4 Cosmic Horror Movies to Watch After Iron Lung

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Let me tell you, Mark Fischbach’s Iron Lung completely blew me away. Not only is it his first time directing, but it’s become a massive hit, raking in over $21 million worldwide on opening weekend! The film, adapted from David Szymanski’s 2022 game, throws you right into the claustrophobic cockpit of a tiny submarine. You’re with Simon, played by Fischbach himself, as he’s forced to explore a blood-red moon called AT-5 after some apocalyptic event called “The Quiet Rapture” wiped out everything. What really sets Iron Lung apart is its commitment to practical effects – we’re talking over 80,000 gallons of fake blood! It creates this incredibly intense, suffocating dread as you’re trapped inside that windowless sub, offering a genuinely unique and terrifying take on cosmic horror. It’s a commercial success, yes, but more importantly, it’s a legitimately frightening and effective film.

Cosmic horror focuses on the fear of things we can’t understand and the unsettling idea that humanity is unimportant in a vast, uncaring universe. Unlike typical horror, it doesn’t rely on jump scares or violence, but instead explores the mental breakdown that happens when someone encounters forces beyond their comprehension. In the game Iron Lung, the horror comes from the silence of a dead universe and the feeling that something huge and ancient is still hidden in the darkness. With Iron Lung gaining popularity, now is a great time to explore other films that delve into these terrifying ideas about reality and how easily our minds can be broken.

4) The Endless

The film The Endless is a smart and unsettling story about cults and the kind of cosmic horror found in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Despite being made with a small budget, it creates a surprisingly large and immersive world. The movie centers on two brothers, Justin and Aaron, who revisit the group they left years ago after receiving a strange videotape. They soon realize this isn’t a typical doomsday cult, but a community devoted to a powerful, unknowable being. This entity is so far beyond human comprehension that it seems to treat the characters’ lives like a game. The Endless doesn’t rely on cheap thrills or jump scares; instead, it builds tension slowly, revealing a universe where terrifying creatures exist outside of our normal understanding of time.

3) The Empty Man

Released in 2020, The Empty Man has become a standout film in the cosmic horror genre, despite initially being seen as a troubled studio project. The story starts with a lengthy flashback to 1995 Bhutan, where hikers find a strange skeleton in a cave, leading one of them into a mysterious trance. The film then jumps to 2018, following James (James Badge Dale), a former police officer, as he investigates a missing girl. His investigation leads him to the Pontifex Institute, a secretive group that believes in nihilism and the idea that the universe is ultimately meaningless. Director David Prior uses the film’s long length and unsettling mood to explore how trauma and grief can destroy a person’s sense of self, making them vulnerable to dark, otherworldly forces. As the two storylines merge, The Empty Man suggests that belief can act like a virus, capable of turning shared thoughts into real, physical things.

2) Annihilation

Alex Garland’s film, Annihilation, is a visually stunning and unsettling exploration of self-destruction and how living things change. The story centers on Lena, a biologist played by Natalie Portman, who joins a team of experts venturing into “The Shimmer”—a mysterious, isolated area created after a meteorite crashed. Inside, the rules of nature are broken, and an alien force acts like a prism, mixing the DNA of all life and creating frightening, new creatures. Instead of a typical villain, Annihilation presents an alien force that simply transforms everything it encounters, without any intention to harm. The film’s climax highlights how impossible it is to understand this alien presence, leaving viewers to wonder what remains of the survivors’ humanity.

1) Event Horizon

Event Horizon is still considered the best example of scary, cosmic horror in space, skillfully combining complex scientific ideas with truly frightening supernatural events. The story takes place in 2047 and centers on a rescue team, led by Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne), investigating the Event Horizon – a spaceship that mysteriously reappears after being lost for seven years. Its designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), explains that the ship used a new type of engine to bend space and travel vast distances. But this engine accidentally opened a portal to another dimension, and the ship came back changed, becoming a sinister force that preys on the fears and regrets of anyone who enters. What makes Event Horizon so effective is that it portrays space not as empty and cold, but as a gateway to a terrifying realm of pain that the human mind isn’t equipped to comprehend.

If you enjoyed Iron Lung, what other cosmic horror movies would you suggest? Share your recommendations in the comments and discuss them with other fans in the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-02-05 22:44