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9 rampaging space zombies hungry for our sci-fi brains
As a general rule, space zombies tend to be more energetic than their terrestrial counterparts, and often retain a robust intelligence. Some use language, advanced tools, and exhibit rudimentary culture.
But as you'll learn in the 20th of our 31 specials for the 31 days of Halloween, where it counts, space zombies have true zombie nature: a violently anti-human bent, an avidity for tasty human flesh and rapid expansion of their numbers through infection or otherwise turning of their victims.
Remember to come back tomorrow at noon to attend some killer movie proms.
Reavers in Firefly/Serenity
Reavers epitomize one of the great mysteries of space zombies: How can a group of beings intent on murder and destruction operate complex technology? Reavers pilot spaceships, yet they are berserk savages who eat their victims and wear their skins. Reavers were first created by an experimental drug, but people who survive a Reaver attack are so traumatized they become ... Reavers. Therefore rampaging, for Reavers, is not just about food or clothes, it's sex.
Traits: Mutated, Technological, Disgusting
Space vampire prey from Lifeforce
These space zombies aren't decayed but look electrocuted. They are similar to traditional zombies in that they are truly undead and their attacks turn their victims into more zombies. Rather than biting or mauling, though, these creatures suck out your life force in a spectacular display of coruscating blue lightning. They pass the stolen life force on to an alien being. In this way, they are like deep-fried space zombie bees, gathering energetic nectar for their queen.
Traits: Undead, Smell like toast
The Borg from Star Trek
There is a relentless logic to the Borg. They conquer worlds, add any handy technologies from those planets to their toolbox, and continue on. The idea of them implacably chewing away at the Federation was terrifying, and it was thrilling to see an enemy in Star Trek that was actually frightening. (Klingons? Puh-lease.) But then Hugh came along and the Borg got nerfed.
Traits: Cybernetic, Technological, Blinky
Possessed miners in John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars
When the ghosts of ancient Martian warriors possess some miners, their only desire is to kill—after dressing up like extras from The Road Warrior. They are kind of laughable, but the laughing stops when you realize they are impossible to kill. See, when a Martian ghost zombie miner dies, its spirit leaps out to take over a nearby human. If you're facing one down, your future is bleak: It will kill you, or you will kill it and become possessed yourself.
Traits: Self-mutilation, Love heavy metal
Pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The fact that pod people take up normal lives argues that they are not zombies, just vegetable replacements. Still, while pod people are cleaner, calmer and better dressed than most zombies—space or otherwise—they manifest the same urges: Capture. Convert. Repeat. So on evenings and weekends they work hard to turn more of us into more of them.
Traits: Possessed, Insomniacs
Flood from Halo
The ancient alien Forerunners considered the Flood so dangerous that they killed themselves and all other sentient life in a (failed—oops) attempt to get rid of them. Now that's what I call terrified. Understandably so, since when the parasitic Flood invade a victim they immediately dissolve their internal organs. Flood are happy to infect both the living and the dead. Frankly, they are a piece of work.
Traits: Mutated, Tentacled, Gun-toting
Mutant blue meanies from Pandorum
The cerulean terrors on board the starship Elysium are not, technically, space zombies, because their victims do no reanimate. These mutated colonists make new blue horrors naturally, via blue horror sex that leads to blue horror babies. Still, they share plenty in common with space zombies: violent rampages, a love of human meat, ridiculous makeup and hair, pointy teeth.
Traits: Ultraviolent, Orgiastic, Blue
Zombieman and Shotgun Guy from Doom
Mars ain't the god of war for nothing, you know. It's a baaad place that turns miners into monsters (see above), scientists into soldiers, and soldiers into space zombies. The zombies in Doom rate high on the bad-ass scale because they carry weapons and like to use them. They all look the same, too, but maybe they did before they were turned.
Traits: Muscular, Bald, Pixelated
Zombies from Plan 9 From Outer Space
While these zombies come in the traditional, shambling mode and are corpses that rise from their graves, since they were created by aliens, they fall into the space class. Note that these zombies were created for a good cause! The aliens who made them were only trying to get our attention and stop us from creating a weapon that makes sunlight explode. Cut them a break, okay?
Traits: Pathetic, Underpaid
And while you're in a Halloween state of mind, why not check out:
Day 1: 19 amazing Star Wars pumpkins
Day 2: Our 9 favorite crazy zombie kills of all time (video)
Day 3: 10 scariest Stephen King novels
Day 4: 14 great Cthulhu toys that make devouring souls fun
Day 5: 15 haunted cereals that will scare your dentist
Day 6: 20 great costumes to dress up your pet
Day 7: 21 (mostly) sexy female stormtroopers (NSFW)
Day 8: 9 movie and TV clowns that scared the hell out of us
Day 9: 10 creepy movie kids even Angelina Jolie wouldn't adopt
Day 10: 6 most awesome Stephen King horror films (plus 3 that sucked)
Day 11: 16 horror movie posters so gruesome they make our eyeballs bleed
Day 12: 16 hot movie and TV vampires who turn us into willing victims
Day 13: 20 awesomely hot Slave Leia costumes (slightly NSFW)
Day 14: 14 lamest horror movie killer costumes (What were they thinking?)
Day 15: 9 of the grossest, goriest X-Files creatures
Day 16: 11 splatterific exploding head scenes from the movies
Day 17: 15 of the most disgusting Halloween candies you can buy
Day 18: 19 freakiest movie and TV neighbors from hell
Day 19: 11 most disturbing Treehouse of Horror segments from The Simpsons
Day 21: 10 most nightmarish movie prom nights
Day 22: 11 scary, goofy and just plain revolting movie possessions
Day 23: 13 kick-ass moments from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Day 24:13 real haunted houses you can visit in the U.S.
Day 25: 15 ghoulish apps you can download to your iPhone
Day 26: 20 hot film and TV witches and warlocks that cast a spell on us
Day 27: The 10 most truly, utterly evil things in sci-fi
Day 28: The 15 cursed movie objects you NEVER want to own
Day 29: 14 most twisted original Twilight Zone twist endings
Day 30: 16 sci-fi costumes that would definitely get you fired (NSFW)
Day 31: 12 awesome sci-fi Halloween moments, real and fake
By ferengi at 12:28 PM ON 10/20/09
What's with those silly lists? I mean this one doesn't even make sense: Space zombies? Many of the list entries don't even classify as zombies (ie living dead). Such lists once in a while are fun, but with this frequency they are just a waste of time, when all I'm looking for is actual news about scifi.
By eureka1 at 12:29 PM ON 10/20/09
sigh how could you forget the most amazing sapce zombies ever!!!!!! thats right the necromorphs from dead space. A sentient life brought on board the doom ishimora. Attacking the entire crew, and turning them into more necromorphs. A deranged doctor who's intent to spread the "new children" to earth
By gvick at 12:30 PM ON 10/20/09
what? no Wraith?
By IronOre at 12:36 PM ON 10/20/09
Technically, the Reavers weren't mutated, they were mutilated. I did like your "traits" though. Especially the "blinky" for Da Borg and "pixellated" for the Doom guys.
By Nyarlathotep at 1:03 PM ON 10/20/09
I agree with the Dead Space necromorphs, far cooler than most of those mentioned.
And what about the Necrons from warhammer 40k ? undead terminator endoskeletons with a lovecraft edge is AWESOME.
By lostandconfused at 1:07 PM ON 10/20/09
Yeah, the Borg ARE not zombies. For one thing, zombies must have been dead in some way prior to being zombies, they are defined as animated corpses, duh! The borg, though seemingly zombie-like, are only that way because of the hive mind which controls them,they are simply machine-organic hybrids. Have you fools even seen an episode of star trek? Zombies can't be cured and are driven by the most basic of needs. Strip the borg of the hive mind and they are cured, technically speaking, of their zombie-like traits. They become human again. Jen-Luc Picard anyone? Seven of Nine? both "cured" and returned to normal. Review your lists sometime syfy fools.
By ExtensionOfBob at 1:18 PM ON 10/20/09
"Therefore rampaging, for Reavers, is not just about food or clothes, it's sex."
This statement becomes a little more awkward when you remember that the Reavers are described as "raping their victims to death."
By jdmimic at 1:20 PM ON 10/20/09
True, the Borg are not classic zombies. Nevertheless, they do exhibit all the classic zombie traits. They don't think, only carrying out orders given to them by the Borg Queen, they turn everyone they meet into more Borg or kill them. They shuffle like the classic Romero zombies.
So they're not dead, they might as well be, so I see no problem with them being on the list.
Still, I don't see any reason to limit it only to 9 zombies. The Dead Space zombies and the Warhammer ones could have been included, since the list was not limited to movie zombies. The Wraith I can also see as they do spread parasitically and suck their prey dry. But it seems to me that if they are included, then the Gou'ld should also be included forth the same reason.
By Ra-Amun at 2:15 PM ON 10/20/09
if you include the Borg couldn't you include their predecessors...the Cybermen? They've been converting and menacing the Doctor since 1966!
By AngryJonny at 2:27 PM ON 10/20/09
The Borg are totally zombies. One of the reasons First Contact is one of my favorite Trek films is because it's essentially a zombie movie.
But Mathilda May from Lifeforce remains the hottest, nakedest space zombie of them all! (That movie freaked me out so badly as a kid in the '80s.)
By Hiatas at 2:39 PM ON 10/20/09
And what about the zombies from "Planet of the Vampires"? Granted, the movie was made a rather long time ago, but the dead crew members running around are far more zombie-like than a few of the things on this list. Not that I'm debating the fear-factor, just the animated corpse aspect.
By Mandy at 3:26 PM ON 10/20/09
Top nine Space Zombies? I didn't even know there were that many films about space zombies! Come on, Scifi, now you're just grasping.
You did top hottest vampires while calling the version of Lestat that had a family and only fed on murderers deranged and the emotionless one that fed on innocent groupies 'angelic.' (Don't think I've forgiven you for that insult to our minds). And now this?
You can do so much better for top ten lists for Halloween. Vampires, SCARIEST (not hottest) vampires, top ten best Ghost movies, Top ten best ghosts, top ten best witches, wizards or warlocks, top ten aliens, top ten demons... Be creative! I know you're just a pack of NBC Interns who care very little little for the genre but could you at least pretend?
By madboo38 at 4:07 PM ON 10/20/09
I am sorry but the list that they have - how do you define the Borg as zombies let alone the space vampires from Life Force hmmm- maybe I missed something in the definition of a zombie - usally mindless being seeking to contstantly feed the basic of insticts..hmmm
By spaceage whizkid at 4:11 PM ON 10/20/09
Most of this list don't even classify as zombies.
By AngryJonny at 7:56 PM ON 10/20/09
madboo38: "...usally mindless being seeking to contstantly feed the basic of insticts..hmmm..."
Uh, yeah... a Borg.
You just answered your own question. That's why they're called drones.
By Anvilor at 5:46 AM ON 10/21/09
Scorpius from Farscape should have a shout, he looks quite zombie-esque.
By Rollgunner at 5:53 AM ON 10/21/09
I'd have added the incorporeal beings that possess dead bodies (more vampires than the Borg, anyways) from the remarkably creepy and stylish Mario Bava flick 'Planet of the Vampires'
By Nowhere man at 11:46 PM ON 10/21/09
What about Kai from Lexx? Dead-check. Then Undead-check. Kills a lot of people-check. Unkillable-check.
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Nowhere man:
What about Kai from Lexx? Dead-check. Then Undead-check. Kills a lot of people-check. Unkillable-check....More »