Everyone heard me scream!!! S p O i L e R s

Rating: 10/10 (8 September 2005)

Well here is where it all started back in 1979 with the Alien series, which some people have always found to be a bit hit and miss, many citing the third film as the weakest and the fourth film to be little more than a joke, but i find all the films to be quite simply stunning.
This is my favourite of the four films, introducing Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley as the main character, althoug she is not shown in the film as the main character until near the end, as all the cast have fairly large parts to play.
The plot been a space ship floating through space receives a distress call from a nearby planet, upon getting to the planet a few of the crew go and investigate it, one of them being Kane (John Hurt) who upon wandering this very dark place, finds an area that he stumbles into alone that has eggs in it. While examining the eggs one of the eggs opens and as Kane peers into the egg, a creature (what became known as a face hugger)leaps from the egg attaching itself to Kanes face. Other members of the crew find him and drag him back to the ship, whereupon Ripley refuses to let them in, due to quarantine restrictions after discovering the creature attached to Kanes face. The very odd medical/science officer Ash (Ian Holm) opens the doors for them to come in, they attempt to remove the creature but cant, which later falls off by itself and Kane seems fine.
The film moves sometimes at a snails pace but it builds the tension, as a few scenes later they are all sat at a table eating, when Kane suddenly starts a violent coughing fit, which suddenly appears to be very serious indeed, laid out on the table the others try and restrain him and try and make sure he can breathe, at this point major credit must go to John Hurt for his remarkable performance during this scene of presenting a suffocating expression with one of immense pain, while writhing about in agony on the table, at which point a small creature bursts straight through his chest, while it looks around with everyone stunned it runs off away and hides. Thus the first sighting of the actual Alien.
This is where the film suddenly kicks into action as the creature which had by now grown to gargantuan proportions stalks the crew eliminating them one by one, in the final altercation with the only survivor being Ripley who manages to escape on board an escape vessel after blowing up the main ship, the alien follows her on board and after a tense encounter is finally blown out of an airlock by Ripley.
This film i first saw when i was extremely young, and i would say it was the scariest film i've ever seen (perhaps The Shining more so now), the whole alien chest burst scene, the shocking revelation of what Ash actually is, the whole hunting down of the crew, ultra creepy film, which still looks good today.