"ALIEN" A review by some one born post 1985

For a movie that was released in theaters almost 30 years ago, Ridley Scott’s Alien holds up to the test of time. Not just a sci-fi flick or simply a horror gore fest, Alien transcends and combines both genres and creates what is known today as “sci-fi horror”. In this review I will discuss the acting, special effects, plot, and convey my overall opinion of the motion picture.

The plot of Alien is simple. A small crew is woken from cryogenic sleep aboard a vessel retiring from a mining operation by an SOS message. When they go and investigate the source of the message, they find an exotic extraterrestrial craft. Upon investigation, they find some sort of alien parasite that after laying eggs in one of the crews stomach explodes from his abdominal area and tries to kill the rest of the crew. Simple yes, but so entertaining to watch!

Let’s get one thing straight it should be understood that the special effects in alien are amazing. In some cases better then in some of today’s movies. The Alien was not computer generated but looked real. The special effects also added to the mood of the movie in the sense that the scenery was very gritty and dark just like the movie. The mood created a veil of mystery surrounding the planet and the alien itself thus making the movie scarier.

The acting in Alien was also top notch. Sigourney Weaver played a very strong independent lead female role named Ripley. Also some other note worthy names were John Hurt as “Kane” and Tom Skerrit as “Captain Dallas” (imdb.com). Most of the Actors were unknown at the time however Alien is considered a break through movie for actress Sigourney Weaver who went on to also play in well know movies such as Aliens (Alien’s sequel) and Ghostbusters.

Overall Alien was a very enjoyable experience all the way through. In 1979 I’m sure alien was one of the most horrifying flicks audiences had ever seen. However I feel that is where alien's age shows through. I didn’t scare more and I highly doubt it still scares the majority of audiences. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see Alien, it still consider a classic and fans of “Sic-fi Horror” shouldn’t miss the one that started it all. Just remember “In space no one can hear you scream”.