The Best Alien Movies (2019): Movie Monsters

By Steve Hutchison

Steve Hutchison reviews 50 of the best alien movies. Each film is analyzed and discussed with a synopsis and a rating. The movies are ranked from best to worst. How many have you seen?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hutchison
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781778870767

Steve Hutchison

Artist, developer and entrepreneur in film, video games and communications Steve Hutchison co-founded Shade.ca Art and Code in 1999, then Terror.ca and its French equivalent Terreur.ca in 2000. With his background as an artist and integrator, Steve worked on such games as Capcom's Street Fighter, PopCap's Bejeweled, Tetris, Bandai/Namco's Pac-Man and Mattel's Skip-Bo & Phase 10 as a localization manager, 2-D artist and usability expert. Having acquired skills in gamification, he invented a unique horror movie review system that is filterable, searchable and sortable by moods, genres, subgenres and antagonists. Horror movie fans love it, and so do horror authors and filmmakers, as it is a great source of inspiration. In March 2013, Steve launched Tales of Terror, with the same goals in mind but with a much finer technology and a complex engine, something that wasn’t possible initially. He has since published countless horror-themed books.

Book preview

MonsterMovies2019_BestAlienMovies_Cover.jpg

Tales of Terror’s

Movie Monsters 2019

The Best Alien Movies

INTRODUCTION

Steve Hutchison reviews 50 of the best alien movies. Each film is analyzed and discussed with a synopsis and a rating. The movies are ranked from best to worst. How many have you seen?

#1

Total Recall

1990

A man goes for a virtual vacation on planet Mars as a spy.

8/8

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside, to name a few; Total Recall has some of the best Hollywood actors at the peak of their career and offering some of their best performances yet. This is a smart action-packed science fiction masterpiece directed by none other than Paul Verhoeven and based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. What a delight!

It has some of the best and catchiest music in film history. It contains several futuristic concepts we haven’t seen before. It has a confusing storyline that plays with your mind but makes perfect sense when all is said and done. The script constantly gets you wondering what is real, what is virtual, and you may not get straight answers by the time the end credits roll.

Everything in Total Recall, from the cars to the architecture, has a futuristic yet somewhat primitive look. The film has its own aesthetic and looks like nothing else. The make-up required to make us believe we are among mutants is quite elaborate and very realistic. Action, aliens, technology, romance, gore; you have it all. Total Recall is, without a doubt, one of the best movies ever made!

#2

The Faculty

1998

Six students find out their teachers are from another planet.

8/8

A splendid cast is introduced very early on, including the protagonists who are presented through character cards right after an epic prologue. There are obvious Body Snatchers and Scream influences, here. It’s no coincidence that Kevin Williamson, of Scream fame, is screenwriting. The Faculty is punctuated by an amazing rock soundtrack just when you think the film couldn’t get any cooler.

The students, in The Faculty, are mentally and physically abusive, from the get go, so we’re not sure exactly what they become when they’re possessed, and that’s a grey zone that never gets addressed. Some of the infected become more aggressive and some more passive. All characters are right out of a comic book and the acting is irreproachable. In fact, the film itself is almost perfect.

The Faculty is as mainstream as horror films get, but horror buffs will see it from a particular angle. It’s an alien invasion, a slasher, a whodunit and, well, it’s teen horror. What else is there to like? The actors are amazing: Josh Hartnett, Famke Janssen, Robert Patrick, Laura Harris, Salma Hayek, Piper Laurie, Usher Raymond and Elijah Wood, to name a few.

#3

Aliens

1986

The survivor of a space invasion awakened from stasis by her employer is asked to assist a troop