Alien, le 8ème passager

I just came around to watch the original Alien on Netflix and I have to say that I was positively surprised that a horror movie from the '70s is this suspenseful and effective.

The characters actually behave like thinking human beings. The soundtrack is great and the direction is superb. Especially when comparing this movie to the modern movies with similar stories that borrowed many of the things that are working well here.

A classic every horror and overall movie fan should watch.

The further we go in special effects, the more movies show us and ignore the unseen, the more people will return to dark horrors like this one.

It's hard to look at this film without considering the sequels and knowing the alien itself, however when made the alien was mostly unseen and a mystery. It's difficult to forget what you've seen, but it's important to approach this film first if possible rather than joining the series late.

It's amazing that this is over 20 years old - apart from the actors looking so young, the film doesn't feel dated at all. The sci-fi visions here are still bleak and futuristic as they were then - this is not the Star Trek vision of the future. The foreboding exists long before John Hurt spills his secret, Scott's direction is excellent throughout. Once the alien is "born" the tension is cranked up and the characters dispatched one by one (a formula we know oh-so well now!)

However here the characters are not merely alien-food but have some dimension to them. Weaver is excellent, while the support cast is full of great support actors (Stanton, Kotto, Hurt, Skerritt, Holm), but of course the real star is the one we see least of.

We barely see the alien in full detail, most of the time it is set in shadows, moving with deadly intent.The alien here is not simply a killing machine as seen in later films but is cruel with it. Witness the alien trap a female crew member and slowly rub up her leg, moving with slow seductive movements before moving with terrifying speed to kill another crew member sneaking up behind it. The slow movements betray the alien's pure cruelty.

The film is a study in terror. It may not be as action packed as the other films in the series but it brings the claustrophobia of being hunted to a new level.

"In space, no one can hear you scream." This remains my favourite tagline ever for a movie. When 'Alien' was released in 1979, it caused almost as much talk as 'Star Wars' did when released two years earlier. The science fiction genre was being revolutionized at this time and 'Alien' had a horror characteristic to it which was psychological, visually striking and compelling with the type of strength in silence not seen since '2001: A Space Odyssey' in 1968. Definitely a big influence in blockbuster film making, 'Alien' has spawned three sequels so far and is a great horror/science-fiction classic not to be missed. It is director Ridley Scott's best effort on the big screen for making fear the best character in the film.

Everything has already been said about this great film n there seems to be little left to say but lemme contribute a lil more by praising how good this film is.

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs n as a kid i found it to be a bit slow but was shaken by the chestburster scene.

The facehugger terrified me as a kid.

Revisited all the four parts in the early 2k on dvds which i own.

Revisited this part again few days back as i am on Alien movie marathon n very impatient to check out Prometheus n Covenant.

I feel that this part is inspired by Bava's Planet of the Vampires.

The ruins with the skeletal remains, the design and shots of the ship itself does have the deja vu effect.

This one is atmospheric n dark, gory at times, it has enuff stuff for sci fi fans, it also has slasher n war like tone.

But the best thing is the feminist tone where in this part the women are not being cast as the helpless victims.

First seen in 1979 , I was 15 Mum dropped me off. Seen once every five years since.

Seems to get better and better as time goes on, maybe because as I mature, I appreciate the fine acting details or is it that there are fewer and fewer films to compare Alien to. Alien is a masterpiece in so many areas (in no order); Editing, photography, acting, direction, art, music, sound, script. In fact Alien ought to be mandatory viewing for every film director whether budding or currently or even as a refresher for well seasoned film makers.

It's so clear Ridley was able to make the film he wanted to make without interference from non creative parties.