Ranking the Alien Movies – From Chestburster Chaos to Xeno Masterpieces
“In space, no one can hear you scream!”
They also can’t hear you groan. Since Ridley Scott’s Alien burst from cinema’s chest cavity in 1979, the franchise has become a cornerstone of sci-fi horror and a masterclass in how to terrify audiences with both monsters and corporate bureaucracy. The Xenomorph is firmly seated in our Hall of Killers under Legendary, and for good reason: it’s one of the most terrifying and beautifully designed creatures to ever slither its way onto the big screen.
Sure, not every entry has been a facehugger’s kiss of brilliance. There’ve been highs, lows, and at least one film that felt like a TED Talk delivered by a robot with daddy issues. But love it or loathe it, the Alien series has continued to evolve — sometimes into something terrifying, other times into something that makes you wish Ripley just stayed in cryosleep.
So grab your flamethrower, say goodbye to your crew, and join us as we head back to LV-426 and beyond — this is our definitive ranking of the Alien films.
(And yes, just the films — if we dared to include Alien: Isolation, it would probably break the top 3. Yes, it’s that good. Don’t @ us.)
Game over, man. Game. Over.
9. Aliens vs. Predator Requiem
Ah yes, Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. The film that boldly asked, “What if we put two of the most iconic movie monsters ever into a teen soap opera and made it so dark you physically could not see a thing?” The answer? An absolute disaster.
After the mild success of Alien vs. Predator, the studio clearly thought, let’s scale it back. Way back. Forget the ancient temples and wild mythology. This time we are dropping aliens and predators into small-town America, complete with high school crushes, jocks, bullies, and soldiers just home from war. Groundbreaking stuff.
The film opens with, you guessed it, another Predator ship crashing to Earth. These guys must have learned to fly from Ryanair. Facehuggers are loose, a new creature called the Predalien shows up, and instead of feeling excited, we are just left scratching our heads. The cast is a lineup of walking tropes and blank stares. There is the love triangle, the misunderstood kid, and the tough military mom trying to reconnect with her daughter. You know, all the things you definitely go to an Alien movie for.
The biggest crime though is the lighting. Entire scenes are shot in what appears to be a pitch black garage during a power cut. You will strain your eyes and still not be sure what just happened.
This is a movie that somehow manages to suck the fun out of watching iconic monsters fight each other. It is not scary, it is not funny, and it is not worth your time. It lands dead last in both the Alien and Predator rankings, and honestly, it is lucky to even make the list.
8. Alien vs. Predator
Better than its dreadful sequel but still far from great, Alien vs. Predator was supposed to be a fanboy’s acid blood soaked dream come true. After years of teases in comics, video games, and that cheeky xenomorph skull in Predator 2, it was finally happening. Two of cinema’s greatest monsters would clash on the big screen. What could go wrong? Well, a fair bit as it turns out.
Instead of all out carnage in a war zone or deep space, we got a group of explorers led by Lance Henriksen discovering an ancient Predator training ground buried beneath Antarctica. Yes, apparently the Predators use Earth as their deadly little playground, complete with a pyramid that rearranges itself like a horror version of Crystal Maze. The concept? Teen Predators earn their stripes by battling Xenomorphs. If they win, they become warriors. If they lose, they become acid ridden corpses. Sounds fun, right?
Unfortunately, the humans get thrown into the middle of this intergalactic internship and we are left watching a weird buddy team-up between a Predator and a human fighting aliens together like this is some sci fi version of Tango and Cash. There are a few decent moments and the creature design is solid as always, but it all just feels a bit tame. No real suspense, no major scares, and nowhere near the gore and grit we hoped for.
It is not unwatchable and certainly has its fans, but in a franchise packed with bangers, this one takes a place closer to the bottom than we would like to admit.
7. Alien Covenant
After Prometheus successfully brought the Alien series back from the dead by going all prequel and philosophical, fans were genuinely excited to return for more acid dripping terror. What we got instead was James Franco burning alive in a pod, Danny McBride in a cowboy hat, and two androids played by Michael Fassbender who spend an uncomfortable amount of time playing the flute and flirting with each other. Yes, really.
The story follows a colony ship filled with hundreds of sleeping humans heading for a new world. After a solar flare ruins everything and sets fire to Franco (blink and you’ll miss him), the crew pick up a strange signal and decide to change course. Because of course they do. They land on a planet that just so happens to be the home of David, the slightly murdery android from Prometheus, who has gone fully rogue and is now creating xenomorphs like some kind of gothic space Da Vinci.
Visually, the film is stunning. Ridley Scott knows how to shoot a good looking movie and the musical score is genuinely brilliant. But beautiful cinematography and a creepy atmosphere can only get you so far when the story drags like a xenomorph tail and the characters are thinner than the plot. Fassbender is excellent, but the rest of the cast mostly exist to wander around dark corridors and get eaten in creative ways.
There are a couple of top tier horror moments that remind you what made the Alien series great in the first place, but sadly Covenant is more android poetry recital than terrifying space thriller. A missed opportunity.
6. Alien Resurrection
After the world collectively groaned at Alien 3, we had to wait five long years for the next instalment. But this one was gonna be different, right? They brought in French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet, hot off the success of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, to bring a fresh vision to the Alien universe. And to be fair, Resurrection does look pretty good – it’s definitely an Alien film, but it also 100 percent feels like a Jeunet film… just with more slime and less baguettes.
There was one small problem, though. Alien 3 killed off Ellen Ripley in dramatic, furnace-diving fashion. But heaven forbid anyone make an Alien movie without Sigourney Weaver. So the solution? Clone her. Yep. They clone Ripley, and just to make things more mental, she’s not just Ripley anymore – she’s Ripley with alien DNA. Somehow this means she’s stronger, has acid blood, and psychic vibes with the xenomorphs, but still looks like regular old Sigourney Weaver. Not a single extra mouth, no scaly bits, not even a little tail. Bit of a cop-out, really.
Anyway, this time around the story involves a bunch of grimy space mercenaries, including Winona Ryder as an undercover android (spoilers), and a gruff Ron Perlman basically playing Ron Perlman. They get tangled up in a government experiment gone wrong, where – shock horror – scientists have been breeding xenomorphs on board a military ship because that always works out. The aliens escape, carnage ensues, people scream and get dragged into air vents. You know the drill.
There are some really good moments here. The underwater xenomorph attack scene is genuinely brilliant and deserves a spot in any “best bits” Alien montage. And Weaver does well with what she’s given, leaning into Ripley’s weird new alien hybrid self with creepy calm. But overall, the tone is all over the place. The plot makes very little sense, and there’s a baby alien-human hybrid at the end that looks like a fleshy Halloween mask with daddy issues.
It’s stylish, sure. It’s got atmosphere. But Resurrection just doesn’t sit right. It’s like someone threw Alien, Firefly, and a student short film into a blender and hoped for the best.
5. Alien Romulus
Right, let’s get this out of the way – yes, we know some of you out there think Alien Resurrection is better than this. And on some days, when the moon is full and we’ve had one too many cans of Monster, we might even agree. But today is not that day. Today, Alien Romulus lands slap bang in the middle of the rankings – not quite great, but certainly not a disaster either.
Directed by Evil Dead (2013) mastermind Fede Álvarez, Romulus is one of those films that feels like a halfway reboot, halfway tribute, halfway soft sequel (so… three halves, then). It ditches the grand philosophical babble of Covenant and brings us back to basics: a group of humans, a dark ship, and a bunch of xenomorphs ready to redecorate the walls with fresh intestines.
This time the focus is on a young woman and her android brother – yes, another bloody android – played by David Johnson from The Long Walk. Alongside a group of forgettable pals, they escape their drudgery-filled lives working on some hellhole planet, only to find themselves aboard a very suspicious-looking Weyland-Yutani ship. You know, the kind that usually comes with slimy stowaways and facehuggers waiting to ruin your lunch.
Now, we’ll give Romulus this – it looks incredible. The set design is top-notch. From the first frame, it gives major Blade Runner vibes, with the moody lighting, industrial grime, and oppressive atmosphere making it clear this is not a happy place. There’s an actual weight to everything – you feel the grime under your fingernails just watching it.
The xenos are back to their terrifying roots here too – silent, slick, and hungry. There are a few standout sequences that genuinely impress, especially a particularly nasty chestburster scene that feels like a love letter to the original 1979 shocker.
But – and it’s a big but – the film has a character problem. A lot of the people in this movie are just plain annoying. We’re not talking “funny annoying” or “charming rogue” annoying. We’re talking “please let the alien get them next” annoying. The emotional core between the android brother and the main character almost works, but never quite hits Ripley and Bishop levels.
Romulus is solid. It’s good. It just never pushes itself far enough into greatness. It plays things a bit too safe, which is frustrating considering Álvarez knows how to throw blood and chaos at a screen like a pro.
And yes, we’re still gutted that Neil Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel never saw the light of day. You remember that one? The one with Hicks, Newt, and Ripley back from the dead, in what looked like it would have been the true follow-up to Aliens? Yeah, that one still stings.
But hey, at least Romulus didn’t give us an alien-human love baby. Progress.
4. Prometheus
After what felt like an eternity of waiting and rumours, Ridley Scott returned to space. He announced a mysterious new sci-fi project called Prometheus and immediately the internet went into meltdown. Is it an Alien prequel? Is it something new? Is it just Ridley Scott trying to out-Ridley himself with big ships and even bigger ideas?
Turns out, yes, it is a prequel. And yes, it is very Ridley.
Prometheus takes us way back – not to the days of Ripley, or even Xenos – but to a time when humans were still trying to figure out whether cave paintings were signs from ancient astronauts or just someone showing off their hand turkey art. A pair of wide-eyed archaeologists (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) find a star map in a Scottish cave that suggests we weren’t made by God, but by big bald gym bros from space. So naturally, they get a spaceship (conveniently called Prometheus) and head out to meet the neighbours.
These neighbours are, of course, the Engineers. You might remember their big creepy corpse from the original Alien – the giant “Space Jockey” sitting fossilised at the start of it all. Only now, they’re not just spooky background lore – they’re central to the plot. They apparently created humanity, and they’re not exactly thrilled with the idea that we’ve shown up on their doorstep uninvited. Especially when we bring Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, and a robot Fassbender with a Lawrence of Arabia obsession.
Now, Prometheus is a film that wants to be clever. It throws around philosophical ideas like “where do we come from?”, “should we meet our makers?”, and “why is that biologist poking the obviously hostile space snake?” The answers? “Space”, “probably not”, and “because he’s an idiot.”
There’s also that black goo – the universal mystery substance that can turn you into a tentacle monster, make your boyfriend melt into soup, and eventually lead to what might be a Xenomorph. Sort of. If you squint. Maybe. It’s like a biological IKEA flatpack of death, and David the android is the only one who seems remotely interested in reading the instructions.
Speaking of David – Michael Fassbender absolutely steals the show here, playing the synthetic with equal parts charm and creepy detachment. One minute he’s quoting movies, the next he’s poisoning your drink for “scientific purposes.” Cheers, mate.
And yes, let’s address that scene – Idris Elba flirts with Charlize Theron by accusing her of being an android. She proves she isn’t… by having sex with him. That’s certainly one way to win an argument. Might try it myself next time I’m down the Dog & Duck.
Prometheus isn’t perfect. It’s muddled, sometimes frustrating, and leaves more questions than answers. But visually? It’s stunning. Conceptually? Bold. And for all its faults, it brought back some of the mystery, grandeur, and existential dread that made Alien such a classic.
Just… maybe don’t ask too many questions about the goo.
3. Alien 3
Universally hated upon release, and honestly, we get it. After two genre-defining classics, Alien 3 felt like being kicked in the emotional groin. We cheered when Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop escaped LV-426 in Aliens. They earned that happy-ish ending. Then, Alien 3 came along and essentially said, “Nah, forget all that” — Hicks and Newt? Dead before the opening credits. Bishop? A heap of crushed parts. All that tension, action and survival… for absolutely nothing.
It was like being promised a puppy and then handed a tax bill.
With David Fincher making his directorial debut — the man who would go on to give us Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, and The Social Network — expectations were cautiously high. But the poor guy barely had a chance. Studio interference plagued every stage of production. Multiple script rewrites, reshoots, edits, and a general “too many cooks in the spaceship” situation meant Fincher was creatively hogtied. To this day, he doesn’t even want to talk about the movie. That’s how bad it was behind the scenes.
Note to studio execs: You’re not the creatives. Let the artists create. Your job is to fund it, promote it, and maybe attend the premiere in a nice suit. Now sit down.
As for the film itself… it’s grim. Not just in tone, but visually too. Set on Fiorina 161, a remote prison planet inhabited by bald religious murderers and rapists (all looking like they’ve just walked off a Nine Inch Nails video set), Ripley is the only woman there. Naturally, things get uncomfortable. Oh, and she’s brought a stowaway with her — a fresh new alien. But surprise twist: this one didn’t burst out of a human chest, it came out of a dog (or ox, if you’re watching the Assembly Cut). So the alien is faster, leaner, and apparently allergic to decent lighting.
The prisoners have no weapons — it’s a prison, after all — so they must rely on teamwork, makeshift traps, and the power of sweaty desperation to take down the creature. Unfortunately, this isn’t Home Alone in Space — and Kevin McCallister isn’t around to help set up the marbles and tarantulas. It’s all fire, steam, and a lot of shouting down dimly lit hallways.
Then comes the gut punch: Ripley has been impregnated with a Xenomorph Queen. So not only is she being hunted — she’s incubating the thing that could doom all of humanity. And in true Ripley fashion, she makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Now — if you’ve only seen the theatrical cut, we get why you’re still angry. But give the Assembly Cut (the fancy way of saying “directors cut but without the director”) a go. It’s longer, yes, but it makes more sense and adds much-needed depth. It still isn’t Alien or Aliens, but it’s a vastly more coherent and affecting film. In fact, it’s actually pretty decent.
So while Alien 3 is the cinematic equivalent of dropping your ice cream, licking it off the pavement, and finding it’s still kinda good — it earns its place high in the rankings.
Just… try not to think too hard about Newt. Or Hicks. Or Bishop.
2. Alien
Oh, there will be screams. There will be torches. There will be die hard fans yelling about this placement from their space bunkers. But for every one that disagrees, there is another who secretly nods along. Alien is a classic. A five star sci fi horror if ever there was one. That much is not in question. But… it is not our favourite.
Back in 1979, a little known director named Ridley Scott made a film once hilariously titled Star Beast. Thankfully, they changed that to Alien before anyone could print the posters. A crew of space truckers en route to Earth are rudely awakened by their ship’s computer. A mysterious signal has been picked up from a planet nobody has heard of, and their ever reliable company bosses tell them they have to check it out or forfeit their bonus. Lovely. They land on this fog drenched nightmare rock and find a derelict spaceship with a big skeleton fella in a chair and a basement full of eggs protected by smoke and blue lasers. Seems legit.
One of the crew gets up close and personal with an egg and is suddenly snogged by a facehugger. He wakes up later feeling fine and decides to smash some noodles with his mates before dinner turns into one of the most iconic scenes in horror history. Chest goes pop, baby alien runs off, and everything goes completely sideways. The creature grows at an alarming rate and begins to bump off the crew one by one in increasingly horrific fashion. That is until Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley steps up and cements herself as one of cinema’s greatest heroines. Smart, tough, and with zero interest in your macho nonsense.
Alien is a haunted house movie in space. It is slow, suspenseful, stunning to look at, and absolutely dripping in dread. It redefined horror and sci fi, launched a franchise, and made Xenomorphs into icons. It also helped change how women were portrayed in horror and action films forever. Ripley is no scream queen. She is the queen.
So yes, Alien is an undeniable masterpiece. But it is not our number one. You already know what is.
Stay frosty.
1. Aliens
Wait a second, you put the sequel above the original? Yes. Yes, we did. And we are not sorry. Alien is a masterpiece of sci fi horror, no arguments here. But James Cameron’s sequel is a masterpiece of full blown sci fi action horror carnage. And in this household, it takes the crown.
Let’s set the scene. After Ridley Scott stepped aside, up stepped young James Cameron. The Terminator was not even out yet when they handed him the keys to the Alien kingdom. The British crew at Pinewood Studios were not impressed. “Who is this guy?” they muttered into their tea and sandwiches. Well, jokes on them because that guy went on to make Aliens, Terminator 2, Titanic, and Avatar, racking up billions while they went back to working on EastEnders.
Ripley wakes up after drifting in cryosleep for decades. So long, in fact, that her daughter has grown old and died. So long that nobody believes a word she says about alien monsters and exploding ships. Corporate suits are more concerned about the price tag on the Nostromo than the fact she nuked it from orbit. To make things worse, the planet where it all went down — LV426 — is now home to a terraform colony. And guess what? They’ve lost contact. Uh oh.
So what do the company geniuses do? Send in the Marines. Space Marines. And they drag Ripley along for good measure with a promise to reinstate her pilot license. The squad is full of cocky meatheads, heavy weapons, and one guy who still thinks it’s all just a bug hunt. Until it very much isn’t.
Before long, they find one survivor — a traumatised little girl named Newt — and a metric ton of acid bleeding nightmares. Oh, and one corporate weasel who wants to smuggle a facehugger back to HQ like it’s a fancy houseplant. Ripley is having none of it. What follows is two glorious hours of pulse rifles, flamethrowers, motion trackers, and some of the most quotable lines in cinema history. Game over man. They mostly come at night. Mostly. Nuke it from orbit. Get away from her, you bitch.
Aliens is pure adrenaline and one of the rare sequels that builds upon and even improves the original. It expands the universe, develops Ripley into an all time great character, and introduces the Alien Queen — a monster so iconic she deserves her own spin off series. The final act, with Ripley descending into the hive, rescuing Newt, and throwing down with Mama Xenomorph in a mech suit is still the stuff of cinematic legend.
We’ve watched Aliens hundreds of times and it never, ever gets old. It is the perfect mix of horror, action, heart, and quotable machismo. For us, this is the high watermark of the entire franchise. The only thing scarier than the Xenomorph is how good this movie still is.
Now suit up, soldier. We are leaving.
