10 Movies Saved By One Single Cut

10. Cutting The Xenomorph "Crab Walk" - Alien

Ridley Scott's Alien is a masterpiece of subtle, slow-burn suspense, and one of its key triumphs is Scott's decision to rarely show the Xenomorph creature clearly to the audience.

Typically the alien is bathed in shadow and a concerted effort is made never to depict it in full profile, where it would be more obviously distinguishable as a man in a suit.

Scott sensibly made one crucial cut, then, during Lambert's (Veronica Cartwright) death scene, which originally contained a lengthy shot where the Xenomorph "crab-walks" towards her on all fours before standing up in distinctly humanoid fashion.

The unintentionally hilarious moment would've instantly sucked the tension out of not only the scene but perhaps the rest of the movie, morphing Alien from a gut-wrenching horror into an accidental comedy.

This honestly might be one of the shrewdest directorial calls of Scott's entire career.