12 Most Anxiety-Inducing Sci-Fi Movies EVER

Assault on Precinct 13 director John Carpenter is no stranger to the dangers of outer space. After all, this is the man who made Ghosts of Mars, proving a film could bomb even on a planet with an all-carbon dioxide atmosphere (yes, that jab required some Google research).

But long before sending Ice Cube to space, the Halloween helmer blessed cinema with the definitive sci fi horror, and the last word in disturbing alien invasion fiction. What makes 1982's The Thing so scary?

Could be Rob Bottin's seminal effects work, the eerie score, or the stoic, tough cast. Or maybe it's the fact that this alien invades and replicates bodies, a grotesque detail which makes the film a paranoid nightmare no one should try to make it through without a few pause button breaks.