In 1979, science fiction was either squeaky clean or dirty fairy-tale land where the farm boy wins. That was until a script titled star beast got some serious re writes and became Alien, a sci fi film unlike any other. Despite the fact that horror and sci fi had met before, Alien did it like no other first and foremost because it was scary.
Ridley Scott described Alien as “Jaws in space”; he was quite right Jaws like the Alien is a perfect killer and their environments are just as scary, the ocean and space (where no one can hear you scream, arguably the best tagline for a movie ever). Ridley Scotts directing is divine, choosing silence over music with most scares and only showing just enough of the Alien till the end reveal. The Alien itself is one of the best creature designs ever to grace celluloid, it’s a totally inhuman thing that will hunt you without fear or prejudice and it will kill you.
Of course now there’s the little matter of a prequel directed by Ridley Scott himself, you’ll need to re watch the part where they reach the derelict to understand where the story will come from. It will explain how the mysterious “Space Jockey” ended up crashing on LV426 and why his ship is full of Alien eggs? Perhaps he was harvesting them for something, using them as a weapon or something else? Whatever he does it can’t be as bad as Alien Vs Predator and will finally give poor old Ellen Ripley a bloody break!
