Alien can be viewed as a slasher flick set in space. A slasher movie is defined as having a body count. Alien restarted the slasher genre that was started nearly two decades earlier, in 1960, with Psycho. James Rolfe reviewed this twice, once in 2007, then again in 2013. Everything Wrong With and Kill Count.
The story starts with a crew of seven returning to Earth in a towing spaceship. Usually when you watch sci-fi, the crew on a spaceship is always highly intelligent, sometimes alien, and speaks techno-jargon that we average humans would never understand. In this instance, they’re all just average working-class people, like engineers or truck drivers. In the world that Ridley Scott created, space travel can be done by anyone as an average job. After being awoken out of stasis by the ship’s computer to investigate a nearby planetoid, three members of the crew depart and discover an old alien spacecraft. Inside, they find the remains of a fossilised alien, whose chest looks like it has exploded. One of the crew members gets too close to an egg, which releases an unknown alien creature that attaches itself to his face. This creature is then brought aboard their spaceship, where terror ensues.
Everyone knows about the xenomorph, the face hugger, John Hurt, and the infamous chest burst. Sigourney Weaver steals the movie as survivor and all-around badass Ellen Ripley. Originally, Ripley was supposed to be a man. I can’t imagine that now after such a great performance by Weaver in her first movie role.
This is, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, sci-fi movies. It’s more than a sci-fi movie; it’s a horror, a slasher, and a bit of a thriller. It may seem outdated, being that it had a look of the 1970s idea of the future, but it’s a classic. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. And remember, in space, no one can hear you scream!
Linsey Loves Horror 