The godfather of Sci-Fi Horror

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2017)

I was lucky enough to get the Alien box set on bluray for christmas this year, so I thought this might be a good chance to start posting my reviews of them. There wasn't much on tv last night apart from xmas movies so I thought to hell with this, i'm watching Alien. =P
So the plot to begin with isn't overly complicated. The crew on a deep space mining barge called the Nostromo is woken out of cryo sleep by the ships computer (Mother). They find out that Mother has surprisingly intercepted a transmitter beacon of unknown origins and it's primary company (Weyland-Yutani) is sending the crew in to investigate. Once they realize that it isn't exactly what they were expecting and things going horribly wrong (I won't spoil it for people who haven't yet seen it) from that point onwards it's a classic fight for survival and a terrifying battle against the unknown.
The opening scenes around the breakfast table does a good job of introducing us to the seven members of the crew, including a young and VERY gorgeous looking Sigourney Weaver. We see the conflict between Dallas, the ships captain, and the other crew members debating whether they actually need to investigate this signal, the influence of money is what determines their motivation to do it as failure to adhere to company policy will result in a zero paycheck.
The thing Alien is best at is building tension. right from the opening titles with the soft, eerie music score we can tell straight away what kind of movie it's going to be. The dark and mechanical atmosphere of the Nostromo sets the backbone of this movie perfectly and it's dark, metallic, maze like corridors and junctions works so well to create such a spooky and claustrophobic environment, and the workhorse, pig headed, hostile attitude of the crew helps set the scene for the film. The slow and methodical buildup is what makes this film so powerful and even after the s*it hits the fan, the tension doesn't stop there. The latter parts of the film where they split up into groups to search for the Alien, the scene where Brett is trying to catch Jonesie (the ships cat), and the scene where Dallas is crawling around in the vent shafts with his only source of light being his makeshift flamethrower, it's almost 40 years on, but god damn the tension is still very much alive to this day and STILL has you feeling that raw fear.
Even the theme of the word Alien itself makes an impact. It's the theme of dealing with a foreign species, the theme of dealing with the unknown, the themes of space and fear and isolation and claustrophobia. all of these themes combine together to create an extremely fearful and powerful horror experience. If you haven't seen Alien yet, What in gods name is wrong with you? JUST SEE IT ALREADY!