Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Today, we venture into the world of Sci-Fi Horror by talking about one of the kings of the genre. Watch as we take a look at a film that is easily in my favorite movie I’ve seen, and the scares it gave me. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…
Alien
Our journey into deep space starts on the cargo ship, Nostromo. The Nostromo is a cargo ship that is on a journey back to Earth, and has a crew of 7 people. These people are; Dallas (Captain of the Nostromo), Kane (the Executive Officer) Lambert (The Navigator), Parker (Chief Engineer), Brett (The Engineering Technician), Ash (Science Officer), and of course, Ellen Ripley (The Warrant Officer). Ripley is our main character for the film, and is literally the coolest character in a horror film, ever. She is played by Sigourney Weaver, an incredible actress and a horror legend. (She also played Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters! Go check out the October Horror Fest Week 1 Special to find out more about her performance as Dana!)
We peer into the dark, vacant ship. Until a light turns on, a code is reflected off of a space helmet. This is Mother, the ship’s AI, waking up the crew. We venture to the crew, who all begin to slowly awake from deep sleep. The team begins to have breakfast, and all sit around each other at the table. Mother requests to talk to Dallas, and the team heads out throughout the ship. This is where the end of the crew begins. The crew realizes that they are not even close to Earth, and Dallas relays the same information to the crew that Mother gave him. The reason why Mother woke up the crew is because she received a signal from a different planet. The contract of the crew requires them to investigate all signals for signs of intelligence, and the crew unwillingly departs from the main ship to land on the planet transmitting the signal. The Nostromo has an extremely bumpy landing on the new planet, and much damage is caused to the ship, making it impossible to take off once more until repairs are completed. Dallas, Lambert, and Kane depart the ship in space suits to attempt to discover where the signal originated. Ash watches over their cams from the ship. Brett and Parker go to perform repairs, and Ripley, now that Kane and Dallas are off of the ship, is designated head of the Nostromo and helps repair the ship and watch over the crew.
The trio stumble across a massive crashed spaceship, which somehow seems organic. The explorers enter the spaceship, and find a massive, massive skeleton of a creature. This creature shows signs of having its chest burst open, and this horrifies the crew. Kane decides to venture deeper, and finds a cave of sorts under the ship. Kane, as he explores the cave in a very tense scene, finds lots of eggs. Once he touches one of these eggs, it bursts, and an organism, known as a “facehugger” latches on to his face, and he blacks out. We then pick up back at the ship, with Dallas and Lambert carrying Kane back to the ship. They attempt to get in, but Ripley does not open the hatch to allow them in. Ripley knows that they are jeopardizing the lives of everyone on the ship, but Ash doesn’t care. Ash opens the hatch, disobeying Ripley’s orders (keep this in mind). Once inside, Ash and Dallas begin to work on Kane. The facehugger attached itself to Kane’s face, and constricts its tail around his throat more and more when it is touched by the duo. Ash eventually cuts into the creature’s fingers holding Kane’s head, and acid spits out and chews through the floor. The rest of the crew spring into action and stop the acid before it goes any further into the hull.
Later on, Ripley goes to talk to Ash. She confronts him about letting the Alien in, but Ash is eventually able to make her leave. Ripley doesn’t trust him at all, however. Dallas is eager to get the facehugger off of Kane, but suspiciously, Ash doesn’t want to be too hasty with the removal. The crew is finally able to repair the ship, and they depart the planet. Around this same time, the facehugger mysteriously vanishes from Kane’s face. It took to the ceiling, and in a gut wrenching scene, landed on Ripley’s shoulder in a jumpscare. It is, however, dead, and Ash takes a look at its carcass. He awakes, as the facehugger was keeping him alive by supplying him oxygen. The crew go to have a meal with Kane, when the unspeakable occurs. Kane develops a coughing fit, and falls down onto the table. An Alien chestburster bursts out of his chest with blood flying everywhere, and scurries out of the room. One crew member is down. Ash, once again being suspicious, stares at the creature in wonder, and prevents Parker from touching it. The surviving crew split off into groups to find the creature. Ash, Lambert, and Dallas go one direction, while Ripley, Parker, and Brett take another path. Ripley’s team stumble upon Jonsey, the team’s cat, using a device meant to track the chestburster. Jonsey runs out of the room, and Brett chases him down. In another horrifying scene, Ash finds where Jonsey is hiding, but before he can pick him up, he finds shedded skin on the ground. From behind him, the chestburster, now grown into one of the most famous movie monsters of all time, grabs Brett and pulls him up into the air vents. The Xenomorph has been unleashed upon the Nostromo.
The team realizes that the Xenomorph is using the air vents to survive and kill other members, so Dallas, being the amazing captain he is, goes in with a flamethrower to guide the Xenomorph through the vents so it can be lured to the airlock. Dallas asked Mother how to defeat the Alien as well, and she did not provide him with any information. Ash is also very chilled out about everything. As Dallas ventures into the claustrophobic vents, even more tense scenes ensue. Sadly, before Dallas can escape, the Xenomorph finds him. Parker wants to take the fight to the Alien, and is angered by Dallas’s death. He wants to go out there and destroy it, which causes more infighting in the group. Ripley, now being the head of the ship, goes in to ask Mother about the Alien. Once again, she provides Ripley with no proof. This is where the horrible truth is finally revealed. Ash appears in Mother’s chamber, and begins to fight against Ripley. He throws her around with incredible strength, and is about to kill her before Parker attacks him. After Parker throws punches, Ash begins to convulse and spin, before eventually falling on the ground, a white, milk-like substance coming from his mouth. As Parker throws one more punch, Ash’s head comes off, but his body continues to fight. Ash was a robot.
After Ash’s lifeless body is plugged in, Ripley asks it questions. All along, Ash wanted to study the creature and preserve it. His main mission was to bring the creature back to Earth, and all other priorities, such as the crew’s life, were secondary. Mother, the company behind the Nostromo, and Ash were all in on it. They wanted this creature to be let in, as Ash truly admires its perfection. Ripley has finally had enough, and Parker burns the robot. Ripley decides the only way to truly defeat the Xenomorph is to blow up the ship. Parker and Lambert both agree, and they go to find charges to blow it up. Ripley gets to the shuttle, and starts preparing it for departure, as Parker and Lampart go find charges. This is when the Xenomorph strikes, killing both Lambert and Parker in a gruesome show of force, and leaving Ripley as the last survivor of the Nostromo.
Ripley makes her way down to where Parker and Lambert were killed, and finds the Xenomorph. It didn’t spot her, however, and continues to stalk the area. Ripley holds Jonsey in a cage, and runs for her and Jonsey’s lives. She finds the self-destruct sequence for the ship, and pulls it. A countdown gives her 10 minutes to evacuate, and 5 to override the self-destruct order. Ripley realizes that the Xenomorph is too close, and goes to override the sequence. Before she can, however, Mother ends the time limit, and she is left alone on the ship, still in its self-destruct sequence. She grabs Jonsey and her Flamethrower, and bolts. Ripley is barely able to make it onto the shuttle before the entire thing explodes, sending her and Jonesy flying away into space. The Nostromo explodes in a truly amazing feat of cinematography, especially for 1979. Ripley finally begins to relax. She puts Jonsey into a sleep chamber, before undressing and heading into the chamber herself. Just before she can, however, we see that the Xenomorph was inside the shuttle the whole time, hiding in plain sight, and jumpscaring Ripley. This also jumpscared me while watching. Ripley runs back to the ship, climbing into a spacesuit. She hits buttons to release multiple types of gasses, harming the creature. Ripley then opens the airlock, barely being able to eject the Xenomorph. However, the Alien isn’t done yet, and climbs back onto the ship. Ripley, thinking quickly in desperation, hits the thrusters, causing the Xenomorph to fall into the inky abyss of space. We cut back to Ripley, traumatized, now sitting in a chair. She records a message. She says that her crew is dead, her ship is gone, and she is the last survivor of the Nostromo. With a bit of luck, the company will pick her up in a few weeks. With this, Ripley goes to sleep, ending Alien.
Alien was a fantastic film which I am beating myself up about not seeing yet. It combines horror with action in an amazing way, and truly makes you care for the characters, and makes you feel like you were really in that ship. I hope you all enjoyed it! Just before I go, make sure to remember, In space, no one can hear you scream…
