Now, it’s a commonly known fact that in space - no one can hear you scream.
But xenomorphs aside - science fiction in horror has terrifying laid out several centuries
worth of fictional alien races and entities, unwittingly floating about in the incomprehensible
vastness of the cosmos, ready to consume a buffet's’ worth of humans, harvest their
organs - recombobulate them into a race of cyborgs - or all of the above.
There are many philosophical and psychological themes that permeate themselves across science
fiction - but oftentimes we find that the alien fear found in fiction is much more closer
to home than we’d like to admit.
Hello horror fans - what’s going on, and once again welcome back to the scariest channel
on YouTube - Top 5 Scary Videos.
As per usual, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch - as today, we curiously take a look
at the Top 5 Scariest Fictional Alien Entities.
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you, that clip was from the resoundingly original 2016 sci-fi
movie, Arrival - and it’s definitely the most wholesome cinematic depiction we’ve
ever had of an alien race - so let’s hope if we ever meet our interstellar neighbours,
they’re a little less Xenomorph and a little more Heptapod.
It segues me neatly to an important point though, I’m going to try and do this list
without any mention of the alien that tops everyone else's list, The Xenomorph - of course.
And on that note, we may as well throw in the Yautja from Predator, John Carpenter’s
The Thing - plus Cthulhu and all his buddies - because you all know that I love a challenge.
Let’s get to it.
Kicking off at Number 5 - The Goa’uld, Stargate
Although they may look like a bunch of mildly eccentric Ancient Egyptian Offshoots - the
fact of the matter is, the Goa’uld are absolutely terrifying because they’re actually a bunch
of parasitic snake-like worms that burrow into the neck or throat of their hosts, puppeteering
them for the rest of their lives.
Once in the body, they begin to wrap themselves around the spine - weaving around the nervous
system where grotesque tendrils extend up into the spinal column and then into the brain.
Over nearly three decades of the Stargate Franchise, including four feature length films
- the Goa’uld were pretty much an unrivaled evil - and no one could quite compete with
their creepy level of parasitic violation.
As Stargate explains, the snake-like Goa’uld first arose in the waters of the planet P3X-888
- originally as primal predators, that eventually evolved to take the humanoids that cohabited
the planet, the Unas, as hosts - which is an insane premise, isn’t it?
Imagine thinking you’re the most physically superior race on the planet - only to get
usurped by a bunch of terrifying spiky-toothed water worms?
Yeah, nah.
No thanks.
Eventually, they pretty much enslaved the entire race of the native Unas and then led
themselves out into the stars, piloting their parasitic hosts into their conveniently placed
Stargate to populate themselves across the universe as Ancient Egyptian Gods.
Yeah, the Goa’uld are pretty gross - if not incredibly annoying.
Next up at Number 4 - The Dark Eldar, Warhammer 40K
Now - you might be thinking that there are many more horrifying alien entities in the
grim darkness of the Warhammer 40K universe - you’ve got the ravenous swarm of the Tyranids,
the undead cybernetic soul overlords of the Necron - or the batshit crazy scourge of the
Chaos Marines - but let me tell you exactly why The Dark Eldar take the cake.
They are the literal definition of cosmic evil, and it’s made worse by the fact that
they were once part of the most enlightened civilizations in the galaxy, their counterparts
- the Eldar Empire.
The Dark Eldar, also referred to as the Drukhari, are a race of ancient and highly advanced
fey humanoids - an offshoot of their kindred Craftworld Eldar, after succumbing to the
vile whisperings of the Chaos God, Slaanesh.
Because of their ritualistic worship of She Who Thirsts, they revel in the physical and
emotional pain of others - feeding off the psychic residue of suffering, and slowly consuming
the will of the galaxy through piracy, slavery and torture.
Their insatiable lust for suffering - also known as The Thirst - has led them to contort
their way of life into an abomination of Eldar Culture - dedicating themselves to a non-stop
war of pain and misery against all other lifeforms.
Yeah, these are the last guys you’d want at a dinner party.
Swinging in at Number 3 - The Flood, Halo
And I don’t say this lightly - theoretically speaking, the Flood are perhaps one of the
greatest fictional threats to any universe, ever - so we better hope that we’ve got
a Master Chief floating around somewhere, ready to save the day.
Cortana too.
Teamwork.
If you’ve ever played any of Bungie’s resounding Halo Series - you’ll know that
the Flood, mechanically speaking - are one of the most terrifying entities of all time
to play against.
You’ll also know that they’re a species of highly virulent parasitic organisms that
reproduce and grow by consuming any and every sentient life form they can get their maws
on.
The thing is though, the Flood aren’t terrifying in the conventional sense.
They’re terrifying because their soul objective is to amalgamate any sentient lifeform, mutating
and corrupting them through disease and infestation.
Of course, every mutagenic brood-race has to have a puppet master - and that’s the
equally terrifying Graveminds - a rare creation of The Flood that forms the ultimate intelligence
of their hivemind.
They are near-omniscient - and have complete control over all other Flood creations.
A Gravemind is literally built from the thousands upon thousands of the Flood’s dead enemies
- reassembled into a massive, tentacled and highly intelligent entity - accumulating in
all of the memories of every soul ever consumed by the Flood.
Yeah.
You get the picture, right?
Next up at Number 2 - The Reapers, Mass Effect
Oh Mass Effect.
As well as being one of my favourite video game series of all time, Mass Effect also
gifted us one of the most terrifying hypothetical alien notions that you could ever imagine.
And it’s in the cosmic insignificance of the ancient race of Reapers that this entry
truly shines.
Throughout the Mass Effect trilogy, we’re slowly drip-fed enough information as to what
the Reapers true intentions are - but it soon becomes clear that they’re designs are far
more existentially evil than Shepherd and his crew ever expected.
Be noted guys, there are spoilers coming up.
For 50 thousand years at a time, the Reaper’s - a machine race of synthetic-organic starships
- hibernate in the lifeless area of the universe, known as dark space.
There, they lie dormant - waiting for primitive life to evolve their civilizations far enough
and head out to the stars, populating their galaxies - where they will eventually find
the Citadel, and the mass relay network capable of traversing the universe - seemingly an
ancient relic of technology left behind by a mysterious highly advanced space-faring
species.
Turns out though, the Reapers were the original creators of this technology - and they purposefully
constructed it so that any intelligent life in the galaxy would eventually discover it
and base their technology upon it - which it also turns out, is all part of a scheme
to harvest the galaxies sentient life in a repeating cycle of purges that has continued
relentlessly over countless millennia.
They’re spiders, the Citadel is their web - and we’re the flies.
Yeah.
Need I say more?
And finally - coming in at our Number 1 spot - The Borg Collective, Star Trek
Oh no, Jean Luc.
What have they done to you?
Because there is one terrifying alien entity remaining - and this time it’s personal.
For me, there is nothing more humanly horrifying lingering out in the universe - than the Borg.
A highly advanced civilization of cyborgs that seek to conquer all known life in the
relentless goal to perfect it - seizing other lifeforms, their technology, vessels, planets
- and even entire star systems by force - enslaving them, and assimilating their collective strengths
into their shared consciousness.
Personally speaking - the Borg Collective strike fear in me, because they are both the
metaphorical and literal obliteration of the individual.
They destroy all nuances of difference, creativity and vibrancy - all in their pursuit of perfecting
an assimilated galactic lifeform.
Because of that, the Borg are an enemy to every known living race in existence - particularly
humans - and the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise.
They are believed to be over 200 thousand years old - originating in Unimatrix One of
the Delta Quadrant, where they began life as a small race of weak cybernetic lifeforms
- after merging machine to man.
For any of you that haven’t seen Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation - the first
time you stumble upon the Borg is a horrifying memorable moment - and the revelation of the
greatest captain in the history of anything, my man Jean Luc Picard - falling victim to
the Borg Collective - is the visual representation of despair incarnate.
Tea.
Earl Gray.
Hot.
Man, I hate the Borg.
Well - there we have it horror fans - our comprehensive list of the Top 5 Scariest Fictional
Alien Entities.
What do you guys think?
Got any choice picks of your own that could perhaps make up a Part 2?
Let us know in the comment section down below.
Before we depart though, let’s take a quick look at some of your more creative comments
from over the past few days.
Tyler souls says -- Yo Jack, if you had to recommend one horror story other than a king
novel what would it be?
Love your work.
-- Yo Tyler souls, cheers - that’s incredibly kind of you.
You know what - that's a tough, though question - but I’d say as we’re feeling fresh,
John Dies at the End by David Wong is a great read - and perfect to dip your toe into the
genre.
It doesn’t take itself too seriously - it’s hilarious in places - but it’s also straight
up horrifying.