This time, the Company is scarier

Rating: Null/10 (2 November 2003)

You know, back when I was watching Alien 3 over and over again, as a big fan of David Fincher, I realized that perhaps the scariest element of the movie wasn't the alien: it was the Company. Throughout the third film, Ripley is racing against time to avoid the Company's arrival to pick up and transport the alien to be used for their bioweapons division. The same problem occurred in Aliens, and once again it happens here.
Only in Alien, the personality of the Company is really embodied in Ashe (Ian Holm.) I've seen Ian Holm do a wide variety of characters, but this character is chilling. His performance alone makes us understand why Ripley so distrusts Bishop (Lance Henriksen) in Aliens. He is the exact same as the ship itself and the space around him: cold, calculating, and unfeeling. Having to display any emotion besides determination is a bit of a NUISANCE for him.
(SPOILER) When only Parker, Lambert, and Ripley are left, Lambert makes the interesting point to Ashe: "You admire it [the alien.]" Ashe responds, "I admire its purity of purpose: survival, unencumbered by guilt, remorse, or delusions of morality." The morbid fascination Ashe, and by extension the Copmany, shows for this killing machine chills me more than the machine itself, perhaps especially given the war-torn times we seem to be living in. Indeed, his attack on Ripley is to me more frightening this time around than any of the attacks of the alien, besides of course the initial eruption (SPOILER) from Caine (John Hurt) whose experience is still the most revolting and disturbing thing in the film. It didn't take fancy special effects to convey the eerieness of the alien's taking of Caine as its host organism.
So, yes, in the end, "Aliens" is a far more intense and gratifying film, but when it comes to personifying the creation of the alien, and the heartless calculation of those who would use it, this film is chilling. You won't leave shaking, but it still sticks with you.