6. Alien Stole Its Premise From It! The Terror From Beyond Space
Alien is a masterclass in science-fiction horror, and is arguably the only truly great example of that particular genre hybrid working in perfect unison.
Alien tells the story of a crew aboard a space vessel who come under attack from a terrifying alien beast who manages to sneak on board when they decide that it's wise to bring a contaminated John Hurt back into their living quarters. One by one, the passengers are killed off, and the rest is sci-fi history.
It! The Terror From Beyond Space, on the other hand, isn't particularly well-known, and its title alone is sure to provoke some laughter, 'cause it sounds ludicrous. What's somewhat surprising, though, is that
Alien owes everything to this dumbly named B-movie from 1958. And we're talking, like,
everything. Both movies, in fact, are based around the idea that a spaceship's crew lands on an uncharted planet and accidentally pick up a horrific alien monster in the process. And just like in
Alien, the baddie from
It! navigates the ship using vents, gets into a close shave with a blowtorch, and is sucked out into deep space where it dies from a lack of oxygen. I mean, it's
Alien, right? To be fair,
Alien screenwriter Dan O'Bannon knowingly ripped-off
It! The Terror From Beyond Space, which makes this somewhat excusable, though there was - at one time - a semi-backlash against
Alien and its similarities with the 1958 "original", because they are fairly unforgiving. Then, of course, everybody remembered that
Alien is awesome and that nobody really cared, and that was the end of that.