Alien will scare the peanuts right out of your M&M's. It was about time someone made a science-fiction thriller that thrills... and just boils everything down to the pure, ravishingly vulgar essence of fright.

| Nov 16, 2023

You can have Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001. I'll take Alien.

| Nov 16, 2023

Miss Weaver, a New York actress making her film debut, makes the most of the opportunity without overdoing it. She suggests toughness and fear in equal measure.

| Nov 16, 2023

The most intriguing aspect of the film is actress Sigourney Weaver, who cuts quite an imposing figure as the one intelligent member of the ship's crew besides the monster.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien, like the Exorcist, works on your nerves and emotions with the practiced hand of a torturer extracting a confession. The movie is terrifying, but not in a way that is remotely enjoyable.

| Nov 16, 2023

You are in for jolts, shocks and some fairly gruesome and shuddering sights. With only his second feature, Ridley Scott has emerged as a major film maker. What he has to say is still not clear, but he certainly knows how to say it effectively.

| Nov 16, 2023

The plot as such is quickly tedious, not only because it's a stale ritual but because it gets repeated several times... A three-minute set of clips from the picture would make a good spine-tingler.

| Nov 16, 2023

Scott has the commercialist's feel for economy, and if the film doesn't say much, the director makes up for a void of message with a stunning visuality.

| Nov 16, 2023

Sigourney Weaver is the only newcomer in the cast, but her movie debut may generate instant stardom. Weaver... is an experienced theater actress, and she brings an exciting combination of intelligence, bravery and sex appeal.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien may not add anything new to the glitterspace vogue, but what it adds to the idea of who can be a hero gives it a polish all its own.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien is only the second feature for director Ridley Scott, but it should establish the young Briton as a major film maker. And if there's any justice, it will cause a scramble to book The Duellists, Scott's overlooked first film.

| Nov 16, 2023

No reality here, yet much excitement. It is a clever trick. All credit to the author, Dan O'Bannon, to the actors and to Mr. Ridley's direction of them, not to mention the eerie effects he obtains from the soundtrack.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien is a symptom of something sick in the buyer -- that is, the movie audience -- as well as something unconscionable in the seller.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien is mostly in the business of thrills, and on that score it did provide more than a few... Even more enjoyable, though, was watching the film debut of an actress who should become a major star, Sigourney Weaver.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 16, 2023

Ridley Scott, directing only his second feature, has more than justified the acclaim he received for his debut in last year's The Duellists. He has combined all these elements, many of them familiar, in a way that seems fresh and original.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien is another triumph of technology over art. It is also a horror movie set in space -- and it just doesn't work.

| Nov 16, 2023

In its best moments, Alien is as frightening as a nightmare that won't go away after your sleep has ended.

| Nov 16, 2023

This is reckoned by 20th Century Fox to be the summer's answer to Star Wars... The technical effects are lovely and awesome, but as a cliffhanger the chills grow tiring after a while.

| Nov 16, 2023

Alien is pure and basic horror stuff, exploiting with ruthless simplicity the nightmarish idea of an unreachable, invulnerable and utterly hostile non-human force.

| Nov 16, 2023

A splendid example of an army of designers and special effects men impersonally taking over the screen to display their star wares.

| Nov 16, 2023