I don't know what makes this film work

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2017)

What can I possibly contribute to the dialectic at this point? I guess just some stuff for my own amusement. I don't know what makes this film work.
It is of course, exquisitely made - the rhythms and pacing are second to none - you hear endlessly about withholding the big reveal (ala Jaws) but here it works even better that most do because the reveals kind of keep on happening. It starts small with an egg, then its a facehugger, acid blood, chestburster, little alien, and finally the full-on Alien, and even then it's mostly face and head (and mini-head) until the end. There's always something to occupy the fear and it keeps getting upped.
The whole end of this film is unrelenting tension. It's almost seizure inducing watching Ripley run around the ship with the blinking lights and the countdown chiming and the Alien around every corner - hypnotizing and petrifying. The first kill scene with the Alien descending the chains is a perfect blend of sight and sound. Same goes for most of the Alien's kill scenes (only ones that bother me are the tunnels, it's a great scene undone by stupidity - why do they think it's in the same tunnel as him and even if it is just blast the fire! don't run). The wide shot of the Alien turning towards Lambert is the only one that shows its age. Very tank like, no arm movement. Thankfully it's short lived. From what I read Scott didn't like those wides either.
Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is iconic of course, and it helps that she's a woman defeating this rapist (the two women are the last two standing) but it's clear the film isn't making it an agenda. It's just a part of the natural structure of the story. It's nonchalant. And personally, as great as she is in this, she's a pure action and reaction cipher (not that there's anything wrong with that- a whole character is suggested by her behaviors, mannerisms and interactions). But Ripley's stature is truly carved in stone in Aliens.
The set designs and creature designs are incredibly believable and awe-inducing. Ridley liked the space jockey so much he has created a whole new set of films about it - that's one memorable shot. They were, of course, a large jump forward for the time but that wouldn't hold up in posterity if it didn't still work and it does, because the design is still unmatched in terms of bold imagination. Surreal, slimy, sexual, black, chrome, nightmarish, otherworldly yet human - it's really the ultimate creature design for a reason. It's not just cool and terrifying, it suggests themes, nightmares we haven't had yet, the past the future, it even blends in with the blue collar working class rusted out futuristic space shuttle it stalks in.
What makes a withholding film work is that the payoff is worth it. Audiences can't suffer a bad good movie - one that knows what it takes to make something work but doesn't execute - but they're fine with a bad bad movie because at least it's mindless and "delivers". So when a slow burn actually works, it changes the whole entire landscape. When it doesn't, it bombs hard (especially with audiences). Everything else is in-between. This is one of the good good ones, duh.