For average cinema goers, the sci-fi genre is one in which hopes and dreams are realised in larger than life visual effects on alternate realities, but somehow Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ thrusts it all back into primal fear recalling the moody thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. There’s nothing really all that futuristic about ‘Alien’, regardless of its epic space station and technology.

None of it can really help when an alien makes its way onboard and picks off the crew one by one. Disposing with the usual slasher conventions, it’s what isn’t seen that makes ‘Alien’ all the scarier. It also gave birth to one of film’s most iconic female heroes – Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).