The Perfect Movie

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 1999)

The sick claustrophobic dread, the blinding disco-era strobes and deafening noise, the machine-like creatures, the organic-looking machines, the face-hugger, the chest-burster, H.R. Giger's nightmarish monster (and what *was* it doing to Veronica Cartwright, anyway?), Jerry Goldsmith's neoromantic score segueing to Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony at the end, that darned cat -- "Alien" is The Perfect Movie. James Cameron's sequel was a better film in almost every way, but it will never make the midnight cult circuit, as Ridley Scott's history- making shocker has done. Cameron wants you to see his movie three times at the theater, tell all your friends how great is is, and buy the video the day it comes out. That's why we love him, but it's also one of his limitations. By contrast, when asked what effect he wanted "Alien" to have on the audience, Scott replied: "Like someone pounding a nail into your head."