There are many horror sub-genres, but cosmic horror is one of the most fascinating. Mixing in science fiction and monster elements, the terror from the skies can take many forms. Sometimes a strange force threatens our realm, and other times we stumble upon it when venturing across the stars.
Plenty of movies feature horror from space and other dimensions, but it can sometimes be challenging to find. There’s likely some debate among friends about whether these types of films are more sci-fi than horror. These are the cosmic horror films to add some unorthodox frights to your spooky movie playlist.
The Beyond
Liza Merrill has acquired an old hotel and intends to refurbish it for reopening. While renovating the establishment, she discovers a portal to hell in the basement, something far more disturbing than a flooded foundation or abundance of radon. The supernatural leak leads to the undead bringing death and destruction, threatening our reality and Liza’s investment.
Directed by Italian legend Lucio Fulci, The Beyond doesn’t skimp on the gruesome gore that made Fulci an icon of giallo. It holds up for the incredible special effects and cinematography that leans heavily into the gross, with eyeballs popped and skin melted by being from the great beyond. If you like your cosmic horror extra gooey, look no further than this 1980s classic.
The Void
A hospital is not a safe place when it turns out to house the gateway to hell itself. That’s what ends up happening when strange, hooded cultists enter the building and trap everyone inside, including a police officer. Cornered by this mysterious cult, those inside watch as their minds and bodies deteriorate into madness when the power of another world is evoked from the hypnotic allure of triangles.
Gory and surreal, The Void has the throwback nature of gritty retro horror, with nightmarish knocking on doors to worlds of unknown terror. The practical effects give the film an extra dose of gross, especially for one disturbing sequence involving a C-section. It’s a shocking and unpredictable dose of cosmic horror that becomes more intriguing as it delves into the darkest pits of blood-soaked fears from another realm.
The Void
- Release Date
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September 22, 2016
- Runtime
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90 minutes
- Director
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Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski
The Color Out of Space
Based on H. P. Lovecraft’s book, The Color Out of Space tells the story of a mutant creature that crash-lands on our planet. Hitting the ground next to a farm, the monster hides in plain sight and threatens the docile farm life of Nathan Gardner’s (Nicolas Cage) family. The galactic being soon drives the family mad, as the colorful presence becomes the most vivid of tortures.
There’s a mesmerizing quality to the way The Color Out of Space draws you in with its purple-fused sensation of terror from another world. Cage’s performance fits perfectly into this beautiful concoction of colorful sci-fi forces and grotesque monsters that destroy human bodies and minds. It’s an amazingly weird picture that knows how to use odd actors like Nicolas Cage and Tommy Chong with quirks as compelling as the intoxicating colors.
The Lighthouse
Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) has taken on a new job as a lighthouse keeper, working alongside former sailor Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). The isolating nature of the job soon leads to strange sights of mermaids and one-eyed gulls, as Winslow starts to lose his sanity. When a violent storm erupts, the two men confront the darkest and most disturbing aspects of their psyche.
Directed by Robert Eggers (Nosferatu), The Lighthouse is a mash of surreal horror that it could likely fit into several genres. The 19th-century setting works well for a story that clearly evokes the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft for the mysterious avenues it ventures towards in the black and white staging. It’s a weird mixture of a scary story that swirls with mythology, sexuality, and psychosis that all seem to draw from somewhere beyond our reality.
Nope
Jordan Peele turned to the skies for his third horror film, Nope. The horse rancher OJ struggles to keep his business together amid a strange UFO that has targeted his community. With the help of his sister Em, he aims to reveal the true nature of this mysterious flying monster that can suck up people and spit out blood.
Although Peele’s film fits his allegorical methodology for centering on the obsession of taming nature for the camera, Nope placed extra terror in the U of UFO. Daniel Kaluuya gives a hushed performance as a man grappling with a scary monster in the skies and fighting against horror movie conventions. It’s one of the most terrifying films about a UFO, especially for that chilling scene inside the belly of this monstrous flying alien that is guaranteed to stick in your nightmares.
Mandy
Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) has his peaceful lumberjack lifestyle ruined when a violent cult breaks into his home and murders his girlfriend, Mandy. After mourning this tragic loss, Red sets off on a quest for revenge by slaughtering the gang known as the Black Skulls. But Red’s bloody adventure will find him delving deep into the dark, strange, and psychedelic world of bikers, drugs, and churches.
Directed by Panos Cosmatos, Mandy taps into a retro sensation of cosmic horror for being set in the 1980s. Evoking a Lovecraftian madness, Cage is at his most unhinged while playing a man bound by grief, fueled by revenge, and so mentally damaged that his hallucinations are wild. It’s all weirdly offbeat with its brutality and worldbuilding, where it’s hard to forget the absurd presence of the Chedder Goblin.
In the Mouth of Madness
As the closer to John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, In The Mouth of Madness explores the dark depths of when fiction becomes a reality. Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator sent to figure out what happened to a horror author, Sutter Cane, who went missing in a small town. What he discovers will drive him mad as his perceptions are thrown off in a trip that turns into a surreal nightmare.
Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, Carpenter has crafted a love letter to Lovecraft beyond the fact that Sutter Cane’s novels have similar titles. Fantasy and reality bleed together as John loses his mind while trying to comprehend the sinister force behind the mysterious manuscripts. In addition to evoking the psychological aspects of cosmic horror, the film is also a brilliant contemplation on the nature of conceiving the horror genre, considering the finale of Cane’s titular book being adapted into a movie that drives the world mad.
The Thing
An isolated science team at Antarctica encounters an alien they cannot see until it strikes. The alien hides inside different bodies, taking on a mutated form when discovered. The team is brutalized and has nowhere to run, so they’ll have to figure out how to stop this parasite from the stars.
The Thing is one of the grossest sci-fi horror films ever made (let alone one of the greatest horror films of 1982), for fantastically gruesome and disgusting alien forms. The unpredictable nature of the concealed threat makes this cosmic creature so brilliant, especially for how iconic the cosmic threat becomes when taking the form of a skinless dog, spider-legged human head, or a belly with teeth. Directed by John Carpenter, the concept of aliens existing in secret among us has never been more intense for the deception and destruction of our bodies.
Event Horizon
Set in the future and deep space, the starship Lewis and Clark is sent to investigate what happened to the missing ship Event Horizon. Answering a distress call of screams, the crew ventures aboard the spooky spaceship to find out what happened in the crew’s attempt to fold space and time. The search for survivors turns into a fight for survival as a black hole unleashes hell upon the crew, turning the starships into a supernatural buffet for the demonic.
Directed by Paul Anderson, Event Horizon is such a rousing and weird film for posing the idea of opening the gates of hell in space. It boasts a notable cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan, throwing them into a bloodbath of sci-fi horror. The film leaves a lasting impression with its grim scenario and the unforgettable shots of Sam Neill with his eyes torn out.
Annihilation
A strange anomaly known as The Shimmer has come from space and is enveloping an area of Florida. A team that includes cellular biologist/soldier Lena (Natalie Portman), whose husband previously ventured inside, is sent to investigate this mysterious zone. Working alongside several flawed women, Lena is terrified by a bizarre, otherworldly force that taps into the most horrifying aspects of humanity.
Annihilation is the trippiest and most terrifying of cosmic horror for the surreal staging of exploring identity and mortality. The adventurers are targeted in a way that goes beyond a mere slaughter, as the Shimmer finds ways to distort the environment, perceptions, and question their own existence. The scene where Lena watches as a shimmering cloud replicates her body is one of the most psychadelically chilling scenes of any film I’ve ever seen, making this a must-watch cosmic horror.
Cosmic/Lovecraftian horror can be a refreshing break from the typical slashers and supernatural hauntings that have become common in the horror genre. Whether it’s aliens from the stars or demons from hell, there is always an air of fright to these films, which focus more on what we have yet to understand about our world. Masked killers and bloodthirsty animals are scary, sure, but there isn’t much of a strategy you can form against an extraterrestrial or otherworldly threat.
