what nightmares may come...

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2010)

Extraordinary sets, visuals and perfect pacing create a mood and tone that has perhaps not been achieved by any movie before or since. Scott is aware that the anticipation of fear is far more chilling than the actual fear itself, and this cardinal law defines his whole approach : Economy. We barely get a few glimpses of the creature, and even at the end we don't see it fully. The film's characters disregard good sense at every stage, and do everything to put themselves in harm's way for the benefit of the audience. The only thing that looks dated in this three-decade-old picture is the alien itself (although it is still a frightful beast). To miss the film's mind-boggling production design and photography would be a crime, even for those who dislike horror films (me!). The images of space owe their very existence to 2001. Alien is one of the earliest reminders of how revolutionary Kubrick's film was.
Unlike 2001, this film will never stand up to a rigorous scientific evaluation. Its no more than a haunted-house film set in space. It is intense, but not profound. The film's gritty and vivid atmosphere creates a degree of verisimilitude which makes it particularly frightening. I wont watch this again.
P.S. : Just about every sci-fi/art film has at least one bum line that I can see coming, and which makes me cringe. In Alien, you have Ash the robot mouthing the following pearls of wisdom : "I admire its purity. A survivor - unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality." Ugh ! Disgusting line. These facile notions of "human nature" persist to this day, meaning only that nobody really knows much about what we are.