This is an interesting article about the films that inspired Alien. I thought I would share it because it brings up interesting points about story telling and about the different ways stories have been told, and how there's a thread running through a lot of them that takes what has come before and configures it in a different way or places it in a different setting.
https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/alien-and-its-antecedents/
https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/alien-and-its-antecedents/