Dakota Fanning Stars in 3rd Sci-Fi Short Film From Oats Studios ‘Zygote’ (VIDEO)

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp's Oats Studios experiment has been a rousing success thus far. The first two short films released by the studio—Rakka and Firebase—were both war films of one type or another. The third and final film in what they've dubbed Volume 1, Zygote, is much more in line with a survival horror type film, which is fitting considering Blomkamp was tapped to direct Alien 5 once upon a time.

Zygote stars Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo as the last two survivors in an Arctic mine who must face down an unknown threat if they want to stay alive. There are shades of Ridley Scott's original Alien, of course, as well as John Carpenter's The Thing, and it's some of the best genre filmmaking you'll see in a summer that's been nothing but disappointing in that regard.

The only bit of sad news attached to the release of Zygote is that it will be the final short film released for free by Oats Studios. Their goal was always to tempt audiences into paying for more content, but in just three films, I think they've proven their worth. I'm eager to see what they have in store for us starting with Volume 2, and if you are too, click over to Oats Studios and become a subscriber today.