8 Horror Movies That Broke All The Rules

Haunted house movies are in escapable, and have been since the dawn of the horror genre. A classic dilapidated house or unsettling mansion has long been home to some disgruntled ghosts or eccentric barons, but what happens when you shift the whole template and just... stick it in space?

Instead of a restless spirit, throw in an acid-spitting alien, instead of a victorian manor with trick walls, knock up some corrugated corridors and a blast-ready airlock, and instead of a mysterious entity who was Dead All Along, substitute a secret robot with cream cheese for insides. Why not, eh?

Alien did all this and more, becoming one of the first and best series to truly mesh science fiction and horror into one terrifying bundle - breaking away from classic representations of Universal monsters and gothic norms to bring something truly out of this world. Alien was also one in the wave of defying expectations by killing off their star power early on, reinforcing the final girl trope by having Sigourney Weaver the last woman standing.

And, if all THAT wasn't enough to blow your socks into space, Alien also purposefully avoided gendering its characters in a script that was devoid of male or female markers, making it another in the unintentional staple of progressive genre films that steered clear of societal expectation. 'Broke' the rules? More like 'obliterated' them.