Are you looking for a sci-fi horror flick to scare the group chat? Well, put your search to rest because I’m here with the ultimate curated list of horror flicks featuring sweaty mad scientists trying to play God.
In terms of horror movie villains, mad scientists are up there with serial killers and dudes whose names start with J. They’ve got everything you could ask for in a good antagonist — they’re campy, eccentric, and always keep you on the edge of your seat. For that reason, we love seeing them create monstrous creatures or build world-destroying machines.
Here are our picks of the most outstanding mad scientists in movie history who put Frankenstein to shame.
Flatliners (1990)
1990 was the year Hollywood had a mid-life crisis and started to wonder what happens when we die. That year, we saw the release of Ghost, Jacob’s Ladder, and Joel Schumacher‘s Flatliners.
Flatliners follows five medical students who want to discover what happens after death. To do this, they experiment with “near death” experiences, unaliving themselves to cross over to the afterlife before quickly being resuscitated. However, they soon realise they’ve brought something back from the other side.
The film boasts a pretty stacked cast, with Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, Julia Roberts and Oliver Platt starring.
You can catch Flatliners Sunday 8th of September at 8:30 PM live on PEDESTRIAN TELEVISION, streaming free via 9Now.
Re-Animator (1985)
The ’80s was the peak for Lovecraftian-inspired horror movies, and Re-Animator might just be the best of the bunch.
Loosely based on H.P Lovecraft‘s serial novelette Herbert West-Reanimator, the film follows Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), a mad scientist who injects dead bodies with his re-animator serum. Naturally, this goes terribly wrong as the corpses keep returning as monstrous zombies. It also doesn’t help that an esteemed professor at his university wants to steal the serum for himself.
While the film has solid horror elements, there’s no denying it’s a camp classic by design, so much so that director Stuart Gordon adapted it as a musical — shovel beheading included.
You can watch the film on Prime Video.
From Beyond (1986)
Okay cosmic horror fans, I see you. From Beyond is our next pick for a great mad scientist horror film and another Stuart Gordon classic. Where Re-Animator was a comedy-horror film, From Beyond is more of an erotic-thriller that answers the question: “What if you made Event Horizon extremely horny?”
The film centres around scientist Dr Pretorius (Ted Sorel), who successfully discovers a way to access a parallel universe by tapping into the brain’s pineal gland (the part of the brain that experiences the horny). In the words of Saturday Night Live‘s Stefon, this parallel universe has everything: bright pink lights, weird ethereal piranhas, and naked slime monsters.
If you love creepy cosmic horror, with monsters and beings that go beyond human understanding and leave protagonists mad with knowledge, then From Beyond is the film for you.
You can also watch the film on Prime Video.
The Fly (1986)
The Fly is one of the most iconic movies ever and arguably responsible for putting David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum on the map.
Most of us are familiar with the story of The Fly, whether through cultural osmosis or The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror. But I’ll still give you a brief recap.
During a test run of his teleportation device, scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) accidentally merges with a fly that had slipped into the machine. While nothing seems unusual at first, the fly’s cells soon begin to overtake his body and very nature. His skin starts peeling, he gets more aggressive, and worst of all, he fumbles Geena Davis with his freakish fly ways.
The Fly is on the Mount Rushmore of grotesque body horror films, and there’s no argument that it deserves to be there. Goldblum’s slow transition into The Fly is pure nightmare fuel and will leave your skin crawling for weeks.
You can watch the film on Disney+.
Prometheus
With Alien: Romulus dropping this month, many have returned to Prometheus to give the movie its flowers. We were too naive to appreciate its brilliance at the time.
Set years before the original Alien movie, Prometheus follows a team of scientists searching for humanity’s creators at the edge of the universe. Their hope quickly turns to horror as they discover their creators are not as benevolent as initially thought.
Prometheus is a wildly ambitious film with dense themes about humanity, religion and creation. But if you can’t engage with the movie on that level, at least there’s creepy black goo that turns people into weird zombie freaks or spawns penis-worm things.
You can catch the film on Disney+.
Ex Machina
Ex Machina is the most recent example of a modern Frankenstein film. But instead of grotesque zombies, we’re treated to something more contemporary — creepy, sexy robots.
Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) is a schlubby programmer who wins a contest to spend a week at the estate of his company’s brilliant yet reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). After arriving, he learns he’s been chosen to take part in a Turing test to determine if Ava (Alicia Vikander), an android, can pass as a human being.
Oscar Isaac is the star of the film and steals every scene he’s in. Whether it’s playing mind games with Domhnall Gleeson or tearing up the dancefloor, every time Oscar Isaac isn’t on the screen, you’ll be asking, “Where’s Oscar Isaac?”.
You can catch the film on Netflix.
Splice
Hey, have you ever wanted to watch Adrien Brody fuck a weird monster/lizard/human/cat thing? Well, Splice might be for you!
The film follows power couple Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), attempting to create different hybrid species. After a pharmaceutical company rejects them from mixing human DNA with other species, they secretly work to create their apex specimen — Dren. While appearing as a perfect creature, Dren rapidly matures and grows, reaching dangerous levels of potential no one thought possible.
If you’re in the mood for a solid sci-fi flick that’ll leave you feeling unclean and have your movie night pick rights removed, watch Splice.
You can catch the movie on Stan.
Image Credit: Re-Animator / Flatliners
