Alien
By: Adam K

The film that most blurs the line between horror and sci-fi, Ridley Scott's "Alien" is basically a monster movie and haunted house movie set in outer space.  The pacing is deliberately slow, sometimes achingly so, but the second half more than makes up for the first.  A crew of space transporters responds to a distress call from an unknown planet, where a killing machine of an alien enters one of the men.  Things seem all right for a while after the parasite is killed, but then one of the most horrifying scenes of all time confirms that not everything is all well.  Kane (John Hurt) is eating breakfast with the other crew members of the Nostromo when he begins to choke and cough.  He falls over onto the table, and a baby alien (later called Xenomorph) erupts from his stomach, covered in blood and fluid.  It escapes while the crew is stunned, and the rest of the film concerns their search for the rapidly-growing monster.  Well directed, competently acted, frightening, and featuring one of the best inhuman monsters in all of film, "Alien" is worth watching for horror as well as sci-fi fans.