A Good Horror Movie Through and Through, But Not That Scary

Rating: 8/10 (10 February 2006)

Alien is one of those movies that takes the horror genre and demands it to really be recognized. Now it's hard for people to talk about horror classics without mentioning how they were freaked by Alien. But is the movie really that scary? In my experience in watching it, I'd say no to that.
Right from the credits rolling through space the movie reveals its dark and dramatic approach to horror movies. The effect works surprisingly well in the fact that the viewer gets the feeling that they are a passenger on the ship (forgot the name). Seven people, lucky number right? Well, how about we land on an unknown planet and bring along an alien as an eight passenger? Ridley Scott takes all the precautions necessary to make Alien a believable film in and of its plot. Not once does the movie fail to impress the viewer with a thought of "Could this really be space travel in the future?" Another thing I liked about Alien was that the character development was impressive. Almost right from the start the viewer knows who's who and they get to know and love each person before, well, we'll let the movie speak for itself here. Not one actor/actress seemed inappropriately cast, and it's this that makes almost each passenger aboard the ship seem like family to the viewer. At least, this effect lasts for the time being until almost all of them are pretty much slaughtered or stealth-killed as if the alien were Sam Fisher.
That's another thing to give Alien a lot of credit for, the Alien itself. Yes, Ripley might be the most recognizable character in the Alien movies, but Alien makes the alien of the movie a character of its own. Whether the alien is CGI or not it seems like he's one of the passengers, just the very angry and not-so welcome one. Another thing I found astonishing with Alien is the special effects in general. Right when you see the ship in space you'll be amazed with how real it looks for a film of the late 70's. This is one effect that makes Alien a movie to really pay attention to in its own age.
Now, let me be honest with you on this part. Everyone says that this is possibly the scariest movie ever, that every time they watch it they are scared by it. So, I rent it, put it in my DVD player late at night alone and start watching it. And you know what, even though it caught my attention with a few suspense-filled moments, it just didn't scare me. Although the movie does hit you in the gut with each person that's attacked you'll already know that something has to happen, with an Alien on-board and all. So most of the deaths in Alien come as no surprise to the viewer, with the exception of one or two passengers. I might not have been scared, I'm going to be completely honest with you, I just wasn't, and the movie might've dragged on for me, but it had me interested. It's just that for a movie with so much credit as being scary I expected a lot more.
Alien is, in and of itself a good movie, no doubt. You get a great plot, memorable characters, nice special effects and the movie captures the true essence of horror movies. But as a scary movie in the horror movie regard it just didn't deliver for me. This is the biggest letdown I can tell of the movie but I still enjoyed watching it.