DIGITAL enhancements, restoring the negative, adding unseen footage, polishing the soundtrack - whatever has been done to create Alien: The Director's Cut, it's just great to see it on the big screen again.

It's 25 years since Ridley Scott's science fiction horror movie first caused a stir around the world. It spawned three sequels (one excellent, two utter rubbish), it launched the career of one of Hollywood's most gifted and versatile actresses (Weaver), and it rewrote the rule book on the way this type of film was made.

But above all, it scared the hell out of cinema audiences around the world.

The story is simplicity itself. Scott picked out the best bits of all those old haunted house movies and transferred them to a hulking great spaceship, the Nostromo, lumbering through the dark depths of outer space.

On board are just seven people (and a cat), suddenly awoken from their hypersleep by a strange signal received from a lonely, storm-lashed planet.

A landing party investigates. They find an abandoned spaceship, empty but for some strange egg-like pods. One crew member, Kane (Hurt), peers into one of them, and gets the fright of his life - and so do we - when something jets out and attaches itself rigidly to his face.

His colleagues take him back to the Nostromo, where after much poking about and head scratching, the "face-hugger'' detaches itself from Kane, who regains consciousness only for an even worse horror to come, in what is still one of the most talked about scenes in cinema.

The upshot is, a rapidly growing and incredibly deadly alien is at large on the Nostromo, and the crew must find it and kill it, before it kills them.

This is all nail-biting, edge of the seat stuff which even after several viewings still has the power to hold you transfixed, daring yourself to watch as crew members creep around the labrynthine spaceship, armed only with hastily-built flame throwers.

And it's down to Scott's skill as a storyteller that we don't actually see these people killed it happens off camera, with only the sounds of the victims' hopeless struggles giving a hint of the horror that befalls them.

The spruced up version of Alien is clean and crisp, but it will take some keen observation to spot the new scenes and I'm not sure they make any signifcant difference to the film.

If you are a fan, you will be curious to see what the director has done to this cut.

And for anyone looking for a big screen fright this Halloween, you are unlikely to improve upon this film.

OUT! rating: 9 out of 10