An eerie masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 2003)

Possible Spoilers When this film was release back in 1979 it set new standards for suspence and terror that kick-started a new wave of imitations plus 2 more sequels (I haven't seen Alien Resurection yet) that were just as good but entirely different to this one. In my opinion there are three reasons to the success of this film. 1. The eerie poetry of the first half. This helped established it as a totally different film to the Star Wars space opera type films that were in force back then. Scenes such as the horse-shoe-like spacecraft resting alone on the bleak, primordial landscape with huge dark planets floating in the sky and accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith marvelously creepy score last in memory. 2.The cast. Ridley Scott wisely didn't hire any superstars for the small cast. He instead used a mixture of then-unknowns (Sigourney Weaver) and character actors (Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm)and each one gives a marvellous performance. Instead of fearless stereotypes we get normal people who just want to get home to their families. You can almost feel the characters' fear as they are sucked into a seemingly inescapable cycle of despair and terror. 3. The alien. The alien is one monster that can be called truly terrifying, even if it is just a guy in a suit covered with Jello-O. Scott makes the creature cruel, intelligent and totally inimical to human life. The only weakness in the film is that the script is plagarised from both the classic sci-fi movie 'It, The Terror from beyond Space' and the Italian/Spanish masterpiece 'Planet of Vampires.' But it is a small quibble in a film of fantastic moments of terror.