Praise of a masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2000)

This has to rank as one of the most groundbreaking movies of all time. Even after 21 years of release it is still as scary as ever. If this was to be released today it wouldn't look that out of place, as the sfx have been so cleverly done, only the computer's make it look old fashioned. The most amazing thing about the whole film is it's ability to play on man's fear of the dark & of smothering/suffocation to make you not hate the alien but only to fear it greatly. This was the first film to make me look under the bed repeatedly before putting the light out at night. The only other film to really do that was John Carpenter's The Thing, which made you look at every living creature suspiciously for a while after seeing it. Alien revitalised a stagnant movie genre by shaking off the B pic image normally given to space monster movies & in doing so set an awesome benchmark for other's to follow, few have done it anywhere near as well. All the sequels have been different in their own special way but none truly captures the tenseness & claustrophobic quality of this terror masterpiece. This is a must have film for any collection.