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“In space no one can hear you scream” this tag line sets up for one of the fundamental films of all time. “you will be afraid to go back into the water” or “you will believe a man can fly” its up there with them. I have no doubt anyone who is reading this knows already what film I’m talking about, regardless if you have seen it, you know the main points of this film. The derelict alien ship, the space jockey (the mystery of that ruined by the prequel films but fortunately doesn’t stop this being a great film), the egg chamber, the face hugger, the dinner and chest burster scene. All these just lead up to the signature appearance. I had wanted to review this one a few years ago, but didn’t have the access to the movie I thought I did. But for this year I had that access so at least here I am, and for the second time watching the original.The opening of the film is quite similar in tone to showing the casual elements of space travel that we saw in 2001. After the opening just showing the ship, lifeless as everyone is asleep we see what people describe as, space truckers. These are just a team of working people, the only difference is they are in space. It’s to get us familiar with not so much them, but the area around them. Once that alien (not called a xenomorph yet) is loose, those familiar corridors, those pipes and structures, they now all become sinister and claustrophobic.The entire first seconds of the film is just how casual things are before they are essentially forced to check out the strange signal that will lead to such calamity. It’s on the way back when one of them has the face hugger on them that the character of Ripley, who many future movies wish to have their own equivalent of yet fail to grasp the character, refuses to let them on citing quarantine protocol. Most action movie leads would have just ignored that but there we are, pointing out regulations that by others ignoring ends up dooming them. The more roguish types end up suffering for their bravado against something that … well one of the best lines describing it comes from this own movie.Praise of course must be given to the design of the alien in all its forms. I can’t do justice to it here so I highly recommend after you have seen this film looking up the making of it online. The film is both simple in the concept of creature onboard the ship killing them, but also its dark themes of body horror, the male violation and pregnancy.It’s quite tragic seeing how future elements of the franchise attempt and fail to try and recreate this film. Alien Romulus the most recent one was close, but once it started being too referential it got grating. But it shows how iconic and memorable this movie is, and then how impressive the sequel is to be able to stand next to it and not be considered inferior.Rating: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
