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Parents' Guide to

Alien

By Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Dated but still extremely scary. Not for younger kids.

Movie R 1979 124 minutes
Alien Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 13+

Based on 74 parent reviews

age 14+

Lingering nudity and very violent scene!

Obviously many violent/scary scenes...but one scene is worth noting: For the version we watched, these were the times the scene started/ended - I would recommend completely skipping this scene if younger kids: 1:21 - start of the very violent scene (it's a robot - but looks just like a man - and the "blood" is white, but still very violent scene which also includes a woman being attacked by this robot) 1:22 - full female nudity - there are a bunch of pictures on the wall, full female nudity - completely in focus... and the camera sits on them for a long period of time, and keeps showing them over and over 1:27:30 - end of very violent scene and nudity Hope this helps someone!
3 people found this helpful.
age 10+

Great for 10 and up!

A lot of swearing, but you hear most of that from the streets. I let my 10 year old watch it and he was fine with it.

This title has:

Great role models
Too much swearing
2 people found this helpful.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (74 ):
Kids say (306 ):

Kids like scary movies, and this one definitely succeeds; small kids are better off with E.T., though teens can take this movie for the thrill ride it is. Being scary, in new and disturbing ways that hadn't been done before, was the mission of Alien. For a generation of moviegoers, Alien was a state-of-the-art shocker, even though it basically has a second-hand monster plot and characters that behave like cliched horror-movie victims, wandering alone in the dark or waiting like sitting ducks to be picked off. Alien did defy stereotypes of its time in the brilliant move of making the ultimate survivor a vulnerable-looking young woman, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who courageously fights back against the alien marauder.

The 25th-annivesary DVD of Alien includes a few minutes of restored footage of what the alien does with captured prey -- considered too grim for 1979, but no surprise for anyone who saw the sequel, Aliens, or any of the later followups. Most of the violence here, in fact, is suggested in quick edits rather than directly shown, just like the skittering, skeletal/serpentine alien parasite itself. While this once-shadowy monster species has been exposed in inferior sequels, video games, and comic books (even Superman battled them!), some of the best minds in cinema tried to ensure this movie would be a nightmare-inducer, and parents should keep that in mind.

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