Did it first, but not the best

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2011)

IMDb Top 250: 44 Not usually a horror guy, I decided I wanted the full Alien experience when I saw this. After all, it's Halloween in 2 days. I started at midnight, alone in my basement with all the lights off.
Alien has not aged well.
The original isolation movie, Alien follows the crew of the Nostromo as they investigate a distress call and deal with the titular Alien. As said before, it was original for its time, but now it doesn't fare so well.
A looming problem I had with Alien was that a lot of it was boring and not scary. I, one to usually turn down the volume and squint at the screen during scary parts, sat right through this. And while I understand that tension is necessary and a slow first act builds that, the film would come grinding to a halt for sections throughout the second and third act, and the horror is lost.
There are still scary scenes though. The crashed ship, the famous meal, and my personal scariest, the air vent live up to the hype of 'the scariest sci-fi ever'.
The Alien itself is terrifying, in part because we never see the whole of it. Its design is brilliant. Unfortunately, we never get to see in detail what it does to its prey. In one of my favourite games, F.E.A.R., you are terrified of a little girl because every so often she explodes people and other gruesome things. In my arguably favourite horror, The Thing, you see very graphically what the Thing does. Both of these make you scared of the monster. Alien never gives you physical proof that the Alien is voracious. Even just once, a more violent death could've raised the terror. The Thing did it more than once only 3 years later, so the argument "it was a different time" isn't exactly valid. And Alien could've been gorier. The dinner, with the chestburster and terrific acting by the victim, was very tense.
I know the plot isn't the point of the film, but it could've been fleshed out. Who are these people, what are they doing? What is the company they work for? I know the lore expands in Aliens, but the story of Alien is too contained.
I know the point of the characters is to die, but it's hard to feel for them. Brett doesn't do much, Parker only cares for money, and Lambert is unbearable to watch. I only cared about Ripley, Dallas (the one with the plan who is rational) and the cat.
So yes, Alien disappointed me. It's a very good sci-fi movie, but the horror wasn't as good as I expected. The best thing it can do is raise its hand and say, "First!" 8.2/10