“Life” may not have been a big hit when it landed in theaters in 2017, but several years later it’s finding new life on Prime Video. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, the sci-fi horror film has climbed to the top of the streaming charts, coming in at No. 4, and honestly, it deserves this second chance. Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the cast of “Life” also includes Rebecca Ferguson, Emmy-winning “Shōgun” star Hiroyuki Sanada, Olga Dihovichnaya, and Ariyon Bakare. Alongside Gyllenhaal and Reynolds, they play astronauts on the International Space Station who make contact with an alien lifeform. Unfortunately, this little nibbler isn’t the friendly kind and soon exterminates the crew one by one, leaving the survivors to do everything they can to prevent it from returning to Earth.

Our own Jacob Hall described “Life” as “an old-fashioned B-Movie dressed up like a blockbuster,” with a great creature at the center of this feature. At times harking back to the likes of “Alien” and “The Thing,” the Daniel Espinosa-directed film keeps you hooked thanks to the star power that is failing miserably at keeping this monster at bay. This could be any basic band of spacewalkers daring to poke the beastie with a stick, but because it’s Gyllenhaal, Reynolds, and crew trying to stop the starfish-like space invader, it makes for a far greater watch than it should be. 

It also becomes an even better viewing if you follow the headcanon created by armies of comic book movie fans when the film was originally released, just before a certain Marvel antihero made his solo spin-off debut.

Leading up to and during its release, an idea emerged that “Life” was secretly linked to one of Sony’s upcoming comic book adaptations of that time: “Venom.” Without delving too much into spoiler territory (yes, it’s that good we don’t want to ruin an eight-year-old film), a Reddit theory proposed that “Life” was a prequel to “Venom,” which arrived the following year. Adding fuel to this fan-driven speculation was the fact that the writers of the sci-fi film also penned a “Venom” script that Sony passed on. “Life” even featured a crowd clip from “Spider-Man 3,” only stirring up further speculation that it could be the smartest franchise kickstarter Sony could ever hope for. It wasn’t, but Reese and Wernick themselves did love the idea.

“All of a sudden, someone’s out there going, ‘Bing! Lightbulb!'” Wernick told ComicBook.com. Reese even agreed that the film would’ve made a great prequel. “It would, wouldn’t it?” he stewed with the site, with Reese packing up his writing partner. “That’s the symbiote! Eddie Brock’s on Earth. The symbiote’s on Earth, finds Eddie Brock. He realizes he can hide on the inside of a human.” 

Sure, it might not be official, but you can go ahead and keep the headcanon that “Life” is a prequel to “Venom” after all — and the best Sony “Spider-Man” universe movie we never got.