Not all horror movies are made equal, and sci-fi horror is easily my favorite sub-genre, with he vastness of space pressing in from every side, creatures engineered by science gone wrong, and derelict spaceships housing unspeakable horrors. The Alien franchise might be the most well-known movies of the genre, but it isn't the only one worth watching.
One of my favorites is Pandorum. Released in 2009, it's a claustrophobic trip into space where a mechanic wakes up on a colony ship to see that things have gone very wrong. There's a derelict spaceship, terrible things hunting through the hallways and a mystery unfolding in the bowels of the ship. It gives off big Dead Space vibes, and it's an underrated classic.
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Pandorum captures the terrifying feel of a broken-down ship, the fear of being surrounded by a hull where only space is waiting outside and a world that juxtaposes body horror and existential dread. Its cinematic style grabbed my attention and kept me watching, even when I desperately wanted to look away.
Corporal Bower (played by Ben Foster) wakes up from cryosleep with a troubling case of amnesia. Almost immediately, it's clear that things have not gone according to plan on Elysium, the colony ship transporting 60,000 humans from an overpopulated Earth to a new world. The machinery around him is degraded, the power keeps flickering and he seems to be alone.
Bower is soon joined by Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid), an officer who also wakes from cryosleep without any answers. After the two of them manage to activate auxiliary power, they decide to go to the bridge to figure out what's going on. Bower manages to escape the cryo area to find that the rest of the ship is in even worse condition.
Bower must band together with other survivors to endure the madness of the Elysium. Constantin Films
On a ship that has devolved from its original humanitarian mission of settling a new planet, he is accosted by creatures that only vaguely resemble people, as well as humans fighting to survive. Bower finds two companions -- a member of the agriculture team who doesn't speak English but has been hunting the predatory creatures, and Nadia, an environmental scientist.
The three of them head for the ship's reactor to reset the power and get everything running so they can determine what's happened and why. Along the way, they encounter a sketchy survivor who tells them things collapsed when the bridge received bad news from Earth and was overtaken by Pandorum, a space-inflicted malaise that can cause psychosis, triggered by strong emotional states.
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