To help get you in the mood for Overture Films' upcoming space-horror film Pandorum (starring Dennis Quaid), we've put together a list of the top ten Scariest Space Films ever made!
Event Horizon (1997)
In the near future (2047) astronauts on a deep space research vessel cross a no-turning-back boundary between our world and another horrifying realm. They crew, sent to investigate the long-lost starship Event Horizon, find themselves entangled in a labyrinth of mind-shattering surrealism as the secrets of the ship's disappearance unfold.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
In the 24th century the Borg have returned in another attempt to conquer Earth. Disregarding orders, Capt. Picard and the new Enterprise-E rush to save the Federation Home World, only to get sucked back in time to the 21st century, with the Borg, who are on a mission to disrupt the course of human kind's evolution. If Cochran, the inventor of warp drive, doesn't make his legendary first flight, a Vulcan mapping mission wouldn't detect the warp signature, and first contact would not be made according to future history. The Borg are perhaps the most terrifying villain to emerge from the Star Trek universe, and they certainly deserve a spot on any "Scariest Space Films" list.
Supernova (2000)
In the early 22nd century a deep-space medical ship and its six-member crew answers an emergency distress signal from a comet-mining operation in a distant galaxy. The crew soon rescues a mysterious young man (Peter Facinelli) who's smuggled an alien artifact aboard - but he's only the beginning of their problems, given that they also have to contend with the gravitational pull of a giant star about to go supernova.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is groundbreaking visual poetry, both beautiful and terrifying. A a group of apes discovers a mysterious rectangular monolith near their home, which imparts upon them the knowledge of tool use, enabling their evolution into modern men. Man takes the historic trip to the moon in the future, where a similar monolith is discovered - it's determined to have come from somewhere near Jupiter. Astronaut David Bowman and four companions, heads to Jupiter on a ship controlled by HAL 9000, a state-of-the-art artificial-intelligence computer system. When HAL endangers the crew's lives for the sake of the mission, Bowman finds himself alone to deal with the rogue computer - after which he'll still have to travel to the birthplace of the monolith.
The Angry Red Planet (1959)
This low-budget flick about the first manned flight to Mars was made in ten days for only $200,000, but still serves as a terrifying alien fantasy. Returning to Earth after being thought lost in space, the Mars mission vessel has two remaining survivors - one with a bizarre alien arm infection. Mars itself, they warn, is a hostile landscape full of carnivorous plants and giant insects, including a huge amoeba with a rotating eye. The special effects are cheap and leave much to the imagination, but The Angry Red Planet is a great kick-start for the more creative alien-obsessed minds.
Capricorn One (1978)
What's truly scary about this one is the real-world government-conspiracy implications. James Brolin, Hal Holbrook, O.J. Simpson and Elliot Gould star in this tale of a massive government cover-up about a failed Mars landing. When NASA's heads discover that a manned Mars mission will suffer a catastrophic failure, the three astronauts enrolled to participate in the program are pulled into a worldwide hoax, broadcasting from a remote soundstage. When the space capsule believed to be carrying the three burns up on re-entry, the astronauts soon realize that the only way for the hoax to remain a secret is for them to die. As they make a desperate attempt to escape from those trying to kill them, an investigative reporter gets wind of something fishy in the situation and slowly puts together the pieces of the mystery.
Sunshine (2007)
The sun is dying in the not-too-distant future, and mankind's only hope for survival is to kick-start the sun with a device carried by a crew of eight men and women. Far into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth and past the point of no return, their mission begins to unravel and things are not at all what they seem. A distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier disrupts the mission, and the crew ends up fighting not only for their lives but their sanity as well.
Solaris (2002)
A small group of scientists aboard the space station Prometheus, who have cut off all communication with Earth, and Dr. Chris Kelvin sets out to find the answers himself. To his horror, he's found that the doctor preceding him, Gibarian, has committed suicide, and the two remaining scientists are extremely paranoid and delusional, seemingly caused by the results of their examination of the planet Solaris. Soon Dr. Kelvin finds himself caught in the labyrinthian web as he finds his dead wife alive and an apparent second chance at life... or is it?
Red Planet (2000)
The Mars Terraforming Project has begun in 2050, created to eventually support human life when we outstay our Earth welcome. But the project goes haywire, and when a recon crew head out to Mars their landing craft crashes into the red planet. The crew is stranded without communications as Bowman (Val Kilmer) struggles to find a way to get them home as the robot that designed to aid them has apparently had second thoughts, and hunts them down one by one.
Alien (1979)
It's hard to imagine a more terrifying space fantasy than one in which a member of a ship's crew becomes a living host to a member of an alien hive colony. Commercial towing ship Nostromo, heading home to Earth, intercepts a distress signal from a nearby planet and take a detour to explore the area. They stumble upon an egg nest for a colony of terrifying alien creatures just as the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a call for help. After this face-latching, chest-bursting, acid-blooded man-eating spectacle unfolded onscreen (spawning numerous sequels), the sci-fi film world was never quite the same.
