LOS ANGELES – In space, no one can hear you scream. But sitting in front of a game console in a darkened room, it turns out people can definitely hear you shriek. And whimper. And curse like Pvt.

Ridley Scott's inimitable 1979 sci-fi thriller, Alien, expertly ratchets up the tension by not having the titular alien show up on screen until roughly an hour into the film. Following in Scott's ...