35 years later, Alien stands the test of time as one of the best sci-fi horror films ever.
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| "Decades from now, some lesser prequel will destroy the luster of this scene. Let's get outta here!" |
With the recent release of the survival horror
videogame Alien Isolation as well as
an impending 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray of Ridley Scott’s 1979
science-fiction horror monument Alien,
it’s important to remember why Alien transcends
its B horror origins into the heights of eclectic cinema. More than a grand launch pad for one of the
most indelible science fiction film franchises and inarguably the greatest
action film heroine to ever grace the silver screen, Alien is at once big screen entertainment as well as a transcendent
work of art. This is more than just
another monster movie or stereotypical serial killer thriller. Alien preys
realistically on man’s primordial fears of the intruder, the trespasser who
will violate you before leaving you for dead in a dark alleyway. But it doesn’t stop there. Alien also
plays on our fears of infectious disease, corporatist chicanery and, in the
vast, eternal void of deep space, how completely and utterly alone we are in
our terror. In the old dark house with a
serial killer running amok inside, Alien’s
commercial starship Nostromo in the deep of space provides no exit.
After the mixed theatrical reception of John
Carpenter’s failed science fiction comedy Dark
Star, screenwriter Dan O’Bannon concluded ‘if I can’t make them laugh, then
maybe I’ll scare the hell out of them!’.
Thus began Alien, whose
stowaway roots can be traced back to It!
The Terror from Beyond Outer Space with one exception: O’Bannon’s creature
would rape and impregnate its human victims.
If the Freudian symbolic thread pumping through Alien’s veins didn’t stop there, fresh from art school director
Ridley Scott and Swiss psychosexual surrealist H.R. Giger would take this
notion as far as they possibly could.
Not only would this creature be found in a derelict spacecraft with
overtly vaginal entranceways, the creature itself would have both a phallic
head as well as a secondary mouth for a tongue.
All in all, Alien is so deeply
entrenched in austere yet sexually suggestive visual design as symbolism that
you could tell the tale in near total silence.
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| "Dude. How many times do we have to tell ya? Stop with the Taco Bell!!!" |
Moderation is also key to Alien’s solidarity, preferring subtle buildup to an explosive
payoff over immediately overwhelming the viewer in sensory overload. Take for instance the opening title sequence
of the film, in which the credits designed by famed logo artist Saul Bass (Psycho) slowly unfold as the camera pans
across the dark side of a planet. The
minimalism of this particular sequence is also tantamount to its magnitude,
using very little in the way of sound and vistas to suggest something
epic. Following the titles are the
elongated, snakelike crawls through the half-awake interior of the spaceship
Nostromo, furthering the creep established by the credits. Some of the most suspenseful sequences in Alien are achieved by letting characters
wander far too long for both the plot and flow of the picture. To some, these sequences may stultify the
film’s pacing, but in context, the tension is almost unbearable.
Anchoring down all of this horror is Sigourney
Weaver as Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, the voice of reason and one human in
the universe brave enough to take on evil incarnate standing on her own two
feet. As with the film’s expressionist
aesthetic, Ripley’s strength of character comes from subtlety. When Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) and
Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) return to the Nostromo with crew member Kane
unconscious with a parasitic organism attached to his face, notice Ripley’s
unyielding to their pleas to board the ship.
Later still, after two members have been slain by the creature with the
remaining members brainstorming on how to flush the creature out of the ship,
Ripley fearlessly volunteers to penetrate the dreaded airducts where the
creature may be lurking. Though Dallas
ultimately intervenes on this decision, it’s telling in these few moments just
how stoic and fearless Ripley really is.
Even after an android attempts to take Ripley’s life to protect the
creature on company orders, Ripley is quick to restore power to the droid to
find out what it knows about the creature’s weaknesses. Whenever modern heroines tend to take the reins
of a thriller and bring control to a chaotic situation, cinephiles inevitably
almost always point to Ripley in Alien.
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| "Give me back my cookies!!!" |
While on the surface Alien might be The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre set in deep space, you could make the argument it is also
the ultimate feminist horror film. In one
of the climactic scenes of the film, Ripley lets her guard down and disrobes to
her tank top and undies. As she
undresses, a sharp inhuman hand claws out of the ductwork, letting her (and us)
know the game’s not over yet. Petrified,
half naked and vulnerable, Ripley gathers her wits, what little resources she
can muster and engages the unearthly beast.
The outside world and universe beyond can be a threatening, dangerous
place to move around in, and everyone is afraid of the invasion of their home
and violation of their personal space.
Worse still, after all is said and done, the assailant may simply kill
you when he’s through. Alien shines a light on those fears and
reminds us that however paralyzing they may be, we can also face and vanquish
them.
-Andrew Kotwicki
Buy the 35th Anniversary Edition here.
