# Horror movies similar to Aliens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2017, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953 "2017-09-22T07:24:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/21 "2017-09-22T14:49:58Z")
Most zombie movies (of which there are dozens if not hundreds) have the monsters vulnerable to being destroyed. A single zombie is generally not much of a threat; their strength comes from their numbers. On the opposite end you have the kaiju genre; Godzilla and his successors. These monsters are individually powerful and hard to kill. But they are vulnerable to normal attacks if enough firepower is gathered together. ---
**Author:** ![Dante\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dante\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante_G)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/22 "2017-09-22T15:24:53Z")
Are we just going to disregard _Starship Troopers_? “Kill’em all!!!” ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/23 "2017-09-22T15:27:38Z")
> [@Dante\_G](#): > > Are we just going to disregard _Starship Troopers_? Not a horror movie. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/24 "2017-09-22T17:11:20Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Lifeforce > Species > > Don’t forget to have a box of tissue nearby. Real tear-jerker. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/25 "2017-09-22T17:34:01Z")
Them (another 1950’s movie) Army of Darkness ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2017, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/26 "2017-09-23T10:13:22Z")
I thought [Monsters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1470827/) (2010) was one of the best I’ve seen in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/27 "2017-09-24T00:52:58Z")
[Killer Klowns from Outer Space](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/?ref_=nv_sr_1) fits all the criteria laid out in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/28 "2017-09-24T02:48:56Z")
Are we counting _Tremors_ as horror? Because I’ve never laughed so hard during a horror movie. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/29 "2017-09-24T03:19:02Z")
What about all of the horror movies where the “monster” is just an ordinary human? _Scream_ comes to mind, here. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/30 "2017-09-24T04:24:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Inseminoid I saw this movie at a drive-in theater when I was in high school, in '82. It was clearly inspired by Alien, but was essentially an exploitation horror film. As the title suggests, the alien impregnates a female member of the ship’s crew. It was an excuse for some nudity, but what completely broke the scene for us was that the alien’s penis was depicted as a clear plastic tube (they showed the tube, but no penetration, because it wasn’t an X-rated film), and when he impregnated the woman, green goop flowed through the tube. We couldn’t stop laughing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/31 "2017-09-24T23:03:48Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Them (another 1950’s movie) > > Army of Darkness Army of Darkness, I’ll agree, fits the OP’s criteria. The two preceding films (Evil Dead) not so much, where the main adversary is an unseen, inescapable, rapidly moving camera! > [@Chronos](#): > > What about all of the horror movies where the “monster” is just an ordinary human? _Scream_ comes to mind, here. Ask any AHS fan: All monsters are human! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/32 "2017-09-24T23:45:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The most relevant to your query is arguably the monster from _It! The Terror from Beyond Space_, from which film the plot of _Alien_ was lifted wholesale. Van Vogt apparently thought it was stolen from [him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Destroyer#Publication). He at least got a few bucks out of it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/33 "2017-09-25T00:39:09Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Van Vogt apparently thought it was stolen from [him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Destroyer#Publication). He at least got a few bucks out of it. Van Vogt had a bit of a case for his story “Black Destroyer”, which was, AFAIK, the first case of “Monster Loose on a Spaceship”. Not to mention "Discord in Scarlet by him, the second such case (which also featured the alien implanting its eggs in one of the crew’s body). Both were combined in the “fix up” novel _The Voyage of the Space Beagle_. But the plot of _It! The Terror from Beyond Space_ is utterly different from Van Vogt’s story. So is the plot of _Alien_, which far more closely resembles It than van Vogt’s story. And I’ve long suspected that Dan O’Bannon – a more movie-sensitive than literary guy – got his idea for the Alien Implanting its Young i9n the Spaceman from the Roger Corman epic _Night of the Blood Beast_. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/34 "2017-09-25T01:03:22Z")
[Pitch Black](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134847/), even though the ecology of the planet is beyond fanciful. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/35 "2017-09-25T04:48:42Z")
The very under-rated _Mimic_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/36 "2017-09-25T11:38:40Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > The very under-rated _Mimic_. I sorta liked “Mimic”, but I also rather wish that they’d tried to hew closer to the original story _Mimic_ by Donald A. Wollheim, on which it’s based. I read the story years before, and was hoping that they’d do a more faithful adaptation. I realize that movies aren’t short stories, and that the emphases are different. t was good to see some of the ideas realized onscreen, but an awful lot of the story felt like empty padding. The story came out in 1942 originally, and has been reprinted many times. It rarely got the cover illustration, though. Here’s the one time it did: [![](https://isfdb.org/wiki/images/7/7b/BGWFLHTTDN1984.jpg) ](https://isfdb.org/wiki/images/7/7b/BGWFLHTTDN1984.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/37 "2017-09-25T12:02:15Z")
From Dusk Til Dawn Night of the Living Dead (I prefer the original. The ending as taken on a new meaning to me since BLM became a thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/38 "2017-10-12T03:06:22Z")
_The Hidden_ is a great B-movie about an alien criminal on the loose in Eighties L.A. Lots o’ fun: [The Hidden (1987) Official Trailer - Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri Alien Crime Movie HD - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-iB4WAB0o) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/39 "2017-10-12T10:59:51Z")
I’m surprised Prometheus hasn’t been mentioned, as it’s a prequel of sorts to aliens. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953/40 "2017-10-12T11:48:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _The Hidden_ is a great B-movie about an alien criminal on the loose in Eighties L.A. Lots o’ fun: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-iB4WAB0o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-iB4WAB0o) I wholeheartedly recommend _The Hidden_, with the understanding that “B-movie” is more an economic rating than a critical one. The movie is an excellent relatively low-budget science fiction action movie. It feels as if it borrows (steals?) an awful lot from Hal Clement’s classic SF novel _Needle_. Cleverly and wittily written, it features Kyle McLaughlin as a very weird FBI agent from the Pacific Northwest three years before he played a very weird FBI agent in the Pacific Northwest on _Twin Peaks_. I like to think that this film explains how he got that way. The SciFi Channel (before it became Syfy) made two sequels to it that were _awful_. There’s no way, though, that I would compare this film in any way to _Alien_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movies-similar-to-aliens/796953.md?page=3)