We start the FOTOGRAMAS Halloween Challenge 2023 with the proposed theme for October 1: Terror in space. A subgenre in which the undisputed queen is ‘Alien: The Eighth Passenger’, Ridley Scott’s masterpiece that can be found, along with its sequels, on Disney+. But we wanted to start by moving away from the obvious and rescuing a fairly recent film that draws heavily on the one starring Sigourney Weaver: ‘Life’, by Daniel Espinosa.
Sony Pictures
‘Life (Vida)’: A new enigma from another world
In their search for extraterrestrial life on Mars, the crew of the International Space Station will discover that what could be one of the greatest advances in human history is, at the same time, evidence of a more intelligent (and more dangerous) than one would expect.
This is what the synopsis of a film says that “Of course it reminds us of the formula of ‘The Eighth Passenger‘: A crew of six people and we assume who will be the seventh,” warns our colleague María Caballero in her review of ‘Life (Vida)’, “but this reminiscence does not sabotage the film; Despite the audiovisual fatigue of another tribute to Scott’s classic, Espinosa films with a firm and precise pulse a clever tale of terror and destruction.”
But ‘Life’ is more than its references to ‘Alien’ or other classics of the genre such as ‘The Thing’ or the pulp science fiction series of the 50s and 60s. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds turns their villain into an almost ghostly and incorporeal threatwhich can appear at any time and anywhere, changing the instinctive Xenomorphs into a much more cunning and calculating predatormore similar to Hal 9000 from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ than to the Predator from ‘Predator’.
Where to watch ‘Life (Vida)’ streaming
‘Life (Vida)’ is available for streaming in the Netflix movie catalog.
Alex Bailey
The best horror movies in space to watch on Halloween
As we have already made clear, ‘Alien’ and its sequels are the essential leaders of this category, and are an incontestable influence of ‘Life (Vida)’, but it is worth remembering that the film itself ‘Alien: The Eighth Passenger’ has suspicious similarities with the 1965 Italian film ‘Terror in Space’, by maestro Mario Bava. To check it out, you can give it a try on Filmin.
The one that is not currently on any platform, unfortunately, is the sinister and wonderful ‘Final Horizon’, the best film by Paul WS Anderson who would end up directing the first installment of ‘Alien vs. Predator’. The gradual descent of an infernal and cosmic madness of an excellent Sam Neill and its imagery worthy of Clive Barker’s Cenobite universe is, without a doubt, another of the genre’s essentials.
Horizonte Final
Fran is an expert in cinema and series, specialized in cultural dissemination and film criticism. Although his favorite genre is horror, the same thing speaks to you about Marvel’s new MCU blockbuster as it does about an auteur film to claim from the festival circuit.
There is no Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+ series that escapes its radar, delving into the catalog of each platform to recommend and analyze its best content.
Fran has been writing in Fotogramas for more than a year, but his beginnings date back almost two decades ago in film forums and blogs such as Planeta Claqueta or Moviementarios. He was founder and part of the board of directors of the digital publication of film criticism and analysis Revista Mutaciones and a member of the Association of Cinematographic Informants of Spain (AICE), the organization that awards the Feroz Awards, as well as a voter for the Blogos de Oro al indie movies.
After completing the Master of Film Criticism at the Madrid Film School (ECAM) taught by Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, he has collaborated and/or covered film festivals such as San Sebastián, Sitges and Filmadrid as a specialized press for more than 10 years, along the way interviewing relevant directors, actors and actresses from the national industry such as Penélope Cruz, Carlos Saura, Ana de Armas, José Luis Cuerda or José Sacristán and internationally such as James Wan, Edgar Wright or Dario Argento.
His knowledge and experience have led him to be a film video blogger for Fnac Spain and director and host of the podcast Holocausto Zinéfago, with more than 150 broadcast programs in which cinema and humor are mixed from a unique and original point of view.
2023-10-01 09:02:21
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