Suspense from start to finish

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 1999)

In its time this was the most original sci-fi flick for years, I have never waited with so much anticipation for a movie to appear on TV. The plot is well known - a spacecraft picks up a distress call and the crew are awoken from hypersleep to investigate. What they find of course is a nasty little SOB alien that takes on the crew single-handed (clawed?). An excellent cast, my only complaint when I view the film now is the rather mumbled dialogue, giving the impression that some of it was ad-libbed. Most of the actors are well known; Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto and John Hurt for instance. Ironically it was the relative newcomer Sigourney Weaver who became the biggest star. More or less a ghost story set in outer space - in that something scary is attacking people, but we never quite see it until the end. Highly recommended.