3) Alien
Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi horror story was the first of its kind in many ways. It was the first film that really played on the fear of extraterrestrial life. It was the first film that portrayed astronauts as not necessarily the best and the brightest, but rather everyday blue-collar workers. And it was the first to show just where science fiction of the future was headed.
In space, no one can hear you scream. That statement is the basis for much sci-fi horror, at least those films set in space, and Alien showed it better than any other. Being trapped in a confined ship, with nowhere to go except out into the nothing that surrounds the ship, is an absolutely terrifying thought. Scott slows the movie down, using long spans of quiet and calm to counter the intense moments of sheer terror that the film is best remembered for.
Just the thought of the iconic scene of the baby alien escaping from a chest is enough to make your torso hurt, and watching it again gives the same effect, even after the surprise is gone. The alien creeping around the ship while the crew is petrified of its existence makes for some of the most tense horror of all-time. It’s almost a hopeless situation, and those are easily the scariest of all.
The film completely changed the careers of both its director and leading lady, showing that the two would be forces to reckon with in the industry for many years to come. Regardless of what they have done since, their collaboration on Alien made for one of the most memorable science fiction movies of all-time.
