jabbafart t1_jdxvewu wrote on March 28, 2023 at 12:02 AM

You can only visit so many alien planets and derelict ships before you run out of material.

Zalack t1_jdy9b9k wrote on March 28, 2023 at 1:45 AM

Space horror, at its best, grapples with the anxieties that acknowledging our place in the universe entail by necessity: being insignificant, being alone, floating on a small grain of sand suspended in a sea of nothingness with only a thin strip of air holding it back. Being beyond the limits of what the human brain can intuitively reason about. Free Will being a lie the machinery of our brain tells itself. Being at the mercy of random chance the next time the universe decides to hurl a rock or electromagnetic storm at us. Having a finite amount of time before we die.

All of these can be expressed through good cosmic/space horror.

Beiez t1_jdz650b wrote on March 28, 2023 at 7:04 AM

Yeah, it‘s more about that feeling of existential dread and absolute loss of control and understanding when it comes to what‘s out there, not about spaceships and aliens.

At its very best, this kind of horror gives me a feeling of insane unease about the fact that there are things out there that could wipe us out in a matter of seconds without us ever understanding why or how. That includes alien forms, but also lots of other cosmic occurances

Autarch_Kade t1_je069m2 wrote on March 28, 2023 at 1:54 PM

Sure, let me know when they've run out.

gnatsaredancing t1_je8utd7 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 7:02 AM

I think we've only begun to scratch the surface really. Most space horror is just being stuck in a place with a monster. It's just a reskin of fantasy, not that different from being stuck in a labyrinth with a minotaur.

Very little space horror explores just how horrific the sheer difference between us and whats out there can be. Stuff like Blindsight or Annihilation.

Or even just contamination horror. You are literally made out of food. Every single moment of your life a horde of microbial life is trying to eat you alive, parasitise you or highjack your cells to force your body to create copies of itself until your body simply fails.

The only reason you're not a failing mind in a decomposing living body right is that your immune system has learned to fight off most other Earth life from eating you alive.

Any life you encounter out there will be unfamiliar to your immune system.