User blog comment:ShawnCognitionCP/Alien: The Horror God, and if You've Been Influenced/@comment-25052433-20150227033907

I would also have to disagree here. I would probably venture that Psycho is the most influential American horror movie. Psycho was released in 1960. The shower scene is still used until this day in reference to terror. The character build of Normal Bates is still commonly used as a trope when it comes to antagonists that appear normal and meek but hide intense psychotic urges.

But we can break this down even further if we want to. Movies like White Zombie, which was released in 1932 set a large standard to how zombie movies are designed today. Nosferatu was realsed in 1922 and is still one of the most powerful and iconic vampire films ever created.

And we're just talking about American movies, Korea, Japan and Europe have thousands of such films that are enourmously powerful in their regions.

So, while I think we can all certainly respect Alien and grant it its rightful place as a movie classic, I would certianly disagree that it set the standard for films that followed after it.