9 Horror Movie Villains We ALL Foolishly Thought Had WON

Ridley Scott's Alien is the perfect sci-fi horror movie.

First making its way to the silver screen in 1979, the voyage of the Nostromo crew and the Xenomorph that stalks the ship's corridors is the stuff of legend.

Upon a first watch, though, it's hard not to think that the alien menace of the picture has won out and slaughtered the entire crew of the Nostromo. By the time of Alien's finale, the Xenomorph had already offed Kane, Brett, Dallas, Parker and Lambert, meaning Sigourney Weaver's Ripley was the sole survivor battling against severe odds as she tried to evade an acid-blooded, multi-mouthed monster from another world.

The thing is, by this point we'd maybe not quite appreciated just how much of a resourceful badass Ellen Ripley was. And thus, she caught us all by surprise by opening an airlocked door and letting the creature be sucked out into space - shooting a grappling hook at it for good measure, then crisping that Xenomorph up nicely in Ripley's escape shuttle's engine.

Still, back when you first watched Alien, it seemed a given that it was Ripely who would be toast as the Xenomorph stood tall. Instead, we had a burgeoning franchise on our hands.