History Main / SpaceIsolationHorror

* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' issue #19 "Absolute Zero" certainly dabbles in the genre. Urk, Lyla and Paperinik travel to the rings of Saturn to investigate the disappearance of two astronauts, finding that their ship was abducted by an ''enormous'' alien starship. While exploring, they find that the ship is completely empty, save for a mysterious "Guardian" who stalks them throughout the dark corridoors. [[spoiler:It turns out that the ship belonged to Xerbian refugees who sought to warn Earth of the [[TheEmpire Evronian Empire]], but were intercepted and the crew abducted. The Guardian suffered the A.I. equivelant of a mental breakdown and had been trying to replace the crew he failed to protect, starting with the astronauts]]. The imagery of the issue includes empty hallways, rows of cryogenic pods and two solitary pods containing unconscious astronauts.

--> '''Bodhi:''' Then they shut the gate, and we're all annihilated in the cold, dark vacuum of space.
--> '''K-2SO:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Not me. I can survive in space.]]

For story purposes (especially in the past when hard sci-fi wasn't prevalent based on [[ScienceMarchesOn lack of knowledge]]) [[SpaceIsAnOcean the deep sea works just as well]], since it has similar conditions for survival and similarly severe risks for going outside. In some ways it is worse, given how any people that could help are no more than a few miles away, but usually cannot be contacted.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The Music/ButtholeSurfers song "The Last Astronaut" is an astronaut reciting what he sees to Ground Control, set to discordant music. Where it falls into this trope is [[spoiler:when the astronaut realizes something horrific - implied to be nuclear war - has just annihilated humanity, leaving him trapped in orbit with no one to contact and no way to get home]].

* ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days a Skeptic]]'' - the game has you stranded in a TenLittleMurderVictims scenario, and there's nowhere to run to because you're on a space station.

* A key part of the horror of the ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' series is that, aside from a voice in his helmet, Isaac is utterly alone against various nightmarish monstrosities, in a situation with no chance of escape or rescue. This is particularly pronounced when you enter the vacuum of space - SpaceIsNoisy is ''strongly'' averted, leaving you drifting inches from disaster, reliant solely on your eyes to see any threats.

* The first game of the ''VideoGame/{{Lifeline}}'' series has Taylor getting stranded alone in a barren planet and asking you for help in trying to survive. [[spoiler:But as he explores the planet, he discovers that he's not alone...]]

Functions by means of EnclosedSpace and the ClosedCircle. If the isolated people are instead focussing on their insignificance or the deep vastness of an unknowable universe, it's a CosmicHorrorStory -- the two can overlap.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had a couple of episodes where Seven of Nine and/or the Doctor were the only crew members immune to the NegativeSpaceWedgie of the Week and thus had to command the ship by themselves for long periods of time when the rest of the crew hibernated in stasis pods or were under the mental control of aliens.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Ghostship}}'' series are UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} indie FirstPersonShooter SurvivalHorror games set on an abandoned ghostship that has been taken over by insect aliens and zombies. They're mostly known for being highly non-linear with you being able to explore the entire ship from the start of the game, and for being incredibly janky due to being made by a single self-taught programmer as a passion project.

* A major plot element in ''Literature/ThebeAndTheAngryRedEye''. After a ship with a crew of seven is severely damaged in a space disaster, the only survivors are Thomas, the protagonist, and a tomato plant he adopts as a CompanionCube. Much of the story centers on Thomas coping with his [[TheAloner terrible loneliness]] and trying to avois SanitySlippage.

* ''Creator/JohnRingo'' touches on this briefly at the end of [[Literature/TroyRising The Hot Gate]]. The humans and [[Main/ScaryDogmaticAliens Rangora]] have just trashed each other's capital ships, and left thousands of survivors floating around in space, many of them in either space suits or escape pods, both of which have very limited air. And there are so many of them, that the rescue efforts won't get to many of them before that limited air supply is exhausted. So even though the news services can communicate with these people, they often do not because the people are panicking as they realize they will die floating in space all alone before they can be rescued.

* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': Millions of miles away from any help, two men and several frozen passengers and an artificial intelligence that is nowadays one of the Trope Codifiers for AIIsACrapshoot.

* ''Film/EventHorizon'': A rescue mission in deep space that runs into a ship that is not only vile in terms of following NoOSHACompliance, but also because it's become a literal demon from Hell as a result of coming back from [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace a dimension that should not be]].

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' is an early FPS taking place on a space station taken over a murderous A.I., Shodan.
* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' is likely the TropeCodifier for the genre in the modern video game space, a semi-non-linear first-person SurvivalHorror game in which you wake up on a spaceship whose security systems have gone berserk and whose crew have all either been killed or transformed into murderous mutants.

* ''Videogame/AxiomVerge'' is an other-dimensional version, with many of the H.R. Giger-esque art styles, haunting music, and a deliberate homage to lots of ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'''s style and gameplay.
* The third ''Videogame/DontEscape'' game takes place on a spaceship whose crew have all been horribly murdered save the protagonist, who starts the game about to be [[ThrownOutTheAirlock jettisoned out the airlock]]. [[spoiler:Since he murdered them while possessed by a sentient crystal, it was trying to kill him before he could solve the mystery and warn the incoming rescue ship.]] Unlike most examples, the ship actually seems quite pleasant to live in.
* ''Videogame/TheBreach'': The game apparently takes inspiration from every space horror franchise from ''Film/EventHorizon'' to ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'', so naturally it takes place on a derelict space ship whose crew are either dead, zombified, or fused with insectoid lifeforms. And as the game progresses the ship starts merging with the alternate dimension responsible for everything.
* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' leaves you stranded on an [[SingleBiomePlanet ocean planet]] full of large, terrifying sea monsters who want to eat you.

* The title ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' says it all. The player gets stranded on a vast but abandoned and barely functioning space station, trying to stay alive with hostile androids and a killer xenomorph roaming around.

* ''VideoGame/{{Solarix}}'' is a Turkish-developed first person stealth horror game taking place on an abandoned mining colony and later the colony's interstellar spaceship; you've awakened from cryosleep to find almost everyone else has been killed by a deadly virus; the only survivors are murderous zombie-like "Anomaly" mutants and a few squads of desperate soldiers who shoot anyone else (namely you) on sight.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Ghostship}}'' series are UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} indie FirstPersonShooter SurvivalHorror games set on an abandoned ghostship that has been taken over by insect aliens and zombies. They're mostly known for being highly non-linear with you being able to explore the entire ship from the start of the game, and for being incredibly janky due to being made by a single self-taught programmer as a passion project.
* ''VideoGame/{{Phantaruk}}'' is a stealth-focused SurvivalHorror game very reminiscent of ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' in which you wake up alone on an adrift clone-production ship and are pursued by a mutant creature called Phantaruk.
* ''Dispatcher'' is a ''very'' indie-jank first-person maze game by a single Eastern European developer, in which you're a crew member trying to escape a grid-based maze spaceship while avoiding a giant frog mutant and zombies.
* You're forced to wander alone on the quiet levels of ''VideoGame/ThePersistence'' comforted only by the ambient groans of the dying shuttle and the company of murderous aberrations who will sneak behind you and beat you to death.
* ''Nemesis: Distress'' and ''Nemesis: Lockdown'' are multiplayer video games based on the board game ''Nemesis'', featuring a team of blue-collar space workers investigating a derelict spaceship which turns out to be overrun by a hostile alien predatory species. Besides surviving against the aliens and various ship malfunctions, the games also have a SocialDeductionGame element with each crew member having a secret agenda which may or may not conflict with their teammates' goals or survival. ''Lockdown'' is a top-down, more straight adaptation of the board game, while ''Distress'' is a first-person horror game with heavily influence from ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation''.

* In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsHelpingHand Helping Hand]]", gets stuck drifting in space with no propulsion and damaged oxygen tanks which will run out before help can arrive.
* In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsTheVeryPulseOfTheMachine The Very Pulse of the Machine]]", Kivelson is AlmostOutOfOxygen on Io, with no way to call for help before her air runs out. She seems to slowly start going insane, though it's ambiguous how much is the MushroomSamba and how much is real.

* ''Nemesis: Distress'' and ''Nemesis: Lockdown'' are multiplayer video games based on the board game ''Nemesis'', featuring a team of blue-collar space workers investigating a derelict spaceship which turns out to be overrun by a hostile alien predatory species. Besides surviving against the aliens and various ship malfunctions, the games also have a SocialDeductionGame element with each crew member having a secret agenda which may or may not conflict with their teammate's goals or survival. ''Lockdown'' is a top-down, more straight adaptation of the board game, while ''Distress'' is a first-person horror game with heavily influence from ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation''.