Cameron's love of diving and his environmental side are on full display here, laying the groundwork for much of what he's gone on to since – from the waterworks of Titanic, to Avatar's bioluminescent planet, and the long-promised oceans of Pandora in the upcoming Avatar sequels. At the heart of it is a team of expert divers who are hired to look for a missing nuclear submarine and find something much more fascinating. With its sub-aquatic entities (rendered with then-cutting-edge VFX that still looks good today) and a Jules Verne-ian sense of deep-sea exploration, The Abyss feels distinct from the usual space-bound sci-fi. Trust James Cameron, then – long before Avatar – to look to the other inky-black instead, the mysterious ocean depths. This series does have some other very dark and adult subjects, in case that's not something you enjoy.Director: James Cameron Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael BiehnMost sci-fi films look to the cosmos for signs of new life. The series is called The Gap Cycle by Stephen R Donadson, but I if I remember correctly, the alien threat doesn't happen until the second or third book. They're much more the make your skin crawl because you don't want to lose your humanity to them type. They aren't predatory, like in Aliens or Species. Also, the aliens have the medical technology to convert humans into their own race by infecting them with a concoction of their own dna, so that danger is always lurking with every interaction with the aliens. The heroine in the story at one point needs to go on board the insidious aliens' ship for them to perform a task for her, and she risks losing her mind in the process. There are certain events that hit everything on your list, except it's not supernatural but aliens. The closest thing I can think of comes from a series of novels. Like, is there a Clive Barker of Sci-fi out there? Is there a sci-fi horror novel out there that fucked with you? So, my goal is to find some novels with these themes. You could almost say it's lovecraftian, but it doesn't quite hit that existential vibe (most of the time). They are dealing with something so far out of their realm of experience that their mind starts breaking down. Lastly, there is always something that drives the protagonists to the point of madness, if not over that cliff. It doesn't have to be supernatural, but there are times when it feels that way, even if it explicitly isn't. It hovers between unknown and supernatural. The other signifier is an antagonist that doesn't have a conventional sci-fi explanation. A key factor is being cut off from help, which turns the environment into a prison, rather than a sanctuary. The biggest signifier is that the environment itself can be considered as one of, if not the, antagonist. It's hard to quantify this genre, as it all boils down to a general feeling, rather than a specific quality. You've all seen movies or played games in this genre, such as Event Horizon, Pandorum, and even games like Deadspace or Doom could loosely be put in this category. However, there is a subset of scifi horror that really works for me, and that's what I guess we could just call the "Haunted Spaceship". Know any others? Message #scifi and let your friendly mods know!
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