Few sci-fi horror movies have had the lasting impact of Alien, which has become a classic and a franchise with seven movies (a new one already in development) and a TV series. So naturally, you’d expect it to inspire new projects sooner or later. And ever since the first film came out in 1979, Hollywood has been trying to find its own version of the formula. The problem is that this franchise didn’t work just because of the creature or the spaceship, but because of how well it built tension and made you feel it from beginning to end. That’s why so many movies that followed in its footsteps felt more like copies than anything else.
Did they work? Most of them didn’t, and a few are actually pretty watchable. But overall, there were too many misses to call them masterpieces on the same level as Alien. In the end, they mostly showed just how hard it is to recreate a formula that had already been done so well.
The problem with Life is that, as the story moves forward, the similarities to Alien become obvious without the movie bringing much new to the table. It follows a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station who discover a living organism in a sample from Mars. At first, the discovery seems like a major breakthrough for science, but things change when the creature, named Calvin, starts growing, shows an unexpected level of intelligence, and begins attacking the crew. The film has a great cast, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson, and they make great use of the station’s limited space to show just how intense the tension can get — but there isn’t much more to it than that.
The thing is, we’ve already seen a lot of this in the Alien franchise: an isolated crew, a creature no one can control, and characters trying to stop the threat from reaching Earth. Even the alien’s behavior seems designed to remind you of the xenomorph (although Calvin does have some traits of his own). Somehow, Life still manages to surprise with a few choices and a good ending because it doesn’t try to please the audience, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s following in the footsteps of a much better classic. It’s a decent experience, but it doesn’t quite convince.
Here, it’s really just a matter of swapping space for the bottom of the ocean. On the other hand, even though that might not sound like much, this choice really delivers when it comes to creating tension. Underwater was actually better received by audiences than critics, and it revolves around Norah Price (Kristen Stewart), an engineer working at an underwater drilling facility. When a disaster destroys a large part of the structure, she and the other survivors have to cross the ocean floor to reach a safe location. But they discover something is lurking in the depths, and dealing with the creatures is just another problem in a mission where any mistake can become a very serious and potentially fatal one. It’s a movie that doesn’t waste time, gets straight to the point, and keeps its characters constantly on the move.
Overall, it’s a good pick if you like Alien and want something with a similar premise, just in a different kind of setting. Still, the character arcs aren’t as well developed, so you won’t always feel that invested in what’s happening, especially when someone becomes a victim. And keep in mind that while the setting is an interesting difference, it mostly works as a backdrop for the attacks rather than as part of a truly original story. Underwater is far from disappointing, to be honest, but it’s a little frustrating to see that it had the potential to distance itself from Alien a bit more.
If you followed the entire Alien franchise over the years as the movies were released, then you probably remember Leviathan, a film you can pretty much figure out before the story even reaches its halfway point. Released in 1989, it follows a group of miners working at an underwater facility who find the wreckage of a Soviet ship. While investigating the vessel, they come into contact with a biological agent that begins causing grotesque transformations, putting the whole crew at risk. From there, it’s predictable: the characters are trapped, they don’t really know what they’re dealing with, and they have to figure out how to survive before it’s too late. The problem is that it never really tries to be anything more than that.
The underwater setting works well enough for this plot, and the practical effects help give the transformations an unsettling look that fits the body horror of the time. The creature is also pretty threatening, but it never becomes as unforgettable as the Xenomorph, and no one in the story has enough depth for the conflicts to really carry the narrative. That doesn’t mean Leviathan doesn’t have its value, since it’s considered a cult classic, but overall, it’s a pretty big copy. Some people would also say it feels like a version of The Thing.
The same year Leviathan came out, we also got DeepStar Six, but it isn’t nearly as remembered today. The ironic part is that it’s proof that, after Alien, Hollywood really leaned into the bottom of the ocean as the perfect setting, almost as if it was determined to keep trying until someone finally got it right. From the director of Friday the 13th, the story follows a military team tasked with building an underwater facility. But during their exploration, the crew ends up disturbing an unknown creature, which starts attacking the base and puts everyone’s chances of survival at risk. In other words, on top of dealing with a monster, the characters are stuck in an environment where any structural damage could be fatal. That should be an insanely good advantage, but unfortunately, the movie barely makes use of it.
Instead of slowly building suspense and making you feel the same vulnerability as the crew, DeepStar Six relies on more predictable situations to put the characters in greater danger. The best moments come from the creature, but the script also doesn’t do much to make it stand out among the countless other monsters in movies. In the end, the comparison to Alien is inevitable, but while that franchise knew how to use its setting and characters to keep the tension going, this one always feels like it’s just moving from one attack to another without giving much real weight to what’s happening.
Ever imagined Alien without the alien? That’s Supernova. It had everything going for it as a good choice for anyone missing a space horror film in the same vein as the famous franchise, but it became one of the major examples of how a troubled production can waste a cool idea. Here, we follow a crew of the medical ship Nightingale 229, which responds to a distress call and rescues a man carrying a mysterious object. Soon, both the passenger and the artifact become a problem for everyone on board, while a star about to explode puts even more pressure on the crew. Interesting, right? The cast is also pretty incredible for a sci-fi movie this ambitious. However, everything falls apart as it tries to balance horror and action without finding any real balance between the two.
The threat is never as interesting as it should be, none of the characters are explored enough, and the plot feels like it’s moving forward without ever deciding what it actually wants to be about. It’s a shame, because the combination of an isolated spaceship, a mysterious passenger, and a cosmic catastrophe could have made for something really nice, but Supernova has a story that does absolutely no justice to its own premise. The film also had plenty of problems behind the scenes, which affected the final result, so much so that it ended up failing at the box office and with critics. It may have tried to be Alien with a more original idea, but sadly, the consistency went straight out the window.
