Alien freaked me out as a kid. I really love the scares, but also how space travel was depicted as blue collar.

Good point. Before this film, space travel was depicted as clean, brightly lit and very sanitary looking. But the Nostromo was a greasy, dingy, dripping mess filled with true blue-collar folk who were up in space not for exploration or anything noble, but to work and earn a paycheck.

The military aspect of Aliens loses this concept completely.

Alien.

Conceptually original.
Neat script, brilliant cinematography, flawless claustrophobic atmosphere and perfect direction.

Above all, one of the fiercest and most dreadful (if not THE most) character introduced to the movie screen. Un-paralleled yet. Unique still.

Good points made by Mictlantechutli, Roderick Usher & __V__. I was never as much of a fan of Aliens as I was Alien. I consider Aliens to be in the same vein as Terminator & Predator. Way more action than horror. I love the atmosphere & pure terror of the first one. At points in time, I don't consider Aliens a horror movie; more of an action affair if you will.

i think, for me, you may have made the defining point as far as this debate on horror dot com is concerned, wretch. there is no debate as one is horror and the other is sci fi. i suppose we could say the same for evil deads 2 and 3, horror and fantasy! or maybe the empire strikes back and the return of the jedi, sci fi and kiddies puppetry shit!

I never thought of it that way before. Thanks for the enlightenment.

Alien is def the better movie in terms of horror.

i think you are forgetting that sean connery movie outland(er). i think thats what its called

Which came out in 1981, 2 years after Alien.

Good points on the differences between the two films. It is amazing how two films in a series can be so different and yet both be such great films.