Alien movies have played on the fear of the unknown for decades with their nightmarish what-if scenarios, and humanity continually obsesses with the possibility of life on other planets and what might happen if these otherworldly beings don't "come in peace." As a result, depictions of alien abductions, horrific experimentation, and body swapping further feed the paranoia of extraterrestrials and their ulterior motives.
A whole horror sub-genre has sprung up around alien encounters, which really took off in the 1980s after the success of Ridley Scott's Alien film. From the new Predator film to the 1951 classic The Thing From Another World, these are the absolute scariest extra-terrestrial creature features ever released.
Updated on September 28th, 2022 by Tanner Fox: There's something universally compelling about alien invasion films; they play on the latent existential fear of the unknown, something just about everyone harbors. While family films like 1982's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial or comedy outings like 2011's Paul subvert this innate terror, most films involving aliens make them out to be terrifying and strange harbingers of doom.
From extreme-beyond-extreme examples like John Carpenter's rendition of The Thing to slightly more tongue-in-cheek takes like Disney's Chicken Little, alien invasion is a pervasive theme in cinema that's always perfect for those seeking a thrill.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
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A sequel to the acclaimed late 2000s found footage epic Cloverfield, 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane abandons the chaos of New York City, instead taking place primarily in a lonely bunker somewhere in Louisiana. The film centers on Howard (John Goodman), a stern survivalist who becomes vindictive and vengeful when his "family" of two other survivors acts even slightly out of line.
In stark contrast to the original, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a claustrophobic film that primarily takes place within a single bunker. That said, the movie's final moments confirm that Howard was correct in his assumptions that the Earth had been invaded by an extraterrestrial force.
Arrival (2016)
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When twelve alien pods arrive on Earth, various governments rush to make contact and discover what the invaders' motives may be. However, when a message is seemingly mistranslated, tension begins to rise as the film's main characters must race to broker peace among global powers and ensure that communications with the E.T.s are accurate.
Arrival is not a typical alien invasion movie, nor could it really be considered a horror movie. Yet, there's something undeniably foreboding about its atmosphere. The film is full of tension and drama, and, while it lacks the outright scares of other films, it has the ability to instill in viewers a kind of cosmic dread.
War Of The Worlds (2005)
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One of Steven Spielberg's most underrated films, War of the Worlds takes the intensity of H.G. Wells' novel to another level. Part sci-fi epic and part disaster film, War of the Worlds shows a truly terrifying scenario of an alien invasion where no attempt at contact is made. Their only intention? It's to use the Earth and its inhabitants as a resource, destroying whatever and whoever gets in their way.
Tom Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, the main character whose family becomes the focus of the story. Unlike the narrator in the book, Ferrier has children, which makes the stakes even higher as he struggles to survive and protect his family from the invaders. This is one of those alien films that keeps audiences horrified throughout as the tripods decimate the human race on such a large scale that it's almost unfathomable. However, it also leaves viewers to contemplate the possibility of such an occurrence and just how small one can become when faced with a threat far beyond human control.
The Village Of The Damned (1960)
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Based on a British science fiction novel entitled The Midwich Cuckoos, Village of the Damned has seen two movie adaptations—one in 1960, and one in 1995. Both versions have their merits, but the 1960s version starring George Sanders tends to get the nod from most fans.
The sharp contrast between the children's fair features and dark clothing is even more startling when shot in black and white. Plus, there's just something about the mid-century setting that gives it a much creepier vibe despite the lack of gore.
Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988)
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There's no wondering what the aliens look like or only getting a glimpse here and there; this 1980s cult classic stars a bunch of aliens who just happen to look like really horrific clowns. Their gruesome faces feature a mouth full of sharp, slimy teeth, and they utilize all the typical objects associated with clowns and the circus to trap and kill a number of people in the town.
They store people in cotton candy pods aboard their ship, pie them to death, and even use the dead as hand puppets. Basically, they've come to Earth in order to terrorize and consume its population, drinking their liquidated bodies through giant swirly straws. Audiences never look at clowns the same way again, and those who weren't afraid of them before seeing the film may well develop a case of coulrophobia.
Signs (2002)
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While not explicitly an alien film in the traditional sense of the word, M. Night Shyamalan's Signs uses an alien invasion premise to talk about the nature of faith and family. Crop circles, long rumored to have a connection to extraterrestrials, begin showing up en masse across the globe, including on the farm of the Hess family. With their appearance also comes strange lights over major cities and a pretty low-key invasion. Running from or chasing something in a cornfield always feels decidedly creepy, and the scene behind the Hess' house at night does not disappoint. Signs even utilizes a bit of found footage that has a profoundly dramatic effect when it shows up on-screen.
Mostly, the film invokes terror and concern for the well-being of the two children in the film, who are frightened out of their wits at these "monsters." When viewers finally see one of the aliens in all its glory, it's threatening the life of one of the kids with a poisonous gas it emits. There may not be gore, disgusting alien creatures, or anything too disturbing, but M. Night Shyamalan gets under the audience's skin with his unique brand of psychological horror.
The Mist (2007)
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David Drayton and his family are trapped in a convenience store after a strange mist envelopes their small town. While tensions begin to rise, they are accosted by a series of otherworldly creatures who finally drive them out into the mist where tragedy strikes just before they could be saved by the military.
The most overtly Lovecraftian piece of fiction penned by Stephen King—save, perhaps, for his Dark Tower series—The Mist was met with a controversial reception due to its bleak nature. However, for those who love alien horror, it doesn't get much more terrifying than this.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
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Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is a story about an alien invasion that takes place without anyone realizing it until it's much too late. The aliens work quickly while people sleep, creating duplicates and destroying the original human body. Anyone could be replaced with an emotionless alien pod person, and it's enough to drive someone to ruin with fear and paranoia.
What's interesting about this film is that the aliens blend in and look like everyone else. There are a few bodies seen that are making the transition from gooey pod embryo to a fleshy person, but, other than that, the only alien-like creature is that freaky human-headed dog. Of course, the ending is a show-stopper in the truest sense of the phrase, as it's finally revealed that one of the last human survivors was replaced by a doppelganger.
A Quiet Place (2018)
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Directed and starring John Krasinski, who was previously best known for his role in the comedy series The Office, A Quiet Place depicts a post-apocalyptic world invaded by alien beings known as Death Angels that are sightless but extremely keen of hearing. A group of survivors must muddle on by communicating via sign language, but, in spite of their best efforts, they can't keep the invaders away forever.
A fairly bleak alien invasion film, A Quiet Place isn't necessarily scary in the same way as other genre entries. However, it's an affecting film that'll leave audiences pondering how they might fare in similar situations.
Under The Skin (2013)
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A unique type of alien film, Under the Skin tells the story from the alien's perspective as she tries to survive in the human world. There are elements of both abduction and body swapping, although no spaceships are ever seen. Instead, audiences get a glimpse of the alien's world through a black, reflective abyss where she lures her victims after seducing them.
Scarlett Johansson plays the very convincing alien disguised as a woman, otherworldly even through her beauty. Scarlett's character drives around Scotland in a van, picking up men to harvest their bodies—only most of the men are not actors. Under the Skin was filmed in a sort of candid camera set up where Johansson would talk to real people, having unscripted conversations. It's an unsettling film, especially when the alien's real "skin" is revealed at the end.
Extraterrestrial (2014)
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Although somewhat clichéd in its execution, The Vicious Brothers' third film, Extraterrestrial, takes a pretty good stab at the alien horror genre. Some friends find themselves under attack by aliens who have crash-landed nearby. After engaging with one who has entered their cabin, they're dramatically picked off and abducted one by one.
Extraterrestrial, like both Fire in the Sky and Alien Abduction, shows both the abductions and the abductees once they're inside the spaceship. Aside from the obvious probing and experimentation, there are some pretty terrifying moments inside the ship that are quite impressive for such a low-budget film.
Altered (2006)
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From The Blair Witch Project's co-director Eduardo Sanchez, Altered tells the story of a group of abductees after they're returned to Earth. Five friends were experimented on by aliens, leading to one of their deaths and the return of the others. Survivors' guilt ultimately drives them to concoct a revenge plot where the abductees become the abductors, though their capture of one of the aliens has some disastrous results. Even though they spent a significant amount of time with the beings during their abduction, apparently, they weren't fully aware of the powers they possessed.
Altered keeps viewers on the edge of their seats the entire time as the men become increasingly paranoid and are constantly at odds with each other. Besides the genuinely creepy alien itself, one of the most terrifying scenes has to be seeing the extraterrestrial virus take over Cody (Paul McCarthy-Boyington).
Alien Abduction (2014)
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Taking place near Brown Mountain in North Carolina where real-life disappearances have occurred, Alien Abduction is a found footage film that claims it’s the real thing. While on a camping trip in the area, the Morris family encounters a series of strange phenomena documented on a home video camera by eleven-year-old Riley. Like Signs, one of the most terrifying moments is seeing one of the aliens through the video camera, making viewers forget, if only temporarily, that it’s just a movie.
Things only go downhill from there as the Morris are hunted down and picked off one by one by the aliens in a series of seat-gripping moments. There’s no happy ending here, either—no one is safe from the lights. The aliens are intent on abducting as many people as possible, although it seems that a select few are returned, albeit with quite a bit of trauma.
Fire In The Sky (1993)
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While the film as a whole received mixed reviews upon its release, Fire in the Sky was generally praised for a thoroughly convincing abduction scene. Both the moment Travis Walton (D.B Sweeney) is beamed up by the spaceship and the experimentation he endures inside the ship contributed to the film’s cult status among sci-fi fans and UFO enthusiasts alike.
Fire in the Sky is worth watching just for these scenes alone, which are very much like The Matrix with its gooey cocoons, along with A Clockwork Orange-style torture. Walton is poked and probed by the lumpy E.T.’s, who even cover him with a thin amniotic sac-like membrane.
Communion (1989)
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Based on the book of the same name, Communion documents author Whitley Strieber's experience unraveling what happened to him while living in upstate New York. While the film doesn't even come close to portraying the incredibly detailed and hair-raising descriptions of his abduction, the film manages to convey a feeling of losing grasp on reality as Strieber (Christopher Walken) struggles to make sense of what's real and what isn't.
Despite Walken's sometimes absurd reactions in the film, Communion actually has some pretty chilling moments. At times, the scenes play out like a bad acid trip as Strieber begins having strange hallucinations due to his encounters with aliens. Not only do they appear inside Strieber's bedroom at night, but viewers even see him go inside their spaceship, and one of them removes part of their face to reveal something even more grotesque and slimy underneath.
UFO Abduction (1989)
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One of the original found footage movies, UFO Abduction—or The McPherson Tape as it came to be called—passed as proof of alien abductions in many UFO circles throughout the 1990s. The filmmaker's master copy of the film was destroyed in a fire, but not before a few preview copies on VHS were sent out by the distributor. These were copied and shared multiple times, further perpetuating the rumor that the film was actually real.
Shot like a home movie, the film allegedly shows the Van Heese family's real-life encounter with a small group of extraterrestrials who landed near their home. When the power goes out and bright lights pass overhead, the men in the family go out into the woods to investigate. They manage to supposedly "kill" one, but, like most horror films, the dead don't exactly stay dead. While it's not exactly terrifying by today's standards, watching this on a bootleg VHS tape in the dark of someone's basement back then would have made it much more convincing.
Dark Skies (2013)
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Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton star in this family-centered alien abduction story which comes off like a mix between Paranormal Activity and The Amityville Horror. Despite its somewhat formulaic storyline, Dark Skies manages to provide some genuinely unnerving moments. Suspense builds at a creeping pace, making audiences very aware that something's always just around the corner. There are even some jump scares that do just that, as the "grays" are revealed in the darkness or on hidden camera footage taken while the family sleeps.
Ultimately, it's Keri Russell's excellent acting that really sells it. Plus, there's just something incredibly disturbing about the children in these circumstances; they're always the first to be affected by the unseen—their young, permeable minds making them susceptible to the paranormal, whether it's by talking to something—or someone—that's not there, drawing creepy pictures, or who knows what else.
The Fourth Kind (2009)
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As mockumentaries go, The Fourth Kind plays well upon an audience's willingness to suspend their disbelief and actually entertain the possibility of alien abductions as fact. Upon its release, there were consistent stories among big media outlets debating its validity since the studio actually claimed it was real during the film's marketing campaigns.
From the get-go, actress Milla Jovovich appears on-screen to affirm to audiences that what they're about to see is genuine. The film pairs supposed "archival footage" of the spine-tingling hypnosis sessions by Dr. Abigail Tyler, with Jovovich playing her in reenactments. Sometimes, the "real" footage and the recreations are played side by side so the viewer can decide whether they believe in the occurrences the film portrays. Regardless of how convincing the film ended up being, The Fourth Kind was undoubtedly terrifying in the way Communion was—focusing on malevolent alien abductions that were hiding in the mind.
Alien (1979)
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The essential extraterrestrial horror film, Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi epic Alien is still heralded as one of the best of its niche. The film focuses on the doomed crew of the Nostromo, a small ship bound for Earth. However, when they land on a moon to investigate a distress signal, one of their number returns infected with a chest-burster which eventually develops into an otherworldly nightmare.
After a surprising betrayal and a desperate gambit for survival in the cold reaches of space, Ellen Ripley emerges as the lone survivor left to recount the horrible attack.
The Thing (1982)
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Although John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic The Thing wasn't exactly well received upon its release, it's since been rediscovered and celebrated as a triumph of practical effects. In the film, a group of American and Norwegian scientists are terrorized by an ancient alien—previously buried under the ice of Antarctica—that can transmogrify into any living creature, taking on its appearance totally.
Part gross-out horror flick, part creepy sci-fi thriller, The Thing keeps fans on edge throughout as paranoia spreads throughout the movie's arctic base backdrop. As it begins taking out the men one by one, no one is safe from suspicion.