1979 — Alien
No word could be more suited to describe the anxiety that fans were about to witness when Alien opened in 1979. When the crew of the interplanetary ship Nostromo is trapped in space with an entity far more advanced than them, a basic elevator pitch becomes bone-chillingly expanded on. The titular creature, adapted to exclusively kill and lay eggs, is one of cinema’s best and most terrifying designs.
1979 — Alien
1980 — The Shining
A story of spousal violence, ghosts, and environmental isolation appears to be three separate stories — but in Stanley Kubrick’s hands, the narratives blend flawlessly to bring the terror at the Overlook Hotel to life. Kubrick, known for drastically diverting from Stephen King’s source material, provides us with his customary enigmatic narrative and pictures as Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson’s most famous part) slides into madness. Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their son Danny take care of the hotel during what will be the harshest winter they’ve ever known.
1980 — The Shining