12 Most Anxiety-Inducing Sci-Fi Movies EVER
3. Alien
The grand daddy of all space based horrors, Gladiator director Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece Alien is essentially one long, slow chase sequence as the audience watches helplessly.
From the moment the crew encounter their first face hugger to Ripley's triumphant closing scenes, the flick is a slowly mounting, deeply stressful exercise in growing tension. After the explosive first appearance of the baby xenomorph, the film cleverly keeps its monster hidden in shadow save for a few choice glimpses, leaving nothing but empty space and overactive imaginations to do the work for the filmmakers.
And what work it is, resulting in a movie whose tight runtime will raise your heart rate higher than six shots of espresso.