Note: For this post I watched the 2003 Director's Cut of the film. I have found that some of Ridley Scott's films in the past have been much improved by his creating his own version later on. Kingdom of Heaven's extended Director's Cut is a great example of this, and is exponentially better than the theatrical version.
Alien is a fantastic horror film, and one that I've come to appreciate more and more with repeated viewings over the years. It offers a perfect mixture of science fiction and horror, with enough of each to more than satisfy fans of each genre. It truly is a classic of both science fiction and horror, and has been hugely influential in films of both genres in the past 30 years.
I watched Alien today for the first time in ages, and was instantly struck by the meticulous detail and eerie yet beautiful aestheticism of the sets. The vast majority of the film takes place on a spaceship, and the environments are futuristic looking yet practical and believable. Some of the hallways and rooms reminded me of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 masterpiece Solyaris and there were a few space shots of the ship that I found evocative of Kubrick's 2001. Everything is constructed in striking detail, and the special effects work well with the sets to create an unsettling environment. Strobe lights flash, steam rushes from burst pipes, and the whole ship seems to be a mess of machinery, a labyrinth of human ingenuity. I especially liked the special effects in regards to Ash, the android played by Ian Holm (who will always be Bilbo from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy in my eyes). It is very well hidden that he is not human, right up to the point where his true motives are revealed and he attacks Ripley. When he is killed we see white synthetic blood spray everywhere, and robotic veins and wires all over the place. It looks very real, and was likely horrifying in its time. I really like that this movie was made before CGI was really a thing, and to make something look realistic and believable the special effects team had to work very hard. And in Alien,everything looks spectacular, other than a few artificial-looking explosions. The blood and gore looks very real, and most importantly of all the alien looks very lifelike and menacing. The atmosphere is tense and suspenseful as well. This is another film that understands that the less you show of your monster the scarier it is. We do see the alien onscreen several times, but mostly it is hidden, and even though we can't see it, the audience and the characters know that it is out there just waiting for them to fall into its trap. Interestingly enough, we don't actually see the alien kill any of the crew members onscreen until closer to the end of the film. Until then, the death scenes consist of a character investigating a noise or roaming the ship, when they encounter the alien and the shot cuts away. This leaves the grisly details to our imagination for the most part, which is a smart directing choice by Scott. I also found it interesting that out of all the weapons they could have used, the crew members chose a flamethrower. Fire is one of mankind's oldest inventions, and they were using it to fight a monster that Ash claims is the absolute pinnacle of evolution.
I really like Alien. It's a visually appealing, entertaining film with excellent pacing and atmosphere. I could write a lot more about it, and the (mostly sexual) subtexts it presents, but it's three in the morning and I'm falling asleep as I write this.
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