The Sci-Fi horror film that set the standard all others have to match.

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2005)

Alien starts with the seven crew-members of the huge commercial spaceship the Nostromo being awoken from their sleep. It quickly turns out that the ship's computer named Mother has received a 'transmission of unknown origin' & has woken everyone to investigate. The crew set off in a smaller craft to the planet where the transmission is being sent from, once there Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane (John Hurt) & Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) don their spacesuits & go to track the source of the transmission down. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) & the chief science officer Ash (Ian Holm) stay behind & co-ordinate things. Dallas, Kane & Lambert discover an alien ship & inside Kane is lowered into a huge chamber full of eggs one of which opens & a creature attachés itself to his face. Back on board the Nostromo Kane is given medical treatment but the creature cannot be removed & it has acid for blood. Eventually the creature seems to come off by itself & Kane regains consciousness & appears fine. However while eating dinner Kane has a fit as an alien creature bursts out of his chest. The crew decide they must arm themselves & the two engineers Parker (Yaphet Kotto) & Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) manage to come up with some basic weapons, they all quickly discover this alien has grown to an enormous size & is very hostile...
Directed by Ridley Scott Alien really is just about the best of it's type, period. The script by Dan O'Bannon is a little slow to get going by todays standards but I felt this build up is essential as Scott piles on the tension, isolation & mistrust among the crew before they are systematically hunted down by a seemingly invincible killing machine that is the alien. You feel for the characters of which there are only seven during the whole film which makes what happens even more effective. While the pace may be measured Alien is never boring & it provides terrific scary entertainment, even after all this time I think it still manages to be creepy, frightening & very effective at what it sets out to do. Technically Alien is top-notch, a lot of the special effects hold up very well even today next to all the flashy soulless CGI that fill films up. Obviously a few are a little unconvincing but I can easily forgive this, I mean it was made over 25 years ago wasn't it? The production design is great as well, Alien doesn't depict it's spacecraft as sterile white & perfectly clean but as something far more realistic, all the dirt, grime & grated floors that look like a mining ship would. Having said that some of the computer equipment looks a little dated even now which along with the slightly slow pace is my only real complaint. The alien itself was designed by H.R. Giger & looks very impressive, very organic & menacing even though it isn't seen that much it's definitely one of the most memorable of all on screen aliens. Director Scott also manages to use sound & music to good effect, I found Alien quite a quiet film which works well. There isn't much in the way of blood or gore, just that alien bursting out of Hurt's chest. The acting is great from all involved & director Scott manages to retain an air of mystery about who will survive as he gives no obvious indication of a hero type character. Alien is a true classic, the chest-burster scene will live on forever & it's a film everyone should see at least once. Watch it as soon as you can.