Acclaimed Cosmic Horror Series Comes To The Big Screen—With Two Films
Paulina is a Contributor for ScreenRant, writing about books. After starting her career reporting breaking news as an undergrad, Paulina completed a Master of Arts in Journalism from NYU in 2026. She has spent the last four years writing about books and pop culture as a freelance journalist, including for Texas Monthly, The Daily Beast, and her Substack, Alienated Young Woman.
Between Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary adaptation dominating the box office earlier this year and the epic Dune conclusion coming next month, space-set sci-fi novels are having a major moment on the big screen.
But not all space sci-fi is quite as hopeful as Weir’s story about humans and aliens working together to save the world. Now, an iconic horror director is planning to bring his sensibilities to adapting a beloved space sci-fi series that veers much further into cosmic horror.
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The Beloved Space Horror Duology Getting Two Film Adaptations
Kevin J. Anderson’s Nether duology—Nether Station and Nether Vortex—is coming to the big screen as a pair of film adaptations. Paul W. S. Anderson, the director of Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator, and Mortal Kombat, and the writer of six Resident Evil movies, is set to direct both films.
Author Kevin J. Anderson is already well regarded as a master of sci-fi—beyond the Nether series, he’s also co-author of several official Dune prequels alongside Brian Herbert. However, while his Nether novels are also set in space and have heavy sci-fi elements, Anderson bills them as more akin to cosmic horror à la H.P. Lovecraft.
Essentially, cosmic horror is a blend of horror, fantasy, and weird fiction that emphasizes the dread of entities that defy human comprehension and that humans are powerless to stop or escape, rather than traditional literary monsters like spirits or vampires. In Anderson’s case, that means the Nether novels focus more on ancient, unknowable, existentially dangerous entities than on traditional alien villains.
First published in 2024, Nether Station follows Cammie Skoura, a neurodivergent researcher sent to explore a wormhole known as the “Nether anomaly” that her employers believe could be a direct shortcut to the nearby star system Alpha Centauri.
When Skoura arrives, it’s clear she’s not the first living creature to have explored this wormhole, and whoever was there last may have unleashed something very dark into the universe—something she’ll have to identify before the wormhole devours her.
Nether Vortex, released last month, is set five years after the events of the first novel. It follows another member of Skoura’s crew as she awakens on a failing space station with a warning for the rest of humanity: an ancient, cosmic entity is coming for them. Meanwhile, across the galaxy, another crew is at the center of an intergalactic war, one where Earth itself could be collateral damage.
So far, no cast, crew, or release dates have been announced for the Nether movies. However, they are planned as two separate films.
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