A masterpiece of otherworldly horror

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2013)

The spaceship has a simple mission: transport ore. The crew isn't heroic and doesn't have a military training. These are simple workers who stumble on a profound revelation: an ancient world constructed by unknowable beings long gone and a horrifying monster waiting in the ruins.
Ridley Scott gives plenty of space to the unsettling designs of H.R. Giger and infamously kept his actors in the dark when filming the bloody chestburster scene, capturing the genuine emotions of surprise and total horror.
For a film from the 70's Alien knows how to make horror even more horrifying. The scariest scenes are drawn out and incredibly tense. The visuals are dark, detailed and ambiguous, always forcing the viewer to second-guess. Even in a film featuring the most terrifying creature ever designed the most horror is generated by the unseen and the implications: that outer space is vast and unknown and lethal.