I originally watched and wrote most of this around Mother’s Day as I had found that the next two films in my A to Z Horror reviews make one of the best Mother’s Day Double Features: Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). Shortly after watching and returning to the library, I found that another film fell before them. So, with no more ado whatsoever:
Alien 1979 directed by Ridley Scott, starring Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, and John Hurt.
There has been so much written about the Xenomorph franchise. The first installment, Alien, has been consistently ranked as one of the best sci-fi AND horror movies of all time and its easy to see why when you begin watching. There’s something about the Nostromo waking up that immediately contrasts it with other popular sci-fi of the time. Aside from the sleeping pods, in their bright white symmetrical shape, the rest of the ship looks dirty and dusty and old. This makes sense as we are told this is a towing vessel for mineral ore. Essentially it’s a futuristic coal truck.
I remember being told that the idea for this movie came a simple premise: a haunted house movie, but in space, so there is absolutely no escape.
If you have never seen the movie (which at this point with its importance in the cultural Zeitgeist and several sequels and crossovers is probably mostly the generations after mine) the first thirty minutes leads the viewer to believe that we may be dealing with a villain in the form of the “sinister ship” much like Hal 9000 in 2001. The viewer is also confronted with the idea that perhaps the conflict is going to come in the form of the hostile environment of the planetoid that is sending a distress sequence and potentially make us wonder if the title is in reference to “something foreign and unknown.”
But, most of you probably already know the villain is our black, slimy, double mouthed, xenomorph based on the designs of H.R. Giger. Which we’ll come back to shortly, but I want to talk about the crew.
These are not your typical space-faring adventurers who deal with ship to ship battles with photon torpedoes. Remember, their ship is essentially a semi-truck or tugboat. These are blue collar workers trying to make an buck by traveling to the deeps of space to recover some precious minerals and bring them back to Earth.
It’s almost exactly 30 minutes that we see the “space jockey” sequence which is a short sequence in which three of our crew explore the derelict spaceship that is causing the distress signal and discover a large skeletal shape (about twice the size of the people as seen on screen). This is our first encounter with an “alien” and the sequence that led to the prequel films for explanation of its origin. Its also a bit of foreshadowing as the crew exploring the ship try to decipher what occurred.
Eventually a hole is found that leads to a cavernous part of the ship and the discovery of a foggy line of egg shapes that appear to be sealed. Scott and the effects team do an amazing job of transporting us into that cave. The wide shot makes it feel expansive, and then the close ups of the egg show us the slime and wetness. This contrasts with most of the ship which has seemed dusty and ancient. One of my favorite parts is the light shining through to see the movement inside. Something about it still creeps me out. Maybe because I know what’s about to happen, but also the creativity behind it. The subtle movements inside the egg. The slow opening. The fog. This movie THRIVES on atmosphere. And then when the creature jumps up and we cut to the outside of the ship and the blue fog that emanates around it as we slowly pull back and think, “holy shit, what was that?!”
The crew on the planetoid are frantic to get their comrade back on the NOstromo as his helmet has been broken by something and they want to try to save him. And it is here that Ripley refuses citing the quarantine protocols and that this unidentified creature is not worth risking the crew. Intervention by ship’s science officer Ash gets the crew on board and we start to suspect nefarious things are going to be happening.
This is where we go from Sci-Fi drama to creature feature to full on haunted house slasher.
This movie predates CGI. All of the effects and sets and monsters are practically done so there isn’t that uncanny valley look to everything (except maybe one or two instances.) Even the spider-like face hugger that has attached itself to John Hurt has that oily gleam of real flesh as they try to manipulate it away from him.
And the types of products they used to create these effects range from various lubes to condoms. Which brings me back to H.R. Giger’s designs. There is a lot of phallic and sexual imagery in both the creature design and the way the xenomorph reproduces. This is one of the most talked about movies in terms of sexual imagery without having nudity or sexual situations. In fact, Alien is a movie that passes the “Bechdel test” and was famously used in the inspiring comic strip.
If you are unfamiliar with the Bechdel-Wallace test, it is derived from a comic strip titled “The Rule” by Alison Bechdel (whom credited her friend Liz Wallace), in which two lesbians, who seem to be on a first date, are discussing going to see a movie and one says, “I only go to see a movie it satisfies three requirements.” The three requirements are: 1) It has to have at least two women, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man. The comic strip was written in 1985 and the punchline is the last movie the rule abiding lesbian got to see was Alien.
Pretty simple yet strict criteria, but surprising how many movies do not pass.
Back to the imagery. Giger’s paintings and works are described as industrial, vulgar, bleak, perverse and many other words that could describe artists like Rammstein or Kraftwerk.
Giger’s work Necronom IV forms the basis for the creature design itself. Giger had been hired to work on Jodorowsky’s Dune and would be remembered by Dan O’Bannon when that project failed and O’Bannon begain to work on Alien. Giger’s monochromatic landscapes and biomechanical humanoids would form the basis of a lot of the design in Alien and eventually another famous sci-fi franchise, Species.
It truly is haunting and beautiful and frightening to behold. Just like the movie.
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Which brings us to Aliens from 1986, written and directed by James Cameron (of current Avatar fame) and starring our final girl from the first movie Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley. We also get an elite squad of Marines with oft Cameron collaborator Michael Biehn, a spunky young colonist child played by Carrie Henn, and the iconic Lance Henriksen as Bishop, the plucky and potentially untrustworthy android.
This film takes place 57 years after the ending of Alien and Ripley has been in stasis and is rescued by members of the Weyland Yutani corporation (whom had contracted the Nostromo in the first movie). Eager to destroy the creatures and prevent the almost unstoppable killing machines from infesting other places, Ripley agrees to join the group going to investigate the colony that was built upon the same planetoid housing the egg filled ship from the first movie.
One thing I enjoy about Cameron’s movie is that it borrows scenes, imagery, and effects from the first movie to maintain the continuity in the world building. In fact, one could argue that Aliens is the real star of the franchise and that every sequel, comic, and spin-off is based on the mythology and information contained within Cameron’s vision for the story and not Ridley Scott’s. While, Scott would eventually come back to the franchise, it was met with disappointment by fans despite being solid entries in terms of story, creatures, and effects.
It seems that the Alien franchise has two types of genre: Isolationist atmospheric horror or
large scale production action.
Both are great ways to approach the world and the characters, and one could argue that this is why the franchise has been successfully kept alive despite the negative connotations people speak of the 3rd and 4th entries, the AVP spin-offs, and Prometheus.
What set this viewing apart from other viewings of Aliens is that the library had the special extended edition. This version gives us more details about the world and the events that transpired before Ripley and the marines make their way to the colony. In the theatrical version we don’t get to see the life of the colony and the innocence of the people. Just the massacre after the fact.
This franchise’s commentary on capitalism and corporations is the backbone of why I think the series really does resonate with viewers. Most of them are the blue collar workers that would be sacrificed to the eggs. We are all members of the colony, or the expendable armed forces sent in to deal with the aftermath of corporate and capitalist greed.
Especially here in Appalachia where our people have been famously exploited over the years in a variety of ways. Whether it is the natives who had their lands stolen from them by colonists or in less historical terms, the miners and loggers who had land stolen by robber barons taking land and mineral rights. Even today with natural gas and the proposed data centers in West Virginia that will do nothing but pollute waterways and use whats left to operate.
The other great commentary this movie has is on motherhood itself, and why I felt it such a great film to watch for Mother’s Day (started in the heart of Appalachia, West Virginia). Ripley’s character is revealed to be a mother, and gets a communication from her daughter early in the film. Except, this is not the daughter Ripley remembers as Ripley has been gone for 57 years. She missed the entire lifetime of her child due to her working conditions. We don’t know if Ripley was a single mother, but it is a possible situation one could assume in the corporate and colonial hell that is the Alien universe.
It is her motherhood that strengthens her (and I totally get it as all the mom’s I know are badasses and totally willing to kick any and all ass to hurt the ones that hurt the ones they love.) Her motherhood is also what draws her to Newt, the lost child and sole survivor on the planetoid.
Then there’s the dichotomy between Ripley and what I believe to be Jame’s Cameron’s greatest contribution to cinema, the Xenomorph Queen. This hulking beast done with puppetry and practical effects is one of the most terrifying creatures. Though depending on the need, it seems the size of the creature does change between projects.
The final fight between Ripley and the Queen culminates in one of the few times blue collar work has looked fun, and that’s the battle with the power loader. I wish Jeff Bezos decided power loaders were cool for warehouses instead of roombas.
While not as horror centric as the first movie, Aliens does have terrifying moments. Once the marines start getting picked off and we realize that every colonist has been replaced with a xenomorph or killed, we start to see swaths of the creatures instead of the singular entity in the first one. When you have a multitude of creatures chasing after or backing characters into a corner you can’t help but feel the inevitability of their demise. Where the first movie had the isolation and the unstoppable nature of the beast using the atmosphere to terrify, this film does it with the number of creatures. Each one getting gunned down just replaced by another one.
Now depending on whom you ask, this movie could be considered better than the first film, and on some days, I can’t argue with those people. It’s a near perfect film that once it starts going to can’t stop her.
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Check it out from the Cabell County Public Library.
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