14 Most Terrifying Moments From Alien Films

13. Don't Bother With The Deep Heat (Alien: Covenant)

Alien Movie Kane
20th Century Fox

Okay, here's the thing: Prometheus is better than Alien: Covenant. Cue howls of derision and only the merest nods in agreement. The mistake Ridley Scott made was to open up a can of worms - or the canisters of the monstrous pathogen - on exploring the enigmatic backstory of his greatest work, Alien.

Although Prometheus was, admittedly, frustratingly portentous, at least it did what it says on the tin: discovering the origins of mankind. Whereas Covenant suffers an identity crisis: with Scott seemingly throwing in Alien-derived horror just to please the fans he had listened to following the backlash over Prometheus.

Perhaps the scene where David releases the deadly pathogen onto the helpless Engineers, is a metaphor for Scott's frustration with those same fans whilst his mind continually wondered to the film he wanted to make instead. Either way, after investing so much time in the potential of Prometheus, it feels like a cop out.

That is one of the reasons why there's only a solitary entry from Covenant, and no prizes for guessing which one. John Hurt's iconic chestburster scene is never going to be bettered. Daresay we've even become immune to the shock factor of the other chestburster moments.

Nevertheless, the backburster scene in Covenant brings a unique twist - quite literally - to an old favourite. Hands up who squirmed uncomfortably in their seats as you watched the baby Neomorph bulge then burst out from poor Ledward's back? Even writing about it makes the back twinge involuntary. Wait, the pain's getting worse!

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The name's Colbourn, James - yeah, doesn't quite have the same ring to it.