The science fiction horror genre represents one of the most popular types of movies of all time. Films like Alien, Aliens, The Thing, and countless others have cemented the genre as a true staple of the movie-watching world.

Over the decades, there have been a number of films that have changed the course of cinema forever, and many of these use sci-fi horror as their basis, even if they didn’t gain as much attention as other titles within the genre.

Cube

Cube is a 1997 horror film that was created on a fairly limited budget but quickly gained a cult following thanks to its unique premise. The story follows 5 strangers that wake up in an endless maze, consisting of square rooms, each with its own, unique trap. The strangers need to try and work together to get through the various traps, and there’s plenty of gruesome deaths along the way. There’s an air of mystery from start to finish, and despite its low budget, it’s one of the smartest films to be released in the last 1990s.

Event Horizon

Event Horizon is regarded as a true gem of the 1990s, and it proved to be a hit at the time, and has only grown in popularity over the years. It tells the story of a group of spacefarers that are sent out to intercept a spaceship that was long thought lost, only to discover that it holds secrets from an entirely different realm of existence. Event Horizon became infamous due to the fact that large parts of the film were cut out – more than half an hour’s worth – and it’s believed that this lost half an hour added plenty of backstory to the film and specifically to the villain.

The Mist

Movies based on the works by famed author Stephen King don’t always turn out well, and the author himself has voiced his criticisms numerous times on many films that have been released to the public. But one that perhaps took the original work and made it even grimmer is The Mist, a 2007 horror film that uses a King work of the same name but adds its own special details to make it even worse. It’s a high-tension watch from start to finish, and anyone watching it today can agree that the average reviews that it received when it was first released were wholly undeserved, but maybe keep a funny video or the latest FIFA betting odds if it gets too much.

Sunshine

While it sits somewhere between a cosmic horror and a thriller, Sunshine is undoubtedly a well-crafted film that offers a unique storyline. In Sunshine, the sun is starting to die out, and scientists are sent with a massive bomb to restart it. It’s a beautiful and thoughtful film, but the tension builds throughout and ends with a climactic and memorable ending. It was not well-known when it was released but has over the last decade became much more popular in the sci-fi horror circuit.