8 movies like Dead Space to watch as a break from vivisecting Necromorphs
8 movies like Dead Space to watch as a break from vivisecting Necromorphs
Besides Event Horizon and Alien, that is




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poly-lt-cord-emblem Cliff Curtis on the Icarus II, a spaceship on a venture to shop the Earth in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine. Image: Fox Searchlight Pictures

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Dead Space, the sci-fi horror online game franchise starring the ever-struggling engineer Isaac Clarke, has risen from the useless with a new remake of the 2008 specific for current consoles courtesy of Montreal-based totally developer EA Motive — and it’s really accurate! Whether that is your first time descending into the Necromorph-weighted down bowels of the USG Ishimura, an avid Dead Space fan eager to discover what Motive have changed on this new version, otherwise you truly want to apprehend who the heck this dude in a sci-fi diving suit doing the shoot dance in Fortnite is, the 2023 remake of Dead Space is strong on almost all fronts.

The achievement of this new Dead Space sport were given us thinking about horror maestro (and “Grandpa Horror”) John Carpenter’s lengthy-held preference to provide a live-movement version of the gathering. Then we were given to wondering in which this type of film may want to in shape a number of the quality videogame film variations created thus far, and then that have been given us considering what are the exceptional sci-fi horror films to look at for lovers of Dead Space each new and antique — y’comprehend, besides the plain ones like Event Horizon and the Alien series, ‘cus you’ve in all likelihood already visible those!

An hour right here and there of trawling IMDb later, and also you’ve were given this list: The maximum Dead Space-like movies to watch if you’re looking for a few thing else to chase the exhilarating horror and fun of playing via the brand new remake.

Three guys in matching uniforms sit down decrease lower back to decrease returned towards one another in a cramped spaceship cockpit.

Image: Jack H. Harris Enterprises/VCI Entertainment

What it is: Before there was Alien, there was Dark Star, a kooky vicinity comedy expected by using eventual-Alien-creator Dan O’Bannon and then-unknown director John Carpenter as an offbeat opportunity to 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are few comedies that could healthful this listing, however this is one in every of them.

Why it’s like Dead Space: Fans of Dead Space or Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror film will see immediate similarities in Dark Star’s imagined destiny, where blue-collar spaceship employees futz approximately interstellar area. But Carpenter’s film, first cobbled together as a student movie then finalized as a feature for approximately $60,000, is a huge goof, complete with slacker region cadets pranking each other aboard the Dark Star scout deliver, a bowling ball alien sidekick, a speaking bomb (the Hal 9000 alternative), and in advance-of-the-time laptop pictures being placed to use for comic mayhem. On the wavelength of Dr. Strangelove or National Lampoon more than any straight-confronted sci-fi horror flick, Dark Star’s a long way-out region peril remains cult-y and stale-the-radar. But there’s a reason Quentin Tarantino currently revered it as “a conventional.” —Matt Patches

Where to examine: Dark Star is available to move totally free on Plex and with commercials on Pluto TV, Tubi, and Roku.

A ghoulish mutated human with visibly mutilated facial capabilities and metal spikes sticking out from their flesh baring their tooth at a few element out of body.

Image: Overture Films/Anchor Bay Entertainment

What it's miles: Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster celeb in Christian Alvart’s 2009 sci-fi horror drama as Lieutenant Payton and Corporal Bower, interplanetary naval officials and team members of the spaceship Elysium who aware from hypersleep after eight years aboard and discover that the rest of the deliver’s group have lengthy long gone missing. If that weren’t enough, a hard and fast of cannibalistic monsters are actually stalking them across the supply as they race to find answers.

Why it’s like Dead Space: In a ultra-modern interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Glen Schofield — the director of 2022’s The Callisto Protocol and the true 2008 Dead Space — immediately noted Alvart’s film amongst his favored sci-fi horror movies and a excellent have an effect on on his method to horror in games. “I love movies like Alien, The Thing and Pandorum. And then [Event Horizon] and Alien Versus Predator. There’s no longer an entire lot of them, however I preferred them all.” —Toussaint Egan

Where to examine it: Pandorum is to be had to glide on Starz and ford digital apartment or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

A guy (Cillian Murphy) status at the indoors bridge of a spaceship bracing to be engulfed via way of a wall of flames.

Image: Fox Searchlight Pictures

What it's far: Director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) and writer Alex Garland (Annihilation) launched the sci-fi intellectual mystery Sunshine in theaters in reality twelve months in advance than Dead Space, and the film and game have a few clean parallels. The movie follows an international team of astronauts who embark on a task to reite Earth’s sun with a large nuclear bomb — only to stumble upon the lacking, derelict supply that attempted a similar feat seven years in advance. A lethal, mission-changing twist of destiny isn’t the handiest terror the team of the Icarus II has to stand, and the entirety that can pass incorrect, does move wrong.

Why it’s like Dead Space: Sunshine has all of it: a derelict deliver; quasi-non secular fundamentalists succumbing to space insanity; flashes of grisly frame horror; particularly dramatic lights; 0-G location walks; a lavish hydroponics lab; and a superstar-studded forged led by way of using Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, and Mark Strong. OK, that closing bit has no longer some thing to do with Dead Space, but what a lineup! — Michael McWhertor

Where to watch it: Sunshine is to be had for virtual condo or purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, and Vudu.

A lengthy-haired warrior with light skin carrying armor and keeping a swords stands in the front of a horde of zombie-like squaddies.

Image: Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Releasing

What it's far: All of John Carpenter’s films have pleasant B-movie flare. But arguably none have more than Ghosts of Mars, a pseudo-Western on Mars with an all-celebrity cast (which include Ice Cube, Pam Grier, and Jason Statham). When a freight train on a undertaking to pick out up a prisoner (named Desolation Williams and finished via Ice Cube) returns with handiest one survivor (Natasha Henstridge), she is interrogated about the gathering of occasions, unfolding thru a chain of interweaving flashbacks.

Why it’s like Dead Space: The Martian surroundings is quite spooky (and the crimson tones of the planet’s floor are gorgeous), in particular inside the again half of of of the movie, which I will leave intentionally indistinct so as not to break some component. John Carpenter is famously keen on the Dead Space franchise and has stated to anyone who pays interest that he desires to make a movie model. Ghosts of Mars makes it easy to look why he’s so attracted to it. —Pete Volk

Where to examine: Ghosts of Mars is available for digital condominium or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

A man in a leather-based coat with graying black hair (Donatas Banionis) holds a young woman with a bloody lip and noise draped in a moderate blue towel.

Image: The Criterion Channel

What it is: Based on Stanisław Lem’s 1961 novel of the same title, Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 psychological sci-fi horror drama facilities on Kris Kelvin, a psychologist who's despatched to a region station orbiting a mysterious exoplanet after the organization of the station have ceased communique with Earth. When he arrives, Kris is plagued with the same odd hallucinations and visions that are afflicting the rest of the station, forcing him to confront memories and revelations about himself and his loved one he had lengthy considering left buried.

Why it’s like Dead Space: In phrases of the cerebral horror of it, and the reality that a literal planet messes with humans’s minds later within the actual Dead Space trilogy, Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi opus seems like a natural companion to Dead Space’s logo of existential terror. It’s not specially gory or bloody, but if you’re searching out a film so that it will — similar to the psychologically corrosive s emanating from the Marker buried within the strata of Aegis VII’s surface — sink its hooks into your thoughts and now not permit skip, Solaris is the perfect preference. —TE

Where to examine it: Solaris is available to motion on Criterion Channel and HBO Max and completely unfastened with commercials on Freevee thru Prime Video and for virtual condominium or buy on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

Jeff Goldbum as Seth Brundle in The Fly, already in component converted.

Image: twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

What it's miles: David Cronenberg’s remake of the Kurt Neumann’s 1958 sci-fi horror film stars Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, an eccentric scientist who believes he has created the first useful teleporter capable of transporting inorganic and natural rely properly at some stage in sizeable distances. However, following an twist of destiny that happens at the equal time as interior his prototype, Brundle’s DNA is fused with that of housefly — inflicting his frame to go through a weird and scary metamorphosis that endangers the lives of him and his cherished ones. Jeez, and Gregor Samsa concept he had it awful!

Why it’s like Dead Space: While now not set in or spherical space, Brundle’s transformation right into a terrifying, sex-crazed human-fly mutant hybrid is probably the closest cinematic parallel to the ghoulish transformation of the Necromorphs in Dead Space, other than the ones visible in both Event Horizon or the Alien series. You can’t spell “body horror” with out David Cronenberg. Well, err, technically you certainly can, but any conversation with regards to body horror without mentioning Cronenberg is moot from the soar! —TE

Where to examine it: The Fly is to be had to motion on HBO Max and for virtual condo or purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, and Vudu.

Norah (Stewart) and the Captain (Cassel) sit in their diving suits, searching contemplative, in Underwater

Photo: Alan Markfield/20th Century Fox

What it is: An underrated Kristen Stewart-led sci-fi mystery about a set of deep sea drillers who discover some frightening topics at the bottom of the ocean.

Why it’s like Dead Space: It doesn’t take place in space, however what is the sea if not “place, however water?” OK, perhaps that doesn’t exactly experiment, however Underwater’s eldritch horror leans into some of the very same ideas, pictures, and scares that many area horror franchises (along with Dead Space) love as properly. —PV

Where to have a look at: Underwater is to be had to float on Hulu, or for digital condo or buy on Amazon, Google Play, and Vudu.

An energetic man in a brown uniform screaming as he is assailed with the resource of mutated zombie-like creatures.

Image: Film Roman/Anchor Bay Entertainment

What it's miles: An lively prequel to 2008’s Dead Space, the film follows the group of the USG Ishimura as they are trying to continue to exist the intellectual epidemic and subsequent onslaught of the so-called “Necromorphs” following the recuperation of the mysterious alien artifact called the “Marker” in the world Aegis VII. The movie modified into produced via Film Roman, a Starz Media subsidiary recognized for their previous work on animated sitcoms like King of the Hill and movies like 1992’s Tom & Jerry, and directed thru Chuck Patton, recognized for his artwork on the 1997 lively series Todd McFarlane’s Spawn.

Why it’s like Dead Space: It’s actually the canonical prequel to the occasions of Dead Space! If that weren’t sufficient, as though it wasn’t already apparent, Dead Space: Downfall is gory as all hell. This become intentional on Patton’s factor, who desired to differentiate the movie apart from the studio’s previous work because the goriest feature movie had ever produced. On top of that, the manufacturing group end up provided the 3-D assets for the sport’s environments and characters as references for the film’s animation, especially the adjustments of the Necromorphs themselves. —TE

Where to observe it: Dead Space: Downfall is to be had to transport with out value on Plex and with advertisements on Freevee through Prime Video, Vudu, YouTube, Tubi, and Roku, for digital rental and purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu.

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