Alien/Aliens is a given for most people. I have been watching Event Horizon during the spooky season for years. What are some of your favorite books and movies with a horror/psychological thriller lean?
Event horizon is one of the few movies I actually find a bit frightening.
I’ve always liked the fan theory that Event Horizon took place in the Warhammer 40k universe, and that the ship went into the warp without the necessary gellar fields.
I hadn’t heard of that up until a few weeks ago and now it’s hard for me not to view it as canon.
It’s because Larry Fish does everything right, makes the best possible moves in his situation, and still has problems. There’s a strong case to be made that Capt Miller is the one of the smartest protagonists in a horror movie and that’s why the movie is so haunting.
“We’re leaving.”
“And then we’re gonna nuke this ship”
“Fuck this ship.”
Also chilling: he doesn’t die.
Tortured forever in the warp.
Typical ghost/demon etc supernatural films and even a lot of sci-fi horror are snoozefests in comparison to Event Horizon because this film really puts it all together on a scale that makes it horrific. It plays with the supernatural angle and actually even explains it in such a way that puts it closer to reality, and then compounds that horror with the crushing isolation, unfamiliarity and unknowability of space.
I really wish there were more movies that got horror THIS RIGHT.
If you enjoyed the unsettling mix of supernatural and science fiction elements in Event Horizon, you might want to check out House on Haunted Hill (1999). While it’s not set in space, it combines psychological horror with a bit of tech flair, employing a modern (for its time) setting full of gadgets that can manipulate reality. It’s a fun ride if you’re looking for a horror film that tries to blend different elements together.
Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” had some genuine unsettling, creepy moments. The tall ghost who followed the addict child around was creepy as hell.
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I wish it would have went the unknowable, unfathomable Lovecraft route, instead of Hellraiser in space. Hell is the alternate dimension? Not a completely alien alternate dimension?
That said, it was fun.
I get your point and totally agree that direction isn’t followed NEARLY often enough, but I personally find it to be open to interpretation whether what they encounter is truly “hell” in a biblical sense or just an alternate dimension that can be construed in such a way that anyone who’s ever heard of the concept would define it as hell, and I prefer the latter at least in my own head.
If you look at it through the lens of it not really being Hell Original ™ it becomes almost Lovecraftian, given that everyone who comes into contact with the dimension loses their minds and that the ship itself gains a kind of sentience having just passed through it, but the comparison to Hellraiser is definitely valid given all we see of it is just wanton violence amongst the ship’s original crew, so for all we know it could be straight up Satan driving the boat.
I like to share this link whenever I come across a discussion about Event Horizon-
It’s fun to imagine what could have been
That movie is scary enough. I dont need to see the violence orgy from the original crew.
Gore has it’s place in horror films. Personally, I feel like it’s best used sparingly and to maximum effect, but there’s something to be said for the “gore fest” film types (e.g. Dead Alive), I suppose. Still, after a certain point, things stop being about horror and veer closer to torture erotica. Nothing against torture erotica either (again, not my thing, but to each their own), but it’s not horror. The violence orgy scene was literal torture porn, and I think it serves the film best as brief flashes, just enough to make it clear what’s going on, but not enough to function as an actual torture porn clip.
I think it serves the film best as brief flashes, just enough to make it clear what’s going on, but not enough to function as an actual torture porn clip.
Agree. My partner list this film as one of their top scary picks, mostly due to this scene.
I feel it is perfect the way it is. It leaves a lot to the imagination while still leading the viewer in a direction of true horror.
Gives me shivers just thinking about it.
That kind of thing is more effective when it’s implied. When you just get oblique flashes.
That’s crazy that they went through all the trouble to film all that and just cut it out. Sounds like they were expecting it with how crazy the footage was though.
Thanks!
More gore isn’t scary.
More gore is more fun!
I hear ya, I used to buy Fangoria magazine!
It reminds me a little of the Reavers in Firefly. We have this notion that when we are far removed from our familiar surroundings and isolated in bleak emptiness, that we will somehow stare into the void and lose our minds, turning savage and cruel as we go insane.
But if it’s any consolidation, outer space is far too dangerous for it to ever get to that point. Even highly qualified professionals who are trying their best can find it difficult to survive in space. There’s no way a violently insane person would last 30 seconds there.
Existential insanity.
“The empty black is so vast, and we mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme, which doesn’t exist. It’s all just random variables.”
We’re all nerds, we get it. But Whedon should have elaborated on it just little more.
SOMA by frictional games.
It explores some of the usual questions about what exactly the human mind might be, if it ever becomes possible to scan, simulate, copy and transfer consciousness.
But it does so in video game form, in a way that makes you face those questions from a visceral, personal, first hand experience perspective.
It’s a science fiction masterpiece.
Omg this game is so good. Right after I beat it I went to Reddit and the discussions there helped me answer even more questions and think about it even more deeply. I wish we could copy those communities over to here.
This is one that i bought but never got around to.
Do eet. Just go in dark, that’s the best way to experience it.
It’s existential terror. The good kind.
I didn’t play it, but watched the playthrough, and it was absolutely fantastic.
Is it spooky I won’t be able to sleep at night type of scary? It looks really interesting but I’m really not a fan of horror.
It’s very atmospheric. There is a “story mode” difficulty setting that disables all the monster encounters, leaving only scripted scares, the soundscape, and the plot.
On the wishlist it goes! Thanks for the fantastic recommendation.
This one annoyed the piss out of me. The protag is dumb as rocks
::: spoiler He’s an average dude, the games message wouldn’t exactly hit the way it does if both central characters had Catherine’s level of understanding of the situation. If you can’t deal with stupid, that’s fine, but having the two lead characters contrast each other in this way is how the game makes its point. They each represent one possible perspective. Catherine accepts that peoples minds can be reduced to data-files on a computer, copied, whatever. She knows that in tech, there is no “moving” data, only copying and then deleting.
To Simon this is an idea so foreign he can’t even understand it when told point-blank. Hell, he only barely gets it the first time it actually happens to him. He’s like the people who killed themselves after their brain-scans, in his understanding of reality, there can only be one instance of a person, because there is only one soul per person to go around. To him, the real Simon is dead, and he refuses to consider the thought further, because the conclusion he’d come to is that he is a “fake”.
In contrast Catherine is content with being a copy. To her a copy is just as valid and real as the original, but Simon doesn’t feel that way. They are the embodiments of the two sides of the speculative philosophical debate that is central to the game’s plot. Simon isn’t supposed to have intelligent things to say. He is the emotional response to the events of the Pathos facility, while Catherine is the intellectual one. :::
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PSA: As is commonly recommended, watch the director’s cut if you can, especially if it’s your first time. The main difference is that the regular release has a voice over in the beginning explaining a lot (too much).
Great movie. Make sure it’s the directors cut.
Came for this, nice
Short Stories:
I have no mouth and I must scream - Harlan Ellison - this story was the apogee of sci-fi horror in the 70s and 80s.
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale - Philip K. Dick’s original short story and the inspiration for Total Recall.
Weird French Shit:
Fantastic Planet - Animated french scifi about humans being kept as pets by giant blue aliens.
City of Lost Children - steampunk cybercultists
Classic Movies:
They Live - In case you’re out of bubblegum
Tremors - broke into the wrong goddamn rec room, didn’t ya?
Scanners - Pop!
Friggin love Tremors man, it’s redneck Dune, awesome example of a low budget movie made amazing by good writing and creativity.
“What the hell, I mean what the hell is goin’ on here!”
Fantastic Planet is one of my all time favorite movies and I think it ages dreadfully well.
Agreed. I did a rewatch before I posted it to the @13thFloor and I was amazed (hadn’t seen it since I was a kid). Some of the most intriguing and beautiful surrealistic animation ever, and the story is remarkably good - generating a sort of slow clinical terror in the viewer that flows and builds beneath the bright alien landscapes.
The expressions of the humans really struck me as a kid, I could feel their terror (and anger) without really understanding the whole thing. Side-related but I’ve the 13thfloor tab opened for a few days and I haven’t explored it yet. Guess I should do that now :)
Right on - we’re always open to travelers of the Fantastic Planet, and any other extradimensional refugees ;)
Side note - our movie series is here under the #cinemainsomnia tag, if you’re just looking for full length films.
Wonderful thank you!!
I love horror. But I think Stephen King is his best in his short stories, and in my opinion, his best is “Last Rung on the Ladder.” An absolutely heartbreaking tale of grief, and regret.
Not scifi but still dark and very funny - the film Wild Tales from Spain is a collection of shorts with the common theme being revenge.
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Moon - really good psychological element and great acting.
Pandorum - fun (and a bit hammy) action horror romp.
Twelve Monkeys - really tight and suspenseful plot with great acting.
Being John Malcovich - not sure if this fits in, but a great mind-bender of a sci-fi movie.
Man, Moon is such a good movie. Sam Rockwell absolutely killed it which I was quite impressed by considering the last thing I saw him in was as Zaphod Beeblebrox in Hitchhikers. Quite a different set of acting chops he exercised.
Being John Malkovich is easily one of the weirdest most different interesting movies I’ve ever seen. The writer, Charlie Kaufman, also wrote Eternal Sunshine, another great one.
Adaptation is worth watching too, with Nicolas Cage playing two roles, based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleans.
Pandorum was a damn good film, a little goofy sure, but a really interesting idea based around what would happen if someone in that situation really did go off the rails and turn a colony ship into their own personal fantasy/hell for everyone else.
Yeah I watched it several times and it’s so cheesy and silly but also… yeah people huddling up to the nuclear reactors for warmth seems about the way that would go looking at human activity today
I mean it’s a fusion plant, it’s not radioactive like the uranium fission we use today. They mutated because of the drug they were given in stasis.
Wellllll… guess it’s time to rewatch Dennis Quaid ham it up in an empty room again cause I forgot some of the plot points.
I love that Shepard from flight team 3 is played by a somewhat before he got big Norman Reedus.
If they’d cut the kung fu stuff, it would have been better, in my opinion. But it’s not a terrible film.
Kung fu stuff? Did we watch the same movie?
The sequence where the Asian dude fights the head cannibal mutant toward the end, then gets suckered in by the cannibal mutant child. The whole thing is unnecessary, and taints what could have been a semi-serious scifi/horror flick. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my guilty pleasures. It started out strong, then turned into a Paul W. S. Anderson flick. The same dude who cheapened Event Horizon, which could have also been awesome, instead of Hellraiser in Space, part 2. But I’m sure the producers on both flicks had a lot to do with them.
I haven’t seen anyone mention it but The Man From Earth is fantastic. It’s literally just about a guy saying goodbye to his friends and telling an unbelievable story. There aren’t any flashbacks or visuals illustrating the story. Just him talking and their reactions but it’s so well written that it really draws you in.
Granted it’s not horror but more people should see this gem
Such a great concept for a movie. It’s like a short story brought to life. I could easily see this done as a stage play, to a much greater effect. Especially the culmination of his story, the reveal, and the potential implication.
Wish the acting was better, but still a great movie!
What potential implications are there?
Not really a spoiler, but I don’t want to say anything so you can go in blind.
It’s not a “What?!? The whole time?!?” Like Sixth Sense, but an interesting perspective.
I saw the film a decade ago. You can’t spoil me. I just don’t remember any implications. Everything was pretty clearly spelled out - or I missed something, and want you to tell me!
2007?
Yes. That would be it.
Thanks
Whatever you do, dont watch the sequel though, what a fucking mess lol
I was about to do that. Lol. Thanks!
I don’t have much of an idea on if it was small but the movie Sunshine (2007) comes to mind. Loved that movie. It’s well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.
I think it counts because for some reason not many people have heard of it. Very unrated and a great movie.
I really enjoyed 4/5 of that movie
I love the movie but you’re not wrong!
The Icarus 1 distress beacon is still one of the most unsettling sounds I’ve ever heard.
Yes! Im glad someone said it because everyone I tell about this movie ends up loving it.
I’ve come to like Pandorum a lot over the years. I now make sure I watch it every once in a while.
I agree, Pandorum is a great one. I loved the twist at the end - I thought they’d go into a totally different direction with it.
The first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes are great. That guy who trapped them in the crucible was also great. Most of the rest of the movie was meh, influenced too much by other popular movies monster cliches at the time. I will always love that ending though. Didn’t expect the glass to crack and reveal that twist.
Saw this the other day.
This movie is awesome.
Oh man, haven’t watched this in ages. Definitely enjoyed it though
I watched it a lot as a kid. Came back to it a few years ago and it didn’t feel the same. Still a great movie
I see no mention of Solaris
Very psychological movie
If you liked the unknowable, unfathomable alien trope, check out his book “His Master’s Voice.” It’s great, too. Stanislaw Lem, that is.
Yeees! I like it a loot too. But my favorite of Tarkovsky is Stalker. Such beautiful scenes!!
Ma I’ve really tried hard but I can’t stand Tarkovsky, i understand his vision but somehow doesn’t fit with my taste and I feel a bit guilty about it.
Smart shut-in builds an implausibly powerful computer in an attempt to discern a pattern that is responsible for all things. He uses the golden spiral as evidence of such a pattern, and believes he will eventually take pi out to so many decimal places that such a pattern emerges there.
The psychological thriller aspect relates to what he experiences along the way, and how it ends. I have a theory about the ending, but no idea if it’s an opinion shared by the creator or any others.
Only had time to skim it for now, but that sounds fascinating. Thanks!
I enjoyed the soundtrack too.
Triangle . The science fiction angle is that it’s a time travel paradox. Predestination is another similar film, based off of Robert Heinlein’s “–All You Zombies–”.
Predestination is amazing. I read the book right after watching the movie, and the movie is just so much better.
They did a really great job with it, especially considering how dated a lot of Heinlein can feel now, what with all his relatively benevolent sexism (among many other things). Not many Heinlein stories have been made into books–I think that this is only the 3rd–so it was quite pleasing to see.
Agreed, if I read the book first I would not have thought someone could make it into such a great movie. Interesting observation about film adaptions. The only one that comes to mind is Starship Troopers. What are the others? Also, it’s interesting that they chose this little novel to make Predestination instead of his more well-known books.
IIRC he did a short story about a stowaway on a ship that threw off the fuel calculations by adding an extra 75kg of mass, so that they wouldn’t reach their destination if the stowaway wasn’t thrown out of the airlock. (And the ship couldn’t land without the captain, so…) I’m pretty sure that was a movie plot on Netflix, but I’ll be damned if I could tell you the title of either.
Philip K. Dick on the other hand… His books have been turned into tons of movies, and since he was asking questions about humanity (versus being harder science fiction), they’ve aged much better.
I am genuinely curious why Philip Dick is so popular among the film makers. I think I read somewhere that the reason might be because his books are not very detailed, just sketches, which allows movie-makers to bend his stories to their liking. One author I would like to see adapted more, though, is probably Ted Chiang. Love his stories.
I think it’s because he had such interesting ideas, things that were extremely original, but also stories and ideas that readers and audiences can relate to in some way. Some of the best science fiction can be very dense; The Diamond Age, or Solaris. Even Roadside Picnic is difficult to film, because how do you visually depict something that’s entirely beyond human understanding? (Tarkovsky gave it a helluva try though!) Dick is focusing more on the people; the science fiction setting is a way to get at his ideas about things like what defines humanity.
That’s my take anyways.
Right, although I never really enjoyed reading Dick. Just too dry and depressing af. Interesting ideas, though. On the point about difficulty to film, that’s where games come in! I’ve never player Stalker, but I think it is well regarded. Same with the Metro series. And yeah, Tarkovsky is hard to watch. I don’t think I finished either Solaris or Stalker
The guy who directed Triangle also did a movie called Creep that’s absolutely worth a watch.
That was a good one.
Annihilation, if you can ignore the framing device.
I don’t remember much about the plot but that fucking bear omg.
I think about the bear all the time. One of the few examples of a monster surpassing what I could imagine.
The book is pretty great (imo.)
It also explores the Shimmer more and it’s fascinating.
I liked the plot, but regardless, I would say Annihilation has some of the most horrifically beautiful sci-fi imagaries on screen.
It’s “The Color Out of Space,” but more intellectual. I liked the remake of “Color” with Cage, too.
Cube, though pretty well known, still fits ‘small’ IMHO, Given it’s lows budget.
Altered States comes to mind. It sort of straddles sci-fi and horror without really being firmly in either. Deals with some fringe psychology research during the 70’s going wrong in unexpected ways.
Brainstorm is more obviously sci-fi / speculative fiction… can’t say to much else without spoiling the surprises.
Neither one of these is going to seriously blow your mind, but there’s still food for thought. Bon appétit. 
I love Altered States. And for some reason I always associate it with Dreamscape and I like watching them together.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen that, I’ll check it out :-)
Hope you like it! Now that I’ve talked about it I feel an itch for a double bill this weekend haha!
Just found a copy and the cover/synopsis unlocked some dim memories. I love rediscovering something I saw a bit of on TV when I was a kid but never got to finish, thank you :-)
That was it! Awesome :-)
I didn’t remember the whole plot but I definitely remember the cobra-man.
David Patrick Kelly’s character was bugging me right up until the end… such great monologues, his voice is so creepy.
Lolll so great, glad you had fun :) Corba-Man was nightmare fuel for a while when I was a kid. DPK’s face was already seared into my brain from The Warriors, I was so afraid of him!
Enemy Mine was pretty trippy. I saw it when I was a kid though so I’m not sure if it was any good or if it fits.
Vivarium was quite odd and different. I appreciated the original take on the age old concept of how alien and weird the suburbs are.
I’m not sure if it counts as smaller but The Thing, god damn, finally saw that one for the first time recently and it really is one of the GOATs.
Vivarium was true scifi/horror, not the cut and paste dumbed down garbage we mostly get.
And for The Thing, DON’T watch the “prequel,” if you already haven’t. It’s a beat by beat remake. It’s a “Requel,” a remake posing as a prequel/sequel. I wanted to burn the theater down when I saw it. But knowing that now, watch it, as see what I’m talking about.
I saw the original John carpenter version at a friends house at ~2am after a rare night out drinking with some old college buddies in town. My friend has a big HD projector and sound system in his house and when everyone heard I’d never seen the thing it was instantly agreed that’s what we are doing later. I had absolutely no idea what to expect and was blown the fuck away!
Then I got all excited a few weeks ago when I saw the thing was on Netflix so I could see it again. Then I realized it was the recent remake from idk 2012 maybe? Watched five minutes of it and ragequit, then paid $3 to see it on Prime.
Enemy Mine lol what a trip. I have the book and the film. I wont spoil it for anyone but when you know who falls you know what, thats when the whole thing became a wild ride.
I had no idea there was a book. Link me to it?
Ah, I have a physical paperback. I got at an op shop. It has a lot more Draco lore in it.
Earthman, your Mickey Mouse is one big stupid dope!!
It’s a story that would totally work even without any sci fi elements, which I think means it is good. You could ask whether it’s good sci fi without such core speculative elements. But it consistently stretches into strange territory (hermaphroditism, meteor weather, edible footballs) in a convincing way that you’d have a hell of a time saying it’s anything but sci fi.
Oh it’s definitely sci fi. I just meant it’s not exactly sci horror as OP requested.
Yeah maybe not horror, but it has some pretty grody moments, like eating the live worm and the birth scene zomg the birth scene…
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