Alien 1979

Critics score:
97 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Erik Lundegaard, Seattle Times: The most startling thing watching Alien again is its pacing. For the first 45 minutes, little happens. It's all slow, exquisite build-up, which makes the second half seem all the more horrific. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: These things no longer surprise or tantalize us as they once did. In a very short time, science-fiction films have developed their own jargon that's now become a part of the grammar. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Besides Weaver and Skeritt, the top-notch ensemble includes two of Britain's best actors -- Ian Holm, as the untrustworthy science officer, and John Hurt. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Alien will upset your mind and upset your stomach. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Where 2001 and Close Encounters suggested that humanity would bring its best impulses and brightest hopes beyond the clouds, Alien served as a reminder that its worst fears would also be part of the package. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What's most unusual about the original 24 years later, though, is its elegant minimalism. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: An empty-headed horror movie with nothing to recommend it beyond the disco-inspired art direction and some handsome, if gimmicky, cinematography. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's a scream from another era that still echoes around us. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: A genuine fright classic. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: In space, the famous tagline went, no one can hear you scream. In Alien, you can hear lessons for the sci-fi future in a great milestone from the recent past. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The way [Ridley] Scott meticulously raises the sense of menace and tension is worthy of Hitchcock. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Ridley Scott's 1979 movie is a great original. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A haunted-house movie set in space, Alien also has a profoundly existentialist undertow that makes it feel like a film noir -- the other genre to feature a slithery, sexualized monster as its classic villain. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Ridley Scott's new cut won't change the way people think about the movie, but it reinforces the film's strengths without alienating the series' biggest fans. Read more

Michael Agger, Slate: The scariest movie in history is actually a bit shy. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Seen again a quarter-century later, we marvel at how the filmmaker generates so much tension and sweat with a bare minimum of moving parts. Read more

Frank Rich, TIME Magazine: It is depressing to watch an expensive, crafty movie that never soars beyond its cold desire to score the big bucks. Read more

Paul Taylor, Time Out: The limited strengths of its staple sci-fi horrors always derived from either the offhand organic/ Freudian resonances of its design or the purely (brilliantly) manipulative editing and pacing of its above-average shock quota. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The limited strengths of its staple sci-fi horrors always derived from either the offhand organic/ Freudian resonances of its design or the purely (brilliantly) manipulative editing and pacing of its above-average shock quota. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: An old-fashioned scary movie set in a highly realistic sci-fi future, made all the more believable by expert technical craftmanship. Read more