To combine Sci-Fi and Horror into one feature-length film is quite a challenge given to Director Ridley Scott and his crew. Nevertheless, they succeeded in what many people consider to be a dark and gritty classic simply titled Alien. While I don’t quite see it as the masterpiece everyone says it is, I do agree that it is a well-crafted film that is just as horrific as it is interesting.
In the future somewhere in outer space, there is a huge commercial cargo spaceship that has received a distress signal from a strange planet. The people aboard the ship awaken from their deep sleep and land on the planet where the distress signal came from. A group of the ship’s crew walks out into the planet’s atmosphere and discover that they may not be alone as they come across an abandoned vessel with strange-looking eggs inside. One of the members of the crew investigates an egg but soon afterward is met with a horrifying trauma as a creature attaches to his face. He is brought into the nursing area of the ship so the crew can remove the creature and possibly save his life but that might prove to be more difficult than expected. From there, many unfortunate things go wrong and the crew starts to wonder if they will ever make it out alive in the end.
The premise is great and it perfectly combines Sci-Fi with horror to make something that at the time was very unique. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story some more gruesome than others. The only thing i think could have been better is the characters and their personalities. The characters are not bad my any means necessary but with the exception of Sigourney Weavers character, most of the characters don’t have defined personality traits and sometimes it's hard to know which character is which. I guess you could make the argument that they’re not the focus, so they don’t get that much to do with their time on screen. Still, it would have helped to give these characters more of a personality so the world this movie takes place in can feel more well rounded.
The whole setting has a very dark and uncertain tone which brings out horror aspects of the movie in the most unique of ways. There is little to no color in the world this movie takes place in as most of the film is spent in the spaceship. The cargo spaceship design is kinda like more mature and restrained versions of Star Wars spaceships and a mean that in the best way. The effects for the outside of the spaceship still holds up and feels very convincing. The designs of the aliens themselves are unique and horrifying. They mainly keep themselves in the shadows which makes their appearance even more frightening. The music is quite subtle and does a great job at only being dramatic when the story calls for it and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece like everyone else does, but I do agree that Alien is a classic movie that combines two movie genres very successfully and delivers on a story that is gruesome, intense and unpredictable. This movie would go on to make a franchise with many sequels to boot and from the looks of the first movie, i’m interested to see what they’ll do with the idea next.
(Final Grade: B+)