Alien (1979)

Copyright 20th Century Fox 1979

What can be boiled down to essentially a haunted house in space remains one of the most tense films ever made.

Released in 1979, Ridley Scott's Alien is a true classic of its genre, in fact I would even say that it started the Sci Fi Horror genre, Alien is a film that has left its mark on cinema having spawned countless sequels, some good (Aliens) some bad (Alien3) and some which were alright (Alien Covenant) as well as spin offs and crossovers with that over killer alien Predator.

Why is it so good then?

By just seeing glimpses of the creature it creates an atmosphere of constant dread, not only because these characters could be killed at any time but because we don't know what killing them.

Alien could have fell into a lot of traps, for one it could have shown the Alien far too soon, but like Jaws four years before it, Alien knew to keep the audience on edge by not showing the creature too soon. By just seeing glimpses of the creature it creates an atmosphere of constant dread, not only because these characters could be killed at any time but because we don't know what killing them. This keeps the audience guessing at what the alien might look as well as keeping it surrounded in constant fear.

A lesson in pacing

Alien is all about pacing, this is not a short film and while these days most horror films clock in at around the 90 minute mark Alien shoots past that climbing to 116 minutes. So its not a short film then and for most of the first half of the film nothing particular scary happens either. But that makes the infamous Chestburster scene all the more terrifying, you probably know what scene I'm talking about but if you don't here's a quick recap of it. The crew of the ship are sitting down to their last meal together before going into cryosleep for the next couple of years when suddenly the young alien bursts out of Kane's (Played by the late John Hurt) chest. This scene is so effective for several reasons but one of them is due to the fact that the crew and to an extent the audience thinks everything's going to be fine now. At this point in the film the strange parasite that was attached to Kane's face has fallen off so the crew thinks their safe. This scene also marks the point where the films pace changes too, it goes from a slow building horror to the most intense game of cat and mouse.

The Alien itself

The aliens design is not quickly forgotten either, the long elongated dome like head, a mouth inside its mouth and that bio mechanical looking body

The aliens design is not quickly forgotten either, the long elongated dome like head, a mouth inside its mouth and that bio mechanical looking body were the brainchild of Swiss painter H R Giger, and was inspired by one of Giger's paintings called Necronomicon IV and V, after seeing these director Ridley Scott hired Giger to work on the design of the titular Alien and the rest as they say is history.

Summary

Alien is a truly classic film which has inspired countless parodies and homages over the years and it is a film which still continues to be popular to this day.