10 Great ‘Alien’ Knockoffs You Can Stream For Free Right Now
Every time a successful horror movie releases, a wave of imitators follows. The release of John Carpenter’s Halloween marked years of proto-Halloween slashers, from cheap imitators (The Mutilator) to the more enduring genre hallmarks (Friday the 13th). Wes Craven’s Scream was remarkably successful, and the late 1990s and early 2000s were peppered with metatextual slashers who desperately tried to be as clever, hip, and scary as their impetus. The Faculty, Urban Legend, and even the I Know What You Did Last Summer were all billed as like Scream, but a little different (and, to their credit, two even boasted the same writer). Yet, there are few movies whose influence was as profound as Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece Alien.
Alien’s influence can be felt everywhere, whether that’s the more conspicuous rips (Predator, a franchise that would itself crossover), or the less obvious ones (Neil Marshall’s The Descent, more on that soon). Be it Ellen Ripley’s characterization, a final girl template that still informs the genre, or the merging of disparate subgenres—Alien is both a haunted house movie and a slasher, both in space—Alien didn’t just give birth to a classic sci-fi monster in the xenomorph, but an entire template for horror history to follow. With Alien: Romulus releasing this week, we’ve rounded up the best Alien-riffs you can stream for free right now. We’ll look at where they’re available, why they’re good, and why they target that same Alien feeling.
The Descent (Prime Video)
Neil Marshall’s masterclass in claustrophobic tension pits an all-women group of spelunkers against nasty underground humanoids when they venture into an uncharted cave system. Like Alien, The Descent is steeped in lore, deep characterization, and suffocating paranoia and tension. It’s probably the closest any horror movie has come to feeling like a modern equivalent to Alien—no wonder it’s widely regarded as one of the scariest movies ever made.
DeepStar Six (Tubi)
Sean S. Cunningham’s (of Friday the 13th fame) DeepStar Six is a tougher sell than The Descent, but it’s not a bad movie by any means. The first of several underwater horror shows that endeavored to supplant Alien’s space scares to the deep sea, DeepStar Six is one of the best. The effects remain convincing as an underwater military crew contends with a sea monster from the depth. What it lacks in Alien’s ethos it more than makes up for in its commitment to practical, monstrous mayhem.
Leviathan (Max)
Speaking of underwater terror, there’s also George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan, released the same year as DeepStar Six. Famed special effects artist Stan Winston worked on the colossal sea monster stalking the crew of an underwater geological facility. Unfavorably compared to Alien at the time of its release, Leviathan is no doubt indebted to Scott’s classic. But with more forgiving eyes, Leviathan has a lot to love. It’s got a great monster, some solid performances, and an underwater setting that incites the same awe Alien’s deep space did a decade before.
Screamers (Roku Channel)
Christian Duguay’s Screamers is something of a cult oddity now. Loosely adapted from Philip K. Dick’s short story Second Variety, a group of soldiers is caught in perpetual conflict, one marked by the terrifying addition of ‘Screamers’, self-replicating machines with a penchant for killing. Merging the extraterrestrial terror of Alien with the propulsive action of its James Cameron-helmed sequel, Aliens, Screamers is a mid-1990s mash of two genre classics. It doesn’t reach those heights, but it’s worth checking out, and maybe even worth screaming about.
Pitch Black (Peacock)
Controversial as it might seem, the two sequels in the Riddick franchise, both The Chronicles of Riddick and, well, Riddick, are okay to skip. Neither comes close to capturing the precise marriage of sci-fi action and creature feature horror David Twohy’s original did. Vin Diesel’s criminal Riddick is stranded on a desert planet with several other survivors. Photosensitive monsters have wiped out the geologists on the surface, and it’s up to Riddick (and his special eyes) to lead the survivors to safety. Gory, action-packed, and plenty tense, Pitch Black is more Aliens than Alien, but when it comes to space-bound horror, Pitch Black ranks among the best. Think of it as Alien for the Weezer generation.
The Terminator (AMC+)
This is the most out-there pick but bear with me. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is parallel to Ellen Ripley, and while Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular Terminator isn’t an alien, per se, he is an unknown threat from another time wreaking havoc in the lives of common folk. And he’s pretty scary. A lot scary. Like Alien, the Terminator films would shift further into action (also, interestingly, because of James Cameron), though at its core, the first is a slasher movie, through and through. So, yes, both Alien and The Terminator merged the sci-fi and horror space with remarkable success.
The Cave (Paramount +)
The Cave and The Descent were 2005’s Dante’s Peak and Volcano. Two movies that, by happenstance, had similar plots and were released in the same year. Both had bloodthirsty monsters hunting down groups of cave divers, though, in The Cave’s case, it opted for PG-13 fluff in lieu of gruesome R-rated scares. While The Descent is objectively the better of the two, I retain a soft spot for The Cave. It’s nothing groundbreaking but think of it as entry-level Alien. A fun, mainstream blockbuster that acclimates audiences to an entire filmic history of monsters hiding in the dark.
The Relic (Pluto TV)
No differently than The Cave, I unabashedly love The Relic. Yes, it’s one of the genre’s more explicit Alien ripoffs, but that doesn’t really matter when it’s this much fun. The Nostromo is swapped out for the Field Museum of Natural History, and the xenomorph is traded in for a reptilian forest monster. The effects are sensational, and the locked-room terror of the dark museum, while no match for outer space, texturizes pretty familiar monster movie mayhem. It’s a product of its time, no doubt, but one you can easily look back upon fondly.
Mimic (Pluto TV)
Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic is a hard sell for many, and despite my nostalgic appreciation for it (and the better-than-you’d-expect Mimic 2), I can easily see why. The entirety of del Toro’s tale of human-bug hybrids running amok feels incomplete, like some key piece of del Toro’s vision is missing. Contextually, production was a nightmare, and del Toro repeatedly butted heads with executives, so the Mimic we have is part del Toro gothic wonder, part studio demands for something safer. They don’t always complement each other, but at its best, Mimic is Alien for the modern day. Alongside xenomorphs, the Judas Breed are some of the best movie monsters you’ll ever see.
Lifeforce (Tubi)
Tobe Hooper? Space vampires? Patrick Stewart? 1985’s Lifeforce has it all. The relation it bears to Alien is marginal at best, though there’s little denying Lifeforce exists because of a climate Alien cultivated six years prior. The same argument could be made for John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. If it’s space or extraterrestrial horror, it owes a debt of gratitude to Alien. So, thank you, Alien. I love Lifeforce, and I’m grateful it exists.
What do you think? Are you excited to check out Alien: Romulus? Any of these titles pique your interest? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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