The Silver Anniversary of an grand science fiction classic-fully restored and remastered for today's audiences

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2003)

Is Director Ridley Scott's 1979 pop blockbuster a science fiction flick or a horror film? It is,of course a uniquely successful and ingeniously arty fusion of the two genres,one that really changed the face of high-tech Hollywood dread and launched a series of top-grossing sequels that started off with James Cameron's "Aliens"(1986),and the two other installments,"Alien 3"(1992),and "Alien Resurrection"(1997). This was basically a haunted house movie in outer space,the interstellar fright fest that started a trend toward futuristic grunge that shocked its audiences more than 25 years ago,and one of the scariest films of its era.
It also introduced an extraordinarily and scary silmy monster that gave its audiences a good shock out of their seats and gave a lot of them some very frightening nightmares. Not since William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" has a movie been so addictive in giving its audiences major chills,especially within the boundaries of science fiction itself. Add in actress Sigourney Weaver's career-launching performance,and you have a grand classic modern-day science fiction shocker that is well worth the revisit considering the scenes regarding actors Harry Dean-Stanton, Tom Skerritt,Yaphet Kotto,and Veronica Cartwright. The re-release is worth seeing,indeed,especially with the newly restored footage that adds in additional scenes,a remixed digital sound and also tighter editing.