One of the latest releases to garner the buzz this pandemic season is the Russian film Sputnik. In the Soviet Union of the 1980s, a young, passionate doctor is summoned to a secret facility that’s researching on a cosmonaut with an alien parasite dwelling inside his body. What she observes in this symbiotic relationship results in a compelling, philosophical sci-fi/horror story that turned out to be a surprisingly good thriller with the potential to be a cult film in the future.
Sputnik is a treat for those viewers who don’t expect a simple ‘aliens vs humans’ story but something that makes them ponder on how would it be if humans interacted with extra-terrestrial life. Here are a few films similar to Sputnik either in premise or themes.
10 Life (2017)
A few international astronauts find a living specimen of a Martian life-form which they bring aboard their space station, eager to introduce it to earth. But as Ridley Scott’s Alien and the films that it inspired have shown time and again, carrying a foreign lifeform in a spaceship is a very risky move.
The seemingly minute and harmless creature soon greedily consumes anything and everything around it preying on the crew. Life, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson, might not have the most original premise but still makes for a good-enough sci-fi horror with a hauntingly evil last-minute third act.
9 Arrival (2016)
Amy Adams’ portrayal of linguistics expert Louise Banks seems somewhat similar to Oksana Akinshina’s Tatyana in Sputnik. Both women are summoned to understand the mannerisms of alien lifeforms. Arrival might look like a big-budget sci-fi no brainer but it’s a very philosophical study in the extra-terrestrial genre.
Instead of the aliens conveniently talking in English, the hetapods in Arrival communicate in a complex language with circular symbols that the protagonist tries interpreting. Along with the so-called ‘arrival’, the film also deals with faltering international military and diplomatic relations. There are no explosions or attacks throughout the film but the possibility still looms large and it’s this uncertainty of the future that keeps viewers hooked to this Dennis Villeneuve classic.
8 The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter has explored the horror genre in innovative ways and his 1982 cult hit The Thing is no exception. The setting is a remote base camp in Antarctica which becomes a hunting ground for the film’s titular ‘thing’. This creature turns out to be a shape-shifting parasite that slays the crew in extremely brutal and gory ways.
The gore however offers genuine scares instead of B-movie thrills and while times have changed since the '80s, The Thing’s practical special effects still live on in cinematic history. The panic of the terrified ensemble cast also feels pretty genuine with some great performances by Carpenter’s usual collaborators Kurt Russel and Keith David.
7 Annihilation (2018)
Alex Garland displayed his potential to master the ‘philosophical sci-fi’ genre with his acclaimed debut Ex-Machina. Garland continued his streak with his sophomore Netflix film, Annihilation. Annihilation pits a crew of female explorers in a wild wasteland controlled by seemingly extra-terrestrial life forces. Their destination has had a highly lethal record where survival rates are low but still, the explorers are determined to uncover the true nature of the place.
They not only encounter ghastly creatures in their journey but they’re also prompted to face their inner demons leading them to life-altering secrets that are more than just an alien threat. Many sci-fi films dealing with alien themes focus on the threats forces from outer space might have on our world. Annihilation, however, explores the damaging impact it might have on ourselves as individuals.
6 District 9 (2009)
What if aliens arrived on our planet and got trapped? What if they had no intention to harm us but just wanted to get back to their home planet? The sleeper hit District 9 attempts to answer such questions. Instead of conventional American cities like New York, the found-footage film revolves around alien creatures in South Africa.
Director Neil Blomkamp's screenplay attempts to show the ‘othering’ of these aliens by exploitative humans as a metaphor for the Apartheid system of racism and segregation in South Africa. It also serves as a moral tale with stark observations on dominant groups in society develop a threatening nature to any community that’s different from them in nature.
5 Colors Out Of Space (2019)
Those who are aficionados of Nicolas Cage’s over-the-top acting would be heavily delighted on witnessing the surreal trip that Colors Out Of Space is. Based on a story by horror icon HP Lovecraft, the film blends horror with humor creating quite a uniquely bizarre sci-fi horror.
The film takes place on a farm that witnesses a meteorite crash. Along with the meteorite, arrives a mutant organism that infects the nearby population’s mind and body, leading to visions that are brightly-colored aesthetic experiences but also apocalyptic premonitions of the impending doom. The movie makes the best use of Cage’s overacting, yields visually pleasing VFX, and an overall B-Movie formula that balances style with substance.
4 Moon (2009)
Duncan Jones’ Moon is one of the finest films that mostly revolve around one character (Sam Rockwell in one of his career-best performances). In the Matt Damon hit The Martian, the lead character spends many months alone trapped in Mars. Moon similarly pits Rockwell’s character in a solitary setting for a long time. The only difference is that he’s not trapped or lost.
From the start, astronaut Sam Bell spends his time in a lunar station with meditative patience as a part of a three-year contract. His only friend is an AI computer, a typical sci-fi cliché. But as his stay draws to a close, he realizes he’s not alone. The film functions as a good character study of a man struck with claustrophobia and loneliness.
3 Venom (2018)
In terms of critical acclaim, Venom surely doesn’t fit well with the other entries in this list. But the film still does it has its own following amongst a few viewers who often consider it as a guilty pleasure. The film suffers from many clichés and trappings of the superhero genre and comic book fans often complained about the lack of R-rated material for such a dark character.
However, Venom does offer a light-hearted way of looking at how a symbiotic relationship would function. The film is almost a twisted love story behind the extraterrestrial symbiote Venom and its host, the investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy who also voices the titular character). What follows is a hilarious series of events where both creatures learn to live with each other. Alternate perspectives surely make this film worth watching.
2 Splice (2010)
An underrated gem in the pantheon of sci-fi horror, Splice is a film that demands patience but rewards audiences with enough content to ponder about as the end-credits roll. The premise revolves around a genetic engineer couple who attempt to splice human and animal DNA. With this experiment, they hope to create hybrid animals for medical purposes.
There is enough morbidity and shock value in the film to make it quite unsettling, too. While the two leads attempt to conduct experiments for medical science, they also develop a dark parental fascination with their first specimen. The film fared well with critics but audiences were either confused by the film or ignored it totally. But now, with the rise of thought-provoking sci-fi thrillers like Annihilation, Splice deserves a second chance.
1 Alien (1979)
The impact of Ridley Scott’s magnum opus to pop culture is such that even sci-fi fans who haven’t watched Alien yet, everyone is aware of characters like Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley or scenes like the infamous ‘alien popping out of John Hurt’s stomach’ gorefest. Alien pioneered the genre of space horror with its haunting atmosphere, cutting-edge special effects of the time, and an iconic badass heroine.
The titular alien too makes for a terrifying adversary that can be compared to the shark in Jaws or Michael Myers in Halloween. Even if the alien is initially not shown in great detail, the suspense itself adds to the scares. And this is how Alien succeeds as a horror experience in outer space.
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