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Village of the Damned
D: Wolf Rilla (1960) 78m

In the English village of Midwich, the blonde-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers. Unfortunately, they all turn out to be little Hitlers who share a hive-like mind. Some critics claim the alien influence is not obvious enough, but for most of us it was either that or the kids were from Liverpool. Based on John Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos.

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The Man Who Fell to Earth
D: Nicolas Roeg (1976) 140m

David Bowie (as Newton) is top-notch in this film about the dangers of earthly-excess. Needing water to save his home planet and family, Newton comes to Earth and uses alien technology to establish a high-tech company. To build the spaceship he needs will require billions of dollars. Sex, drugs, alcohol and a wall of TVs soon lead him astray and his family values are tested.

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
D: Steven Spielberg (1977) 135m

Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), an electric lineman, watches how his quiet and ordinary daily life turns upside down after a close encounter with a UFO. Some think he has gone completely mad. The sub-plots revolve around a ufologist and a woman whose son has been abducted by aliens. UFOs are showing up all over the place and the three are eventually drawn to an alien landing site.

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
D: Philip Kaufman (1978) 115m

Director Philip Kaufman took it upon himself to dispel the growing myth that aliens might be peaceful and benevolent. The lesson here is that anyone who acts distant and detached is not to be trusted. In San Francisco humans are being turned into pod-people amidst some really icky special effects. Features Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and one or two surprises.

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E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial
D: Steven Spielberg (1982) 115m

An extra-terrestrial is accidentally left behind on Earth by his ship and befriends a young boy, as well as his brother and sister. As the children attempt to help their new friend contact his home planet, so that he might be rescued, they must simultaneously elude scientists and government agents who are determined to apprehend the alien for their own purposes.

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The Abyss
D: James Cameron (1989) 145m

When a U.S. nuclear submarine goes down in uncharted waters, a team of civilian divers and scientists go into the ocean to discover what happened to the sunken vessel. What they find is a lot of floating corpses, then a huge other-worldly neon jellyfish shows up to complicate matters. Big-budget special effects extravaganza with plenty of good old-fashioned interpersonal drama.

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District 9
D: Neill Blomkamp (2009) 112m

Quite simply the best serious sci-fi movie in a long time. District 9 is the place in South Africa where the world has decided to keep alien refugees (derogatorily called "prawns") that arrived over twenty years ago. A human field operative who contracts a DNA-changing virus may hold the key to operating alien technology. Visually compelling low-budget flick taking aim at apartheid.

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Arrival
D: Denis Villeneuve (2016) 116m

Massive alien ships land in a dozen places around the world. Louise Banks, an expert linguist, is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. The landings trigger a global panic and, unfortunately, the major world leaders are anything but cool, calm and collected. The film is based on Ted Chiang's terrific 1998 short story 'Story of Your Life'.

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The Vast of Night
D: Andrew Patterson (2019) 91m

At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens - a switchboard operator and a radio disc jockey - discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town. Well-acted character-driven mystery film said to be loosely based on the Kecksburg UFO incident and Foss Lake Disappearances.