Your favorite Alien like movies

Hi Decs a lot of the above films have been discussed in various topics in various different contexts but from memory nothing like this topic :) 

You're choice selections are excellent. Personally my favorite of your picks is Sunshine! Such an excellent film. Also much love from Pitch Black/Riddick and Event Horizon. 

I would like to add Cube: Zero (hardly surprisingly given my avatar) but it has always felt like an Alien film....without the Alien. 

Another selection would be Splice.

 Decs Nice post! I would agree with a lot of entries here- some I have not seen. I would have to add Species in the mix. For bonus points, Giger was involved.

Moon has an Alien feeling to me, almost you can feel a derelict is waiting to be found.

Marooned on that planet, another Ridley Scott film, the Martian.

Ms. Vickers again, as the Astronaut's Wife.

 And two other movies that are not happening in space, no astronauts, no monsters, but still strange enough and involving other planets:

Melancholia - last days on Earth as a planet is on the collision course with the Earth, features Wagner music as well.

Another Earth - a duplicate Earth arrives in our solar system

This reminds me of a thread we had listing off the beaten path sci fi that is good watching. I think Nin did that one?

I'll scroll through my history lol.

Totally agree with Pandorum Event Horizon and Mimic. I'll add The Thing(1982) Outland and Pitch Black.

Never mind,you already mentioned Pitch Black lol

They Live.

lets just get the white elephant out of the room.

The Thing should go without saying but apparently it needs to be said lol!

As long as it's not that 2011 ish rehash.

And because Im a s##t-stirrer. This one is for the space-cockroach haters XD

Poice

I actually vomited to Starship Troopers but it was my fault lol! It was a good flick.

That said, I have to throw this beautiful oddity out there:

OUTLAND (1981)

Sean Connery in a Space Western slash Detective Thriller. The production hired model makers Martin Bowers et al & even some of the Nostromo set was used, making it feel very connected to the ALIEN timeline.

LEVIATHAN (1989)

Basically ALIEN underwater & not a bad little movie. Starring Peter Weller of ROBOCOP fame.

DEEPSTAR SIX (1989) 

Think LEVIATHAN, though nowhere near as enjoyable!

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965) 

Mario Bavas cult horror has many ALIEN & PROMETHEUS moments worth checking out.

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958) 

O'Bannon cited its influence on MEMORY/ALIEN, 'nuff said!

INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS (1956) & (1978)

I love both versions. Philip Kaufman's remake, along with Carpenters The Thing, both make my top five, they are every bit as good as ALIEN. I have always felt that ALIEN, THE THING & INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS are connected. It's not just that they were made within a few years of one another, or that Veronica Cartwright stars in two of them. You can easily believe that they are happening around the same point in time. Plus, they all contain horrific shape shifting body horror, with interconnected creatures, pods/eggs, transformations & a similar sense of foreboding & paranoia.

Donald Sutherland poses with his almost Pod person

Lone nice choices!! 

I have not seen Leviathan but it does look very 'Alien'. 

the full film is on youtube here! I'll be watching asap!

Deep Star Six I remember seeing as a kid and thoroughly enjoying. I recently re-watched in on Youtube but it looks like it has now been removed.

It didn't age well, but still had some memorably tense scenes.

Here's the off the beaten path thread

https://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/43846

Damn Nin is on it this weekend!

Hey I Raptus! Thank you for the compliment to my list, I do think all of the movies I listed are truly great.

You know, despite being a quite famous cult movie I’ve never seeing “Cube”, but I really want to. I’ve never saw “Cube Zero” either, but I saw a big chunk of “Cube 2: Hypercube” on TV and it really wasn’t my cup of tea, I didn’t like it much, but maybe it was because I had never seen the first “Cube” and because I caught it when it had already started… Maybe I’ll give it another chance some other day after seeing the first “Cube”, and then I’ll try to catch “Cube: Zero” (that’s the third in the series right?).

About “Splice”, man, that movie really left me conflicted… I really liked some aspects of it and really disliked others. The creature design and animation was excellent though. I was greatly reminded of it last year when I saw “The Shape of Water” and I’m pretty sure Guillermo del Toro saw it and liked it cause he used one of the actors of that movie in “The Shape of Water”.

And well “Starship Troopers” has a really strong “Aliens” feel to it, although not very “Alien” to me.

Hey dk! You know? I thought for quite a while whether to include “Species” on my list but I finally decided against it, and I’ll try to explain why even though is kinda hard to explain… So yeah, on the outside “Species” is a movie about a killer alien, designed by none other than H.R. Giger of all people, but despite that, to me, it never really felt like an “Alien” movie… A big part of the “Alien” vibe to me was the isolation, the claustrophobic feeling, the creepiness of the setting, and “Species” to me have none of those things, the movie has more of a police procedural vibe or an action thriller vibe than anything else, with its scenes in crowded cities and discos and chase sequences and so forth. Now that’s not to say “Species” isn’t one hell of a fun movie, because it is, I really liked it, and to be honest the movie REALLY rattled my teenage hormones when I first saw it, I could not believe how impossibly beautiful Natasha Henstridge was in that movie, but I digress lol… “Species” is a really cool movie but to me it doesn’t have that “Alien” vibe despite being about a killer alien.

I have never seen “They Live” but I’ve read a lot about it. For some reason when I think of that movie I always think of the NES game “Bart vs The Space Mutants” lol, the whole premise of the game is a reference to that movie.

Now as for “The Hitchhiker Ride to the Galaxy” I found that movie really weird and funny but didn’t feel very “Alien”ish either, to me at least.

Hey daliens! Well I absolutely loved “Moon” although when I saw it I don’t remember having it felt an “Alien” vibe to it, but now that you mention it yeah, mostly the beginning has an eerie and kinda creepy feeling of isolation.

Now as for the “The Martian” I think that was a great movie but that one to me doesn’t have an “Alien” vibe at all, I saw it as a pure survival movie with a lot of humor and tension thrown in.

“The Astronaut’s Wife” is really cool and that one does have some “Alien”ish feel to it, nice pick, didn’t remember that one.

“Melancholia” I really liked despite not being a very big fan of Von Trier myself, and I kinda get why you mention it on this topic, although like what I just said about “Moon”, when I first saw it I don’t think “Alien” crossed my mind. I found that movie particularly creepy because for some reason I have a lot of apocalyptic dreams (probably the fault of watching so many sci fi movies lol) and one recurring dream I’ve had is that of another planet or massive meteor crashing to earth. The final scenes of “Melancholia” reminded me way too much of those dreams. Btw, a few days ago I opened a thread on this forum about a little piece of fan fiction I came up with related to “Alien: Covenant” that coincidentally features a rogue planet, if you want to read it this is the thread: http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/48620

“Another Earth” is a movie I’ve been wanting to see for years and years and it always falls through the cracks, I never got around to watch it. I’ll try to bring myself to finally watch it soon.

Hey ninXeno426. “The Thing” is a good pick! Although (and I pretty ashamed to admit this) I’ve never seen it like, complete from beginning to end, I’ve seen chunks of it and it does have a strong “Alien” vibe to it.

“Outland” is the first movie in this thread I have never heard of… I'll look into it! It was exactly for recomendations like this one that I created this thread.

Oh and I'm also gonna check out the thread you posted about the off the beaten path sci fi movies.

Hey Lone! I really like your pics. Like I’ve just said I never heard of “Outland” before but it’s the second time someone mentions it on this thread so I’m definitely going to have to check it out.

I found out about “Leviathan” some years ago when I was precisely searching for “Alien” like movies, I had never heard of it and I was greatly interested in seeing it and put it in my backlog but I haven got around to watch it yet (thanks I Raptus for the youtube link!)

“Deepstar Six” is one I definitely forgot to add to my list! I really liked that movie when I watched it as a kid despite it being kinda cheesy and some of its special effects not ageing as well as other movies from that time, and it does have an obvious “Alien” vibe to it. Good pick!

I haven’t seen any of the latter ones you mentioned, “Planet of the Vampires”, “IT! The Terror from Beyond Space” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” because despite the fact that I consider myself a huge cinema lover, for some reason I’m not very keen on watching movies prior to the seventies, so my knowledge on those films is very very weak. I would like to watch them someday though, but I think I would have to look for someone to watch them with me because I know I’ll probably won’t bring myself to watch them alone, cause I’m probably always gonna end up picking a more modern flick to watch.

Oh I’m gonna add two to my list that I forgot in my original post.

The first is one of my favorite movies of all time, James Cameron’s “The Abyss”. An absolute masterpiece in my opinion (the extended version is even better).

The other is a little known sci fi movie called “The Europa Report”. I found it really really cool and despite having an obviously small budget they really make it count. The movie has a very “Alien” feel to it and a really cool ending.

Decs Yeah- I went OT but that happens around here. It is hard to find movies like Alien and so things devolve into classic or obscure sci fie movies.

If you have not seen Cube Zero- you need to see it. It makes the whole series make sense- fantastic movie! The Cube- Hypercube you saw was a dud imo and the worst one to watch if you haven't seen the others. I promise Cube Zero will change your mind. The proper way to watch is Cube Zero and then Cube. I wouldn't bother with Hypercube.

They Live is one of those sci fi b movies you have to see- you will know why when you see it.

I guess I would say Pandorum felt the most Alieny that I have recently seen. 

You haven't seen the 1982 JC The Thing beginning to end? That is almost blasphemy!

Thanks I Raptus! 

Leviathan is definitely worth your time. Many of us can still appreciate & even enjoy 80's effects & considering it's budget I really think it fares pretty well.

I like everyone's picks, makes for a great list!

I know what daliens means about MOON. It's no stretch to imagine it taking place in & around the Alienverse. There are lots of elements that many of these movies have in common, a nefarious company or corporation, believable, used-future sets, pretty amazing special effects, including great practical models & monsters. Characters who are generally likeable, well defined & whom we care about. A certain amount of tension relieving humour. A suspense filled story which builds momentum & holds your interest. In general they are Sci-fi horror hybrids.

Plus, connecting these movies is the kind of nerdy thing we love to do around here :) 

Decs I loved Europa Report, it's a well made little movie. You have to see The Thing & Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1978) Both are absolutely brilliant in terms of story, characters & effects!

ninXeno426 & dk I had a fun time re-reading the Off The Beaten Track Sci-fi movies & Alien Franchise Rule Book: For Members by Members topics! ;) 

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

What's not to love about a Mars set Sci-fi-horror hybrid! Right?

A great list, indeed.

I am glad I still have something to watch of this list, when I check for a movie nowadays I mostly find superheroes crap and I'm past that age.

Decs I will surely check your fan fiction, especially if it's related to Alien Covenant,  a film I thoroughly enjoy.

dk! I know it’s kinda blasphemous to say that, especially in an “Alien” forum, but yeah, for some weird reason I have never watched it in its entirety. Wanna know some more blasphemous things I’ve done? For some reason I have yet to see other Carpenter classics but somehow I’ve seen their sequels, prequels or reboots… I haven’t seen “The Thing” 1982 but I saw “The Thing” 2011 (I have a soft spot for Mary Elizabeth Winstead), I haven’t seen “Halloween” 1978 (again, blasphemy, I know… I’ve seen chunks of it, but not the whole film) but I saw “Halloween H20” (it was EVERYWHERE in the nineties), I haven’t seen “Escape From New York” but I saw “Escape From L.A.”… Please don’t kick me out of this forum!   D:

The case with “The Thing” 1982 is really weird because when I was a kid they used to broadcast “Alien” and “Aliens” all the time on the tv channels I used to watch here in my country and those are movies from the same time period as “The Thing” but I don’t remember them airing “The Thing” that much for some reason or I surely would have seen it and enjoyed it… Later on when I was an adult sometimes I would catch it when I was channel surfing, and by then I already knew of its classic status and I always said to myself “Nah I have to watch this movie from the beginning and pay close attention to it, it deserves it” so I kept postponing my viewing of it and well… That was that lol. Now that I relate this shameful story I’m gonna make a promise to myself to finally watch it this year!

Lone, you know, it’s funny that you mentioned “The Last Days on Mars” because I saw that movie and I thought about putting it on the list because of its obvious “Alien” vibes but I decided against it because I didn’t really liked it… It wasn’t a terrible movie but I thought based on the trailer that it was gonna be way better and more interesting. There are other movies besides that one that I thought off that have very obvious “Alien” vibes that I didn’t mention because I don’t think they’re particularly good either, movies like “The Relic”, “Red Planet” and “Apollo 18” among others.

Daliens, cool! Is a really short story though, if you read it tell me what you think!

Oh and another one for my list, this one isn’t set in space but it definitely has “Alien” vibes and I think it’s a great movie:

Hey Decs, I was going to add The Mist, but forgot!

It was genuinely scary, the ending was very sad & disturbing!

Now here's something that is complete and utter shite. It is to Alien, what The Room is to romantic drama. It is so bad that it crosses the line in the sand between unwatchable and, is it really that bad? It is entertainment for all the wrong reasons. Ridley Scott wanted Alien to surpass B-movie effects, whereas this movie aspires to becoming a B-movie. This really is Alien on an incredibly tight budget with a whip round from those hoping it might never see the light of day. Worth a watch just to know that someone actually made this. Repeat viewings tend to occur after the effects of the initial trauma have worn off

Intruder Within- sounds perfect for the MST3K treatment!

Great topic, upvoted AND featured so more fans can discover it.

Personally, I loved LIFE and EVENT HORIZON. Another one I've always loved was THE THING, both original and the reboot.

Also, I was unaware of some of the films listed here by some of you, surprisingly so thank you for that! I will be looking these up!

You're most welcome Decs.Here is a link to a thread I ran on Outland s while which includes a trailer as well as a link provided by Lone to her own editorial on the film.

Another movie I might recommend is Ghosts of Mars directed by none other than John Carpenter. It's a pretty fun b movie,very comparable to Event Horizon.

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/48402

Forgot the link lol

Lone, indeed it was! I thought it was a great movie. I didn’t hear very good things about the tv adaption sadly though.

Batchpool, that looks like a fun watch! I have to admit to watching “The Room” twice with friends and it was a super fun experience, so maybe I’ll watch this one too! Those “so bad is good” movies can be fun as hell to enjoy with others.

Chris, woah, thanks for the feature! I just recently joined this forum but it’s fast becoming one of my favorite places on the web right now.

NinXeno426, oh cool! I'll be sure to check that thread out, thanks! About "Ghots of Mars", I thought about that one when I was making my list and I get it's supposed to be a B Movie but sadly I didn't find it very enjoyable at all, but its cool that other people liked it.

So, I just thought about more movies to add to my list that I think have “Alien” vibes to them and that are really good in my opinion… None of these movies are set in space but all of them feature very menacing monsters/aliens/creatures/animals/entities that pose a great threat to the protagonists and that generate a fair amount of tension in several scenes of said movies.

First, another one of my all-time faves, “Cloverfield”. I absolutely love this movie, I remember having so much fun watching it in theaters when it came out and I really loved the mysterious marketing campaign behind it. Terrific special effects, creature design and very tense scenes (the subway scene with the parasites greatly reminded me of “Alien”). I enjoyed the other movies in the “Cloververse” but to me this is by far the best.

This one I have always thought is one hell of a underrated movie, and its  “The Ghost and the Darkness”, I think is really awesome, to the point that I always put it together in my mind with "Jaws” among the best killer animal movies I’ve seen. The movie has great scenes of extreme tension (without spoiling much, that dream sequence in this was one of the most horrifying moments I’ve ever experienced while watching a movie), great special effects and terrific acting. A must watch for me.

This is kind of a weird choice, and it’s a movie I recommend with some caution cause apparently is one of those films you either love or you hate, and its “It Follows”. I really loved it and found it very unnerving, creepy and weird, but I’ve read A LOT of people saying it’s a piece of boring art house crap (not unlike the reaction a lot of people had to other indie horror films highly praised by critics like “The VVitch”, “The Babadook”, “It Comes at Night” and “Hereditary”). The foreboding and feeling of unease that the entity in this movie creates in the viewer reminded me greatly of “Alien”.

“The Faculty”: This one is a kinda silly and fun movie that fans of classics like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” should enjoy, and I’m sure most people on this forum must be familiar with it. I think its great fun and it has nice creature effects in it and some self referential humor.

“The Descent”: This movie really left an impression on me when I first saw it, for a number of reasons, one of which was that the movie has very tense moments even before the first creature makes its appearance. The feeling of isolation and claustrophobia the movie gives off reminded me a lot of “Alien” and it has very creepy moments and really good scares.

This one I find really weird that no one have mentioned it already, and its M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs”. I really liked this movie, and how it mixed incredibly tense moments with some humor. I remember being hugely creeped out with the scene of the newscast about the brazilian home video. Really great flick.

“Annihilation”: I had very very high expectations of this one because of how much I loved Alex Garland’s previous feature, “Ex Machina”, and even though I liked it, it didn’t blow me away like I thought it would. Still, it’s a really solid and thought provoking movie, and it has one sequence of immense tension related to a creature that´s memorable as hell and very reminiscent of the “Alien” movies. For quite a while I have been thinking that Alex Garland would be a GREAT fit for the “Alien” franchise in my opinion.

“Sphere”: This one I hesitated a lot of putting it on the list because is one of those movies that for me, it began really REALLLY interesting and suspenseful, but then about midway through it began to lose steam and it ended up being kind of a mess, at least for me, but the movie has its strong points (atmosphere, set design, visual effects, acting) and it has a good score on IMDB so despite my gripes with it I decided to include it because it seems a lot of people enjoyed it. Either way I say, again, I’m sure most people on this forum have probably seen it already.

Of course there Is The Matrix and Equilibrium.

I would not recommend this though:

dk, yeah "The Matrix" and "Equilibrium" are both great and despite the fact they're mostly action oriented and not horror/suspense, they do have some "Alien"ish overtones to them (specially "The Matrix").

And I totally agree with "Virus" lol... that's on my list of movies with "Alien" vibes I WOULDN'T recommend alongside others I have already mentioned like "The Relic", "Apollo 18", "The Last Days on Mars", "Red Planet" and "Ghost of Mars" (thankfully along came "The Martian" to somewhat redeem Mars based movies xD ).

It follows...one my favorite movies in recent years. Sphere is decent,though my brother days it's not quite on par with the book. The Descent is one of the best creature flicks of all time. Signs is very underappreciated.

Now here is where I get obvious with movies. The Fly and Fly 2(pretty underrated this one) Both in the same spirit as Alien being body horror. Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049,they need no explanation lol. Total Recall,Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusset had the rights to this before they did Alien. They put it on hold because they felt visual effects of the 70's weren't up to par for their vision of the film. Also my favorite Mars film bar none(I'll be honest...I was underwhelmed and disappointed by The Martian lol....)

Melancholia with kirsten dunst was a great movie

“It follows...one my favorite movies in recent years.”

ninXeno426, I loved it too!

“Sphere is decent, though my brother days it's not quite on par with the book.”

Yeah, I found that 90% of the time when people read a book and then see the movie based on said book they´re almost always dissatisfied with it… I mean it’s next to impossible to cram all of the information of a book in a movie, so I always try to judge them as separate things, they´re two very different mediums.

“The Descent is one of the best creature flicks of all time. “

Agreed!

“Signs is very underappreciated.”

Also agreed!

And now that you mention it, it is SUPER weird that no one, including myself, had mentioned “The Fly” on this thread… Definitely a good pick! And coincidentally not long ago I was channel surfing and caught “The Fly 2”, and I had seen bits a pieces before but didn’t remember it well, so I saw it in that moment and I thought to myself “Hey, this isn’t bad at all..” sadly I had to do something and I couldn’t finish watching it, I´ll try to catch it later.

About “Blade Runner”, well yeah, it had things in common with “Alien” besides Ridley Scott, like robots and a dark gritty view of the future. Also, if I remember correctly I read somewhere that in “Alien 3” you can see some building or structure that appeared in the original “Blade Runner”.

About “Total Recall”, I didn’t know about Shusset and O’Banon having the rights to that one, good trivia!

“Melancholia with kirsten dunst was a great movie”

Marvelous, yeah I quite liked it too despite not being a big fan of Lars Von Trier.

https://youtu.be/Zm25s3T4SDM

The Relic.

I never get bored when i watch it.

 The Kothoga is an amazing scary Monster that loves to bite.