I named my orange tabby cat after this.

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2013)

I've seen and collected thousands of movies over the years, and ALIEN has withstood an ongoing test of time (35 years now, as of this re-write of my review) as staying my all-time favourite. I'm one of those guys who'll watch good movies over and over again, until I remember and can recite it word for word from the beginning dialogue: "I am cold."..."Still with us Brett?"..."I feel dead"..."Anybody ever tell you you LOOK dead?"... I kid you not. Since it's VHS release, I've owned every available North American released home video version, up to and including the new 35th Anniversary Blu-ray set.
At least a dozen times per repeated viewing, I find myself reminiscing how I felt and how I was affected by different scenes when I first experienced them. I was a 15-year-old lad when I first saw this, on its opening weekend in Winnipeg Canada, at the newly renovated Capitol Theatre. I went by myself, and to be honest I only saw two thirds of the film - my eyes were closed behind my hands for the other third. I was 15! I walked out of that building just vibrating, knowing I had experienced a new threshold of fear, and other patrons were visibly shaken as well. I didn't know movies could BE that scary... and I've been a horror fan ever since, and have seen a LOT of VERY scary movies - but nothing ever came close to experiencing the kind of frights I got that Saturday afternoon in the Capitol Theatre in 1979.
So it's nice that the FOX marketing department agreed, in calling this "the scariest movie ever made", in their ad campaign prior to the Director's Cut re-release. Because that statement is true. ALIEN has been often imitated, but never matched in its raw ability to frighten one into fits - period. If you've never seen it, make plans to. It's bar-raising, game-changing, cinematic history. If you entirely disagree and many of you may, unfortunately it's a "you had to be there" scenario - you've only enjoyed the experience of seeing what you think are better and scarier movies because ALIEN set the standard for them in the first place. THAT'S why this will always remain my fave - we love movies after all because of their emotional effect on us, and for myself this will always be the most blatant example.
This isn't just a movie, it's an event. My all-time favorite flick: a 10. And Jones, my cat, agrees.
"This is Ripley ........ signing off ... come on, cat."