The third short film from Neil Blomkamp’s Oats Studios project Zygote is by far the best original sci-fi horror in years, and as a bonus its also deeply unsettling. Without spoiling too much for you, Zygote is heavily influenced by The Thing and to find out more about the film read this insightful interview with Blomkamp.

Zygote comes in at a lean 22 minutes and despite its haunting monster, Blomkamp’s short leaves you wanting to see more. Blomkamp has been the first to admit that Elysium and Chappie have their faults. Both films are brimming with ideas and fresh thinking, but something got lost in the production process. Blomkamp’s debut with District 9 still stands as his best work, yet even when he has a misfire, it’s still worth watching.

Blomkamp’s decision to get back to his roots with experimental short filmmaking is producing some fascinating work with Firebase and Rakka, and I can’t wait for volume two to arrive. If you like the shorts so far, lend your support to the project and purchase the Downloadable Bonus Content via Steam.

Ironically, 20th Century Fox canned Blomkamp’s proposed Alien 5 at Ridley Scott’s request so he could complete his Alien prequels. Covenant was meant to restore some faith in Scott’s grand plans after the beautiful disaster that was Prometheus. Covenant left me just as frustrated, old ideas were rehashed, few answers were provided, questions were asked, and it ended on another unresolved note to set up what’s next. I understand that world building and setting up sequels is the norm these days, but I really miss the simpler times when a movie could be a singular entity that offered audiences a satisfying beginning middle and end.

Starring Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo, you can watch Zygote in full below.