Sci-Friday is Back with My Top 5 Pieces of Sci-Fi Horror
Sci-Fi and Horror go together like ham and cheese or rice and beans, either way check out my Top 5 for this week!
Every night in October my wife, son, and I make a valiant attempt to watch a show or movie that reflects the spirit of the scary season.
We usually save the really scary stuff for after the 9-year-old goes to bed. If you would please allow me, to hi-jack your minds for a few precious minutes, this week we will delve deeply into my top 5 Sci-Fi horror films!
Before we get started I must give a shout-out to some of the other writers who participate in Sci-Friday,
If I have missed anybody, you’ll just have to forgive me.Now for my Top 5 Sci-Fi Horror, let’s go!
John Carpenter’s They Live (1988)
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". This is probably one of the greatest lines from any film that has ever been made. Many great pieces of Sci-Fi film are based on books or short stories, and this one is no exception. It is based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Faraday Nelson.
They Live follows a drifter named John Nada, played by the great Rowdy Roddy Piper, who stumbles upon a pair of special sunglasses that enable him to see the true nature of the world.
When Nada puts on the glasses, he discovers that many people are actually aliens disguised as humans, and subliminal messages are hidden in billboards, advertisements, and television broadcasts to keep the human population docile and obedient. Obey!
They Live is a great movie no matter what season it is but it is especially good for the scary season. Great social commentary as well, check it out if you haven’t already.
Splice (2009)
Splice takes you right to the edge or flat-out crosses the line of what is considered acceptable when it comes to genetic manipulation. The film centers around two brilliant geneticists working for a biotech company at the cutting edge of creating new organisms by splicing together DNA from different species. One of them just happens to be…an alien!
These two renegade scientists embark on a controversial experiment that never should have happened. When they combined human and animal DNA, they created a hybrid creature named "Dren." As Dren rapidly matures into a female with extraordinary abilities, the scientists try to keep her existence hidden.
With Drens’ behavior becoming increasingly unpredictable, her very existence could become an existential threat to humanity itself. Do yourselves a favor and take the time to watch this creepy movie.
Scanners (1981)
There are 4 billion people on Earth, only 237 of them are known as “Scanners.
A secret war unfolds between two factions of individuals possessing extraordinary telepathic and telekinetic powers. As a covert government organization seeks to harness their abilities for military purposes, a renegade group of Scanners fights to maintain their freedom and preserve the integrity of their kind.
Cameron Vale, a homeless and disoriented Scanner becomes an unwitting pawn in this battle. Discovered by the secretive ConSec Corporation, he is trained in the use of his psychic abilities and unwittingly introduced to the dangerous world of Scanners.
Driven by a desire for answers and a yearning for acceptance, Vale is torn between the allure of power and the responsibility of using it for the greater good.
John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)
Yes, another John Carpenter film has made it onto my Sci-Friday top 5, because it’s one of the best Sci-Fi horror films ever made. This is based on a piece of literature from 1938 called, Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell Jr.
In Antarctica’s frozen wasteland, an American research crew has been deployed to an isolated outpost when they are all of a sudden confronted by a terrifying, shape-shifting extraterrestrial organism of some kind. At the same time, a Norwegian team of scientists stumbles upon the unknown alien creature buried in the Ice when their feeble attempts to contain go completely sideways.
The American team finds the aftermath of the Norwegian team’s encounter with the Alien. The creature is mangled but the Americans bring it back to their camp when they discover that the creature can perfectly imitate any living being, leading to an atmosphere of paranoia. It’s at this point the Americans must ask themselves, Who is Human and Who is… The Thing?
NOPE (2022)
Something strange has been going on at the Haywood family ranch. After their father’s death, brother and sister Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. and Emerald “Em” Haywood are forced to take care of the property. It is only then that they discover a menacing presence in the skies above their California ranch and their lives will never be the same again.
Small metallic objects begin to violently fall from the sky. One of them kills their father Otis Haywood Sr. Strange phenomena begin to happen at the ranch. Horses begin to react violently to an unknown presence, what is going on?
Nope is a crazy ride that takes you in all different directions, from UFOs abducting horses to a crazy monkey that has done some very bad things, you’ll have to watch the film to see what I am talking about there. Like any crazy ride, it ends in a completely different place than it started.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
All of these are fantastic, less Nope. I tried to like it, but I couldn't find a reason to personally enjoy it. I have a really hard time with alien horror flicks if they aren't done a certain way. The wife and I just watched No One Will Save You last night on Hulu and while there were some good parts, the movie fell really flat and had a lot of inconsistencies. The Fourth Kind was a killer alien horror movie though!
Annihilation is a great more recent scifi horror. Love that you have Nope on the list.