Your favorite Alien like movies

Decs (Daniel Castillo S.)
MemberOvomorphApr-11-2019 11:00 PMHey guys. I looked rather quick if there was a discussion on this subject already but I didn’t see any so I’m opening up this one… If there was one already then I’m sorry I guess (most forums I've joined have "Search Topic" buttons but for the life of me I couldn't find it here). If there was one please send me the link of the thread.
So I’m curious to know what are your favorite “Alien” like movies? To see if I discover some cool flick that I don’t know about and so we can all share our picks. It doesn’t have to be a movie with an alien in it, it can be just a sci fi movie with an “Alien” vibe to it.
My picks I´m sure are a bit mainstream and they’ll probably be in most “Alien” fans lists of favorite “Alien” like movies, but I think there’s one or two there that aren’t that well known.
First I have to say one of the most obvious ones, and it’s “Event Horizon”. Ever since I first saw the movie, shortly after it came out, I absolutely loved it and thought it was incredibly atmospheric, creepy, entertaining and just a great flick. I was surprised at the time to see the bad reviews it gardened, and lot of people just dismissed it as a cheap “Alien” clone, but I really never saw it that way… It’s obviously heavenly inspired by “Alien” and other horror movies but I didn´t see it as a cheap knock off. Also, I’ve seen a lot of people talking about it saying they like it in a “so bad its good way”, but that’s not the way I see it at all, to me it’s a genuinely good movie… I mean it’s not perfect, and yeah it’s got pacing issues and problems here and there but all in all I think it’s a very solid flick. In recent years I’ve seen that the movie has gardened a cult status among a lot of horror fans and I think that’s really cool, I think it deserves it.
The next one is another rather obvious pick, and it’s “Pitch Black”. This one has a way more similar plot to “Alien” than probably all of the other movies I’m gonna list here, but despite that I think somehow it worked, it’s a really well done movie with beautiful visuals, a cool protagonist anti-hero, and memorable monsters. Btw, I appreciate the director’s intent for trying new things with the sequels and not rehashing the first one, but sadly, I didn’t think they worked so well (well the second one, because I never got around to see the third one).
The third one I think is a little bit less know and it’s a movie called “Pandorum”. Much like “Event Horizon” it’s a movie I greatly enjoyed despite the fact that it has its share of flaws and that it garnered mostly negative reviews when it came out. The movie has a strong “Alien” vibe to it, I liked the mystery that surrounded the plot, I liked the characters, and I especially really liked the twist ending… I though it did exactly what a good twist ending should do, it surprises you a lot because you don’t see it coming but it totally makes sense in the context of the movie. Sadly I think one of the most forgettable aspects of it were the “monsters”, they were kinda generic and not very menacing to me. When the movie finished I was left with the desire to see a sequel but alas, I doubt it will ever happen.
This next one has more of an “Aliens” vibe than “Alien”, and in this case I do admit it’s one of those movies I enjoyed in a “so bad is good way”, but nevertheless it’s a got a couple of genuinely great moments and really cool vfx for the time, and its “Deep Rising”. I always found that movie incredibly fun in a cheesy way, and I really liked the design of the monster and how it dispatched some of the characters… The scene with the half-digested guy who was still alive was forever ingrained in my brain because of how realistic and creepy it looked. Overall a really fun film if you don’t take it very seriously.
Another one is Danny Boyle´s “Sunshine”; I really liked the movie and although a lot of people criticized the turn it makes in its third act, I didn’t mind it much. A lot of scenes gave off “Alien” vibes to me.
This one the filmmakers openly admitted to being directly inspired by “Alien”, and it’s the Jake Gyllenhal movie “Life”. I really liked it, despite the fact that a couple of scenes and character choices throughout the movie didn’t make much sense to me. Also, for some reason I found the alien way more menacing when it was small than when it grew way bigger later on in the movie.
Guillermo Del Toro's "Mimic" is another one that I really liked and gives off strong "Alien" vibes. As I understand, much like what happened with "Alien 3", Del Toro had a lot of problems with the studio meddling with the movie and I think he was not happy with the final result, I would have love to see his original cut, but as it is I think the movie is really cool and creepy nonetheless and it has great creature design.
And for last, it’s not actually a movie but a vignette. There’s this really cool anime movie called “Memories” made up of three different short stories; one of these stories, the first one in the movie, is called “Magnetic Rose” and it takes place on a derelict spaceship and to me it has a really big “Alien” vibe to it, it’s a really cool animated short (I haven’t seen the other two though so I can’t recommend them).
So, those were my picks for favorite “Alien” like movies, what are yours?