Best Alien Invasion Films

Alien Invasions in film have come in a variety of shapes and sizes. In the 1950’s, “Little Green Men” from Mars were all the rage. In the 1980’s, it was shapeshifting aliens mimicking humans that became the nightmares of children everywhere. And more recently, aliens have been depicted as non-humanoid in form but able to slowly take over entire ecosystems (and thereby affecting humans) playing off recent concerns of global climate change. Regardless of the depiction of an alien race, all these films had one goal in common – to show our’ ability (or inability) to fight back against an advanced extraterrestrial threat.

What are the Best Alien Invasion Films? Read on was we look at some of the most popular Alien Invasion films from the last 70 years including a few rare and lesser-known Alien Invasion Films you don’t want to miss!

This is our fifth “Best Of” subgenre list where we will rank the Top 20 films of the Alien Invasion Film subgenre. This subgenre intersects with other film subgenres such as Alien Abduction Films, Military Sci-Fi Films, Sci-Fi Biotech Films, Films About Robots, Films About Bad Aliens, Survival Horror Films, Dystopian Future Films, and Apocalypse Films. For this list we are going to focus specifically on films where the primary theme involves aliens invading earth.

For our rankings, we had to use some simple criteria in what defines an “Alien Invasion” film. First, the film needs to show prior to, during or after an actual alien invasion. This will rule out a majority of Alien Abduction Films which tend to focus on abductions of humans rather than an actual invasion.

Second, the film needs to show the alien itself (or how it is represented if not in actual organic form). This will allow us to narrow our focus but also include some films that don’t portray Aliens as menacing humanoid invaders. Annihilation (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019) would be examples where the Alien ‘invasion’ isn’t an actual humanoid or organic form.

Third, we’re going to weigh rankings more heavily towards films that show mass alien invasions or show the threat of the extinction of the human race. This will affect a film such as Predator (1987) which is a classic film of the subgenre but will rank lower on our list given The Predator hunts for sport and doesn’t seem interested in exterminating the human race.

Fourth, different varieties of Alien Invasions will be represented. We will include some Alien Invasion films that feature Monsters, some that involve aliens as part of Conspiracy Theories, and some that fall within the Sci-Fi Biotech Films subgenre which focuses on cloning or biological changes to the human body. What won’t be included on our list (and will likely be featured in an entirely separate list) are DC and Marvel Action Films Based on Superheroes & Comics. These types of films usually do not vary much (aliens attack, heroes assemble, heroes defeat aliens) so films like The Avengers (2012), Man of Steel (2013), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) will be featured on this separate list.

And fifth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating. We’ll also be focusing on films from 1950 to the present.

Our complete list of Alien Invasion Films features over 201+ films from 1951 – 2023. You can find just about every film featuring Alien Invasions in this collection and if you’re looking for some rare or lesser-known Alien Invasion Films, you can check out a past article we did for the Top Films About Alien Invasions You Haven’t Seen.

We have embedded a compilation video of our Best Alien Invasion Films and more ranking and details on these films can be found in the list below. Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.