"Alien" Movie Review

    Growing up, I may have had a wee bit of an unhealthy obsession with aliens and UFOs.  I would watch shows like “Sightings” and whenever “Unsolved Mysteries” had a UFO special, my fat butt was parked right in front of the television.  The subject matter always fascinated and scared me.  What if aliens do exist?  What if they aren’t so nice?  If we visited an alien world, would we be viewed as peaceful?

    Naturally, as someone already interested in the topic matter, the film “Alien” naturally appealed to me when I first saw the VHS sitting on a video rental store just waiting to be rented (this was before DVDs, Blu-rays, and digital streaming).  I rented it and for the longest time, I didn’t really care for it to be honest.  I was young and I was expected something different.  As you get older, your tastes change a bit and I realize now why I didn’t like the movie.  As a kid, I had heard so much about the franchise that I was expecting more of an action movie, I was expecting “Aliens” as opposed to “Alien”.  The first film focuses more on the horror and science fiction elements and has very little action scenes.  After a few years and realizing why I felt the way I did about the movie, I was able to revisit it with fresh eyes.

    The original “Alien” film is widely considered a classic and for good reason.  The first film in the franchise, as discussed above, was one of the first movies to successfully marry the science fiction and horror genres into an effective feature.  While the sequels went off into many other directions since the first film, “Alien” provided the perfect foundation for the franchise.

    The plot of the movie is simple, the crew of the ship Nostromo encounter an alien life form that ends up terrorizing the crew and it becomes a battle to survive.  The tag line for this film was spot on, “In space, no one can hear you scream” and it perfectly captures the spirit of the movie.

    The cast was stellar and I think they really helped make this movie seem more realistic and frightening.  Ian Holm makes for a menacing threat from within the crew.  John Hurt plays the second in command and unknowing host of the alien.  He gives ‘birth’ to the iconic and terrifying chest buster.  The scene and performance were so iconic that Hurt reprised his role for the spoof “Spaceballs” in which his character has yet another alien pop out from his chest.  Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver co-lead the film but Weaver is the one everyone remembers and has become iconic.  Weaver’s Ripley was one of the first strong female leads in a science fiction film.  She remains a fan favorite staple of the genre even to this day.

    Director Ridley Scott masterfully helms this film and creates an atmosphere of pure despair by the end.  Scott widely used the art of H.R. Giger as the basis of much of the film’s designs, including the alien itself.  All the scares are set to the perfect score by Jerry Goldsmith.  The film also is well known for it’s use of practical visual effects.

    “Alien” is one of the best horror films of all time and a landmark science fiction film.  Needless to say, if you aren’t a fan of a jump scare or two, you should stay away.  If you want a freight, “Alien” does the trick.

Grade: B