"In space, no one can hear you scream..." but they can in your living room!

Rating: 9/10 (21 May 2010)

Superficially, "Alien" is just like a slasher movie. A group of people are gathered some place for one reason or another, and are picked off one by one by some deadly foe. But there are a number of differences that separate this science fiction horror classic from your average slasher movie: an unbearably intense atmosphere and what is easily the most frightening creature ever to grace the silver screen.
A group of workers on a space mining ship Nostromo get a strange signal from a nearby planet. When they go out to investigate, something strange happens...
Of course, after over thirty years, it's probably safe to assume that anyone who is on the Internet Movie Database and reading one of the thousands of reviews of this classic has seen this movie, but because I don't feel that I have to go into any more detail, I won't. That being said, if you are reading this and actually HAVEN'T seen this movie, go and see it...primarily because you're going to get a classic freakout that few, if any movies can give you, but also because it's almost a sin for any movie lover to live with the fact that they haven't seen this movie.
This is more akin to movies like "Halloween" than "Star Wars" (two VERY different movies that came out within a year of each other), so like the John Carpenter classic, the acting rules that govern films like "Star Wars" or "The Godfather" do not apply. Nevertheless, it introduces us to the most famous action heroine, Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. She's effective in the role, but there's no time or need for her to do anything else. Likewise, better known character actors Tom Skeritt, Ian Holm and John Hurt do the same. Lesser known actors Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright and Yaphet Kotto stay in their league. What's especially nice is that each individual is unique (though not three dimensional), which is something of a rarity in these kinds of movies.
There are two names that are responsible for most of the film's successes: H.R. Geiger and especially director Ridley Scott. Geiger, whose night terrors provided the inspiration for the Alien, deserves much credit. There is no other being that I can imagine that is more frightening than the Alien in this film. It's large, slimy, and extremely deadly.
But while Geiger created the creature, it was up to director Ridley Scott to create the atmosphere in which its potential for terror could be reached. And does he ever get us there! Scott's sense of atmosphere is impeccable. His use of long shots where characters appear small is extremely effective in getting us on edge. There are moments where we believe that something can jump out at us at any time, which is not an easy feat to accomplish. Some of the early scenes also recall something out of a horror film from the silent era; Hell was coined for scenes like these.
There is a reason why this film is hailed as a classic: it's dark, tense, and scary as hell!
Rated R for Monster Violence/Gore, Terror and Language.