Alien (1979)
Here's yet another one that some classify as science fiction. I suppose it is a science fiction film, but it's more of a horror film than anything. The only film in the series I'd consider science fiction is the piece of crap that is Alien Resurrection. This one's horror, the second one is an action film, the third is... a David Fincher film... and of course the fourth is not worth talking about.
Alien took an old idea and brought it into modern film. It's basically a hodgepodge of ideas taken from a few films from the 1950s and 60s. The giant alien skeleton discovery is basically ripped from Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires, an alien stalking and killing the crew of a spaceship comes from It! The Terror From Beyond Space, there are elements from Forbidden Planet as well. And of course there's also the stuff it pulled from Dan O'Bannon's previous student film that he wrote (and was directed by John Carpenter), Dark Star. Let's face it. The movie is an update of the old 1950s monster run amok pictures. However, the effects are now good, the acting is much better, the sets are more believable, and there is of course more blood and suspense. I've always considered the trailer for Alien to be one of the best trailers ever done. It tells you the experience you're going to get without giving away anything. The trailer builds and builds, and then it sort of orgasms. It's what the movie does. The movie's a potboiler. It takes a while for anything to really happen, but you know it's going to eventually. That's what suspense is. No one was expecting an alien to burst out of a guy's chest! Take a look at the magnificent trailer.
It's like abstract art. At a louder volume, the egg suddenly cracking makes me jump still. And then the pulsing and odd noises get louder and louder and faster and faster... Just like the film. It shows you exactly what you're going to get. A film with jump scares, suspense, and a large release of adrenaline towards the end.
This was one of the first films that showed a smart, in charge, strong woman character that we could root for. You had Halloween the year before, but that was an independent film. This one was done by a major studio, and even they started to catch on to the feminism ideal. Of course, there's also something sexual between Ripley and the alien. He likes to watch her. It taunts her. In a way, it's almost the same movie as Halloween was. Just set in space and with a monster instead of personified evil. However, in a way this is scarier. As the movie's tagline says, "In space, no one can hear you scream!" In suburbia they can, they just don't care.
So what makes the film one of the best horror films? Well, for one thing, there's the claustrophobic main setting. Almost the whole film takes place on a spacecraft. The Nostromo is a dull, ugly ship with narrow passageways and dark rooms. And if that wasn't enough, we spend some of the time in the ventilation system! In fact, my favorite scene (besides the last 15 minutes of course), is when Dallas is trying to trap the alien in one part of ship by closing off the ventilation system's corridors and he finds out he's not alone. It's dark in there, so he can't tell where the alien is. It's a great scene and ends in a good scare. There's the added oddity of Ash, played by Ian Holm. He's humorless, has a stick up his butt, and constantly quarrels with Ripley as he's just above her in rank. He finds the creature fascinating and seems to be protecting it. And towards the end he goes completely berserk, attempting some sort of rape on Ripley with... a pornographic magazine.
Let's also not forget what makes the movie stand out visually. That being H.R. Geiger's designs. He was a German artist that blended biological and mechanical together to make beautiful yet horrific artwork. He incorporated a lot of sexual stuff in there too. He designed the alien and the derelict spaceship for the film, including the space jockey. He made the alien have a clear life cycle, which was a first in science fiction film. You have the egg, which holds the facehugger. The facehugger attaches itself to someone's face and implants it's young into the lifeform's stomach via a tube down the throat; another sexual allusion. The being grows in there, and bursts forth from the chest as a foot tall version of the final alien form. It grows to full size in just a few hours time. It also has acid for blood (as does the facehugger), meaning killing it could be your death as well, if you're in space or in close proximity to the alien when you kill it. At this point the queen had not been added to the cycle. That would come in the next film.
The movie takes place in space, on a spaceship with a small crew that gets killed off one by one until only Ripley is left. It's the standard slasher formula, but that genre wasn't to be really created until the next year. Also, this isn't a human doing the killing. It's Jaws in space. In fact, that's how they pitched the film to the studio. (Star Wars being released just two years before didn't hurt either.) The film is considered a classic for a reason. Even Congress put it in the National Film Registry over 10 years ago! That means it'll be preserved for as long as the US is around at least. It strengthened Ridley Scott's already pretty good career, and it launched Sigourney Weaver into a lead woman. Some find her sexy, but I never did. She looks better in Ghostbusters to me.
I really should see this in theaters one day. Back in 2004, they rereleased the film in theaters for it's 25th anniversary. It didn't show anywhere near where I was at the time, and I'm glad I didn't go. They were showing a new cut of the film advertised as a "Director's Cut", which it wasn't. It was simply a different edit of the film with some trims and a stupid scene re-added that killed the flow of the last few minutes. Stay away from the director's cut. However, if I get the chance to see the original version on the big screen one day, I'll take it. It must be quite the experience.
Shall I leave you with a death scene? I shall!
Okay, so that's not Alien. Sue me. I love this Spaceballs scene!
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