There is a strange personal story I have with this film.

I was somewhere between 5 and 10 or something; it was a slumber-party, and someone thought it would be a great idea to see this film. First timers included!

Little did I know, I would not be able to look into the dark basement room the same way again. Not because the film is…‘scary’ in the usual jump-out-scares-kinda-way. There is an element in the movie that is “off” so to speak.

I suppose I am still trying to describe the feeling of ABSOLUTE TERROR I feel when I watch the movie. Then again, when one is a little tyke…

ALIEN was directed by Ridley Scott, a British filmmaker who was making well-known commercials at the time (one famous one is 1974 ‘Hovis’ advert).
Remarkably, Alien was his 2nd feature-film, which followed his luscious period-piece debut, THE DUELISTS. Apparently, someone saw his film at Cannes, and thought Scott would be perfect for adapting the screenplay originally coined by Dan O’bannon and Ronald Shusset (the movie was originally to imagined as a sort of B-movie sci-fi horror homage, done on a low budget and shot quickly).

To be honest, the entire production history of this film is highly mired in conflicts, personal retellings, apocryphal tales and old recorded footage of days on the set, including some other oddities. One should check it out, it’s really fascinating.

But onto the film; what’s it about?

The film quickly establishes the tone with a view of deep space, planets and stars filling the screen. Suddenly, white lines begin to slowly dissolve into the upper part of the frame. At first, we’re not entirely sure what these white markings are for but it quickly becomes apparent it’s the title, now seeming quite ominous, aided by Jerry Goldsmith’s strangely impressionistic score.

We are introduced to a massive space-ship, looking like a gigantic gothic castle, called the NOSTROMO. It’s a freighter carrying some sort of cargo, it’s crew members somewhat like truckers-in-space, being rather raw and somewhat rough around the edges. At first, the trip back to earth seems to be going well, but the ship’s computer, ‘MOTHER’, has re-routed them to somewhere….else.

It seems MOTHER picked up a distress signal on a derelict planet and the crew must investigate.

Three of the members go explore and find on the barren landscape a massive, slightly organic looking craft, looking like it crashed a long time ago. Things get weirder when they find what appears to a gigantic fossilized humanoid life-form sitting in a chair at the base of giant gun.

Things then get inextricably bizarre as they descend into the even bigger hallowed halls of the inside of the ship where thousands of ‘eggs’ reside. Foolishly, one of the astronauts decides to look in one but is greeted by a surprise: an alien hand-creature that latches onto his face.

Is this the titular ALIEN? Yes andn on. things get worse, as this ‘face-hugger’ has a trick up its sleeve, which involved impregnation, chest-bursters and lots and lots of blood in what is now known as the infamous “last supper scene”.

It appears that the face-hugger was simply a carrier for something….else…something bigger and deadlier.

Faster than you can say “don’t go there!”, the small crew is suddenly finding other members visciously murdered or missing. It appears this chest-burster has now grown into a seven foot tall….something.

After brutally murdering and presumably eating a hapless Harry Dean Stanton, the urgency of the situation is apparent: they must kill the ALIEN, before it kills them…

What happens for the next hour is unpredictable to say the least. For a good chunk of the film, we’re not exactly sure who IS the main character, or if this is supposed to be an ensemble piece. Of course, it’s all a trick, for as soon as the REAL Alien (face-hugger was also a red-herring) appears, a certain ‘Ripley’ emerges as the leader and main character. She’s also a woman, surprising still as she is not played as being tough as nails but simply more resourceful and against stereotype (i.e. damsel in distress).

Even her friend, the usually nervey Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), is simply portrayed as being overly emotional and not incompetent as most horror film characters seemed to be usually characterized.

Although you might think that this simply a fodder-fest, the cast is really quite developed, giving the feeling that we’ve been dropped right into the middle of a long-standing group friendship that we can’t quite enter because..well, we’re not their friends.

(turns out this is more deliberate than one thinks: Ridley Scott gave all the actors ‘histories’ of their characters so that by the time we see them there is no more developing to be done)

Before I can go into the ALIEN’s details, the production design…

The look is dictated by a standard principle: Industrial machinery. Everything is HUGE. Huge, and detailed, baroque and very rustic. For this reason, it’s like the anti-thesis of Kubrick’s ‘2001’, in that as opposed to being sterile, everything is lived in, dark, steam ridden, stained, and, in the end, clearly threatening.

This contrasted with the look of the derelict space craft, it’s inhabitants (including the ALIEN itself) and look designed by Swiss Surrealist H.R. Giger. Giger at the time was known for his semi-disturbing and yet elegantly nouveux-style “bio-mechanical” artwork, depicting landscapes that melded flesh and machinery into patterns, curves and recognizable…positions. By that, I mean that the art is also quite erotic, with an over-fetishization of sex, phalluses, and of course, machines.

Scott and O’Bannon agreed that this man would be perfect for creating a completely ‘new’ monster that would both scare and surprise people with its fresh design and simply disturbing nature.

They may have gotten more than they bargained for. The Alien creature is simply one of the most terrifying, beautiful ugly things I’ve ever seen. Even in light, it has an incredibly eerie presence, helped of course by its hyper-realistic look.

While the derelict has some….noticeable sexual aspects about it, none is more clear than the actual shape of the Alien’s head: read that as phallus shape, including its ‘double’ tongue which it uses to ‘pierce’ victim’s skulls and kills people.

Also, it has no eyes, which is seriously messed up. Now you got my phobia of spiders and tiny bugs going. Great job Giger…

But really, who’s kidding who? The star is the atmosphere. It’s quite unnerving, as throughout the entire movie, you’re assaulted by this heavy….gray and blackness. this is a depressing world, certainly not helped by the Alien’s terrifying presence on the ship, where there’s nowhere to run.

Things take a turn for the Kafkaesque when a certain character makes a surprise revelation (perhaps the REAL surprise of the film, which I won’t spoil) when we realize that maybe…just maybe, the Alien isn’t the true antagonist; MOTHER, and by extension, the company these people work for, seem to find this situation….expendable to say the least….
I suppose Ripley didn’t fill out the proper paperwork in situations involving lethal alien lifeforms stalking you around your ship….

Bad Kafka joke… but in the end, this is rightfully the father of the new sci-fi horror, where the Ten Little Indian’s concept is taken to its logical conclusion….in space.

Because in space, “no one can hear you scream…”

God, that’s creepy….