20 Best Sci-Fi Horror Movies Of The 21st Century

The 20th century brought sci-fi scares into prominence with greats like Alien, The Thing, Cube and Event Horizon, but this was only the beginning. The leap into the 21st brought so much more innovation on the sub-genre of horror with it.

Psychological horrors about the errant use of time travel, anti-hero origin stories and even "what if?" takes on the superhero genre have come to fruition. Stories that have surpassed time and space, rather than plain ol' horror relegated to Earth, have been well received too.

It's not just the stories though. The advent of new platforms has led to new film-making techniques and ways of telling these stories too. Evolving the found footage style, beautiful CGI and improvements in digital camera movements have helped filmmakers hone their craft in recent years.

As the platforms expanded from just the silver screen and home video, with streaming services like Netflix becoming monolithic, writers and directors had less constraints to impress Hollywood bigwigs.

This in turn has led to more variety, not just in where to watch but in what to watch, as this list will show you.

For now though, prepare yourself for twenty of the finest examples of 21st century sci-fi horror. Fair warning though, some of these do get a bit dark.

Slight cheat on this one, as the year 2000 technically isn't part of the 21st century. But when it's as slick a film as Pitch Black, it would be unfair to miss it off this list by a few months.

Before Vin Diesel franchised the character into the ground, he made his debut in this sci-fi story about a transport mission gone wrong.

Stranded on a hostile planet under perpetual daylight, it's not long before an alien aggressor starts picking off the crew in the planet's hostile cave network.

But it's not just a survival story, as tensions fray and unlikely allegiances are forged in a fight to survive and escape this place. Naturally, everyone suspects each other until they realise the bigger threat at hand: a rare eclipse is imminent, which will bathe them in darkness and make them vulnerable.

While it may seem like any standard stranded horror film, the crew of the Hunter Gratzner made it worth the watch. Whilst Radha Mitchell and Cole Hauser would have carried it alone, Diesel's shadow-lurking anti-hero Riddick added that flair to make Pitch Black as great as it is.