We all know the cliché: any horror franchise that goes on long enough inevitably goes to space. Critters, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, Dracula… they’ve all taken a trip to the stars.
The trope, fair or not, has often overshadowed the fact that science fiction and horror are absolutely perfect bedfellows, with outer space’s total isolation, tiny quarters, and oppressive vastness perfectly suited for the horror genre. Horror movies set in space have delivered classics of both genres that have lasted generations and built entire franchises in and of themselves.
Why then, in the middle of a horror film renaissance, has the genre seemingly abandoned outer space? What has become of the space horror movie, and why has Hollywood either stopped producing them entirely or, maybe more accurately, failed to make a good one out of the few they do put out?
Space: The horror frontier
To be clear, science fiction and horror haven’t been on that much of a break overall; it’s just that when the two genres meet, they no longer seem to have any interest in leaving planet Earth.
Instead, the combination either brings the alien threat planetside, à la “The Quiet Place”, “Nope”, or “No One Will Save You”, or makes the horror come from man’s own hand like “Ex Machina” or “M3GAN”. Either way, the result is that horror no longer lives in space, with the only truly major space-horror film release this decade being the admittedly excellent “Alien: Romulus“, along with some smaller projects like “Europa Report” and “Life”.
I was sure there must be more — some hidden classics that I missed — but researching for this article, I was shocked at just how few space horror movies we’ve had in the past couple of decades. It’s like everyone agreed “Event Horizon” was peak and gave up making horror films in space.
Horror in space has never been a dominant subgenre, but it was once big enough to be considered an entire trope. So it feels especially strange that in the middle of a horror renaissance, as the genre continues to dominate box offices, it is totally left behind. Horror has crawled out of the B-grade shadows and into Oscar contention with films like “Get Out”, “Midsommar”, and “It Follows”, and the box office returns are staggering.
Respected directors are diving into the genre and creating masterpieces, but none of them seem interested in outer space. We are nearly a decade into a horror renaissance that has seen almost every type of horror unpacked, remade, and turned into arthouse, and yet space horror has sat almost entirely dormant. So what gives?
In space, no one can hear you arthouse
Why is this happening then? Where is the arthouse unpacking of “Jason X”? Why didn’t Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” kick off the horror renaissance a decade earlier? Why did the “Alien” franchise become whatever the hell “Prometheus” was before finally returning to its roots (and then promptly coming down to Earth!)? Where’s our English remake of Aniara from an up-and-coming indie director?
There’s most likely a slew of reasons none of this has happened, but the most likely culprit is that horror has become far more grounded than it used to be. While we still get slashers and jump scares, the renaissance that A24 ushered in has not only brought horror out of the shadows, but also delivered a redefined genre that doesn’t jive as well with spaceships and alien creatures.
That’s not to say it can’t, but this new generation of horror isn’t interested in going off-planet to tell its slow-burning stories of grief and trauma, full of thinly veiled metaphors for real-life issues. “Earth and the present day are scary enough as is” seems to be the argument.
Of course, there’s the other reason. The reason for everything: money.
The other new branch of horror that has come out of this renaissance comes from studios like Blumhouse, which churn out low-budget horror films and rake in huge profits. And that’s no knock on budget horror flicks, some of which are truly amazing.
But while space horror can be made on the cheap, it’s definitely not as easy to do. It requires more investment, design, and often sets and special effects than a traditional horror film does. It’s just cheaper and easier to make sci-fi horror that’s set on Earth, and with so many of them becoming massive hits, why bother going to space?
Drag me to space
Given both sci-fi and horror’s history of social commentary and cultural unpacking, arthouse horror not going to space — budget restraints aside — seems like a major miss, especially when the very aspects it explores are perfectly built for the isolation, detachment, and fear that space evokes.
Outside of horror, excellent space movies like “Moon” and “The Martian” have explored these themes, but we’re missing that spooky, scary edge.
And look, I’m not even saying that space horror has to be arthouse. The trope that horror franchises go to space eventually is actually one I’d like to see more of. Why not jump the shark a bit more with horror franchises? A science fiction version of Saw sounds a hell of a lot more fun than Chris Rock’s dreadful spin-off. Sci-fi space “Purge” on a colony ship? Yes, and please. “Evil Dead”’s new anthology style of horror is practically begging to take a trip to space. There’s so much space in space, and these franchises could totally take a trip there.
There is one bright spot, however, for the space-loving horror enthusiast. Video games seem to have taken up the mantle.
Space horror has always flourished in the medium, from AAA classics like “Dead Space” to indie darlings like “Iron Lung” (which itself was transformed into a space horror film!). The subgenre has been going strong for decades, even if film gave up on it. Hell, for nearly a decade, the best output from the “Alien” franchise was “Alien: Isolation“, one of the scariest games ever made.
While movies may no longer be playing in the wider universe, at least our video games are taking us there and then scaring us out of our space boots.