7 sci-fi horror movies to watch if you liked Ash
The 2025 Flying Lotus movie Ash is a psychological horror and science fiction mystery. Set on a barren extraterrestrial world, it centers on Riya Ortiz, a lone, amnesic astronaut who wakes up to find her crew dead. The narrative delves into paranoia, hallucinations, and the grim reality behind an alien parasite that invades the mind and body, with the appearance of Brion, a man claiming to be her rescuer.
Ash explores themes of solitude, memory loss, and the dangers of extraterrestrial contact while earning praise for its evocative images and performances by Eiza González and Aaron Paul. These seven more sci-fi horror films will appeal greatly to viewers drawn to slow-burning tension and horrific discoveries.
Under the Skin, Event Horizon, The Cloverfield Paradox, and more sci-fi movies similar to Ash
1) Under the Skin (2013)
Under the Skin, directed by Jonathan Glazer, is a subdued, disturbing meditation on extraterrestrial existence and human fragility. Scarlett Johansson plays an unearthly entity prowling Glasgow's streets, drawing naive men into an enigmatic emptiness. The movie opens with little conversation, strange images, and Mica Levi's music.
Like Ash, Under the Skin envelops viewers in the protagonist's perspective as she navigates a human world that feels alien and dangerous. Both movies show extraterrestrial contacts as personal tragedies rather than as spectacular events. Riya Ortiz's character and Johansson's gradual plunge into uncertainty, identity struggle, and metamorphosis mirror one another.
Where to watch: Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video
2) Event Horizon (1997)
Event Horizon follows a rescue team searching a spacecraft that vanished into a black hole and returned with a terrible force aboard. Under Paul W. S. Anderson's direction and starring Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne, the film presents terrifying images and a warped sense of interdimensional fear.
The movie explores psychological breakdown, being alone in space, and the perils of interacting with the unknown. Both Riya from Ash and the characters in Event Horizon are plagued by visions and horrific memories under the control of something incomprehensible.
Where to watch: HBO, Apple TV
3) The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
The Cloverfield Paradox is a part of the loosely connected Cloverfield universe. It centers on a team of astronauts aboard a space station trying to solve Earth’s energy crisis using a particle accelerator. When the experiment goes wrong, they are hurled into an alternate dimension where reality starts to collapse.
Similar to Ash, the film features a female protagonist, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, trapped in a high-tech environment with limited information. Both films thrive on disorientation, suspense, and the creeping realization that something terrible has altered the natural order.
While The Cloverfield Paradox leans more into sci-fi chaos than horror, it mirrors Ash in its portrayal of cosmic consequences and psychological strain.
Where to watch: Netflix
4) Sunshine (2007)
Set in 2057, Danny Boyle's psychologically powerful sci-fi drama Sunshine was written by Alex Garland. Earth is dying—imprisoned beneath a declining sun—and eight astronauts on the Icarus II, a spacecraft equipped with a stellar bomb aimed to resuscitate the dead star, have the responsibility to save the planet.
Starring Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, and Michelle Yeoh, the film follows a mission where technological genius meets human frailty. The crew discovers the psychological and spiritual disintegration of the lost Icarus I when they intercept it, therefore starting their slide into anarchy.
Like Ash, Sunshine explores loneliness and mental breakdowns in outer space against great cosmic purposes. Both movies examine the narrow border between truth and illusion when survival is at risk; they are visually cold—defined by antiseptic hallways, heavenly light, and claustrophobic stillness.
Where to watch: Disney Plus
5) Life (2017)
Life, directed by Daniel Espinosa, delivers a visceral and unnerving alien encounter, as a crew aboard the International Space Station discovers an extraterrestrial lifeform in Martian soil samples. Initially seen as a scientific marvel, the organism, named Calvin, rapidly evolves into a predatory force, outwitting the astronauts and leaving them trapped in a deadly game of survival.
The film's isolation and psychological unraveling mirror Ash, where characters face not only a terrifying external threat but also the horror of their own unraveling minds. As Calvin grows more intelligent and vicious, the crew is forced to make impossible decisions, culminating in a brutal struggle against a creature that seems to anticipate their every move.
Like Ash, Life explores psychological disintegration, loss, and hard decisions inside the parameters of space. Both movies have their characters—Eiza González in Ash and Jake Gyllenhaal in Life—trapped in a struggle for survival against an overwhelming force.
Where to watch: Netflix, Apple TV
6) The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a sci-fi horror classic built on paranoia and isolation. Set in a remote Antarctic research station, it follows a group of American scientists who discover a shape-shifting alien that perfectly imitates its victims. As fear spreads and trust crumbles, the team—led by Kurt Russell's rugged helicopter pilot, MacReady—descends into chaos, unsure of who among them is still human.
With breakthrough creature effects by Rob Bottin and a frightening, nihilistic tone, the film initially alienated reviewers and fans but later became a cult classic. Similar to The Thing, Ash isolates Eiza González's Riya in a sterile lunar colony, where she fears contamination and identity loss.
The psychological toll on both sets of characters mirrors one another, with both films exploring how survival in the face of alien infection often comes at the cost of trust, humanity, and self. For fans of Ash, The Thing is an ideal watch—a masterclass in terror that still resonates over 40 years later.
Where to watch: Apple TV
7) Possessor (2020)
Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is a sci-fi psychological horror film about a corporate assassin who uses brain implant technology to take over other people’s bodies and execute high-profile kills. When one mission goes wrong, the host mind starts fighting back, leading to a violent identity war.
While Possessor isn’t set in space, it taps into the same core themes as Ash: loss of control, fractured identity, and invasive technology. The parasite in Ash that manipulates Riya’s perceptions has a conceptual twin in Possessor, where external forces distort the mind and reshape reality. Both films are brutal, immersive, and stylistically striking.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Interested viewers can stream Ash online on Amazon Prime Video.
