Classic science-fiction horror

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2020)

This review contains spoilers.
Alien is a science-fiction horror movie that premiered in 1979. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, with a story written by Dan O'Bannon, and Ronald Shusett. The movie stars Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver. A commercial space ship, the Nostromo, is on a return journey when it picks up a distress transmission. The crew of the Nostromo investigates the derelict ship.
Alien is a classic science fiction movie and a classic horror movie. The movie has great pacing across the 117 minutes of running time. The movie has a great lead in Sigourney Weaver playing Ripley. The warrant officer is the audience's anchor to trying to understand and deal with the growing threat of the xenomorph. The entire movie has an interesting universe as the crew of the Nostromo have to fight against the technology and the xenomorph.
The story of Alien is incredibly basic. The crew of the Nostromo simply find an alien derelict ship and then attempt to deal with the extraterrestrial on their own ship. The entire running time is spent with the crew dealing with the monster. In this way the movie is similar to a slasher movie however the movie has science-fiction themes that help elevate the movie to more of a slasher movie. The themes of cosmic horror and greed permeate through this movie. The corporation wanted to obtain the alien even at the cost of the crew's lives. The crew and the corporate android are in over their heads as the alien has the upperhand. The creature could not be controlled and it was not understood. The movie focused on the drama within the crew instead of utilizing them for gratuitous violence.
The creature and the movie is a classic and should be watched for any fans of horror science-fiction.
I would recommend Alien.
Grade: A