Alien

Only a title so simplistic and a tagline so brilliant could result in one of the most memorably creepy, but also coolest horror movies of its generation, with the 1979 science fiction horror flick, Alien. While definitely in a different vein to some of the other classics of the genre like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Scream, Alien presents a concept that was often treated in a less-than-serious manner and presented something that would last forever in the minds of those who paid witness to its horrors. In the far future out in the middle of nowhere-space, a space merchant vessel is awoken from their status and is told to intercept an unknown transmission on a nearby moon. The crew consisting of Captain Dallas (played by Tom Skerritt),   warrant officer, Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), navigator Lambert (played by Veronica Cartwright), engineering technician Brett (played by Harry Dean Stanton), executive officer Kane (played by John Hurt), chief engineer, Parker (played by Yaphet Kotto) and ship science officer, Ash (played by Ian Holm) take up the task and journey down to the planet, leading to Kane being attacked by a mysterious life-form that attached itself to his face. Although he is returned to the ship and seemingly healed, he is eventually killed after a creature is birthed from his stomach and is set lose on the ship. Faced against the ultimate life form that has the potential to quickly wipe them out one by one and with no assistance in sight, the crew must find a way to survive far away from contact and with little hope of survival. Directed by Ridley Scott and distributed by 20th Century Fox, Alien was a box office success at the time (earning 184.7 million against its measly $11 million budget), managed to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and while critic reception at the time was mixed, it eventually was reassessed and many still see this film as one of the greatest horror films ever made. Along with great acting, effects, cinematography and especially pay-off, what looked like another standard forgettable horror movie of the time, would later join the ranks of unforgettables shortly afterwards.

With a title so bland and even a little uninspiring, you’d expect not a lot of people to be impressed by this idea, but the advertising for the film was incredibly effectively, presenting a premise that is usually set within a fantastical futuristic atmosphere, and grounding it into cold-hearted reality. It relied on its simplistic and even uncertain tone framework to keep the audience in suspense of what this threat is, what it could do and how it’s going enact its bloodshed. By implementing an animalistic personality to this alien creature, it made the fear a lot more real and therefore, a lot more gripping in a physical sense that can’t be easily thrown away as fiction like other supernatural threats, whilst still being distinctly sci-fi in nature. The film in general has a way of drilling fear into its audience members by relying on a long period of build-up rather than on expected tropes or cliched jump scares. The story by screenwriter Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett has some expected tropes of the genre that could be a little stale by this point, but the unique delivery, gritty characters and stylish but still eerie visual design brings a new identity to a formulaic outline, turning what could be basic into something that is truly horrific. These two clearly had a lot of passion for creating a different kind of alien, as both had experience tackling an extraterrestrial-based project in the past (with O’Bannon working on the 1974 film, Dark Star, and Shusett originally working on Alejandro Jodorowsky’s original adaptation of Dune which never fell through), but never in a horror sense. The pacing for the film is pitch perfect and the atmosphere around this slowness only adds to the tension of the film and creates a stuffy and stressful environment where the audience is as equally as frightened and panicked as the lead characters, which makes the pay-off and eventually reveal of the horror that much more effective and down in a way that is graphic yet still chillingly quiet. Ridley Scott can be a divisive director as his later work would show, but here he seems to nail the attitude of the situation, atmosphere and genre in a way that feels authentic to its portrayal, but still unique enough in its presentation and performances to be its own creation.

All the characters in the movie have a unique presence that feels different from most movies of this type but are done in such a way that really fits with the style and delivery. They seem to lack a sense of chemistry between each and seem to barely tolerate the other on many occasion (which would normally be a problem in a flick where you’re supposed to like these characters and buy them as a group), but the film uses this to their advantage and amps up the discomfort and even distrust between the group as a means of souring the tension even further. You can’t say that they’re really fleshed out roles or even that defined outside of their duties on the ship, but they always feel like real people who are just doing whatever they can to survive a horrifying ordeal and that works within this movie. It’s not overblown, it’s not wasting time going too in-depth to the point of it feeling like wasted time, and it picks and chooses at the exact right time how long to keep characters around for and when to let them become alien chow, its handled quite effectively which also comes from the very solid cast holding them up. The actors all feel completely genuine and assist in helping these faces stand out a bit more through their portrayals instead of just relying on the scripting. Sigourney Weaver, not surprisingly, steals the show as Ellen Ripley, and despite being a relative newcomer at the time, she leaves an impression very earlier on in her career. Everything down to her acting, her attitude, the way she commands herself, she very easily cements herself into that ”action survivor” archetype very nicely, and during a time when those kind of roles weren’t given to women, it’s both refreshing and very well handled. The rest of the cast is full of recognizable names, but not many that you’d expect from a movie of this kind, but they still do a very good job at creating a crew that might get on your nerves at times, but also feel believable enough at selling the fear that you don’t want to see them die right away.

The cinematography by Derek Vanlint manages to be both impressive from a large scale and a small-scale perspective at the same time. The long tracking shots of the ship or on the alien planet are quiet, but also haunting in a way that lets you soak up the emptiness of the location (which is later turned on its head when it’s far more terrifying now that it isn’t so empty). It feels like a futuristic environment with gadgetry that definitely places it outside of any current time period thanks to the solid production design by Michael Seymour, but its rundown almost scrappy appeal gives it a fragile look rather than something that feels high-tech. The environments have great sci-fi style atmosphere to them, with great creepy designs that are both disturbing and bleak, but also beautiful to look at. When it needs to be claustrophobic, it has a lot of great tight shots and situations, and when its grand and big, it gets every appropriate sweeping angles that have a grandiose scale to them, it has a decent variety and knows when to keep it fresh and when to be simplistic. For its time, it is quite obvious the film had limitations, as it does often cut away from many of its death scenes despite being rated R which means it didn’t have to hide its gore, but on the other hand, the ambiguity of the deaths as well as the creature’s manner of killing its prey keeps things suspenseful and cryptic, so it does work out. The film makes up for that with the other great effects that it has throughout. The alien being a practical suit rather than just an effects creations helps give the creatures a more physical nature that would be ruined with an effect filter, and its size and very unique design makes its leave a very solid impression. The film does never really get a good shot of the alien on screen (which could be a way to cover up the effect), which makes it hard to make out even when it’s supposed to be in full view, which is a little bit unfortunate, but the presence of the creature (acted by Bolaji Badejo) as well as its look keeps the audience intrigued, nonetheless. You can tell the various inspirations that creature had in its design with the most obvious being H.R. Giger, but it never feels like a flat-out rip-off, it feels distinctly its own. The music by Jerry Goldsmith adds some intense heart-pounding suspense in the frantic moments, but the still moments being with bleak silence also creates a sinking feeling of dread.

Alien is an iconic horror movie to this day and will always have a place in movie history. It changed the way that people would view sci-fi from a creepy perspective, taking it in a much darker, more animalistic approach that can feel identifiable, yet still have the ilk of unknown terror creeping behind the corner to make it feel other-worldly. The story is deceptively haunting, the actors are great, the sets look cool, the creature itself is a memorable threat, the effects when seen are pretty impressive, and it has some actual frightening moments that don’t rely on jump scares, rather with amazing atmosphere and pacing. Considering the franchise that would be built from this (even though only one movie afterwards would really be worth it), it proves that this simple delivery had some pretty amazing staying power. A definite recommend where the film demands a scream that no one will ever hear.