Leprechaun in Space and Hellraiser: Bloodline’s stories may sound desperate, but that doesn’t mean the films are horrible because the murders are in space. They are ranked worst to best.
“No one can hear you cry in space,” Just though Alien is one of the best movies ever made doesn’t make that tagline wonderful. Additionally, it conveys the intrinsic dread of space, including its enormous emptiness, complete alone, and powerlessness. It’s hardly surprising that horror has always been present in space stories, as seen by not only the Alien series but also predecessors like It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Planet of the Vampires.
Given this context, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that a number of horror series have attempted to change things up by launching their monsters into space. Yes, it may seem strange to send a gothic castle inhabitant like Count Dracula or the campground-bound Jason Voorhees into space, but the idea enables filmmakers to increase the threat posed by their monsters by include the void of space and some interesting sci fi weapons. Of course, some directors make the most of this chance than others, so let’s rank them in order of best to worst.
1. Jason X
Yes, Jason in space is a ludicrous concept. This is the same person who spent almost two-thirds of Jason Takes Manhattan aboard a boat before landing in a New York that resembled Vancouver. However, we know we’re witnessing the ideal space sequel as soon as Jason freezes a woman’s face in liquid nitrogen before smashing it on the counter. Jason X includes a lot of silly sci-fi elements, such as a seductive robot woman and a holodeck a la Star Trek, but at its core, it is still a Friday the 13th movie where a relentless killer slices up stupid teenagers.
However, Jason X’s seamless fusion of the two essential elements of the participating brands makes it the best film on this list and an absolute blast. It is unquestionably a film about the wild antics of Mama Voorhees’ infant son as he runs amok on a spacecraft, hacks VR players with a machete, kills space troops in wry ways, and regenerates with nanobots. More than any other spacebound sequel, Jason X knows how to reframe its villain and exploit the fresh opportunities that the strategy presents.
2. Predators
Predators doesn’t seem at all like an intergalactic film at first. Special forces officer Royce (Adrien Brody), an Israeli Defense Force sniper named Isabelle (Alice Braga), and other prominent characters mistakenly believe they are still on their home planet when they awaken in a jungle. They don’t realize they are on a foreign world, a training ground for the Predators, until they are trying to make their way to civilization.
Predators does all you would expect from a space sequel, despite not being as space-oriented as some of the other entries on this list. The movie turns a well-known plot device—a group of brave humans fending off an extraterrestrial hunter—on its head by placing the victims on a foreign planet. The new setting is excellent and allows Predators to continue its predecessors’ tradition of destroying cartoon strong guys while emphasizing how the predators always outclass humans, whether they are on Earth or not.
3. Invasion of Astro-Monster
Hellraiser: Bloodline, arguably the most notorious film on this list, does indeed have cenobites in outer space. That’s not really what Bloodline is, despite the fact that the idea of cenobites in space is inherently amazing. Instead, three timelines are shown in the film, only one of which is on a space station in the year 2220. They follow Bruce Ramsay’s portrayals of Phillipe Lemarchand, a toymaker who created the Lament Configuration in France in 1796, and two of his descendants, one of whom lives in 1996 America and the other in 2127 space.
Bloodline, the final Hellraiser film to be released theatrically, has stunning blue gels and all the bloody effects you’d expect from the series. The film is still enjoyable even after studio interference forced the original director Kevin Yagher to leave the project; Joe Chappelle finished it and was given the credit of Alan Smithee. Pinhead never fails, and a baby Adam Scott appears as a French libertine. Ramsey may not be quite up to the task of playing three separate personas. However, I have to rank it in the middle of this list because the best scenes take place in the past and the present, with the space setting primarily serving as a frame for the story.
4. Hellraiser: Bloodline
Hellraiser: Bloodline, arguably the most notorious film on this list, does indeed have cenobites in outer space. That’s not really what Bloodline is, despite the fact that the idea of cenobites in space is inherently amazing. Instead, three timelines are shown in the film, only one of which is on a space station in the year 2220. They follow Bruce Ramsay’s portrayals of Phillipe Lemarchand, a toymaker who created the Lament Configuration in France in 1796, and two of his descendants, one of whom lives in 1996 America and the other in 2127 space.
Bloodline, the final Hellraiser film to be released theatrically, has stunning blue gels and all the bloody effects you’d expect from the series. The film is still enjoyable even after studio interference forced the original director Kevin Yagher to leave the project; Joe Chappelle finished it and was given the credit of Alan Smithee. Pinhead never fails, and a baby Adam Scott appears as a French libertine. Ramsey may not be quite up to the task of playing three separate personas. However, I have to rank it in the middle of this list because the best scenes take place in the past and the present, with the space setting primarily serving as a frame for the story.
5. Leprechaun 4: In Space
Leprechaun 4: In Space borrows heavily from Aliens, much like practically every other film on this list, particularly by include a squad of knucklehead space marines. Fortunately, the talented Miguel Nuez Jr. and Tim Colceri are cast as members of the squad, giving director Brian Trenchard-Smith further mileage. You get an unexpectedly enjoyable time as Guy Siner chews scenery as Davros, who looks to be played by Werner Herzog in Doctor Who. In this entry, Lep pulls off some of his best kills, including bursting from a marine’s genitalia and flattening a man’s head like a pancake.
Although the kills are stunning, none of them feel very “space-y.” As the sarcastic Leprechaun and the space troops perform sci-fi activities on the spacecraft, Warwick Davis has his typical fun. But there isn’t much of a connection between the two, especially after a late transformation introduces a new monster to detract from Lep. So even while the kills are a lot of fun and the effects are generally quite good, Leprechaun 4: In Space feels like it lost a lot of opportunities.
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