Alien (1979)

Upon seeing "Alien" for maybe the eighth time in my life, the silence of the film really struck me. For years the only images I associated with this film included the chest popping, teeth gnashing perfect creature that is the alien. But now, I think perhaps there is a second, even scarier villain than the alien and that is the absolute solitude of space. The tag line for Ridley Scott's "Alien" is famously "In space no one can hear you scream." Now, this is a tantalizing tag line because it promises you that there will be screaming in this movie and from that you can insinuate there will be scary things going on. At the risk of looking too deeply into a tag line, consider its implications.

"In space, no one can hear you scream."

The scream, of course, is an intuitive noise (with evolutionary incentive) that announces your imperiled genes to the world. The point of screaming is to effectively survive a situation - If you scream while struggling to swim, it is more likely a lifeguard will come save you. Now in space though, no one can hear you scream. There is no help coming. No life guard. Indeed, the barren magnitude of space is no playground for evolution.

And so with the dominance of silence throughout the first third of the film, Ridley Scott creates settings that are not only claustrophobic but also foreboding in their indifference. There is nothing in 'Alien' that is helpful to Ripley or the other humans. In immutable space, a perfect creature remains perfect and a human being remains mortal and fragile. It is a recipe for disaster.

The premise of the film is simple. A gigantic spaceship transporting an unspecified mineral to earth responds to an SOS call from a distant planet. While investigating the distress signal, one of the crew members Kane (John Hurt) is assaulted by a scorpion-like creature that attaches itself to his face. No matter what the other crew members try, there is no way to remove the face hugge from Kane's visager. Eventually though, the thing dies and falls off of his face. The formerly afflicted Kane wakes up and all seem to be well again.

Well, things only go downhill from there. A vicious little phallic creature violently bursts from Kane's chest and disappears. The crew obviously freak out. They decide to hunt all over the enormous ship for the creature and guess what? People start disappearing. This thing ain't E.T.

Sigourney Weaver gives a fine performance as Ripley, the heroine of the film. Though she does not yet possess the intense leadership skills she exhibits in "Aliens" (1986) she is a well reasoned character that tries to act logically in a chaotic situation. Ian Holme also gives an excellent and chilling performance in the film, and I will leave it at that.

Ultimately "Alien" is a film about the inevitability of demise and how unhelpful outer space can be. As monster movies go, "Alien" is akin to "Halloween," "Jaws," and even "Aguirre." But then again, none of those monsters had two mouths.

Rating:

On a scale of one to Casablanca this film is a "Twister" (1996)

Rationalization:

I know what you're thinking. "Alien" is way better than "Twister." And you're right. But "Twister" struck a deep chord with me when I saw it in theaters as a ten year old boy. "Alien," while a superior film, strikes that exact same chord. Its a deeply embedded chord - one no one really wants to acknowledge but everyone has it and when something strikes it, it resonates like a gong. I'll tell you what that chord is - its the inevitability of bad things happening to you and the fact that you cannot stop them from coming. Aliens, twisters, shark attacks, murders, tragic falls, death - all are potentially out there in your future, looming like dark shadows. You have no way of knowing. In all likelihood you will not be murdered or attacked by a shark, but you never know. And the acknowledgment of those possibilities is what makes movies (and the news) so scary.

Now that I think about it, the film "Open Water" (2004) struck that same chord as"Twister" and "Open Water" is a way better movie. I suppose I could change my rating, but here's my reason not to - "Open Water" goes a step further than "Alien" and "Twister." In "Alien" and "Twister" there are survivors, if you catch my drift.

"Open Water" is a dark, dark movie. Hopefully I'll review it soon!