Curated collection

Curated Alien Horror Movies

Alien horror is science fiction's darkest corner, telling stories in which life from beyond Earth is hostile, unknowable or simply hungry. The universe is 13.8 billion years old. We've been broadcasting our location for about a hundred of them. Curated alien horror explores what might have heard us, invasion, abduction, infiltration, and contact that goes exactly as wrong as it should.

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Poster artwork for 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane

2016 · Movie

Michelle wakes up in Howard's underground bunker after a car accident and is told something catastrophic has happened outside that makes returning impossible.

2010sPsychologicalSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place

2018 · Movie
Pick

The Abbott family survives in a world where making any sound will get you killed. The film follows a crucial period in that survival.

2010sAlienPsychological
Poster artwork for A Quiet Place Part II

Evelyn Abbott and her children emerge from their fortified property and encounter Emmett and other survivors navigating the same sound restrictions.

2020sAlienPsychological
Poster artwork for A Quiet Place: Day One

Samira just wanted pizza and one last good day in New York. She got the invasion that started the whole franchise instead.

2020sCreature FeatureSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien

Alien

1979 · Movie
Pick

The commercial towing vessel Nostromo answers a distress signal on a distant moon. What the crew brings back aboard doesn't intend to leave.

1970sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien 3

Alien 3

1992 · Movie

Ripley wakes among the inmates of a remote prison planet with no weapons and no way off, and something has hitched a ride down with her escape craft.

1990sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien Resurrection

Alien Resurrection

1997 · Movie

Two centuries after Ripley's story seemed finished, military scientists grow her back from blood samples aboard a research ship, just as a crew of smugglers docks at exactly the wrong moment.

1990sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien vs. Predator

Alien vs. Predator

2004 · Movie

A billionaire's expedition drills down to a pyramid hidden under the ice near Antarctica, arriving just in time for an ancient ritual in which young Predators prove themselves against Xenomorphs. The humans are stuck in the middle.

2000sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien: Covenant

Alien: Covenant

2017 · Movie

The Covenant colony ship detours to investigate a signal and finds a world that David, the android from Prometheus, has been using as a laboratory.

2010sAlienBody Horror
Poster artwork for Alien: Earth

Alien: Earth

2025 · TV
Pick

A crashed deep-space vessel brings something to Earth that a squad of soldiers and a young woman are completely unprepared for.

2020sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus

2024 · Movie
Pick

A young group of people scraping by in a post-Alien world boards the abandoned Renaissance space station looking for cryosleep pods and activates a xenomorph situation their circumstances make harder to survive.

2020sAlienCreature Feature
Poster artwork for Aliens

Aliens

1986 · Movie
Pick

After 57 years adrift in hypersleep, Ripley can't convince anyone what happened aboard the Nostromo. Then the new colony on that same moon stops answering, and she flies back out with a squad of Colonial Marines.

1980sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

A crashed ship spills Xenomorphs and a vicious hybrid into the woods outside a quiet Colorado town. While the residents scramble to get out, a lone Predator arrives with a single job: erase every trace.

2000sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Pick

Something is off about the people Miles Bennell knows best, starting small and getting worse the more he looks. The town has no interest in being caught.

1950sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Pick

Alien creatures shaped like circus clowns land in a small town and start harvesting the population using cotton candy cocoons. Two teenagers try to warn people.

1980sCreature FeatureAlien
Poster artwork for No One Will Save You

Brynn lives alone in her late mother's house, shunned by her small town for reasons the film takes its time to reveal. Then one night something breaks in, and it isn't from around here.

2020sLovecraftianAlien
Poster artwork for Nope

Nope

2022 · Movie
Pick

OJ and Emerald Haywood run a horse ranch in Agua Dulce and find that something in the clouds above their property has been taking an interest in movement below.

2020sAlienPsychological
Poster artwork for Predator

Predator

1987 · Movie
Pick

Sent into the rainforests of Central America to pull hostages out of a guerrilla camp, Dutch and his commando unit realize something in the canopy is picking them off, and it can vanish into the trees at will.

1980sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Predator 2

Predator 2

1990 · Movie

Los Angeles, 1997: the city is baking, and drug gangs are fighting open battles in the streets when an invisible hunter starts carving through both sides. One stubborn police lieutenant decides to take it personally.

1990sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Poster artwork for Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands

2025 · Movie

Cast out by his clan for being too small, a young Predator crash-lands on a death world to hunt a creature nobody has ever killed. His only guide is the top half of a broken android, riding on his back.

2020sAlienSci-Fi Horror
Before you press play

Frequently Asked Questions About Curated Alien Horror Movies

What is alien horror as a film genre?

Alien horror is a subgenre of horror where the source of fear is extraterrestrial, whether that's a creature stalking a spaceship crew, an organism invading human bodies, or something so far beyond comprehension it breaks the mind trying to understand it. It sits at the intersection of science fiction and horror, using the unknown of outer space or first contact to generate dread rather than wonder. The best alien horror films work because the threat can't be reasoned with, negotiated with, or fully understood. HorroRated's Alien collection covers the full range, from claustrophobic survival horror to slow-burn cosmic dread.

What's the difference between alien horror and cosmic horror?

Alien horror focuses on a specific extraterrestrial threat, usually something physical that wants to kill, infect, or consume. Cosmic horror goes further: the horror isn't just that the creature exists, but that its existence reveals how small and meaningless humanity is in comparison. Films like Annihilation (2018) and The Thing (1982) blur both categories because the alien is terrifying AND incomprehensible. Most alien horror has a survival frame. Cosmic horror removes the possibility of survival as a comfort.

What makes a great alien horror film?

The best ones build dread through what they don't show. Isolation, limited information, and a threat that doesn't follow human logic are the key ingredients. Practical effects help too because there's something about a physical creature on set that CGI hasn't fully replaced. The Thing, Alien, and Annihilation all use restraint, and they've all aged better than films that showed everything. A strong alien horror film earns its scares through atmosphere and tension, not just creature reveals.

Is alien horror the same as sci-fi horror?

Not exactly. Sci-fi horror is broader and includes AI threats, science-gone-wrong scenarios, and space-based horror with no alien life at all (Event Horizon being a good example). Alien horror specifically requires an extraterrestrial lifeform as the threat. All alien horror is a form of sci-fi horror, but not all sci-fi horror involves aliens. The distinction matters when you're looking for a specific kind of fear: alien horror is about something out there that found us, or that we found.

What are the main types of alien horror films?

The subgenre breaks into a few distinct flavors. There's space-set survival horror where characters are hunted aboard a ship or on another planet (Alien, Life, Pitch Black). There's invasion horror where aliens arrive on Earth and take over, either through force or infiltration (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Signs). There's body horror crossover where the alien gets inside humans and transforms them (The Thing, Slither). And there's cosmic horror territory where the alien is more concept than creature (Annihilation, Color Out of Space). HorroRated's archive covers all four.

Are there good underrated alien horror films worth watching?

Plenty. Pitch Black (2000) is straight survival horror before the franchise turned into action-sci-fi. The Endless (2017) uses alien concepts without ever confirming anything, which makes it more unsettling. Coherence (2013) is a low-budget mind-bender that barely shows its hand. Under the Skin (2013) flips the formula with an alien perspective. Most best-of lists default to Alien and The Thing; the deeper cuts are where the real finds are, and that's exactly what the HorroRated archive is built to surface.