It’s often daunting to come to a classic film and try to explain why it works so well. Obvious elements spring to mind - the peerless design work, both of the central creature and the sets themselves; the beautifully haunting score; the creation of one of the greatest female action heroes; the perfect pace of the film (slightly spoilt by the Director’s Cut, but the original edit still shines); the “birth” of the creature that may have lost its ability to surprise over time, but still horrifies largely down to the performances that sell this moment so well; the masterful build-up of tension as each character confronts their fate. But, more importantly, this is simply a story that is well told and a reminder of how powerful an experience film can be when all the elements come together so perfectly. Is it any wonder that Alien has been oft-imitated, parodied and copied, but rarely bettered, if at all?

Great set, refreshing to not see a bunch of green screens... Not very scary or great in any aspect aside from being a solid story. Attempts to make unexpected twists, not the greatest twists ever but at least the story has some turns even though you pretty much know where it's heading. It's another film that's just a decent watch, to just watch and not expect to get anything from it... No fear, no fun, no mystery, just a basic film with a hard to mess up storyline and believable enough acting & effects, from an introductory Sci fi Era. Probably innovative at the time, but I'm reviewing based totally on the film as presented to me today. Another safe watch, as nothing is particularly bad but it's nothing particularly great either. Simple story, executed without tripping over itself.

This is still such a masterpiece, hands down!

It is a truly brilliant piece of cinema. By todays standard, you may consider it tame, but if you are old enough or have watched enough films to understand it from the perspective of when it was made, it is the best definition of sci-fi horror you can find. Lots of similar angles of shots and perspectives from this were used in Event Horizon if you watch them both enough, many movies owe their existence to this classic.