Introducing: The Search for ExtraTERRORestrial Life
Greetings, Earthlings! Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files.
It’s been a wild week now that First Contact is officially out in the universe. Shout out to everyone who participated in the raffle—I'm mailing your copies tomorrow, promise!—and a heads-up that I will be signing copies at Barnes and Noble in Ithaca, NY, starting at noon on Saturday, October 4.
For another sneak peek of the book, check out the sections Defector ran this week. I also wrote a short essay about the process of writing First Contact for John Scalzi’s “Big Idea” blog series. And for Supercluster, I explored one of my favorite alien mysteries—the possible existence of life in subsurface oceans, such as Europa or Enceladus, and what it would mean for a culture to emerge in these sunless seas, with potentially no sense of the universe beyond.
Last, if you’re all alien’d out, here’s a new article I wrote for National Geographic on the best of all Earthlings: PUPPIES.
Now for the main event: I’m proud to announce a new Search for ExtraTERRORestrial Life. Behold, a bracket of the creepiest, freakiest, most nightmarish aliens from classic lore and modern favorites. This tournament has 16 competitors including shape-shifters, star-eaters, and body-snatchers—but only one will be crowned the scariest of all on Halloween Day. Here’s the line-up:
The Blob: Death by carnivorous jelly. Nightmare fuel.
Body Snatchers: Inclusive of all versions of the body-snatching trope, from the original 1956 film to the “Network” in The World’s End (2013).
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The ultimate collision of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and alienophobia.
Jabba the Hut: Jabba earned his spot because I couldn’t decide if the Rancor or the Sarlacc was a scarier alien—then I realized the same psychopath was responsible for weaponizing them both.
The Shimmer: The strange alien presence (complete with screaming reanimated bear) featured in the film Annihilation (2018), based on Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy.
Purity: The alien virus that flows like black oil in The X-Files. I don’t like slimy invasive things that get into our eyes, nose, and mouth, yuck, ew.
Martians: The classic tripod-steering invaders from H.G. Welles’ 1898 novel The War of the Worlds and its many film adaptations.
Trisolarans: The merciless alien civilization from Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy that views humanity as an expendable obstacle to their survival.
The Thing: John Carpenter’s shape-shifting alien has been keeping people up at night since 1982.
Xenomorphs: TOO MANY TEETH! The mainstay monster of the Alien franchise is freaky even as a baby (gender reveal: chestburster).
Mimics: The alien invaders from the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow (adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 novel All You Need Is Kill) are true temporal terrors.
Astrophage: Alien microbes from Andy Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary (film forthcoming in 2026) that infect stars. As a worshipper of our almighty Sun, I am petrified by the sheer concept of this star-sucking phage.
Nagilum: Okay, this is a bit of a deep cut, but I’ve always been profoundly disturbed by this non-corporeal immortal being in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Anything that lives beyond the psychic range of Deanna Troi is a big nope from me!
Jean Jacket: Speaking of NOPE: This otherworldly territorial being from Jordan Peele’s 2022 film is bone-crunchingly scary (and yet I can’t stop coming back for more).
Reapers: The galaxy-harvesting biomechanical titans of Mass Effect who show up every 50,000 years to cause mass extinctions. What’s not to be scared of?
Predators: Trophy hunters from space who treat humans like big game and who have faces only mothers could love.
If you’d like to share your choices for who (or what) should advance to the next week, email me at thebxfiles@gmail.com. I’d also love to hear any suggestions for more bone-chilling aliens that didn’t make this exclusive list. I’m excited—and petrified!—to see who will reign supreme in cosmic horror on Friday, October 31.
See you next Friday!
