What was your first experience with each film?

[Elmazalman]

Outer space is a setting.

So is the Nostromo and the alien planet - settings that belong to the sci-fi genre.

The film has been described as a "haunted house in space". Which would make it a science-fiction horror film.

[SiL]

It's first and foremost a horror movie - you could transpose the story to a ship on the open sea and make it work, but take out the killer monster eating people and there's no movie.

[Elmazalman]

It's first and foremost a horror movie - you could transpose the story to a ship on the open sea and make it work, but take out the killer monster eating people and there's no movie.

A killer monster that came from a wrecked spaceship on an alien world. The science-fiction elements are just as important.

[Prez]

Alien:
Reading through my elder brothers' Book of Alien and Alien: Photo Novel in 1979/80 as an 8 year old. Eventually saw the film on TV a couple of years later. The sheer terror wasn't that hard hitting as the books had given me the whole story inside out. To say those books and this film influenced me is an understatement. Gave me the most horrific nightmares and also sparked my creativity and set an artistic level I always tried to attain (even to this day in my job).

Aliens:
Won tickets to the Premiere here in my hometown. Was given these very cool shiny Aliens Badges (still have them). Fantastic experience. An absolute thrill ride of a film. Still my best experience in the cinema with an Alien film.

Alien 3: Oh boy. To say I was pissed was an understatement. Hated it. Was fuming when I left the cinema. They killed Hicks & Newt and I never recovered from it. That all said, I absolutely love this film now - it's a masterpiece (old age softens ya).

Alien Resurrection: Disappointed once the credits rolled in the cinema. I liked a lot of it but it felt silly and goofy. Grown to love this film (warts and all)

Alien vs. Predator: Missed it on the big screen but watched it on a dodgy downloaded pirate version. A lot of pre-release hype (on here and elsewhere) and I felt a little let down in parts but loved a lot about it.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem: In the cinema. Cheap and nasty. Too dark. Take the humans out and it's a great fun fight between the creatures. Remember everyone laughing really hard when the blonde girl gets nailed by Wolf's star blade.

Prometheus: Great experience in the Cinema. This felt grand. Incredible visuals on the big screen. I really enjoyed this one. I think for all it's flaws Prometheus doesn't get the love it deserves.

Alien Covenant: At the cinema. Had huge expectations for this one. Left angry and disappointed. Pissed off at Ridley with a lot of things but most of all the marketing seemed to present this as a film with XX121 having a huge presence but they didn't. Grown to enjoy it.

Alien Romulus: Aside from Aliens, the best experience I've had in the cinema was with this one. Hype and expectation was through the roof and it paid off (even if I was a bit unsure on somethings that repeat viewings have since cleared up).

[SM]

It's first and foremost a horror movie - you could transpose the story to a ship on the open sea and make it work, but take out the killer monster eating people and there's no movie.

A killer monster that came from a wrecked spaceship on an alien world. The science-fiction elements are just as important.

They're not.  They could have found the killer monster on a derelict ship that was adrift.

[Elmazalman]

Alien:
Reading through my elder brothers' Book of Alien and Alien: Photo Novel in 1979/80 as an 8 year old. Eventually saw the film on TV a couple of years later. The sheer terror wasn't that hard hitting as the books had given me the whole story inside out.

I now forever regret reading the Anobile photo book and the comic book adaptation one year in advance of seeing the film.

The film's many surprises were ruined for me. However, I still greatly enjoyed the film when I finally did see it.

[SiL]

A killer monster that came from a wrecked spaceship on an alien world. The science-fiction elements are just as important.

The story stills works of they find it in a cave or a shipwreck on a mysterious island.

The sci fi is just dressing to Alien.

[BeeHooKoo]

It's first and foremost a horror movie - you could transpose the story to a ship on the open sea and make it work, but take out the killer monster eating people and there's no movie.

How  there's no movie without monster? ..if the trio hadn't brought aliens from the derelict ship and the group would have been delivered the refinery to the destination, it would still have been movie, a 100% sci-fi movie without major horror elements. The genre of the content would then have been thriller or drama. Science fiction and horror are not interdependent film genres. There are lots of sci-fi movies without monsters, for example Apollo 13 and Gravity.

Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Sci-fi is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, as a result, a part of the world's films are sci-fi films, because alone the setting of the films is often fulfilling the criteria of the Science fiction genre.

The first Alien fulfills 100% the criteria of a sci-fi movie AND a horror movie.

[SiL]

How  there's no movie without monster? ..if the trio hadn't brought aliens from the derelict ship and the group would have been delivered the refinery to the destination, it would still have been movie, a 100% sci-fi movie without major horror elements.

Alien is not about delivering cargo, it's about fighting a killer monster. You can move where and when they find and fight that monster and maintain the core dramatic beats. Remove the monster and you need an entirely new story.

[BeeHooKoo]

How  there's no movie without monster? ..if the trio hadn't brought aliens from the derelict ship and the group would have been delivered the refinery to the destination, it would still have been movie, a 100% sci-fi movie without major horror elements.

Alien is not about delivering cargo, it's about fighting a killer monster. You can move where and when they find and fight that monster and maintain the core dramatic beats. Remove the monster and you need an entirely new story.

Of course, whatever changes are made to the film it is not the original Alien film. And after changes, what the film contains or how it is seen is up to each viewer's own interpretation, for someone it is delivering cargo, for someone it is finding a derelict ship deep in space.
The easiest way is for the horror element to be removed from the movie, when the discovered alien would not be a hostile, and no one would die. But the point is that an Alien movie is still a sci-fi movie, whether it has a horror element or not.

[SiL]

If you remove the horror elements you remove the plot. You need to write an entirely new story, with new drama.

If you remove the sci fi elements, you remove the setting. You just need to write a new setting, but with the same drama.

The film is clearly more horror than sci fi. One aspect is more important than the other to the story.

[Agoddamnpercentage]

It seems essential to the plot that it takes place in space, and features an android. But wherever you set the film, the creature itself, being biomechanical in a way that defies explanation, is quintessentially sci fi. Because of the nature of the creature, I think this would be a sci fi film even if it was set on earth in the present.

[SiL]

It seems essential to the plot that it takes place in space, and features an android.

A ship on the open ocean gives you all the same challenges - an enclosed space, a hostile environment beyond, and the need to not damage the ship when attacking the Alien, no help coming.

Ash being an Android isn't really relevant - him being a saboteur is.

But wherever you set the film, the creature itself, being biomechanical in a way that defies explanation, is quintessentially sci fi.

That would fit just fine into fantasy out supernatural horror, the same as any other fantasy biology does.

[Agoddamnpercentage]

A ship on the open ocean gives you all the same challenges - an enclosed space, a hostile environment beyond, and the need to not damage the ship when attacking the Alien, no help coming.

Ash being an Android isn't really relevant - him being a saboteur is.

Well, you couldn't have the same solution. Ripley couldn't just eject the creature.

I guess we've got different senses of what's essential to the film. Take out the setting on a space ship, and the complexities of Ash being an android (what does he know? How much free choice does he have? Has he malfunctioned?) and the film seems unrecognisable to me. That seems to qualify it as essentially a sci fi.

That would fit just fine into fantasy out supernatural horror, the same as any other fantasy biology does.

I'm not convinced putting Giger's alien into one of those settings wouldn't give them a sci fi element. But If it wouldn't it's probably because you've introduced the idea that the creature could have magical origins, which seems like a change to the creature itself. It and its mystery seem essentially sci fi to me. Changing its location changes the mystery of what it is.

[SiL]

Well, you couldn't have the same solution. Ripley couldn't just eject the creature.

That's dressing. She could still sink it in the ocean.

and the complexities of Ash being an android (what does he know? How much free choice does he have? Has he malfunctioned?)

The film doesn't even ask any of these questions and they don't really influence the plot at all.

Prometheus and Covenant, on the other hand, rely heavily on the nature of their artificial characters.

But If it wouldn't it's probably because you've introduced the idea that the creature could have magical origins, which seems like a change to the creature itself.

I didn't say to make it magical. Biology is science; a dragon is as much a work of science fiction in that regard as the Alien.

Early drafts of the script had the Alien being discovered in human spaceships and storage containers on the planet. It didn't really change the plot at all.

I'm not arguing sci fi isn't important to the presentation of the final movie, I'm just saying the story is a horror one. The sci fi can be replaced, the horror can't.