‘The Arrival’

This film is the 1996 directorial feature debut of veteran screenwriter David Twohy (“The Fugitive”). He keeps us on the edge of our seats not by dazzling us with lights and sound (even if the sound is spectacular) but by tantalizing his audience with basic, well-wrought suspense. Charlie Sheen, (pictured) as the increasingly manic radio astronomer Zane Ziminski, is thwarted by his creepy supervisor (Ron Silver) in his attempt to disclose his discovery of dangerous aliens.

(HBO Friday at 8 p.m.).