It's a good time to be a fan of science fiction horror movies. Not only is there a new Ridley Scott Alien movie on the way, but the new movie Life looks like just the sort of thing to scare the hell out of you. A new clip of the film has been released which proves this movie will be exactly what horror fans are looking for. Friendly warning, if horror is not your thing, you may not want to watch this. It's not bloody or gory but it might freak you the hell out.
If you've seen the trailers for Life then you've seen part of what this new clip has to offer, but here we get a large chunk of the scene, about two minutes, without any apparent cutaways. Here we watch the crew of the space station, including Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rebecca Ferguson as they get their first real look at the apparent life form they've brought on board. Everybody is all smiles until the thing starts to react to its environment.
Seeing the life form, which resembles some kind of worm, or possibly a sentient space weed, grab hold of the scientist who is studying it is something we've seen in the trailers, but here we can feel the tension slowly ratchet up as he begins to realize that the thing is not letting go of him. All of his friends are stuck outside of the quarantine zone. All they can do is watch as it eventually squeezes down on his hand until his bones break.
Science fiction horror is effective because it takes place in an area that we simply don't know that much about. We are already at a disadvantage in a place where we can't breathe or move about freely. Space is already something capable of killing you. Now, add something that is actively trying to kill you and you've got the perfect setup for a horror movie. The fact that the "monster" in this particular case is a fairly basic lifeform actually makes the situation scarier. You can't reason with it and you can't necessarily see it coming.
The screenplay for life was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick the same team behind Deadpool. Needless to say, this one has a very different tone than the superhero comedy they wrote for Ryan Reynolds. Still, we know that the actor and these writers work well together so we're hoping for Life to bring some of the same magic to the horror genre that Deadpool brought to the superhero movie.
Life will arrive in theaters March 24.
