Movies like The Void offer that 1980s nostalgia that we just can’t get enough of! So if you are looking for some similar titles that blend horror, the 80s, while also paying tribute to John Carpenter’s classics, you’re in the right place!
After a sheriff takes an injured man to the hospital, the building is surrounded by sinister cloaked figures who seem intent on murdering everyone inside. It turns out that the cloaks are the least of the protagonist’s problems…
If you dig movies like The Void that blend Carpenter-like suspense, grisly horror, and/or Lovecraftian cosmic terror, then grab the barf bag, and let’s go…
Top 10 Dread-Inducing Horror Movies Like The Void
1. The Thing (1982)
Twelve men bunkering down in an Antarctic base are attacked by a hostile alien that can assume the form of any living creature. As the paranoia grows, they must figure out who’s human and who’s the thing…then find a way of killing it.Â
With insane creature effects, a claustrophobic sense of terror, and knuckle-chewing suspense, John Carpenter’s The Thing has become a sci-fi horror classic. Carpenter regular Kurt Russell heads up an excellent cast of believable character actors.
The Thing is the obvious starting point for movies like The Void, as it had an obvious influence on the Canadian chiller with its gloopy practical effects and embattled heroes trapped in one location.
2. From Beyond (1986)
A mad scientist develops a device that stimulates the sixth sense, allowing the user to see creatures living in another dimension – creatures that have an insatiable hunger for the human brains.
From Beyond is another schlocky take on a Lovecraft tale from director Stuart Gordon. It features gory special effects from Brian Yuzna, scream queen Barbara Crampton getting her kit off, and a typically manic performance from cult icon Jeffrey Combs.
Tapping into the same kind of gruesome cosmic horror as The Void, From Beyond takes a more jokey approach and is a blast from beginning to end.
3. Hellraiser (1987)
Frank is a man seeking extreme kicks. He buys a magical puzzle box that summons a gang of inter-dimensional pain freaks called the Cenobites. The only way he can escape their clutches is to resurrect himself with human blood.
Hellraiser is an impressive directorial debut from Clive Barker, adapting his own short story. It’s a very grown-up, sadistic tale that revels in its still-impressive special effects. Cenobite Pinhead became a horror icon.
Movies like The Void and Hellraiser tap into the fear of something evil lurking just beyond the fabric of reality, and unleashing it on the audience in the most terrifying way.
4. In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
An insurance investigator is sent to track down a missing horror writer. He follows the trail to Hobbs End, a small town that exists in the author’s twisted imagination.
Starting off nuts and getting crazier, the film is an enjoyable descent into cinematic insanity. Sam Neill hams it up as the insurance man driven mad by what he uncovers.
One of John Carpenter’s better later efforts, In the Mouth of Madness pays homage to Lovecraftian themes of cosmic horror.
5. The Mist (1997)
A small town is engulfed by a strange mist that brings huge ferocious monsters with it. The terrified townsfolk hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives. But they can’t stay there forever…
Frank Darabont’s classy adaptation of the Stephen King novel is a sustained work of terror as the survivors are picked off by the creatures lurking in the titular weather phenomenon.
Movies like The Void and The Mist build suspense by trapping their protagonists in one location and letting the tension build as the horror escalates.
6. Event Horizon (1997)
A rescue crew is sent to investigate the re-appearance of the Event Horizon, an experimental spacecraft that vanished seven years earlier. Unfortunately for them, it brought back something monstrous with it…
W.S. Anderson’s gruesome sci-fi horror still has the power to make people jump out of their seats over two decades later. Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne lend some authority to the B-movie material.
Like The Void, the characters in Event Horizon are in terrible danger from an evil brought to our reality from another dimension.
7. The Borderlands (2013)
A priest and a tech-head are sent to investigate mysterious happenings in a small country church. They discover that the things going bump in the night are symptoms of a much larger evil lurking beneath their feet…
The best-found footage movie since The Blair Witch Project, Elliot Goldner’s low-budget chiller benefits from likable characters and unnerving sound design. It is also genuinely scary.
Movies like The Void and The Borderlands give us the creeps by setting the story in seemingly mundane locations that become a gateway to Lovecraftian horror beyond.
8. Mandy (2018)
A lumberjack and his girlfriend are attacked by an insane hippie cult. Armed with a crossbow and a homemade axe, the lumberjack seeks brutal revenge…
Panos Cosmatos creates a heavily drugged atmosphere for this gorgeously trippy, slow-burning revenge horror. Nicolas Cage uncorks another of his famously deranged performances for this one.
Building up a slow sense of menace, movies like The Void and Mandy are positively dripping with cosmic dread.
9. The Endless (2017)
Two brothers who escaped a UFO death cult return after they receive an unsettling message from a friend, and get caught up in a series of time loops caused by an unseen force above…
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s The Endless is an ingenious low budget head-scratcher that is soaked in a palpable sense of foreboding. Also playing the lead characters, they ground the bizarre tale firmly in the real world.
Once again, forces beyond the realm of our understanding descend upon unsuspecting humans in The Endless… can they escape?
10. 30 Days of Night (2007)
An isolated Alaskan town gets ready for another month-long winter where there will be no sunlight. It’s the perfect place for band of vampires to feast…
30 Days of Night is a lean, brutal and gory vampire horror that matches style with scares. Josh Hartnett is surprisingly good as the small town sheriff trying to keep his people alive.
A change of pace for this last pick, 30 Days of Night makes the list of movies like The Void because it focuses on a small group of people under siege from a different type of evil.