The Dandy Six: Best Alien Encounter Movies

There’s a Monster Outside my Room. Can I Have a Glass of Water? (Andy)

Signs (2002): Before M. Night Shyamalan started pushing out cinematic turds and prior to Mel Gibson going anti-Semitic and Joaquin Phoenix growing a Grizzly Adams beard and becoming a rapper, the trio made a film that is equal parts spiritual, scary and sci-fi. And best of all, Shyamalan, until the absurd ending, did it all with subtle terrors and bubbling tension. I don’t think aliens are scary, but the way Signs is told, you really start to believe this could happen. It’s an alien invasion story told from the vantage point of one small family.

Klaatu Barada Nikto (Dan)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): Forget the Keanu Reeves eco-gospel revamp that bored you into submission last year, the original was an allegorical tale that remains poignant, maybe even more so, today. When a UFO lands at President’s Park in Washington D.C., the world fears the worst and when a spaceman appears, he’s shot and put under arrest. Naturally, the dude only wanted to tell earth that our violent tendencies have other space-faring worlds so worried they’ll kill us all if we keep it up. Focused more on socio-political ideas and the nature of humanity than special effects and action, The Day the Earth Stood Still is an aliens-visit-earth movie that, 58 years later, still carries a message we can all stand to hear.

… Continue Reading