Two masterpieces, two arguments, two prequels made thirty years later, and one recent entry that slots into a gap nobody had marked. The prequels are about where the creature came from, which is a question the 1979 film is much better for never answering — so release order is strongly the one to start on. Story order is a clean two-hundred-and-eighty-year run and worth doing second, once the mystery is already spent.