Alien

It's nice to know that there are movies that even after almost thiry years of existence can still terrify people. This is such a movie. The affects might not be up to par compared to movies nowadays, but they still hold up well and are genuinely disturbing. This is the film that is famous for the sudden distaste for seafood and spaghetti of millions of people. For some reason I want to say that the tagline for this film was 'In space, no one can hear you scream', but I'm not sure that was it. But the same holds true for your own home: if you are alone in home, thankfully if you get scared watching this no one can hear you scream. I was fortunate enough to have to rent this film to see it as I was not around in 1979; maybe this took away from some of the scariness, but even watching it with all the lights on in my small room didn't help and I could sleep the night I saw this film for the first time. Either that means that it is really, really good or I scare easily. Somehow I think it is the former of the two.
What makes the film so scary is partly the result of the director, partly by the cast. The director's use of visuals is excellent. This is primarily a visual film. There is little dialogue, especially in the beginning, but the horror is shown instead of talked about. If the characters had talked about the alien and what happened on the spaceship the film would lose some of it's terror. The set design is excellent. The dark, shadowy Nostromo and the planet that the crew discovers (along with the abandoned ship) lend a sense of forboding to the film. There is a sense of doom, and shadows play out well at the end, when we know the alien is around but we can't see it. It could be anywhere. They also help to keep the fakeness of the alien down to a minimum. It's obviously a man in a rubber suit, but the creature is kept almost constantly in shadow, which makes it seem more real and less fake. The end, however, when Ripley manages to get it out of the shuttle and she tries to blast it into space, shows the alien in full, and while it is still creepy, it's obviously fake. Overall I thought that it was a bit too humanlike, and thus was less creepy than it could have been. But even so, it's like something from our nightmares, dripping with slime and ooze. The fact that we never really see what it does to it's victims adds to the terror. The other part that makes the film scary are the characters, or rather the actors, themselves. Here they look genuinely terrified. They don't just scream and try to run; they panic, they cry, they are positively scared. Many horror film actors just scream and run; here, the actors seem like something is really after them. And if they seem like something is, then maybe we start to think so too.
Much of the horror in this film is suggested rather than shown. It plays with our minds: we don't know what happens to Dallas, we don't really know what the creature looks like until the end (but we get an idea, for sure), but I think we don't really want to know. If the alien had been shown actually eating anyone I think the film would have turned out more 'eww' than scary, like many of today's so called horror films. Here the horror is done in quick shots and edits, and things jump out at you. If you are like me an naturally jumpy during scary movies this adds to the adrenaline rush and makes the film more terrifying. It was funny, in a twisted way, to watch the director enjoy freaking out the audience in the film. He obviously enjoyed making this movie. He is like the character of Ash (Ian Holm), fascinated by the alien and what it can do. Ridley Scott directed the film, and does an expert job. He deliberately drags out the beginning to give us a sense of calm and feigned peace. Things are slow, things are routine, almost boring. But the visuals suggest otherwise, and when Kane is attacked by the thing known as the 'gutbuster' (affectionately or otherwise) things suddenly come at you full force. The suddeness of the actual horror of the film is all the more startling after a calm first half hour. Mr. Scott plays with the audience, making full use of shadows and dark corners. One of the greatest scenes comes in the middle, when Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) goes looking for Jones, the resident cat. He ends up in a room with rain coming down from the roof (or is it slime?), and while he is revelling in the welcome water the alien is suddenly behind him. It's moments like these (there is also the spaghetti supper; how cruel was the use of the pasta hanging from Kane's mouth as a precursor to the horrible alien birth? the pasta is like an umbilical cord that is about to be cut by the birth of a parasite within another organism) that show just how twisted in an amusing way the director is. There is also the end; how mean. We are so happy, the alien blew up with the ship, all is well, and then surprise! it's not dead, it followed Ripley into the shuttle!
This film also boasts the most horrible death scene of any movie, ever. I will never eat spaghetti again (or crabs even; but then I don't really like crab anyway). It's probably the most disturbing scene I have ever watched, and not just because of the gore, for there is very little. It's gross, yes, but we have to watch the poor man suffer before he finally dies. It's a fear many people have, I'm sure, to have to play host to some parasite who eats you from the inside out. I'm sure that many audience members in 1979 had no idea what was happening, so when baby alien is suddenly born, the scene was probably more disturbing than it is now, because even if you haven't seen the film you probably know about the spaghetti supper.
On a minor note, the acting is a little flat and the characters are not entirely likable (but we pity them because they get eaten either by some squid-crab monster or the actual fullgrown alien), but the acting seems natural, and not scripted. It was interesting how Ripley, someone we barely see at the start of the film, becomes the hero by the end (heroine, I mean).
This is a hard film to talk about. Really, you should just see it. There isn't much to say without ruining anything or making it less scary. It's one to watch and then suddenly understand, rather than knowing about and then watching and understanding. I won't say that I'll never see this film again, because it is just too good to never watch again. But I will say not any time soon. The horror films of our time need to take a cue from this film and learn how a real horror film is made. The monster in this film might be stuck in space, but that doesn't mean it can't get us in our dreams. I don't think anyone who watches this film will aspire to be an astronaut in the future.