Alien - The Director's Cut Review

After scaring us rotten in 1979, Ridley Scott's back with his most terrifying creation of all - and this time it's been digitally enhanced. Yes, the saliva-dripping, acid-blooded mother of all monsters, "Alien," has returned to our big screens and is even more pants-wettingly petrifying this time around. In his revisiting of the sci-fi landmark, Scott has wisely avoided the path marked George Lucas and instead of crowbarring a whole truckload of intrusive new scenes and digital trickery into an already brilliant movie, has opted for a more delicate approach. New scenes added to the story of a mining crew who encounter an unimaginably vicious alien in deepest, darkest space include a slap fest between Ripley and her female colleague Lambert and a macabre discovery of what the multi-mouthed monster gets up to with her victims.

But perhaps the most effective of all Scott's revisions is his decision to shave seconds from familiar scene after familiar scene which adds an almost unbearable urgency to the already horrific proceedings. The digital restoration and enhancement has also made what was a beautiful film even more eye-popping while Jerry Goldsmith's chilling score remains gloriously unaltered and is now belted out in a magnificent six-track digital mix. Flawlessly acted, brilliantly designed and masterfully directed, this is as close to perfect cinema as you can get.