New Nightmares: How 2022 Sci-Fi Horror Films Reflect Modern Anxieties

Science fiction horror films, like all other forms of art in any genre, often touch on the current issues in the society at large and act as reflections of today’s culture. Without losing their characteristics as works of art, they throw around harsh criticisms toward the public’s perspectives on the latest trends, craze, political stances, etc. Some films are subtle with their social commentaries that you need to watch them twice or more to really notice the references, while others are pretty much frontal about what they want to say. We’ve seen movies pulling no punches with gender issues, desire for fame, and overreliance on technology, to name a few. Not that you can’t be blunt and subtle at the same time. The following sci-fi horror films from 2022 are fine examples of how some thinly veiled punditry can perfectly reflect our modern anxieties while maintaining great cinematic quality.

Nope

Our first specimen here is Nope, written and directed by Jordan Peele. It’s a blend of sci-fi, western, and horror packaged in a tale about a ranch as it comes under attack by a mysterious UFO. It’s a story of siblings Otis Jr. (or OJ) and Emily Haywood in their attempt to produce video and photographic evidence of such incidents. They know the UFO is real and that it has been devouring horses and everyone else around them, but capturing instances of attack proves to be difficult because all electronic devices go haywire in the presence of the unidentified object. Em even goes the extra mile to hire Antlers Holst, a famous cinematographer, who agrees to use an old hand-cranked camera for the job.

While most people would simply flee the area, Em believes the UFO can be a good thing to boost her fame. Her great-great-great-grandfather was the first ever jockey to have been filmed. The Haywood Ranch also used to be quite important in Hollywood. But like many other chapters of Black history, no one today really knows about the siblings’ origin at all. When the UFO visits their ranch and begins killing the horses, they know that getting “the shot” will put the Haywood Ranch back on the map again.

Nope offers an insight into some kind of “universal” racism by giving a depiction of “misrepresentations of history” and, in a much less subtle fashion, a UFO attacking a black-owned farm. That said, Nope is mainly about fame, or more specifically, how being fixated in the pursuit of fame might require some serious sacrifices, just like what we’ve seen too many times in recent years.

M3GAN

If you take the sinister part of Chucky and the encyclopedic nature of HAL 9000 together into one thing, it turns out that what you get is M3GAN, a child-sized humanoid robot powered by AI. She knows everything about all things in existence, allowing her to answer all your questions as a surrogate parent does. But M3GAN really is anything you want her to be; in times you need a soulful best friend to share silly thoughts, a knowledgeable therapist to help gather courage, a musical fellow to perform a soft-rock lullaby, or a conspiratorial girl with a mean attitude, she’s there for you.

Right from the beginning of the movie, you immediately get the idea that M3GAN is more than just an ordinary robot. She’s a sentient humanoid, and the fear quietly yet rapidly grows. Like in a lot of movies about artificial intelligence, M3GAN has been programmed to do some machine learning – the more she interacts with people, the more she knows how to do things in the same way humans do. And then, at a certain point in the film, you’ll realize M3GAN is definitely not a friendly robot. She’s the Terminator in the shape of a doll.

Although M3GAN fits perfectly into demon-doll categories (like the Annabelle trilogy and Child’s Play), it’s not a traditional horror with some slasher and paranormal elements. M3GAN is a satirical horror, aimed at how our current technological advances seem to glorify the dream of building humanoid AI with the ability to learn and imitate a real person. We seem to forget that the part where a robot “imitates” a person might as well be the start of the likely dreadful robotic revolution.

Prey

Few films scream sci-fi horror louder than Predator. In the original 1987 film, you’re bombarded with combat actions between a battle-tested group of soldiers and a stealthy human-killer extraterrestrial warrior. Throw in some catchy one-liners amid tense action hero scenes, and you get a complete classic winning formula for an exhilarating sci-fi horror flick. It has always been franchise worthy, but the later releases often suffer from the problems of somehow having to redeem the villains (the Predators – because there are plenty of them, apparently). You can’t help but wonder if there’s an unwritten rule to make the Predators antiheroes instead of outright villains.

The prequel, Prey, is smart to avoid the same mistake. At no point throughout the film, does anybody feel anything else but fear for the monster. Apart from the fact that the hero is female (this alone is worth at least a full page of commentary), Prey keeps up with the trend of UFO sightings and aliens, especially following the April 2021 release of video footage confirming the sighting of an unidentified triangular object recorded by Navy personnel aboard the USS Russel. If fear of the unknown is the name of the game, Prey does a great job of personifying that unknown entity.

We think horror has always been influenced by the social-cultural and socio-political situations of the time. Each era has its own distinctive societal fears, and many horror films released in 2022 seemed to revolve around the idea of isolation, feelings of loss, and unwelcome changes. Although there really isn’t any easy way to characterize the horror genre at any period, you’ll find that one of its most persistent elements is an exploration of the fear of the unknown. When people don’t understand something, they take it as a potential threat to society – the unknown can be anything from a strange new disease, artificial intelligence, UFOs, or even social prejudices that pose serious harm, both physically and psychologically. The protagonists in horror movies don’t always win the battle at the end, but at least the audience can gain some lessons about survival and dealing with fear.

Do you find horror movies released in 2022 still relevant today? What do you think is the most overrated horror film ever? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

What is the worst horror movie of all times?

This is one of those questions with no definitive answer. But according to a Rotten Tomatoes editorial, some of the worst horror movies must include:

Jaws the Revenge (1987)
Troll 2 (1990)
FeardotCom (2002)
One Missed Call (2008)
The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008)
Homecoming (2009)
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)

Great horror movies that are based on books:

Film	Year	Book	Year	Author
The Exorcist	1973	The Exorcist	1971	William Peter Blatty
The Silence of the Lambs	1991	The Silence of the Lambs	1888	Thomas Harris
It	2017	It	1986	Stephen King
The Mist	2007	The Mist	1980	Stephen King
Jaws	1975	Jaws	1974	Peter Benchley
Carrie	1976	Carrie	1974	Stephen King
Psycho	1960	Psycho	1959	Robert Bloch
Pet Sematary	1989	Pet Sematary	1983	Stephen King
Hellraiser	1987	The Hellbound Heart	1986	Clive Barker
The Shining	1980	The Shining	1977	Stephen King