Around 1993 or so, a friend told me about 'Alien' and 'Aliens' while we were on the bus going home from summer camp. I was 9 years old.
They sounded AWESOME, and my parents bought me my first Kenner 'Aliens' action figure, the Snake Alien.
Somehow I convinced my mother to rent 'Alien' for me. It was the first R-rated movie I'd ever seen, and somehow it didn't scare the shit out of me or scar me for life.
I've been hooked ever since.
For me I think the thing that interested me the most at first was the Alien itself, how it looked, how it acted, and what it was capable of.