Sci-fi and horror have long gone hand in hand. Science fiction is a genre that deals with the future and the uncertainty the human race and the planet face while horror aims to tap into our most primal fears. Naturally, when the two genres meet on screen the product can be terrifying. The Alien franchise became one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time, permeating pop culture and influencing many movies that came after it.
What about the films that don't make the splash that movies like Alien did? With so many releases each year, from theatrical blockbusters to straight-to-home videos, it's easy for some to get overlooked.
Pandorum
Released in 2009, Pandorum flopped at the box office. The plot is somewhat typical of many sci-fi films, with the Earth depleted of natural resources, a kind of space ark is built, housing 60,000 humans on a mission to colonize a far-off planet. The journey is set to take over 100 years and to man the ark they have a rotating crew, who come out of stasis to take their turn helming the ship. When Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) wake up to take their shift something goes wrong and they emerge with partial amnesia and find the ship experiencing periodic power surges due to a faulty reactor.
Where Pandorum stands out is in the twists and turns in the plot, the inclusion of space mutants, and the outstanding performances from the two main leads. The film is a claustrophobic and grisly commentary on human nature and mental illness with interesting set designs and tense sequences that has started to find a wider audience in recent years.
Annihilation
Based on the 2014 novel of the same name, Annihilation stars Natalie Portman as an army veteran and cellular biology professor Lena who has been investigating a phenomenon known as The Shimmer. The Shimmer is a strange zone that materialized at the site of a meteorite crash where all plant and animal life inside is mutating. One year after her husband disappears during a mission into The Shimmer, he re-appears at their home and quickly begins to deteriorate. This leads to government intervention and Lena agreeing to investigate The Shimmer.
Upon its release, Annihilation did poorly at the box office. However, it is a film deserving of a second chance. The special effects are beautiful and frightening in equal measure, with an interesting premise and creepy creature and plant designs. The movie explores difficult ideas and themes and leaves a lot unanswered or open-ended for the audience to decide.
The Void
Directed by Steven Kostanski, The Void is a Lovecraftian horror that features incredible practical effects. Set in a small-town hospital, The Void follows a group of people trapped inside a hospital by cultists that are surrounding the building and attempting to kill anyone that leaves. The only problem is that what is already inside the hospital may be much, much worse than the threat outside. Inside the hospital, people are changing and twisting, physically and mentally as the barriers between worlds begin to break down.
All of the practical effects were crowdfunded on Indiegogo and the movie was received positively upon its release. With an 80s feel, heavy gore, and pretty extreme body horror, The Void harks back to early video nasties but also brings them up to date and makes it seem fresh.
The Hidden
Starring Kyle MacLachlan as a strange FBI agent, a departure from his role in Twin Peaks as a strange FBI agent, hunting a murderer across the country. The difference with this case is that the murderer is a body-hopping slug-like alien and that Kyle MacLachlan's character Gallagher is also an alien, albeit an alien police officer who has traveled across the galaxy to apprehend a thrill-killing alien criminal. The movie itself features a lot of action sequences and some dark humor elements that overall make an interesting and thrilling cinematic experience.
Largely unseen today, The Hidden sits in a strange in-between realm of genres with sci-fi, horror, action, and comedy rolled into one but each element works together to create a cohesive and fun film led by great performances that is deserving of a wider audience.
Existenz
Written and directed by David Cronenberg, Existenz stars Jennifer Jason Leigh is game designer Allegra Geller and Jude Law as Ted Pikul. The world of Existenz is one where biotechnological virtual reality gaming has become commonplace, with game pods that can plug into ports in players' spines. Two main companies compete for market dominance, while a group known as Realists battle both as a counter against the warping of reality. Geller is being targeted by assassins and Pikul is her publicist. Gellers' game pod contains the only copy of the new game Existenz and she and Pikul enter the game to test the integrity of the game.
What follows is a journey filled with body horror, bio-weapons, and mind-bending that came at the same time as The Matrix and asks many of the same questions of virtual reality. What is real, and does it matter?