For almost as long as the concept of science fiction has existed, the genre has flirted, to varying degrees of success, with the world of horror. Science fiction was basically invented by Mary Shelley with her novel Frankenstein, which was originally classified as horror but gave way to the subgenre of sci-fi. Some of the most highly regarded and successful movies of all time fall into the sci-fi horror genre. Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Terminator have made it onto many 'greatest of all time' film lists and set the standard for the genre moving forward, while John Carpenter's work in the genre on movies like The Thing, and They Live have earned him the status of a cult hero amongst genre fans worldwide.
Update June 30, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great sci-fi horror films of the 2020s.
During the 80s, it seemed as if every other movie was a sci-fi horror flick, but in recent years, it seems that the genre has died down a little, despite us living in what seems like a sci-fi horror for the last 2 years! While both horror and science fiction are still going strong as stand-alone genres, finding a truly thrilling, engaging, and horrifying sci-fi horror mash-up has become slightly more of a challenge. Here are the best science fiction horror films of the decade so far.
15 The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants is a spin-off in the X-Men film series and the thirteenth and final installment in the franchise. Directed by Josh Boone from a screenplay he wrote with Kate Lee, the film follows a group of young mutants held in a secret facility as they fight for their lives. While it wasn't a huge critical success, it was nice to see a superhero movie give some horror spice to it.
Certainly nothing ground-breaking, the cast more than makeup for a lack of originality with solid performances all round from the likes of Maisey Williams, Ana Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Raga, Blue Hunt and Henry Saga, although at this stage, the less said about Marilyn Manson's involvement, the better, probably.
14 Underwater (2020)
Kristen Stewart rarely surprises audiences with groundbreaking performances, which is a damn shame considering she did such a great job in Underwater. This awesome sci-fi flick includes multiple elements of Lovecraftian horror. The story is directed by William Eubank, with a script by Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad. The cast includes Stewart, Vincent Cassel, and Jessica Henwick. The story follows a group of researchers trapped in an underwater facility after an earthquake destroys their station.
The movie delivers a tense narrative as the survivors can grasp what they face and don’t understand how the earthquake surprised them. The crew struggles to survive the treacherous depths while discovering they are not alone and must confront a new species of deadly aquatic creatures who want them gone by any means. The claustrophobic setting and intense action sequences are enough to keep you hooked. Make sure to give this one a try.
13 The Call (2020)
Some of the best sci-fi horrors explore scenarios that come out of the blue without explaining how the events are taking place. Those kinds of films can make for a good watch, as they subvert your expectations and leave you asking hard questions. The Call is a movie written and directed by Lee Chung-hyun, with the assistance of Kim Young-seo. The casting features Korean mainstays such as Park Shin-Hye, Jun Jong-Seo, and Kim Sung-ryoung.
The Call is a story about two women connecting across time through a mysterious phone call. As they talk, they uncover a shared past and attempt to change their fates. Both characters become entangled in a deadly game with surreal consequences. The film manages to get a hold of your attention with its atmospheric visuals, strong performances, and thought-provoking plot while exploring themes such as destiny and predestination.
12 Sputnik (2020)
There are great horror stories set in the past to be explored, especially given the advancement of science over the past four decades. Sputnik is a Russian film exploring the aftermath of the Sputnik space trip. The movie is directed by Egor Abramenko and written by Oleg Malovichko with the assistance of Andrei Zolotarev. The film is set in the 80s at the height of the Cold War era, where secrecy was rampant.
The solid cast features the talents of Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, and Fedor Bondarchuk. The film follows a psychologist tasked with evaluating a cosmonaut after he returns from a space mission. As the plot unfolds, we suddenly realize the cosmonaut carries a mysterious extraterrestrial creature inside him. It’s up to the medical professional to unravel the secrets of the cosmonaut while becoming entangled in a web of conspiracies.
11 Boss Level (2020)
Some films go beyond known narratives while exploring familiar concepts. The time loop is not a new narrative; it has been explored in films such as Doctor Strange or Edge of Tomorrow. Boss Level is a smaller-scale film, but it presents an interesting narrative. The movie is written and directed by Joe Carnahan, with the assistance of Eddie Borey. The solid cast features the talents of Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, and Naomi Watts.
In Boss Level, we follow a former special forces agent who suddenly finds himself stuck in a time loop where he relives the same day, which always ends with his death. The agent must fight to survive while figuring out how to break the loop. As he digs deeper into his situation, he uncovers a conspiracy filled with government trials and a vast array of people willing to kill him to prevent the truth from coming to light.
10 Oxygen (2021)
Sci-fi horror can take audiences for a spin by planting them in a tense situation from the first frame of the film. Oxygen does that and aces every minute of the movie as we experience the pain, desperation, and disorientation of a woman who suddenly wakes up locked in a cryogenic chamber while running out of oxygen. The movie is directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Christie LeBlanc, and it’s one of the best sci-fi horror films made in France.
The movie centers solely on Mélanie Laurent, as she wakes up from cryogenic sleep without remembering who she is or how she got there. As she struggles to escape the pod before her oxygen runs out, the woman must unravel the truth about her identity and why she was confined in the first place. It’s a claustrophobic movie with an incredibly tense setting and gripping suspense that breaks the mold of these types of stories.
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8 Black Box (2020)
Released as an Amazon Prime exclusive and billed as the second installment in the anthological Welcome to the Blumhouse film series. Black Box focuses on Nolan Wright, played with aplomb by Mamoudou Athie, a man struggling with amnesia after surviving a tragic car accident. He agrees to undergo an experimental treatment in order to attempt to retrieve his lost memories but ends up experiencing a series of horrific visions which become increasingly difficult to decipher from reality. While the sci-fi elements may seem a little overly familiar to some, a genuinely eerie and unnerving atmosphere is masterfully crafted throughout writer-director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's debut.
7 PG: Psycho Goreman (2020)
If the name doesn't make it obvious enough, PG: Pyscho Goreman is not meant to be taken entirely seriously. In fact, it is utterly ludicrous, from the over-the-top campy alien designs reminiscent of early 90s Power Ranger villains to the obnoxious dialogue delivered by its child protagonist Mimi played by a particularly bratty Nita-Josee Hanna.
While the story plays second fiddle to the over-the-top set pieces and gory violence, it does involve enough aliens and intergalactic themes to be considered sci-fi and (just) enough scares to fall into the horror category, but in reality, it's a mash-up of a whole heap of influences all played off with its tongue firmly in cheek.
6 Meander (2020)
The last few years have seen international cinema and television finally getting the recognition in the States it so rightfully deserves. Kicking the doors down and opening the floodgates was Bong Joon-ho's history-making and Academy Award-winning 2019 masterpiece Parasite, and proving that it was not a one-off were the uber successful Spanish series Money Heist and the ubiquitous South Korean Netflix show Squid Game.
Unfortunately, Meander, Mathieu Turi's criminally underrated French language film, has not received the same kind of attention despite being a masterclass in creating palpable tension. While thematically it does bear a passing resemblance to the Cube franchise, Meander is original, exciting, and creative enough to stand out as a great addition to the sci-fi horror genre.
5 Old (2021)
Old has proven to be fairly divisive amongst critics, currently sitting at exactly 50% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. This is really not at all that surprising, seeing as it was directed by probably the most divisive director in Hollywood history, M. Night Shyamalan. His back catalog consists of a number of films that are considered all-time masterpieces of modern cinema, some that are considered amongst the worst movies to ever be committed to film, and a handful in which audiences' and critics' opinions were evenly split.
While Old will never be considered a masterpiece of modern cinema, it is definitely among the better sci-fi horrors to be released in the 2020s. Following a number of holiday makers stuck on a beach which inexplicably speeds up time and the aging process, Shyamalan handles potent themes about sudden death and the collapse of time, which particularly resonate in this Covid era.
4 M3GAN (2022)
The future is here, and it has already shown us how dependent our kids are on technology. M3GAN takes this premise and ramps up the stakes to eleven. A brilliant engineer in robotics gets sole custody of her niece after her parents die in a car accident. The event drives her to design a brand-new toy to keep her company. The new product is codenamed M3GAN, and she’s trained to behave like a human using AI models. What could go wrong in this scenario?
As you can imagine, a lot goes wrong here. The film was a breakout hit in late 2022. It was directed by Gerard Johnstone, with a script by Akela Cooper. The cast includes working actors such as Carla Gugino, Caitlin Carmichael, and Michiel Huisman. The doll becomes more than just a toy and begins exhibiting sinister behaviors. As its actions escalate, it becomes a fight for survival between the scientist and her creation. It’s another excellent story working as a cautionary tale against AI technology.
3 The Invisible Man (2020)
The idea of The Invisible Man is something that everyone is familiar with and has been exposed to in some form or another over their lifetime, so in order for a new iteration to really make any lasting impression, it would have to be something quite special. Fortunately, that's exactly what Leigh Whannell delivered on his 2020 take on the H.G. Wells classic novel.
Released to universal critical acclaim, this surprise box office smash hit flipped the damsel in distress trope on its’ head and thrilled viewers as they watched Elisabeth Moss's character evolve into a completely relatable badass heroine for the ages.
2 Possessor (2020)
Brandon Cronenbourg's 2020 science fiction psychological horror film Possessor ticks every box when it comes to sci-fi horror. While sticking to some of the tropes an audience would expect from the genre, the movie still manages to be completely unique and unlike anything ever seen before. Relentless in its portrayal of brutality and moral corruption, the story, which we won’t spoil for you here, is thoroughly engrossing and compelling, and the characters, love or hate them, are engaging and believable despite the fantastical science fiction premise.
Not always an easy watch by any means but something that will definitely stick with the viewer for a good while after. Brandon is certainly proving himself a more than worthy successor to the science fiction and horror legacy created by his father David Cronenberg.
1 A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
A Quiet Place Part II certainly had a lot to live up to after the storming success of its predecessor. It seems that expectations, though, were met and even exceeded in some instances as it went on to become this year's runaway success story, setting several box office records at its time of release, including the biggest opening weekend of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the same simple yet highly original and effective concept of the original, the movie reunites audiences with the family from the first movie as they strive for survival in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by sightless aliens with an enhanced sense of hearing.
John Krasinski returns as the film's director as well as writer and producer. Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe reprise their roles from the first film, while Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou were added as new characters. With almost no spoken dialogue, the movie amazes in its ability to create an engaging narrative through visual storytelling alone. Employing a less is more approach. Even the monsters are rarely seen, yet the audience are still biting nails and at the edges of their entire seats.