the horror films of the last few decades.Demon Seedfrays the line of the B-movie concept, addressing extremely tough concepts through a unique lens. It’s an underratedslice of sci-fi horrorthat scratches against the walls of good taste.
David Peoples and Jeb Stuart
Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, Daniel Stern, and Ernie Hudson
July 13, 2025
LeviathanisAlienat sea. Once again, a group of blue-collar workers and scientists enter an extremely inhospitable environment, discover a previous voyage gone awry, and wind up in an enclosed space with something that wants them dead. Space horror comes to the sea. It’s not original, but there’s a certain type of person who has seenAlienmore times than they can count, and all they want is something new.Leviathanis the perfect first step away fromAlien. They even share composer Jerry Goldsmith. Director George P. Cosmatos has enough vision to start from an obvious ripoff and still find a few new things to say. It’s fun, compelling, and fast-paced. With a tight 103-minute runtime,Leviathanis well worth the trip.
Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, and David S. Goyer
Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, and Richard O’Brien
July 06, 2025
Alex Proyas, best known for his stellar 1994 adaptation ofThe Crow, crafted one of the most engaging sci-fi horror cult classics inDark City. It’s a jaunt into the mind of someone experiencing something truly unique, and the lack of attention it got at the time was a crime. A few of the film’s flaws were fixed when Proyas got torelease his director’s cut, the far superior version. The film follows John Murdoch, a man lost in a bizarre metropolis without his memories. Forced to piece his life together from scattered clues, Murdoch fights to evade the clutches of a gang of horrific men who seem to want his head. It’s an eclectic blend of genres that flows extremely well, presenting a kind of dreamlike epic that deserves more attention. This Halloween season,revisitDark Cityanddiscover what late 90s audiences mostly missed.
