The Big Picture

Facehuggers and chest-bursting embryos in
Alien
bring a different kind of horror, tapping into fears of invasion and penetration.
Ridley Scott’s
Alien
may not fit traditional horror genre expectations, but its thematic layers and twists make it a thought-provoking watch.
Even with spoilers,
Alien
surprises with unexpected twists like Ian Holm’s android character, adding depth to the sci-fi horror classic.

I was seriously late to the game with the Alien franchise. I grew up abjectly terrified of the section of Hollywood Studios’ Great Movie Ride themed to the iconic Ridley Scott film (that stupid alarm sound still haunts me), so even after that ride was unceremoniously gutted from the Disney Parks, I was hesitant to engage with the films, even with multiple people telling me I was missing out on one of the greatest horror icons in cinema history. Literally, it took a need to see Alien 3 this year for a podcast about one of the film’s minor stars that pushed me to finally commit to it. Maybe the weirdest reason I’ve ever spent a weekend mainlining six hours of film, I admit, but it still got me there in the end.

I’m at a significant disadvantage, having decided to catch up after the 1979 film was re-released in theaters ahead of Alien: Romulus. My poor timing means I experienced the film outside of a dark, silent cinema, which is obviously the ideal experience, especially a high-stakes horror film. That said, transferring Alien from the big screen to my (still admittedly fairly large) television at home doesn’t take away any of its appeal. From the jump, it’s obvious why it became such a cinema staple, as it’s immediately far more atmospheric than I expected a sci-fihorror film to be. It’s a study in what hides in the shadows we tend to ignore, and a lesson in why poking the bear (or egg, if we’re being literal) is usually the worst idea of them all.

Alien (1979) In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The terror begins when the crew encounters a nest of eggs inside the alien ship. An organism from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to one of the crew, causing him to fall into a coma.Release Date June 22, 1979 Runtime 117 minutes Main Genre Sci-Fi

‘Alien’ Hosts an Unexpected Source of Terror

As a first-time viewer, what surprised me is that it’s not the final evolution of the titular alien — if we’re using Pokemon terms — that scares me the most. The full-grown xenomorph, which my Lexapro-fueled brain can rationalize as just a man in an incredible H.R. Giger-designed suit, is a thing of beauty for horror, but it doesn’t unsettle me in any way. No, that award goes to the facehuggers, and the chest-bursting embryos they implant inside their victims. It’s not even necessarily the blood and guts that result from the chestbursters — though I was desensitized to John Hurt’s unfortunate demise after years of watching Spaceballs — that freak me out, as much as the idea of my body being invaded by a foreign parasite. That idea alone, paired with the spider-like design of the creepy little bastards, brings with it internalized fears about pregnancy and penetration — fears that I was essentially born with as an AFAB person — that left me far more disturbed than any of the destruction the fully-grown monster brought with it.

Maybe that’s because we hardly ever see the full-grown queen herself. Jaws made the argument that the less you see of your titular monster, the more effective the sense of suspense is, but for a two-hour movie, most of it is a hell of a lot of sitting and waiting. When a title like Alien is considered horror royalty, the part of me that’s been exposed to everything from The Faculty to Terrifier expects a certain kind of story, a certain kind of action. That’s not to say that I need my horror films to be action-packed like Alien’s little sister, Aliens — far from it. But labeling something as horror brings with it a certain set of genre expectations, almost none of which Scott bothers to adhere to.

Ridley Scott’s Style Doesn’t Exactly Mesh With Horror

Admittedly, Alien itself is a proto-invasion movie, released just a year after Halloween changed the name of the game, and before the concept of the final girl — a title most can agree that Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley falls under — really solidified itself in popular culture. The landscape of horror was changing near-constantly at this point in film history, which also saw releases like David Cronenberg’s The Brood and the original Amityville Horror, so it feels a little unfair to judge the xenomorph against other horror icons. But it also feels a little bit like Scott just…missed the mark?

Before the chants of “boo, tomato, tomato” start, I’m not saying Alien is bad. I’ve never fully jived with Scott’s style — I’ve always preferred his brother Tony Scott’s adrenaline-fueled approach to filmmaking — and I can be honest when I say that part of my critiques of the film comes from the fact that Scott’s always seemed more concerned with a good-looking frame over a compelling story to me. (I grew up spending far more time reading than I did in front of a TV, so story and character are always more of my personal concerns.)

Moreso, though, is the fact that what I watched seemed completely different from what I’d been led to expect. I remember being horrified by even the small parts of the original theatrical trailer that used to play in the pre-show for the Great Movie Ride, and the general conversation/hype around the film conveniently leaves out the fact that much of the film is a very quiet waiting game. In reality, as opposed to the monster films I’ve come to love, it’s a film that lingers just long enough that, for someone who knows most of the iconic set pieces because she grew up around others who love movies, all the air gets let out of the metaphorical balloon. They’re great set pieces, I can’t deny that, but the space between them feels odd against the mental image I’d formed in my head. (I know, I know, don’t judge a book and all that.)

Even With Spoilers, ‘Alien’ Still Holds Up
Image via 20th Century Studios

It’s not without its surprises though, even with all the big set pieces having been spoiled for me before I could even understand them. Ian Holm secretly being an android tasked with bringing the xenomorph home to be used as a bioweapon (and that the “distress call” was really an intentional intervention) was a sideswipe out of left field, and an interesting layer to the entire franchise that I was surprised I’d never heard discussed before. I’m sure it hits even harder now, in the age of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and corporations not even pretending to care about people anymore, than it did in 1979.

Maybe that’s what kept it from being truly terrifying for me. The thematic elements hiding just below the surface of the monster movie/final girl hybrid set my academic brain ablaze, every theory I ever learned in literature classes immediately chomping at the bit to be applied to what on the surface seems like a simple “man versus beast” kind of film. The concept of biology as a weapon (and the autonomy it strips from us as women/humans/etc., if the twist in Alien 3 is any indication) outstrips the fear of being flayed alive by an alien with a kitchen tool for a head. Alien has staying power not because it fits in with the slashers and monster films of its time, but because it doesn’t.

REVIEW Alien (1979) Ridley Scott’s Alien is a sci-fi classic that fascinates and horrifies even if the second film still remains superior.Release Date June 22, 1979 Runtime 117 minutes Main Genre Sci-Fi ProsThe film has plenty of layers both in its themes and presentation.The twists that come hit home even more now in a world controlled by wealthy corporations.Alien proves to have staying power precisely because of how unique it is compared to other films in the genre. ConsScott’s style doesn’t quite mesh here.

Alien is available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

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