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Alien
1979 - R - Mins.
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| Director: Ridley Scott | | Producer: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill | | Written By: Dan O'Bannon | | Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton |
| Review by: John Ulmer |
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"Alien" takes the concept of a haunted house one step farther. We've seen movies about haunted houses. We've seen movies about aliens. But why not combine the two? Intertwine them; make them one. That's what "Alien" does, and it has a terrifying sense of paranoia and terror.
I must admit the first time I viewed this colossal film I was very disappointed. I was expecting "Alien" to be too much. I really did. I guess I was just too stupid to appreciate the atmosphere and pure, white-knuckled terror. Perhaps. But I remember part of the reason I did not originally enjoy the film.
I did not originally enjoy "Alien" because I thought that a) the characters did dumb, stupid things, b) they seem to have a bunch of weapons, but for some reason, never use them, and c) they can't seem to take out one alien in this original film, but in James Cameron's 1986 sequel, they take out about one hundred?
But upon closer examination on second viewing exactly one week and twenty-five minutes ago, I realized that the film does have stupid characters...but it also has a terrifying sense of paranoia. And I realized this time around that though they are careless with useage of their weapons, i.e. the flamethrower, and the one woman is very annoying, the film would be a bit dull if they DID use the weapons on the alien. And James Cameron's highly-praised sequel...well...they kill a bunch, but let's just say their weapons are better.
"Alien" starts off in the near future with a mining colony in outer space, returning to planet earth from a distant galaxy. The crew in the ship, sleeping in hibernation tanks, are awoken prematurely by "mother," the ship's mainframe computer. They learn that there has been a distress beacon from a nearby colony. They go to investigate; crewman John Heard climbs out, looks around at the truly wonderful and breathtaking cinematography of the colony, and gets a facehugger implanted on his face.
What's a facehugger? What's it do?
Let me tell you straight out that I have played the videogame "Aliens versus Predator." I admit it. And, believe it or not, I'm a huge fan. I love the game. And you can really appreciate this film all the more if you play the PC game, as it teaches you what a facehugger is--in fact, you even get to be one in the game's sequel. How neat is that?
So to answer my previous question, with my videogame knowledge of the alien and predator species, I will tell you in simple words that a facehugger is a xenamorph, a.k.a. alien, that grabs onto One's face, knocks One out, implants a baby alien into One, releases itself from One's face, to let One wake up, to have One sprout a baby xenamorph, a.k.a. "chestburster," hours later from One's stomach.
Now, given the typical horror treatment, you'd probably expect the scene in which John Heard has a chestburster "burst" out of his stomach on a dinner table to be handled mediocre at best. But the terrifying thing about the scene--and the facehugger--is the terrifying attention to the detail of something that is nonexistent; it starts to make one wonder: Is the thing REALLY fake (or real)? It's hard to tell. It's almost beyond imagination; it's amazing. The thought put into it. And the detail of the nonexistent creature.
"Alien" progresses, as does the film. Sometimes the characters do stupid things, but on the whole the terrifying film makes up for it. And you can't say the film is made for those with low attention spans: Ranking in at over two hours, it's quite long for your average horror film.
But then again, it's not average. I have to keep reminding myself that.
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