Murdercycle (1998)
Alien-Possessed Motorcycle
Passable B-budget film about an alien-possessed motorcycle
Aliens
My Favorite Martian (1999)
Alien Visitor Comedy/TV Series Remake
The big screen remake of the 1960s sitcom about a wacky alien visitor. However, this all of the original’s amusements promptly gets buried under frenetic slapstick and cheap CGI gags
My Stepmother is an Alien (1988)
Alien Visitor Comedy
1980s icon Kim Basinger displays unexpected comedy talents in this tale where she is an alien romancing Dan Akyroyd. Throwaway fluff but it has a comedic silliness that is undeniably appealing
The Mysterians (1957)
Japanese Alien Invader Film
Ishiro Honda and Toho, the creators of Godzila, turn their attentions to the alien invasion film – the first Japanese entry in the great 1950s SF alien invader fad – and deliver all the same colourful mass destruction we expect
Mysterious Island (1951)
Serial/Desert Island Survival/Alien Invaders
A serial adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic survival story about escapees aboard a hot-air balloon who wash up on a desert island. To the regular story, this sees fit to add hostile natives, pirates and invading aliens from Mercury
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)
Old SF Movie with Laugh-Track
Film spinoff from tv’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 and its deplorable habit of inserting jokes into old films. Here it is the turn of This Island Earth, which is a far better film than the attempt to send it up here
National Lampoon’s Men in White (1998)
Genre Spoof
An excruciatingly unfunny spoof of Men in Black that was shoved out using the name of National Lampoon magazine. A painful viewing experience.
The Next One (1984)
Mysterious Visitor
A very strange film where widow Adrienne Barbeau finds an amnesiac Keir Dullea on a Greek island who shows mysterious abilities and may have come from the future
The Night Caller (1965)
Aliens Abduct Models
This has the most ridiculous premise of any alien invasion film – an alien is abducting women from ads for models placed in girlie magazines – but is played with a stone-faced seriousness that defies you to laugh
Night Fright (1967)
Alien Monster
An incredibly dreary film about an alien monster menacing a small town. The alien invasion cinema equivalent of watching paint dry. Unseen during its original release, it was then resurrected in the VHS era as an E.T. copy called E.T.n – The Extra-Terrestrial Nasty
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Alien Slugs/Resurrection of the Dead/Genre Homage
Alien body snatchers comedy that feels less like a film than an extended fanboy in-joke
Night Slaves (1970)
Alien Body Snatchers
TV movies of the 1970s can be this unexplored treasure trove of sophisticated and intelligent genre treatments. Case in point being this effort, a variant on a 1950s body snatchers film in which a man with a steel plate in his head discovers that the people of a small town are being taken over at night by aliens
No One Will Save You (2023)
Woman Fights Off Alien Invaders
A woman alone in a farmhouse fights off invading aliens. Undeniably, effective, this is an uncredited remake of the classic Twilight Zone episode The Invaders
Not Of This Earth (1957)
Alien Vampire
One of the classic B-budget films directed by the legendary Roger Corman back in his heyday. Concerning a mysterious alien vampire, this comes with all the quirks and dry humour of Corman’s films of this era
Not Of This Earth (1988)
Alien Vampire
The Roger Corman 1950s cheapie about a mystery man who proves to be an alien space vampire is remade as a vehicle for Traci Lords. The script is essentially the same but with the addition of a lot of topless women
Nr. 10 (2021)
Surrealist Black Comedy
Alex van Warmerdam makes a very strange black comedy, so deadpan you are not sure if you are meant to be laughing or not
Oblivion (1994)
Western on an Alien Planet
One of the best films from Full Moon Productions that locates a Western on another planet and manages a perfectly pitched homage to either genre
The Occupant (2025)
Wilderness Trek/Alien Encounter
A woman survives a helicopter crash and must make a harsh wilderness trek through the Caucasus Mountains before discovering that the helpful voice on the other end of the radio may be something not human
Osiris (2025)
Alien Abduction/Warfare
Soldiers in the middle of a warzone are abducted by aliens and wake up aboard an alien facility. An interesting set up that dissolves into massive amounts of artillery fire and action
Outer Touch (1979)
Alien Women Abduct Men/Sex Comedy
Bizarre attempt to mix the 1970s SF film with the British sex comedy as a group of people are abducted by three alien women who are ignorant about sex
Outlander (2008)
SF Version of Beowulf
Retelling of the epic legend of Beowulf in SF terms where Grendel becomes an alien monster
P.G. Psycho Goreman (2020)
Kids Befriend Evil Intergalactic Tyrant
The great and underrated Steven Kostanski makes another of his homages to the 1980s VHS era. This has a winning concept where kids befriend an intergalactic dark lord
Pajama Party (1964)
Beach Party Comedy with Martian Visitor
One of the popular Beach Party comedies of the 1960s. Tommy Kirk turns up as a bumbling Martian to romance Annette Funicello
Paul (2011)
Science-Fiction Fans Encounter an Alien Comedy
Hilarious Simon Pegg-written homage to science-fiction fandom and alien visitor cinema. imagine Starman recast with two science-fiction fans and tv’s sarcastically wisecracking ALF (voiced by Seth Rogen)
Peacemaker (1990)
Alien Cop and Criminal Fight on Earth
Entertaining B-budget variant on The Hidden with a woman caught between an alien aw enforcement officer and fugitive criminal both of whom offer contradictory stories
Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday (2016)
Overgrown Adolescent's Nonsense Adventures
Pee-Wee Herman is a deliberately annoying character that is either adored or intensely loathed by audiences. This third film closely follows the structure of the first film with Pee-Wee in a series of nonsense adventures on a cross-country journey
The People (1972)
Town of Alien Refugees
Quite magical Francis Ford Coppola produced film about a schoolteacher who discovers she had taken a position in a town of alien refugees
Per Aspera Ad Astra (1981)
Soviet Science-Fiction/Female Alien Visitor
Soviet-made science-fiction film about a mysterious female alien visitor. The set-up intrigues for a time but the directorial delivery is dull and prosaic, while the mystery about who the alien woman is sidetracked by a long-winded interplanetary adventure in the second half
Pet Shop (1995)
Shape-Changing Alien Pets
A painfully bad Charles Band production for children about a strange couple that set up a pet shop selling alien creatures
The Phantom Planet (1961)
Miniature Planet
Dull and forgettable space exploration film where an astronaut is stranded on a planet and ends up in a romantic triangle and an alien invasion
The Phoenix Incident (2015)
UFOs/Found Footage
An earlier treatment of the Phoenix Lights incidents, also a Found Footage film and with an almost identical plot to Phoenix Forgotten. The Found Footage has delved into the alien abduction theme before and this is an average treatment without any notable distinction
Pitch Black (2000)
Planetary Survival
A gripping and particularly well conceived planetary survival story. The film that launched Vin Diesel’s career and he has never been better than as the lethal, tight-lipped serial killer Riddick
PK (2014)
Bollywood Film/Innocent Alien Visitor
Absolutely fascinating Bollywood venture into science-fiction. A comedic variant on the theme of the blankly innocent alien visitor trying to make sense of human culture, this has a daringly ambitious bite in tackling the topic of religion and delivering some sharply pointed barbs
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Alien Invasion/Classic Bad Movie
This has become legendary as the Worst Film Ever Made. Maybe it is but the audience that celebrates its technical gaffes, the purple prose and bizarre bheind-the-scenes stories has contrarily made it one of cultish fascination
Planet 51 (2009)
Animation/Human Astronaut Seen as an Invader on an Alien Planet
A one-gag animated film that essentially reverses the plot of E.T, and has a human astronaut stranded on a planet of aliens and adopted by one boy. More likeable than it has a right to be.
Planet Hulk (2010)
Animation/Marvel Comics Superhero
Animated adaptation of the one of the biggest Marvel Comics event storylines of the 2000s – the same one also used in Thor Ragnarok. Essentially Spartacus recast with The Incredible Hulk
Planet of the Vampires (1965)
Mysterious Planet/Alien Possessed Dead
Cult Italian horror director Mario Bava makes an SF film where explorers find an alien planet where aliens possess the dead (not vampires despite the title). In many ways a precursor of Alien
Pleasurecraft (1999)
Space Opera/Erotica
Softcore erotic film set aboard a space mission where a crew have to deliver an assignment of empathic alien women
Power Rangers (2017)
Teen Power-Suit Superheroes
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with its ridiculous rubber monsters and dementedly over-the-top acting as one of the key pop culture phenomena of the 1990s. The question is what audience do producers possibly think that there might be for a dark and gritty cinematic reboot?
Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Teen Power-Suit Superheroes
Film spinoff from the Mighty Morphin Powers Rangers tv series that became a fad in the 90s. All the same rubber monsters and shrieking over-the-top acting is preserved intact
Predator (1987)
Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsman
This takes the previous year’s big hit of Aliens and fuses it with The Most Dangerous Game, swapping that story’s bored aristocratic hunter for an alien hunting Arnold Schwarzenegger and a team of soldiers in the jungles of South America
The Predator (2018)
Alien Huntsman Comes to Earth
Shane Black, a writer-director with a reasonable cult following, makes the sixth Predator film (he also appeared as an actor in the original). Black shakes the series up, introduces a number of new ideas and makes an okay entry
Predator 2 (1990)
Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsman
Predator was one of the better Alien/Aliens copies of the 1980s. This sequel does little more than serve the same up all over again bar the substitution of a near-future L.A. for the jungle but manages to generate a reasonably intensive ride out of the action
Predator: Badlands (2025)
Alien Huntsman on a Death Planet
The ninth Predator film. This changes the mix quite considerably from the usual alien huntsman vs human prey formula we have had so far. It also offers a return to the Alien universe, although not quite what we expect
Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
Predator Animation Anthology
The Predator series continues. Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Prey, makes an animated offering that tells three stories of encounters between human and Predator in different eras of history
Predators (2010)
Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsmen
Despite being hamstrung with Adrien Brody in Action Hero mode, this is a hard-edged film that goes some way to rescue the Predator franchise from its novelty crossovers with Alien(s)
Prey (2022)
Native Americans Hunted by Alien Sportsman
The seventh film in the Predator franchise. This received some of the best reviews of any film in the series and comes with the unique idea of pitting Native Americans up against a Predator
The Primevals (2023)
Lost World/Alien Lizard People
A fascinating lost world/alien lizard people stop-motion animated film that has been in production for a record 56 years, eventually pieced together and released by Charles Band several years after its creator’s death
Prince of Space (1959)
Japanese Space Opera
Japanese film about a superhero defending Earth against alien invaders that travels into incredibly bad movie stakes with its painfully cheap effects and frequent dialogue howlers
Princess of Mars (2009)
Planetary Adventure
The Asylum conduct their own version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars adventures three years before the Disney film and, despite one of their impoverished budgets, do an almost halfway reasonable version
Progeny (1998)
Alien Abduction and Impregnation
Horror director Brian Yuzna jumps aboard the alien abduction and impregnation theme that was popular at the time thanks to tv’s The X Files. All of Yuzna’s films have a fascination with sexual perversity so here the emphasis is placed on the impregnation
Project: ALF (1996)
Annoying Alien Vistor Comedy
A tv movie revival of the hit 1980s tv sitcom ALF. Looking back it’s hard to wonder what ever seemed funny about the show at the time
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Space Expedition/Alien Contact
A popular hit based on a book by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, where Ryan Gosling is a scientist who undergoes a space expedition and makes alien contact in an effort to save the Earth
Prometheus (2012)
Alien Prequel
Ridley Scott’s promised prequel to Alien. The first half creates epic mystery but the answers provided are not nearly as interesting as promised, while the latter half disappointingly settles for doing the Alien standard with decidedly lesser effect
Proxima (2007)
Science-Fiction Fan Makes Alien Contact
Strong and intelligent Spanish film that readily homages Philip K. Dick in its mind-expanding story of a science-fiction fan being contacting aliens
Proximity (2020)
UFOs and Alien Abduction
Cheaply made and frequently unintentionally hilarious variant on UFO conspiracies that wheels out all the usual cliches – alien implants, the Men in Black, recovered memories etc
Purple People Eater (1988)
Cute Musical Alien
An inanely awful film based on the Sheb Wooley song. This is a really lame copy of E.T. in which a young Neil Patrick Harris forms a band with the title alien
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Alien Artefact
The third and in the opinion of many the best of Hammer’s Quatermass films in which Nigel Kneale introduces a conceptually wild array of ideas about Martians, race memory, psychic powers and The Devil
The Quatermass Experiment (2005)
Mutating Astronaut
A remake of the first Quatermass story conducted as a live broadcast tv movie. Quite a considerable technical achievement considering the limitations and one that works with quite reasonable results
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Mutating Astronaut
The first of the Quatermass films and the first major genre hit for Hammer Films. Nigel Kneale creates a literate work of science-fiction horror about a returned astronaut mutating after exposure to an alien fungus
Queen of Blood (1966)
Alien Vampire Woman
Another of Roger Corman’s films reusing footage from Soviet SF films. Director Curtis Harrington gives the tale of a spaceship crew who bring on board an alien vampire woman an eerie otherworldliness
Queen of Outer Space (1958)
Planet of Women
Absurd space exploration fantasy where men encounter an all-women planet and proceed to put them in their place. The film has a Plan 9 from Outer Space-level badness and the appallingness of the sexual politics makes you do a double-take today
Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
Psi-Powered Alien Children/Disney Remake
Revival of the Disney Witch Mountain films of the 1970s. Now the films have been dragged into the post-X Files era and flashy effects added to negligible result
Radar Men from the Moon (1952)
Serial/Rocket Backpack Hero vs Alien Invaders
The second of the Rocket Man serials in which Commando Cody faces invaders from the Moon. This comes with the creative impoverishment of serials where the alien invaders are no more than regular gangsters.
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1985)
Animation/Magic Horse Saves the Universe
Slight but colourful animated film for the very young based on the popular series of Hallmark cards and Mattel toys about a magical horse
Ratchet & Clank (2016)
Animation/Videogame Adaptation
Animated film based on the popular computer game. On screen, this emerges as essentially an instantly forgettable variant on one of the Star Wars prequels retooled for the Under Tens with the emphasis all on frenetic slapstick and visual eye candy
Real Men (1987)
Gonzo Spy Film
A really strange comedy where John Ritter is dragged away by Jim Belushi who claims to be a spy supposedly dealing with aliens
Rebel Moon – A Child of Fire: Part One (2023)
Space Opera
Zack Snyder returns with a work that is all but a Star Wars film in name where he draws heavily on the basics of The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Space Opera
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon was intended as a two-part space opera saga. This first half emerged watchably and this is Part Two
Red Planet (2000)
Mission to Mars
One of a spate of scientifically grounded Mars movies that came out in 2000, featuring a space mission crew stranded on the planet
Repo Man (1984)
Gonzo Punk Film
Alex Coz’s surreal cult film with Emilio Estevez as an L.A. punk working as a repo driver who gets wound into the hunt for a car with radioactive aliens in the trunk
The Return (1981)
UFO Contact and Cattle Multilations
Influenced by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, this is a strange film about UFOs and cattle mutilations. Explanations are not always clear but the film boasts a great cast
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Psi-Powered Alien Children/Disney Film
Sequel to Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain with the psi-powered alien kids up against a villainous Christopher Lee and Bette Davis
Returner (2002)
Alien Invasion/Time Travel/Action
Japanese SF film that makes a rather enjoyable magpie collage out of a Terminator time travel action plot married to John Woo and Matrix action stylistics
The Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space (1986)
Deliberately Bad SF Movie
Excruciating and painfully unfunny attempt to make a deliberately bad SF film with alien vixens attempting to take over a high school
Riddick (2013)
Planetary Survival
The third Riddick film abandons the dark space opera of the less popular Chronicles of Riddick and tries to return to the planetary survival story of Pitch Black. Despite the effort showing at times, the film gets to be a good deal of fun when it gets to the scenes of Riddick outwitting the mercenaries
Rim of the World (2019)
Young Adult/Alien Invasion
McG, one of the more empty-headed of modern mainstream directors, makes a big effects-heavy, Young Adult alien invasion film, a genre that has never enjoyed any success. To no surprise, this did not either
Riverworld (2003)
All of Humanity Resurrected on an Alien Planet
The first adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer’s series of novels where every person who ever lived is resurrected on an alien planet is given an abysmal treatment as a tv movie that ditches and rewrites major aspects of the books
Riverworld (2010)
All of Humanity Resurrected on an Alien Planet
The second tv mini-series of Philip Jose Farmer’s classic SF novels trashes the books just as badly as the first attempt. The premise and characters are indifferently rewritten, while the show is churned out by a director with a tatty indifference to what he is making
Robot Monster (1953)
Alien Invasion/Classic Bad Movie
One of the most entertaining bad movies ever made, an alien invader film featuring the famous Ro-Man, a gorilla suit with a diving helmet
Rock and the Alien (1988)
Rock Singer Meets Alien Girl
Completely obscure, this is fairly terrible on almost every level – an effort about a rock singer given the gift by an alien woman of a special frequency that creates peace when he sings. This would be a guaranteed bad movie classic if anybody else had ever heard about it
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Gender-Bender Rock Musical/Frankenstein Spoof
The No 1 cult film of all time, more a phenomenon than a film, a demented glitter rock homage to mad science cinema and 50s sf films run through with celebration of a gender-bender joie de vivre
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again (2016)
Gender-Bender Rock Musical/Frankenstein Spoof
Nothing indicates how miscalculated this remake is than the fact it has been placed in the hands of the director of the High School Musicals and sundry Disney Channel fodder
Rogue One (2016)
Star Wars Prequel
Disney are now doing what Lucasfilm did with their novels in the 80s and spinning adventures off from even minor background characters. This is a grittier Dirty Dozen adventure but still recycles the same basic elements
Roswell: The Aliens Attack (1999)
The Roswell Incident/Alien Visitors
Alien invasion film set around the so-called Roswell Incident. Faux science-fiction written by cliche the entire way
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Santa on Mars/Classic Bad Movie
Children’s movie where a Martian dictator abducts Santa, this has gained a cult bad movie status
Santo in “Killers From Other Worlds” (1971)
Mexican Wrestler Superhero vs Alien Monsters
In something like his 30th film and amid the tatty production values of a Edward D. Wood Jr film, El Santo fight mobsters who have employed alien monsters that look like giant ambulatory bean bags
Santo vs the Martians (1967)
Mexican Wrestler Superhero vs Alien Invaders
In this rather shabby effort, Santo (in the sixteenth of his 52 films) takes on invaders from Mars whose entire plan seems to hang on the need to have to defeat Santo in the wrestling ring
Savage (1995)
Alien-Altered Neanderthal Superman
Bizarrely incomprehensible film from Avi Nesher set in a Cyberpunk future in which Olivier Gruner is turned into a Neanderthal superhuman by aliens living in cyberspace
Save the Green Planet (2003)
Man Imprisoned By Someone Who Insists He is an Alien
A bizarre South Korean comedy about a businessman who is imprisoned by a possibly crazed man who insists that he is an alien. Things sit in an absurdly funny ambiguity. Later remade by Yorgos Lanthimos as Bugonia
Save Yourselves! (2020)
Hipsters Face Alien Invasion Comedy
Comedy that comes comes with a winning concept – clueless hipsters try to get away from their social media devices for a weekend only to find the Earth has been invaded by aliens
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Genre Spoof
David Zucker takes over the reins of the franchise from the Wayans Brothers. With a lack of big scary movies in 2002 to parody, the film takes a scattershot approach, parodying any film at all
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Genre Spoof
Fourth of the Scary Movie films and the usual crude inanity, although under David Zucker the movie parodies have expanded well beyond what can be labelled scary movies any longer
The Second Arrival (1998)
Alien Infiltration and Takeover
Low-budget and fairly indifferently made sequel to David Twohy’s quite good alien invasion film
The Second Best Science Fiction Film Ever Made (2009)
War Between Mutated Astronauts
Amateur production that seems like a version of the X-Men crossbred with The Amazing Race. Not very good on most counts
Seedpeople (1992)
Alien Body Snatchers
Full Moon Entertainment produce a cheapo B-budget copy of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Sender (1997)
Alien Visitor/Psychic Powers/Action
Action film with Michael Madsen and a mystery alien woman fighting a government coverup of UFOs to retrieve his abducted daughter
The 7 Adventures of Sinbad (2010)
Modernised Arabian Nights Adventure/The Asylum Mockbuster
Cheap mockbuster from The Asylum that was designed to exploit the success of the flop Prince of Persia. While ostensibly a Sinbad film, this confusingly abandons the Arabian Nights milieu and is set contemporary where Sinbad is not sailor but a corporate CEO stranded on a desert island
The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (1979)
Child Alien Visitor Slapstick Comedy
The late Bud Spencer and his compatriot Terence Hill appeared in seventeen badly dubbed, slapstick comedies in the 1970s/80s … Spencer went it alone for this excruciating slapstick take on Close Encounters of the Third Kind in which that film’s kid Cary Guffey is an alien found by Spencer’s sheriff
Shin Ultraman (2022)
Japanese Superhero Reboot
Reboot of the old Japanese superhero series, conducted with the epic scale, mass destruction and dazzling effects of the more recent Godzilla films