If M3GAN 2.0 is anything like the original film, that means it’s going to be a unique combination of science fiction, horror, and even comedy. That movie turned the original into a phenomenon, and if you liked Megan 2.0 just as much, we’ve got the perfect list for you.
We’ve pulled together seven excellent films that combine science fiction and horror. These movies range from classics to more recent ones you might not have heard of. Regardless of what you’re looking for, you’re likely to find it here.
We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Alien (1979)
One of the definitive sci-fi horror movies, Alien leans into all the elements of a conventional slasher movie and happens to be a great version of that. What makes the movie really sing, though, is its distinctly sci-fi production design, as well as the secrets the movie has up its sleeve.
Whether you’ve seen Alien 30 times or this would be your first watch, it’s the kind of movie you can watch over and over again without ever getting tired of it. Tense, filled with great actors, and featuring some of the best creature design in the history of film, Alien spawned a franchise for a reason.
You can watch Alien on Hulu.
The Thing (1982)
Although it wasn’t universally beloved upon its release, The Thing has become a classic in the decades since, and with good reason. The movie tells the story of a group of arctic scientists who find themselves face-to-face with an alien lifeform that can assume the likeness of any creature it kills.
As they slowly come to realize that they can no longer believe their eyes, the scientists have to figure out a way to root out the alien life form before it turns them all against one another. Featuring some of the best direction of John Carpenter’s career, The Thing is every bit as tense as any horror movie ever made.
You can watch The Thing on Amazon Prime Video.
The Host (2006)
More than a decade before Bong Joon-ho made Parasite and rocketed to international acclaim, The Host was proving that Bong knows exactly how to make great, genre-busting movies. The film follows a street vendor who works to rescue his daughter after she is kidnapped by a monster that emerges from the Han River after military waste was dropped into the river.
Both an ecological thriller and something even stranger, The Host is a movie that is both focused on the one family’s journey and on the broader system that might allow a creature like this to exist in the first place.
You can watch The Host on Max.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Although this isn’t the first Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it’s almost undoubtedly the best. The film tells the story of a group of people in San Francisco who slowly begin to suspect that everyone around them is being replaced by mindless automatons.
Although the movie’s story began as a metaphor for communism, it still works even decades later. The movie’s ending, one of the more unsettling in the history of movies, is just as tense as the rest of the affair, in which the group is slowly winnowed away as they fight to save their very souls from mindless autonomy.
You can watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Max.
Annihilation (2018)
Perhaps the strangest film on this list, Annihilation tells the story of a group of scientists who are recruited to investigate a mysterious biozone known as the Shimmer. As they venture into its depths, they discover the way it has transformed the biology of everything living there.
The group learns more about why each of them decided to make such a perilous journey in the first place. The third act of Annihilation is hard to interpret on a purely plot level, but the movie works nonetheless because it has so carefully calibrated the emotional journeys of each of its central characters.
You can watch Annihilation on Paramount Plus.
No One Will Save You (2023)
A more recent addition to this list, No One Will Save You follows a young woman living in isolation in a small town. When an alien invasion descends, she finds herself fighting for her own survival. The central gimmick of No One Will Save You is that the film is almost entirely wordless, which means that it relies heavily on the performance of Kaitlyn Dever, who is more than up to the task.
As we learn more about the reasons she’s living in isolation, we come to appreciate both the guilt she carries with her and why she ultimately forms something of a unique relationship with the alien invaders.
You can watch No One Will Save You on Hulu.
Ready Or Not (2019)
One of the great thrillers of the past 10 years, Ready or Not tells the story of a young woman who marries into a wealthy family, only to discover that they have a ritual in which they play a board game every time someone joins the family.
If that game is ready or not, then they play it to the death. As she finds herself fighting for her own life against a family determined to hunt her down, she begins to realize that marrying rich might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Ready or Not is funny, scary, and every bit as gory as you might hope it’d be.
You can watch Ready or Not on Hulu.
