Review of Alien (1979) by Harry210 — 01 May 2011

Alien is one of the first horror movies I've seen and I think it was a good, suspense, science fiction movie which is definitely worth a watch. This movie introduced the grotesque and horrifying creature to cinema and TV screens.

I'd thought I would never watch an Alien movie knowing that the movie was a sci-fi horror flick. Well, I plucked up the courage to see this movie and I thought it was a satisfying movie and is a good start to the Alien franchise.

The movie is primary set on a huge space ship and carrying 7 crew members. This movie does start off slow but it does gradually introduce the main creature eventually. The nightmare begins after a couple of the crew investigate an abandoned alien spaceship on a dark and misty unknown planet.

I actually jumped a little bit seeing when one of the crew members suddenly gets attacked by a crab like creature known as a facehugger; breaking through his space suit and latching onto his face. In my own opinion, these little critters with their crab like fingers, slimy alien tail and brownish appearance is possibly more terrifying to look at than the actual matured Alien.

It's a good thing that they die as soon as they impregnate the embryo into their victim. The steps that we witness, in creating an alien are quite horrific and this introduces some horror to the movie; seeing the helpless human slip into a coma while an immovable facehugger impregnates them with an Alien embryo and then having the Alien burst out of the rib cage of the host and run away to fully mature, also known as a chestbuster.

It's fascinating to watch and the grossest scene in the movie. Ah yes, the famous chestbuster scene: I thought that I wouldn't be able to stomach this scene but I found it to be the highlight of this movie.

Seeing the crew member Kurt first enjoying a meal with the rest of the crew, unknown to him and the others, that the alien inside him is about to burst out of him creates an uncertainly atmosphere. The facehugger just leapt onto him, put him into a coma and died.

It makes us think that at the moment, everything is alright with Kurt which I like because it does build up a bit of tension. I then knew what was going to happen when Kane was squirming and fidgeting and then the alien famously burst out of his stomach with a squirt of blood.

What I find amazing is that the alien is a puppet and it makes you believe that its actually happening; no CGI here. The baby alien casually looks at the rest of the crew as if he's saying "What the hell are you looking at?" Then he just jumps out of Kurt's body and runs out of the room like he has a skateboard under his feet (I thought that was funny).

I somehow find it weird that I think that the baby alien is cute. I love the design of the matured alien and we see for the first time, a great horror icon. His long claws, two mouths, skinny build and his huge head make him look like a typical monster and again, no CGI here; just a tall man in a suit which makes the alien more believable looking.

The alien is a stealthy creature, much like the Predator creature in the Predator movie which was released after Alien. He can't talk but seems to have enough intelligence to hide from his prey. One by one, the alien takes out the crew, leaving one crew member, Ripley, eventually standing.

You don't really see the alien and his unique character design much; he pretty much lurks in the shadows of the ship, quickly moves into our view and kills using his little mouth which gives us some gory moments but not as gory as the chestbuster scene.

The crew are scared to death and they are pretty much defenceless; I mean, there only scientists, not colonel marines with huge ass machine guns. The acting was good; it gets the job done in this movie.

The movie can be a little boring; sometimes I would be waiting for something to happen but I guess this is a suspense film. I think this movie is a little too long but that's only a very minor criticism.

The attempt at getting rid of the alien by blowing up the ship gives us a good intense ending where Ripley shoots off in one of the escape pods and then BAM! The alien is a stowaway on the escape pod.

It was a bit predictable but at least it provided a satisfying ending to the movie where Ripley faces off against the alien. As for the sets used, like the space ship and the planet they land on, I thought they were well designed.

As the first Alien movie I watched, it was a good, gritty sci-fi movie.