Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

"In space no one can hear you scream." Ridley Scott's original Alien film was not the balls to the wall horror thriller that later films in this series came to be. I'd actually place this film more in the category of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris (take your pick of the 1972 Tarkovsky version--which is excellent--or the 2002 Steven Soderbergh version--which was good). The cinematrography of Alien is tremendous. The architecture of the ship is amazing. H.R. Giger's design of the alien is really incredible and the ability to transfer that to the screen. Such very powerful patterning and us of textures. Such a melding of metallic with organic features. The cast is great: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerrit, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt. One worth revisiting nearly 30 years later.