Still the scariest film I've ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2009)

And so it begins... as vague shapes slowly form the letters... A L I E N. A simple introduction but one suitable given the intensity that follows.
As I watched I realised ALIEN was giving me the most intense and nerve-wracking experience film might ever offer to me - I was frustrated at the sheer tension, the film was succeeding in awakening within me paranoia and anxiety, it kept mounting and mounting, and I kept anticipating and distressing. It was absolutely thrilling - certainly one of the most enjoyable and exciting film experiences I've ever had. If this comment encourages anyone to see the film under the circumstances I did they have struck gold.
The golden guidelines: 1. See the film without any prior knowledge... at all. Even being born in 1992, it is still surprising that I hadn't heard anything about the movie beyond its status of "brilliant" and "terrifying". And I was lucky in this regard. Everything in the film was a surprise to me, I didn't know anything about the story and the characters, or even the alien. I was familiar only with the poster art – an egg. In a way it was as if I was there watching the film just how people would have seen it in 1979.
2. Night, home-alone, quiet. No distractions.
3. Watch the "Theatrical Cut". The Director's Cut is inferior due to the awkward placement of additional scenes that kill the suspense, and the shortening of many scenes that work better with their original lengths.
If anyone reading this has managed to succeed in 1. then BY GOD rent the film now!
Alien is most certainly a masterpiece. A film that is capable of creating such terror in its audience deserves that title. The set designs are brilliant and succeed in setting the atmosphere and creating reality; the work of H. R. Giger is impeccably disturbing and suggestive; and technically, with the exception of one or two shots, Alien has aged gracefully. I look back on my first watch with great fondness, and I remember it vividly.
It would be a shame to not allow yourself the pleasure of enjoying A L I E N and ultimately you won't know unless you try, but I tell you this: It's worth it.