A great old school sci fi horror

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2017)

In preparation for alien covenant later this month I am aiming to watch the alien films and review them, starting with alien which is a great horror film. The premise of the film sees a group of human travellers come across an alien planet and an alien life that threatens there very existence. Sigourney weaver plays Ripley in this film and she does a great job, her character goes through a great amount of progression throughout and you really care about her character due to her strong performance. Ian Holm is really young in this film and really good in the film, his performance is really interesting to watch especially as you see the direction his character takes. The rest of the crew are really good too including john hurt, this is a horror film where you don't want to see the team die which helps the strength of the film. The alien itself is the perfect villain for this film, it stalks the crew in interesting ways and you are interested in seeing it hunt this crew down. The story is incredibly simple but it really works for this film, seeing the crew trying to survive this alien can be enthralling at times. Also some of the twists make this a more compelling film and helps make this a more unique watch. The script has some slightly interesting dialogue especially some good banter between the team towards the beginning off the film. But there isn't really anything special about the script or iconic lines like aliens has. The style of the film has some great tension building in it as you are in terror watching it. However, the pacing in this film is a bit poor, the first act is a bit of a drag and moves really slowly and I feel it does really take a while to get going. Overall this is a great film and if you are a fan of survival horror films then this is a must see, I am not but I still really enjoy this film so give it a chance.