Ridley Scott's Sci-Fi Horror Classic Alien Officially Lands on Netflix

It's hard to reinvent and transform one genre, let alone two. But that's exactly what Ridley Scott managed to do almost fifty years ago when he cross-bred the haunted house trope with a creature feature, stuck it in space and, in the process, introduced terrified audiences to one of cinema's most terrifying creatures. Five decades later, it still scares the life out of everyone.

Now, Alien has found yet another generation of potential victims. Scott's sci-fi masterpiece officially joined Netflix in the United States on September 1 as part of the streamer's major monthly catalog refresh, alongside its equally acclaimed sequel, Aliens. Alien follows the seven-person crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo after they are awakened from stasis to investigate what appears to be a distress signal originating from a nearby moon. So far, so good, but then the discovery of a derelict spacecraft quickly turns disastrous when one crew member encounters an unknown organism, unknowingly bringing a lethal extraterrestrial lifeform aboard the Nostromo. You know what that lifeform is. It's the most iconic alien in the history of cinema; it's the xenomorph.

The cast is led by Sigourney Weaver (Avatar) as Ellen Ripley, alongside Tom Skerritt (Top Gun) as Dallas, Veronica Cartwright (The Birds) as Lambert, Harry Dean Stanton (Paris, Texas) as Brett, John Hurt (The Elephant Man) as Kane, Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings) as Ash, and Yaphet Kotto (Live and Let Die) as Parker, with Bolaji Badejo portraying the Alien.

How Good Is 'Alien'?

Nearly five decades after its release, Alien remains one of the most acclaimed science-fiction and horror movies ever made. It currently holds a 93% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus praising the movie's combination of science fiction, horror, and bleak atmosphere, and its reputation has only grown with time, while the movie was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2002 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

At the box office, it was also a massive success, earning more than $106 million worldwide against a reported $11 million production budget. It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and received another nomination for Best Art Direction, while Weaver's Ellen Ripley went on to become one of the most iconic heroes in science-fiction history.

Alien is streaming now on Netflix.