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The Thing poster

Movies that feel likeThe Thing (1982)

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

If you loved The Thing, the closest films we have are Life (2017), The Fog (1980) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995). All three share The Thing's dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Last Wave (1977).

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John Carpenterdreadunsettlingtwistycerebralaweparanoid
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If The Thing hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Thing (2011)

Life poster
Life
2017 · dir. Daniel Espinosa
🍅 67%★ 6.6horror · science fiction · mysteryHulu

Both are built on the same subject: alien life-form

The difference: Takes it somewhere less paranoid than The Thing does

The six-member crew of the International Space Station is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life, which proves more intelligent than ever expected.

The Fog poster
The Fog
1980 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 77%★ 6.8horrorPrime VideoPeacock

Carpenter's creeping dread rolling into an isolated community

The difference: Ghost-story atmosphere, thin on the visceral terror

Strange things begin to occur as a tiny California coastal town prepares to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone stumbles upon a dark secret about the town's founding; radio announcer Stevie witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.

In the Mouth of Madness poster
In the Mouth of Madness
1995 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 61%★ 7.1horror · mystery · drama

Carpenter dissolving reality until sanity itself is the casualty

The difference: Abstract cosmic dread — no creature effects showcase

An insurance investigator visits a small town while looking into the strange disappearance of a popular horror novelist. He soon finds that the impact of the author’s books is far more than inspirational.

The Last Wave poster
The Last Wave
1977 · dir. Peter Weir
🍅 78%★ 6.9drama · mystery · horrorMax

Slow-mounting unease that something ancient is closing in

The difference: Mystical and meandering — dread without a monster

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

Halloween poster
Halloween
1978 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 97%★ 7.7horror · thriller

Carpenter's patient camera making empty space feel lethal

The difference: A human shape in the suburbs — no paranoia, no gore showcase

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

The Fly poster
The Fly
1986 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 82%★ 7.6horror · science fictionHuluPeacock

Two things both keep coming back to: mutation and halloween

When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

Event Horizon poster
Event Horizon
1997 · dir. Paul W. S. Anderson
🍅 36%★ 6.6horror · science fiction · mysteryParamount+Peacock

A remote crew discovering something that should have stayed lost

The difference: Gothic haunted-house shocks over slow-burn suspicion

In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.

The Faculty poster
The Faculty
1998 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 57%★ 6.6horror · science fictionParamount+

Body-snatching paranoia where anyone might already be one of them

The difference: Teen-movie bounce — winks where Carpenter means every frame

When creepy things start happening at Herrington High, the students begin to suspect that their faculty is being controlled by body-snatching aliens.

The Cloverfield Paradox poster
The Cloverfield Paradox
2018 · dir. Julius Onah
🍅 22%★ 5.5horror · mystery · science fictionNetflix

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Orbiting above a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality.

Alien: Covenant poster
Alien: Covenant
2017 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 65%★ 6.4horror · science fictionMax

A crew undone by an alien world and their own bad decisions

The difference: Glossy and philosophical — the tension is intermittent

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death poster
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
1971 · dir. John D. Hancock
🍅 50%★ 6.4horror · mystery · drama

Is the horror real, or is the mind the thing infecting itself

The difference: Fragile '70s mood piece — barely any horror shown on screen

Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1979 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 51%★ 6.4science fiction · adventure · mysteryParamount+

Both keep coming back to the same thing: spacecraft

The difference: Sits closer to adventure than The Thing does

When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.

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