Review"You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility." - AshAlien cut through the chaff and went on a rampage in 1979 gaining instant fans, a loyal following, and generating the equivalent of a cottage industry in down stream products and endorsements. There was even a Pepsi advert feature Giger's Alien, and if it wanted a drink by hell just give it one. In short Alien was the perfect monster movie with a whole new creature design never seen before that overcame a then pretty much unknown cast. What was really cool was we also got a mighty fine dark genre flick that many still mistakenly believe is a simple Sci-Fi yarn. Throw a haunted house into space and you are going to fool a whole bunch of people. What was new back in 1979 was an industrial blue collar space ship, there are very few crew luxuries, you could readily believe this was a mineral hauler in deep space. The Nostromo looks about 10 minutes away from falling apart, with plenty of room for stuff to be stored that looks like it is simply junk. And of course that would be plenty of room for the Alien hitch hiker to hide in. We also have a crew of seven that can barely stand each other, with lots of antagonistic views between the differing groupings. In simple terms we aren't talking Star Fleet Academy graduates here, we're talking working folk out to make a buck and ensure they get their bonuses. Director Scott could of simply left it at that, plenty of room to explore human confrontation, but of course he has another character, the Alien, one of the more hostile organisms one could dread running across in the cosmos. Lovecraft's elder gods have a pet and it's got off it's leash and into the dark hallways and shafts of the Nostromo. Scott and Writer Dan O'Bannon take us on a crash course in the life cycle of our unwanted parasite. In the first phase it erupts out of a leather like egg attaching itself to the face of any unfortunate creature that happens to be sticky beaking. Naturally this crab like, think a hand with extra long fingers and a prehensile tail, first stage dubbed a “face hugger” latches onto crew member Kane. The face hugger “impregnates” the host with a second stage, a sort of worm like thing with silver nasty looking teeth that was immediately termed a “chest burster” for obvious reasons when we get to the infamous scene in the Nostromo's mess hall. And yes it's a hell of a mess with Lambert getting a good face full of claret. And finally we get the full grown Alien warrior, a sort of drone that looks to be eight feet tall, jet black in colour, with a mouth full of teeth that would make Jaws envious. Of course creature designer H. R. Giger, who also did the exteriors of the Nostromo and the planetoid our luckless crew land on, wasn't about to finish his vision without a few extra tweaks to keep the horror crowd happy. The Alien has caustic acid for either blood or as a defence mechanism and a secondary set of jaws that shoot out to devastating effect. I really would not like to go skipping through the tulips in Giger's nightmares. From the opening frame to the closing frame Scott shows an ability to keep the tension geared up high, spring surprises on the audience, and maintains an atmosphere of share alien-ness, (the title of the movie doesn't only refer to the biomechanical monster), and edge of your seat suspense. We are never too sure of what we are going to see next or who might be alive come the closing credits. The plot will be pretty standard stuff for modern horror audiences, a group of seven people are gradually whittled down, but our intergalactic Jason Voorhees has a number of differing aspects to it's modus operandi. The “alien nest” scene is striking, leading James Cameron to build heavily on it for the sequel, for example. The Director's cut has Ridley Scott tinkering with an already devastating movie and surprisingly making it better. We get an additional eleven minutes, needed to flesh out some ideas, and Scott has cut some slack from a few scenes to speed up the pace. Alien becomes almost the perfect monster movie and remains solid today three decades after the original release date. The Director has taken a number of movie aspects, excellent creature design from Giger and a simply awe inspiring soundtrack from Jerry Goldsmith, got the best out of his cast and crew, and delivers horror as an art form. One of the great dark genre films with a re-watch factor that will have you viewing repeatedly.
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Loving the Alien.
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