Let's kick off horror month with the most iconic series in the subgenre. Throughout October we are gonna be taking a look at the Alien franchise, at least the ones that fit the genre the best. We will also talk about other horror classics so stay tuned.
What else can I say about this astounding film? It's been talked about to death, analyzed, overanalyzed and dismantled by very talented and knowledgeable people. I guess the best I can do is to give some personal thoughts on it.
Alien (1979) is about the crew of the Nostromo, somewhere in a distant future the ship receives a distress call and the recently awakened members of the crew witness some truly grotesque cosmic horror as they arrive to a mysterious planet, only to die in horrible ways when they are hunted down by a dreadful eight passenger, a deadly xenomorph.
Inspired by old horror movies, the slasher formula and pulp fiction, Alien went straight for the thrills and chills by crafting realistic characters, an enveloping ambience, sophisticated sets, complex special effects and simple but clever writing. This focus on intense and grounded realism is what made it so shocking and beautiful, capable of creating tension by stripping the genre down to its basics and developing the aesthetic to seem as natural and believable as possible.
There's also one aspect that made it stand out, as the movie was one of the first feminist outings in Ridley Scott's career, having a competent and fierce woman (Ripley) as a final survivor who faces off against the seemingly unstoppable antagonist. The rivalry the film would create between Ripley and the xenomorph would be so iconic that nearly every movie in the series would try to allude, reference or reconstruct it with various degrees of success.
While Ripley was indeed a breakthrough in big budget action cinema from Hollywood regarding female leads, all of the crew's roles were thought originally as unisex, so the female empowerment element was something constructed during filming and molded almost entirely by Scott rather than the film's writer, Dan O'Bannon, who probably didn't mind one way or the other. It was also sort of "coincidental" that H. R. Giger's sexually suggesting biomechanical imagery was implemented into the movie, as the faint visual references to genitals, sexual assault (humans being impregnated by aliens against their will) and phallic monsters (as seen in a deleted scene) are very clear elements that encourage a reading focused on sex, the sexes and psychosexual motifs. Scott managed to put these elements together in a rather unobvious manner but also never becoming oblivious or naive enough to erase what the film was constructing under the radar. Completely unafraid of saying something but never self-complacent about it.
It's also worth pointing out the ways Ripley is different from the other characters, as she is guided by her own instincts rather than blind obedience to the soulless corporation she works for, and her strong personality and anti-traditional notions of femininity saved her from being killed by the xenomorph, she doesn't take crap from anyone, causing small conflicts with her fellow crew members because of it. If the typical slasher movie rewards the good-natured virgin girl then the toughest one and least conformist girl survives in the Alien movies, something that would only be expanded upon in the sequel.
Eternally creepy and truly submerged in its dark, colossal and unknown deep space terror, the film has become an instant classic in the eyes of both serious science fiction enthusiasts and people who enjoy some monster action and gory horror. Featuring a great heroine who would go on to begin a multi-million dollar franchise that still goes on to this day. Something rare for a female lead in Hollywood, particularly at the time.
Alien still holds up after all these years. Even if the heroine isn't the focus I can still put it among the top tier efforts in genre cinema with action women. The action-packed heroism was more of a Cameron thing anyways, but that's something we should touch upon in the following weeks.
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