Alien - one of my absolute favourite films. Ridley Scott takes the newly booming science-fiction genre in a direction that didn’t really exist before. Claustrophobic horror paired with the endless vastness of space. What might sound like a contradiction was pulled off here with pure perfection. But what is Alien actually about?
The crew of the spaceship Nostromo picks up a signal on an alien planet and makes a stopover. There they discover strange eggs - the rest is history. A 117-minute nightmare. In my opinion, the undisputed star of the show is the alien itself. Over the course of the film it goes through a thrilling transformation, from the small facehugger to the disgusting chestburster all the way to the fully grown killing machine, the Xenomorph. The design - one of a kind. Never before had Hollywood created such a terrifying monster that you had to take this seriously. And hardly any other of these monsters has managed to reach such cult status.
The look came from the mind of the masterful H.R. Giger, a man known for fusing humanoid and technological elements in the design of his creatures. The Xenomorph has these details too; the skull stretched out towards the back, the aggressive claws and the long, pointed tail make the pitch-black beast look like a machine come to life. And it has only one job: kill everyone and then multiply. In the few minutes the alien is actually visible in the film, it absolutely delivers. Countless iconic moments come out of this masterpiece. And nobody plays with the fear of darkness and tight spaces as masterfully as Ridley Scott in his prime. Thanks to the practical effects, the whole look of the film still holds up today.
As you can tell, I can’t say anything bad about this film. For some people it might feel a little slow and sluggish at first, but that’s exactly what we need to settle in and build a bond with the characters. Above all, Ellen Ripley. One of the great female heroines in the history of cinema. Over the course of the “original” tetralogy, she goes through an interesting transformation too. But this is only about where it all began, about Alien. A film that made history and holds a special place in my heart. I don’t want to play film critic too much here, I just want to pour out my love.
Anyone who’s interested can watch this masterpiece on Disney+.