The Scariest Genre of Science Fiction

I have no mouth… and I must scream. An exploration of Evolutionary Horror — from the Qu, to the Xenomorphs, to The Last of Us. Welcome to the scariest hidden genre in Sci-Fi.
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If I were to ask you ‘what is the scariest type of science fiction?’ you probably wouldn’t say ‘Evolutionary Horror.’ …Mainly because it’s a name I came up with for this video, but also because it doesn’t sound particularly frightening. Evolution isn’t scary… or is it?

Twisting through the history of sci-fi is a hidden subgenre that derives terror from the altered self — from the uncanny dread of a force beyond our control evolving the human into the inhuman.

So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll uncover the terrors of this category, and dive into the type of sci-fi that I find the most fear-provoking of all…

0:00 Scariest Sci-Fi Genre
0:49 I Have No Mouth…
4:41 Altered States
7:12 Xenomorphs and Necromorphs
10:01 The Thing from Another World
12:20 Annihilation and Cosmic Horror
15:45 The Problem of Zombies
17:27 Return to Slime

Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.

I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.

Media Shown: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, All Tommorrows, Altered States, The Sixth Finger (Outer Limits), War Games, Terminator 2, Alien, Dead Space, The Thing, Annihilation, A Quiet Place, Evolution, Night of the Living Dead, The Walking Dead, The Last of Us

♫ Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Mysterious Green Fluid, Sanity Unravels, Haddonfield Horror, Alone in the Dark, Dusk, The Witch, The Vanishing, Tenebrae, The Guardian

Beauty Flow
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Thumbnail by HotCyder

#CuriousArchive #Worldbuilding

[ianvelazquez]

This concept has always terrified me, even the part in Spy Kids where the antagonist turns people into cartoony characters for his show used to creep me out

[dyrania]

I love how in “I have no mouth and I must scream” AM is just a human made in it’s image. A human with a computer for a body and no physical way of expressing it in human form. Any human stuck in such a ‘body’ or lack there of could react the same with such malicious, petty, and downright insane intent.

[someaccount]

In The Last of Us, there is an area where two runners are eating another human. If you observe them for a while, they can be heard crying and even uttering phrases like "I don't want to", which is arguably more terrifying of a concept than just being chased by them.

[fabiooliveira]

I always have classified this as a fusion of Cosmic Horror and Body Horror. Body Horror was always the scariest thing for me.

[staceya]

'But in general, take my advice: when you meet anything that is going to be Human and isn’t yet, or used to be Human once and isn’t now, or ought to be Human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.'

This particular species of horror always puts me in mind of that quote from Prof. Lewis. I don't think there's anything more profoundly unsettling that something that's almost - but not quite - human. Often I suspect you'd be feeling for your hatchet to put it out of its misery.

[adamdubin]

You mentioned All Tomorrows but you did not mention the Colonials, I understand that they eventually evolved into a more suitable form before they were wiped out by the Gravitals, but being reduced to an interconnected fleshy carpet that has full awareness of what they were and what they have become... to quote the Think Tank: "Vivisect me!"

[dagoelius]

District 9 also had a great take on the scifi body horror theme. Much like the Mantelope creatures, the Wikus character losing his physical humanity as he slowly transforms into an alien 'prawn' was disturbing and heart wrenching. The psychological isolation his character goes through, knowing no one can help him as he slowly becomes another species and will eventually lose his humanity entirely freaked me out more than Aliens or The Thing, which are two my favourite scifi films of all time.

[analyticsystem]

All Tomorrows is a fantastic example of Evolutionary horror. Listening through the story for the first time shook me to my core. The fear of knowing that the Qu could return at any moment to further twist and distort the already twisted stage of humanity.

[laurelsilberman]

Ooh. “Evolution is an eldritch concept” sent shivers down my body.

[catherine-gmfs]

I think the last of us also does a good job of hitting a point on evolutionary horror. In the game, the infected are heard to be crying and calling out for help since it is their body that is being taken over by the fungus and not the mind. There are scenes where the infected are eating or tearing apart other people and are seen vomiting and showing disgust as they do it because they cannot control their own body. To me that is one of the scariest concepts, to watch the world fall before you while being the one who ruins it, but not having a choice in doing so

[maddmaxxpain]

Body horror is off-limits for me! I can appreciate the practical effects, the descriptive writing, and warping nature into a new art form. But I FEEL the transformation, the suppressed breathing, and my skin crawls. I see it when I close my eyes. When I open my eyes in the dark, I see silent monsters, unfurling their tentacles, getting closer, watching me. But I can’t look away. Maybe if I learn more about them, I will no longer fear them.

[JoshuaAndres]

Another good example of this that I’m surprised you didn’t mention, The Flood in the Halo series. Not so much how it molds you into whatever it wants and keeps you aware. But it takes away your individuality, it takes away your memories until you can’t remember who you are and makes you indistinguishable from other flood forms around you.

[repapeti]

The only problem with this channel is there aren't enough videos for me to binge-watch while doing chores.

[temperspace]

I read a creepypasta ages ago written in a scientific study style. Experimenting with time travel, researchers put one of the scientist in their time machine chair. They let him sit for 5 min but he comes out catatonic and non responsive. Only the most primitive part of his brain is active.

The style shifts to the first person view of the guy. From his pov, hes experiencing time in slow motion, he can't move or talk, and hes counted the hair strands of his colleagues thousands of times. He can't do anything but try to scream

Edit: those interested, its just called "the time machine" just google "creepypasta time machine". Not as harrowing as when i read it as kid but still it stuck with me 10yrs later so yh

[senselocke]

In an incredibly surprising turn, we purchased the Nicholas Cage movie "Color Out Of Space", fully intending to launch our asses off. Instead it was good--competent, well-paced, good effects and surprisingly good acting. It was insanely creepy and unsettling and, per the person who'd actually read Lovecraft, very well done. It fits right in with this framing, too.

[GawneForever]

I think a genre of real-world stories similar to the notion that there's something self-inflicted that's tearing you apart is the terrifying reality of radiation exposure. The stories of irradiated people who survive the initial blast is one of people who rot away from the inside out, with seemingly no control. They go from a normal looking person to a mass of flesh as soon as the radiation hits them - the only controlling factor is how long it takes. That's what truly horrifies me.

[tylorfox]

The Last of Us is particularly frightening because the person is still in there. There’s a scene in the game when a zombie is savaging a corpse, the zombie is heard saying, “I don’t want to, I don’t want to.”

[mr.purple]

This entire genre reminds me of a sentence from H.P Lovecraft classic The Color Out of Space, when the infected mother has been sent to the attic: "By july, she ceased to speak and crawled on all fours".
Just that sentence scared the life out of me as a kid.

[hairscythe]

When I was 11 years old I was a very easily scared child. I didn't watch a lot of horror and the Wikipedia article for the human centipede gave me nightmares. My favorite show at the time, though, was gravity falls. (spoiler warning though even though it's a ten year old show) there is this one episode featuring a shape-shifting monster in an underground bunker and when they do finally trap it, the monster dies in the shape of one of the main characters- looking him directly in the face and tellinng him it's how he'll look when he dies. A lot of parts of that show shook me as an eleven year old but that one did especially. it's that scene that still does despite its cartoonishness. The concept of seeing your own mortality through an imitiation of yourself just heebies my jeebies. The scarier part is that the prediction almost comes true- in a later episode- he gets frozen into a wooden statue making the exact same facial expression as the shape-shifter did in his shape. Excuse that I am writing this comment at 4 am so I'm not very articulate right now- but I find this concept so scary. The idea that a shapeshifter, a mockery of the human form, can mimic a human expression of fear so well, is terrifying. I would express it better but again it's 4 am. Naturally, being older now and having seen some really depraved stuff, a kids cartoon is pretty much nothing but some things still stick with me, especially the possession episode. Much possession horror I've seen has focused on the act of possesion- but gravity falls made it a point that a character *watches* his own body be self-harmed whilst possesed. Kind of messed up when you think about even though it's played for laughs. "Watches" is the key word here- the horror lies half in the injury and half in the knowing you have no control whilst the injury happens.

Gravity Falls had a lot of cool horror concepts that I sometimes wish weren't in a kids show so they could be explored better. I think directly watching rather than the "jumpscares" or lack of awareness is what makes "evolutionar" horror so freaky. Watching is a very passive act which is always scary.

[masonhutchinson]

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has a concept album called Murder of the Universe where they explore the idea of rapidly evolving into an unrecognizable beast with the sole desire to kill all while maintaining a human conscious. Definitely fitting with these works, would highly recommend