Back in '79, when 'Star Wars' was the defining template of space themed movies Brett's death was a great moment where the escalation of threat hit's its peak. After the facehugger scene, which was nasty enough of a shock to fans expecting more Darth Vader style villainy, things just get worse. The chestburster scene was next in terms of bar raising shock - and is justifiably one of the most horrifying scenes in cinema history. Then the final escalation of threat comes when Brett is attacked and abducted.
It's the moment when the audience realises "This spaceship crew are all going to be f*cked! and Han isn't coming to save the day!" and is the moment the audience, still clinging to any residual notion that this was going to be another safe little comic book action flick featuring space battles, was completely erroded away. Forever.
'ALIEN' crept up on its audiences undercover of being 'another space movie released by Fox'. That can only be done once. Film making has changed since then. The World has changed since then and so too has audience expectations.
I think it's already too late to enjoy that "WTF did I just see?" emotion for 'ALIEN: Covenant' for some of us. I don't think that senstation will ever be replicated to the same extreme degree as it was when the first movie was released upon an unsuspecting audience with absolutely no idea what to expect over 30 years ago. People fled from cinemas back then!
We're well beyond that, now.
First timers not exposed to any promotional material online or elsewhere seeing the movie, going in blind and completely oblivious to anything 'ALIEN' might get that sensation. Make 'em binge watch a lot of 'Star Wars' first and then sit them down in the cinema to some 'ALIEN' chestbursting goodness. "It's the only way to be sure." lol.
-Windebieste.