Lights in the sky, your BFF sprouting extra limbs, your ice cream-inspired ravenous lunacy, the horror of man-eating fish floating through an interdimensional rip in your attic… It can only be indicative of one thing: They come from outer space, and an alien invasion is downright imminent. Below we’ve compiled a list of the ultimate invasion movies, with an emphasis on grossness and the weird. So watch the skies, because they are here!
The Blob (1988)
TriStar Pictures
Chuck Russell’s gooey remake of The Blob has become a cult favorite since its initial release in 1988. Though technically, it didn’t come from outer space and is more science-gone-awry as a biological weapon created during the Cold War; that’s a clever take on the first film, in which the blob did indeed come from outer space, but was used as a Cold War allegory.
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A homeless man’s woodland discovery soon has a town at the mercy of a fast-growing, gelatinous creature with a taste for human flesh. Cheerleader Meg Penny (Saw’s Shawnee Smith) and local outsider Brian Flagg (a young Kevin Dillon) are pitted against the blob (and the scientists searching for their bioweapon) as it gradually decimates their small town. Russell crafted a tense, excessively grotesque, oddly character-driven story that was bolstered by an engaging, funny plot and an impending, pervasive sense of dread.
Night of the Creeps
They came from the stars in Fred Dekker’s 1986 zombie/alien mash-up Night of the Creeps. The movie is a competently directed, action-packed comedy littered with inside jokes and pop culture nods. The action takes place in an ominous university located in a postcard-perfect town where nothing bad ever happens. That is, until aspiring fraternity brothers Chris (Jason Lively) and his wise-cracking friend JC break into a cryo-lab for a pledge week dare – and it opens up a can of intergalactic slugs.
Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins) is called out and witnesses what appears to be the theft of a corpse. He comes to the conclusion the dead body didn’t go on a date and wishes, later on, it was as straightforwardly simple as the theft of a body. A slimy slug invasion is imminent, and the frat boys don’t heed either Chris or Detective Cameron’s warnings before the slugs start infiltrating most of the warm bodies on campus. Carnage, mayhem, and mutilation ensue.
Slither
Universal Pictures
Director James Gunn appropriated the trappings of sci-fi’s tentacled past and delivered a masterpiece with Slither, a profoundly disgusting deconstruction of science fiction, horror cinema, and Troma studios itself. It is an ace B-Movie effortlessly transcending the parameters of the ’town under siege’ framework.
In Slither, the gruff, trigger-happy Republican Grant Grant (Micheal Rooker) unwittingly becomes an unhappy host to a social disease. Grant Grant’s icky stowaway has dire consequences for the South Carolina town with townsfolk transforming into Lovecraftian mutants. It’s up to Firefly’s hunky Nathan Fillion and Elisabeth Banks as a trophy wife to save the planet from slimy colonization.
From Beyond
Empire Pictures
Re-Animator’s Stuart Gordon covers terrifying terrain in the monster-filled From Beyond. The Resonator is a machine devised by Dr. Edward Pretorious (Ted Sorel), enabling humans to see what exists beyond what people can normally perceive. The science is hokey as all hell, of course, but the film has some pretty impressive set pieces and amazing, Freudian monster designs.
Gordon is revisiting his H.P. Lovecraft obsession here and gives it a uniquely 80s aesthetic. Barbara Crampton is an excellent Final Girl and hasn’t gotten the recognition she deserves, and Pretorious’ final transformation is the stuff of nightmares. Okay, so it is interdimensional, but still not human and still outside our galaxy, FYI.
The Stuff
Anchor Bay
You might want to steer clear of Ben and Jerry’s after a viewing of The Stuff. The ’80s cult classic is literally about death by a yogurty, ice-cream-like substance that happens to be alien and ingests consumers’ bodies, minds, and will power from the inside. Larry Cohen’s dark satire tackles our obsession with sugary snacks, our susceptibility to marketing propaganda, and consumer culture.
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Valiant Pictures
Ed Wood Jr.’s Plan 9 from Outer Space has been touted as one of the worst movies ever made, to the extent that it’s become a true “so bad it’s good” film. Whil Ed Wood doesn’t quite deserve all the condescending negativity, Plan 9 from Outer Space is obviously a bad movie on all technical and artistic levels, to eh extent that Elvira wanted to walk off a plane to escape having to sit down and watch it. But all of that almost makes this awkward alien invasion movie even better. You couldn’t try to be this bad on purpose, and many people have, so that’s something special.
The Faculty
Dimension Films
Combining the brooding menace of Jack Finney’s 1956 Cold War allegory Invasion of the Body Snatchers with the intricate conspiracy plotting of The X Files and teen focus of Scream is The Faculty (which was also written by Scream’s Kevin Williamson). Robert Rodriquez’s modern (well, it was 1998) reboot of Jack Finney’s landmark novel takes place in high school and features an all-star cast including Famke Jannsen, Elijah Wood, and Salma Hayek.
Unlike The Pod People, the alien infiltrators here are water-based lifeforms who plan on taking over Earth by using the back door and targeting the young. Various high school cliques must form an alliance to prevent catastrophe and a full-scale invasion of the planet.
10 Cloverfield Lane
Paramount Pictures
10 Cloverfield Lane is like a locked-room Hitchcockian homage with science-fiction overtones, underpinned by a creepy ‘what-if’ scenario. Mary Elizabeth-Winstead is an Ellen Ripley-worthy addition to sci-fi horror and a stranger on the run who finds herself holed up in John Goodman’s doomsday bunker. 10 Cloverfield Lane seamlessly integrates multiple genre elements into its thrilling plot. Winstead is a revelation and Goodman is utterly terrifying, and you’ll never see the conclusion coming.
