Alien (1979)

Alien Reviews

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This is a film that gets my ultimate respect as one of the all-time best survival horror films in the history of cinema. It's no secret that many (including myself) enjoy 'Aliens' more for entertainment purposes, but the original here is still legendary in its own right, and as far as I'm concerned, much like with the 'Terminator' franchise, one can watch the first two, be done with everything else, and they'll still have seen the only parts that really, truly matter. It all begins in the distant year 2122, in deep space... where no one can hear you scream!

A crew of seven trucker-like characters open the film by slowly coming out of stasis (waking up from a long-ass sleep) as they head back to Earth, on board a commercial ship called the "Nostromo." Among the stars here are, Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) and a couple of engineers named Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). One could definitely consider this an all-star cast at this point in time, but back then, I believe a good chunk of them were up-and-comers.

This brings me to who the real star is of this whole series; the incomparable Sigourney Weaver, who was starring in what is arguably her breakout film role. The best part of her casting is that even though now, we know she's the poster woman for this series, back then, she was very unassuming as a heroine, and you had other more established names like Tom Skerritt or Ian Holm to route for as the heroes. This is part of what makes this movie so bloody good - if you go into this knowing nothing at all, the ending is a bit unexpected.

Back to the plot, however, the crew discovers that they have been awakened early, as their ship has picked up a distress call from a nearby moon. Though hesitant at first, the rules state that they must go check it out, as it indicates some kind of intelligent origin. Upon checking out the eerie but awesome H.R. Giger-designed alien ship the signal comes from, one of the crew finds a nest of eggs, and upon inspecting, gets nailed with the franchise's first face-hugger.

These little spider-crab-puppy objects of one's most terrifying nightmares latches onto your face and implants an alien embrio inside of its victim, only to later fall off dead. But once the victim thinks they're in the clear, an alien creature bursts from their chest, and starts attacking whoever it can find in some pretty horrific ways. They have acid for blood, grow rapidly, have a little stabby mouth inside their main mouth, and are among the scariest creatures in the history of horror, especially with their aim to kill everyone and everything it can find, seemingly without reason.

So yeah, the first film is pretty straightforward as things go, and it all boils down to how the crew tries to survive this alien creature as it terrorizes the ship, playing a most lethal game of "Hide and Seek." After 'Aliens', the series would take a bit of a more action-packed route, using horror elements. So I would definitely classify this as the definitive horror chapter within the series. The first chest-burster scene that takes place here is one of the best horror movie scenes of all time, and it holds up in as much as it makes the viewer feel uneasy, at the very least.

It's crazy that even after four decades later, and with the advancement of technology when it comes to film, this is still by far one of the most well done horror movies let alone 'Alien' movies out there. It's yet another one that shows how much better practical effects can be than CG sometimes, and it definitely seems to take inspiration from 'Jaws' in that the alien is actually barely seen here. To this day, the film remains a creepy but awesome work of horrific art, especially with the help of Giger's otherworldly creature designs and set work. What more can be said? This movie is classic, through and through, and still totally holds up.

5/5

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