1979 – Ridley Scott – This science fiction/horror classic that inspired three sequels works on visual, dramatic, and emotional levels as a suspenseful, skillfully constructed variation on the conventional “one man against unbeatable odds” storyline, though in this case, it's a woman. After the crew of the Nostromo responds to a distress signal and discove…
1986 – James Cameron – Whereas Ridley Scott's original Alien was a moderately paced, dark, almost melancholy film deriving much of its mood from the isolation and entrapment of its characters, James Cameron's Aliens propels its story forward, retaining a certain dark atmosphere but taking the tale in a new direction by emphasizing action and by turning the cat-and-mous…
1975 – Steven Spielberg – Peter Benchley's best-selling novel was the basis for Jaws, the movie that put Steven Spielberg in the big leagues and generated the all-time biggest box office. While the audience waits for their first good look at the killer shark that has “staked a claim” in the beach waters off a New England resort island, the film succeeds in creat…
1993 – Steven Spielberg – Michael Crichton's blockbuster novel was the basis for this tale of genetically resurrected dinosaurs that quickly became one of history's highest grossing films. Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has found a way to extract dinosaur DNA preserved in amber and uses it to create living dinosaurs. Hammond intends for the prehistoric…
1933 – Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack – A filmmaker, Carl Denham, takes a crew to a remote island where his leading lady is abducted by natives. The inhabitants offer the actress to their god, Kong, who, we discover, is a giant ape. The big ape falls for Ann (Fay Wray), but then he's captured. He's taken to New York City and exhibited, is maltreated, and escape…
The original Frankenstein (1931), though it runs for only seventy-one minutes, can lay claim to attaining a mythic stature in its Faustian scientist who hungers to create life. Original prints deleted the line Colin Clive deliriously and blasphemously babbles after the creature first moves, “Now I know what it feels like to be God!” James Whale also directed the first sequel, The Bri…