Aliens

The approach has felled others since, but James Cameron’s scaled-up 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott’s shocker makes brilliant work of a brusque formula: preserve what works and multiply. A subtle, spooky movie with teeth becomes a subtlety-bashing war movie.

With Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and motherly themes thrust forwards, Cameron also aces the horror, using a flashed-up ‘proximity…