Horror fans know that a willing suspension of disbelief is a vital part of enjoying this scariest of genres. This is even more true when it comes to speculative horror. What’s that? It’s terrifying cinema with a premise that supposes a specific future — one that’s different than we expect.
Problem is, some of these horrific futures are cautionary tales, warnings, or predictions that could happen to us if we’re not careful. Most of us would rather not live in a speculative horror movie. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best speculative horror films and explained why their premises could totally happen in our own future…if we let them, that is. Expect mild SPOILERS for the films discussed.
22. The Colony
This Canadian spec horror film from 2013 makes a few predictions about climate change. The first is that humans are capable of building machines to control it. The second is that those machines are bound to break down eventually. When they do, the results will be disastrous. kids, these are horror movies. Humanity’s many blunders lead to a world covered in snow and ice, a massive food shortage, and the constant threat of disease. As expected under such circumstances, people start acting like jerks to each other. For some, this means leaving sick people in the cold to die. For others, it’s ing the cannibals.
Is it possible? We already know that global climate change is happening and that it’s already hurting people. We also know that humans will resort to eating each other, if times get bad enough. We’ve seen that when humans try to manipulate natural forces like weather or an ecosystem, we tend to screw it up royally. And finally, even in an uncertain future, we all expect that Bill Paxton will eventually die.
21. Jason X
The many franchises that inexplicably ended up off-world for reasons that barely make sense.
Is it possible? Elon Musk seems determined to put regular people in space. Well, so long as those “regular” people are absurdly rich. Does putting an immortal murderer into cold storage makes sense? Not as much as cremation. Could shooting Jason into space mean we’d be rid of him forever? If Ursa, Non, and General Zod are any indication, no, not really. Either way, Kane Hodder will probably still be playing Jason somewhere 200 years in the future.
20. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
For the uninitiated, this film takes place Collinwood.” As a documentary subject, Vernon takes us through the training, planning, and even networking that serial killers go through. The future posited here is one where over-the-top killers are real, and may even be emulated by disturbed individuals.
Is it possible? Please. One could make an excellent case that this is already happening. Some lunatic shot up an actual theater full of real human beings while pretending to be the (fictional) nemesis of the Dark Knight, the Joker. We watch movies about Ted Bundy, Zodiac, American Horror Story can be found in the same Etsy shops as Charles Manson lockets or cameos of Aileen Wournos. Our fascination with murderers and apathy about separating fact from fiction can bring about this reality for sure.
19. Snowpiercer
This is another future film that deals with the aftermath of catastrophe caused by humans trying to fix climate change. This time though, everyone left alive ends up on a perpetually speeding train. Almost like real life, the rich people live splendidly, the middle class have their basic needs comfortably met, and the impoverished live on extreme violence and a bit of cannibalism among the more desperate classes. When viewers find out the whole truth about the survival train and how it runs, the ghastly facts cause revolt.
Is it possible? The idea of an enormous train that never stops and contains more than one ecosystem? That doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny. But then, neither did the Internet if you go back 100 years or so. The cannibalism? Relegating the poor to squalor while expecting almost continual labor? Yeah, that’s all highly likely. There’s a case to be made that the poor will always be slaves to the rich.
18. The Purge
all crime is legal and paramedics get a well-deserved night off. Before long, friends and neighbors are shooting at each other, and the idea of saving a stranger leads to characters being roundly chastised.
Is it possible? Sure. Polling suggests that almost half of all Americans it that they’d murder (or pay to have murdered) at least one person if they knew there would be no consequences. That’s scary enough. Couple that with the widespread theory that other people’s suffering is more abstract than your own — and that’s a sure recipe for an annual purge. Like the franchise itself, Election Year is as violent and insane as ever, and it's actually kind of frightening how easily this could happen in real life.
17. Sharknado
We all know the premise: A screenwriter named Thunder Levin combines ocean predators with bad weather and the next thing we know — Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens is coming.
Is it possible? Sure it is. Two words: Climate Change. We don’t honestly know what the full impact of climate change will be. But we know that everything will be impacted — weather, tides, water levels, and every ecosystem on the planet. Will it end up with a team of D-listers fighting sharks in space? Probably not…but can we ever really know for sure?
16. Alien Versus Predator: Requiem
Few franchises have inspired the kind of fervent fandom and ionate debate among horror fans as Alien and Predator. We all know that the xenomorphs from the Alien movies are acid-bleeding monsters with parasitic breeding practices. On the other hand, Predators don’t want to kill anyone who isn’t a world's most dangerous game-level adversary/trying to kill them. That’s nice and all — but who isn’t going to at least try to kill something that bone-chillingly terrifying? The concept of warring extra-terrestrials slugging it out somewhere on Earth, maybe with a hybrid, seems scarier than the scariest thing you can think of.
Is it possible? That aliens exist and may one day be capable of traveling here is a foregone conclusion to most scientists. It’s just a matter of when. And if guys like Aliens Carter Burke are still around (they will be) there’s no telling what kind of sci-fi horror chicanery we might be in for.
15. The Trial
More people probably read Franz Kafka than watch movies based on his work. The Trial though, might be the exception to this. You’re under arrest, and no one will tell you why. The girl you like might be one of “them,” the nameless oppressors who know everything about you while you know essentially nothing about them. Scared, yet? There’s to be a trial, and you don’t get a lawyer. You also don’t know what you’re being accused of, let alone whether or not you did it. Couple that with a killer performance by Anthony Perkins and mind-bending direction by Orson Welles. That’s a recipe for dystopian fear and a confounding and terrifying look at one man’s horror prediction for the future of humanity.
Is it possible? We’d like to think it’s not. But could we devolve to a point where concepts like Miranda Rights, due process, or a state-funded lawyer might vanish? Maybe.
14. Repo! The Genetic Opera
All politics aside, medical care is pretty expensive in many places. Yet, it’s something most of us will need eventually. If you really needed a new liver, kidney, leg, or eye, would you take out a loan to get the body parts you need? Most of us probably would. What if you couldn’t pay back the loan though? We’ve all heard of cars getting repossessed, leaving hapless drivers with no way to get to work. But in Repo! The Genetic Opera, it’s not your ride that gets taken away. It’s that liver, kidney, leg or eye you sorely needed. Bear in mind that in addition to losing the body part in question — it’s legal for them to kill you to get it out. Worse yet, Paris Hilton may also be involved.
Is it possible? Not yet. But , these are horror’s future predictions. How long before the rights of businesses to get their money supersedes the right of people to have functioning organs, or even to live? Who cleans up the mess after an organ gets repo’d? Time will tell.
13. Night of the Living Dead
If you ask any die-hard horror fan, they’ll probably tell you that zombies are inevitable. Will they start their chases in cemeteries and George Romero and John Russo into crazy awesome careers in horror is as scary now as it was in 1968.
Is it possible? Simply put: yes. Zombies are coming. No one is going to tell us the truth about them when they do. Moreover, when local militias take on the hordes in their area, we can’t be sure that everyone they shoot will already be dead.
12. Daybreakers
A future where everyone is a vampire? And human blood becomes crazy scarce? Daybreakers has horror mainstays Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill living in a world where it’s increasingly difficult to afford one’s daily blood. Forget coffee, bread, meat, and those other old-school staples of humanity. If you don’t get enough blood, a refined and attractive vampire can turn into something monstrous and goblin-like. That’s when they start leading the poor out into the sun to die. Is there hope for humanity after over 95% of them turn vamp?
Is it possible? Reasonable people can disagree on the existence of vampires. But if they were real, most of the people you know would totally become one. You don’t have to worry about health, you can smoke and start your day with a bacon and butter sammich. No more jogging, no more vitamins, and you feel awesome all the time -- as long as you get your blood. Even knowing how the movie turns out, that’s still pretty tempting.