I loved it.

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 1998)

Alien is a splendid work, bristling, however, with unexplained pre-histories. This has enabled the film to survive nearly 20 years of friendly [and unfriendly] comment, but it has also served to whet the considerable appetites of its devotees. The origin of the monster was [and has never been] not explained and its eerie and compelling life cycle has eluded definitive analysis. The creature in this film was so appallingly frightening, particularly in its "chest burster" and "adult" incarnations, that subsequent titles have been robbed of the carnivorous manifestations of this exquisite being. The character ensemble, with their informal chatter and their humanly territorial imperatives, gave the human victims an authenticity in the face of almost insuperable danger that the normal "creature feature" or "slasher" would almost certainly lack. Perhaps the film's greatness lies in the fact that the dark pools of suggestion, with their limitless depths, conveyed a gripping horror that no subsequent viewing of it how many] can allay.