Alien: 5 Ways It’s A Great Horror Movie (& 5 Ways It’s A Great Sci-Fi Movie)

When Ridley Scott was hired to direct a haunted house movie set in space, he was expected to turn in an acceptable B-movie that the studio could use to cash in on its own trendsetting success with Star Wars. But Scott took the bull by the horns and turned Alien into one of the greatest horror movies ever made.

Arguably, Alien is the pinnacle of the sci-fi horror subgenre. It’s not easy to mix these two genres, but Scott’s film stands out as an example of an entry in the sci-fi horror canon that works as both a great horror movie and a great sci-fi movie.

10 Horror: Perfect Pacing

The worst thing a horror movie can do is rush into the scares. The best ones take their time to set up the characters and their world before their lives are invaded by terror. Ridley Scott’s pacing in Alien is pitch-perfect, expertly building to the first facehugger attack.

After that, everything seems fine until the iconic chestburster scene. Then, the alien baby is seen scurrying away and, moments later, when Brett finds it, it’s grown to over seven feet tall. Scott takes his time in the first act, then hits the audience with one bombshell after another throughout the second and third acts.

9 Sci-Fi: Jerry Goldsmith’s Mystifying Score

From John Williams’ unforgettable orchestrations in Star Wars to the classical recordings in 2001: A Space Odyssey, every great science fiction movie needs mesmerizing music to draw audiences into its curious worlds.

Jerry Goldsmith provided such a score for Alien. His music has the mystifying quality that a great sci-fi score needs, and the unsettling quality that a great horror score needs.

8 Horror: Effective Jump Scares

With modern horror cinema’s shameless overuse of jump scares, it can be easy to forget that jump scares can actually be effective when they’re done right.

A jump scare without the build-up is worthless, but Ridley Scott nails the build-up to each jump scare in Alien, from the chestburster — one of the greatest moments in horror history — to Dallas’ haunting death scene.

7 Sci-Fi: H.R. Giger’s Haunting Otherworldly Aesthetic

Movies are a visual medium, so the visual style of any movie is an important element, but science fiction is a particularly visual genre, and thanks to the work of production designer H.R. Giger, Alien is one of the most beautifully designed sci-fi movies ever made.

From the Nostromo’s interiors to the “space jockey” seen on the alien planet, Giger’s designs brought a haunting otherworldly quality to the movie’s aesthetic.

6 Horror: The Xenomorph Is A Terrifying Presence

In addition to designing all the creepy planets and backdrops and technology seen in Alien, H.R. Giger also designed the xenomorph itself. It’s one of the most iconic interpretations of alien life ever created.

It’s a twisted inversion of the familiar human form. Thanks to its unforgettable look and its rapid aging, the xenomorph is one of the greatest movie monsters of all time.

5 Sci-Fi: Deep Space

The posters for Alien had one of the most memorable taglines of all time: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” This tagline is arguably as famous as anything in the actual movie.

Depicting the farthest reaches of outer space is a significant part of science fiction cinema. From the opening shot of the Nostromo drifting through space to Ripley’s final escape, Alien has a ton of breathtaking imagery of deep space.

4 Horror: Rising Tension

A serviceable horror film will plod from one plot point to the next. The best horror movies — like Alien — continually raise the stakes and tension through their runtime.

From the moment the alien bursts out of Kane’s chest to Ripley’s escape from the ship in the final scene, things just keep getting worse and worse for the crew of the Nostromo.

3 Sci-Fi: Allegorical Premise

The premise of Alien was conceived as a metaphor for sexual assault. Kane is attacked and forcibly impregnated by the facehugger, then the phallic-shaped alien violently bursts through his chest.

Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon has said that these overtones were intentional and that the goal of the movie was to give male audiences an idea of the trauma attached to sexual assault.

2 Horror: Final Girl Who’s Easy To Root For

Since Alien arrived just one year after Halloween set the template for the modern slasher, the “final girl” trope didn’t exist when the script was written. In fact, all the roles were written unisex and the casting team was left to determine each character’s gender, so it’s only by chance that Ripley ended up being a woman.

But the character ended up breaking a ton of new ground for female action heroes. As Ripley proves her mettle in the face of the xenomorph, she becomes incredibly easy to root for.

1 Sci-Fi: Thought-Provoking Themes

While the main theme in Alien is the devastating effects of sexual violence, like a lot of great science fiction stories, it also explores a number of other thought-provoking themes.

Ash’s role as the science officer who turns out to be an android posits that technology is an attack on humanity, while the actions of “the company” (later revealed to be called the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in Aliens) touch on capitalist greed.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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