I would also say Alien is sci/fi with horror elements, but this i so sublective.

As I have more than 4000 DVDs/ Blu-rays, I also have them seperated in categories.
For some it is easy, Animation or Documentary for example, for some it becomes very hard, but so far I can manage the system

greetings
Donnie

Quoting daTerminehtor:

Quote:
argh...

I'm at this point of moving most of my DVD collection to digital format. I've created different folders for different genre's and I've run into the following...

Is Alien a horror or sci-fi?

What about its sequels?

When is a horror movie a sci-fi?

In our collections they can be both, but under these circumstances, no.

What say you?

Most people think that in order to be sci-fi, it has to be something in the future involving machines, spaceships, aliens, etc.  Taking a cue from literature, however, you find two distinct types of sci-fi.  There is, as the name implies, the "science" type fiction; but there is also a "social" type fiction that involves things like alternate realities, societies, pyschological sorts of scenario.  Both types can take place in the present, the future, or an alternate universe.

Horror depends on societal influences.  What is horrific to one society, may not be to another.  For example, Mayan culture involved human sacrifice which we find horrific today.  Horror cuts across many different genres, and may or may not involve monsters, but in the end have some component of societal taboo involved.

To answer the question, 'Alien' is science fiction of the 'science' type, with horrific elements, ie the behavior of the aliens, but is not horror.