Film Review - Alien

Fig 1. Alien poster (1979)

Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is a basic example of all the key elements that are needed in creating a horror film making the audience believe that they themselves are trapped, along with the main characters, with the creature that is trying to kill them. This is achieved by playing on some of the basic fears people have most notably the fear the unknown and claustrophobia as well as fears that are not noticeable the first time you watch the film.

Before the main action of the film starts the audience are shown the interior of the main ship, Nostromo, and it heavily contrasts the exterior that was previously shown in the shots beforehand, the corridors are long and narrow as well as been almost impossible to make out what is at the end. “The corridors are gloomy and labyrinthine, representing a technological version of the subterranean tunnels of gothic horror. Of course, a space ship is the perfect location for a horror film because it is a place of absolute isolation and forms a pressurised environment, which creates an intense claustrophobia.” (Zouch Editors, 2010) By using the fear of claustrophobia, and establishing in this way, the audience understands that the characters simply do not have enough room to fight the Alien but instead must navigate around it with the hope that is not round the corner.

Fig 2. Nostromo corridor (1979)

However, the main fear that Scott plays on, that is not notable at first, is sexuality and how vulnerable we feel when this part of us is threatened. “This alien invader did not want to enslave you or eat you or invade your home world, it wanted to rape you, it wanted to invade your body with its own, always killing by an act of violent penetration in an amplified and nightmarish fusion of sex and death.” (Pimley, s.d) It makes the alien antagonist, the Xenomorph, gain a new level of scare factor. In fact if you take away the science fiction elements of the film you end up with a violent story about rape and the lengths people will go to protect themselves from this.
 
Using this as a mind element of the film clearly wasn’t an afterthought as when the film’s writers, Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shosett, came upon the problem of how the Xenomorph ends up on the ship O’Bannon came up with the idea that “It should screw a member of the crew!” (O’Bannon, s.d). This idea was later coupled with the artwork of surrealist H. R. Giger whose painting Necronom IV (see fig 3), as well as the other main themes that he using in his work, inspired the main look and feel for the Xenomorph and its home world.

Fig 3. Necronom IV (1976)

When you look at the film with this hidden fear in mind it becomes ironic that the only survivor is Ripley, a woman, who the viewer most likely thought would have been killed off as women are most likely to be the victim in this situation.

Illustrations

• Figure 1. Alien poster (1979) [Poster] At: http://blankmaninc.com/top-ten-horror-movie-posters-of-the-70s/alien-movie-poster-1979/ (Accessed on 19.10.2016)
• Figure 2. Nostromo corridor (1979) [Film still] At: http://s15.photobucket.com/user/pipipi314/media/display15_zpsf8d56e0e.jpg.html (Accessed on 23.10.2016)
• Figure 3. Ginger, H. R. (1976) Necronom IV [Painting] At: https://plotandtheme.com/2016/05/18/the-xenomorph-and-the-perversion-of-sex-in-alien/ (Accessed on 24.10.2016)

Bibliography

• Jacobs, Derek. (2016) The Xenomorph and the Perversion of Sex in “Alien” At: https://plotandtheme.com/2016/05/18/the-xenomorph-and-the-perversion-of-sex-in-alien/ (Accessed on 24.10.2016)
• Pimley, Daniel. (s.d) Representations of The Body in Alien At: http://www.pimley.net/documents/thebodyinalien.html (Accessed on 23.10.2016)
• Zouch Editors. (2010) “Building Better Worlds”: the production design of Alien At: http://zouchmagazine.com/building-better-worlds-the-production-design-of-alien/#.WAyySiSEUto (Accessed on 20.10.2016)