Week Eight: Alien

This week, we’re leaving the earth-dwelling zombies behind and looking upward to the stars in the 1979 Ridley Scott movie Alien.

This was my first time watching Alien, and I honestly wasn’t sure what to think going into it. I have a bad track record with horror movies—either I laugh at parts I should be cringing at, or I can’t suspend my disbelief. The former typically happens with older horror movies, the latter with more recent releases. Now I will readily admit to laughing at an inappropriate part of this movie because something must be wrong with me, but I was able to suspend my disbelief. Maybe the sci-fi setting helped me to do so, but no matter the reason, I truly enjoyed this movie.

The plot is a basic predator hunts prey story. A crew of seven on the mining ship Nostromo is on its way home from a routine ore mining trip, when the main computer, Mother, detects an alien signal. By law, the crew is required to respond. They land on the alien planet and damage Nostromo in the process. While the ship undergoes repairs, some of the crew explore their new surroundings, and it all goes downhill after that. I’m sure just about everyone has already seen this movie, or at least know enough about it to guess the rest. If not, go watch it.

Since this is a class on monsters, let’s look at the monster itself. The Alien is a creature unhindered by a conscious that can adapt to almost any climate and has many natural defenses from egg to adult. In order to develop, it must become a parasite and latch on to a host via a facehugger. This is the second instance in this class where the fear of pregnancy and birth is explored. It’s ‘born’ by ripping free from one of the crew member's abdomens, and its birth kills it’s host. The violent birth and parasite/host relationship between the crew member and the Alien reminded me of Breeding Ground. This birth sets the tone for the Alien for the rest of the movie by introducing it through violence and good old fashioned ick factor.

Much of the movie after the Alien’s birth is spent trying to determine where it is and how to kill it as it slowly picks off the crew one by one. While the Alien is monstrous in the sense that it acts upon its desire to kill, it’s generally off-screen during the movie. Most of the fear comes from the dread of anticipation the Alien causes. However, it’s not a passive monster, like the monsters from the beginning of the class. Even though the Alien isn’t in every scene, it’s always on the crewmembers’ minds, which I liked. How monstrous is a monster when no one’s scared of it?

Overall, I’m glad I saw this movie. It’s been on my to-watch list for a while, and while aspects of it are a little corny because the special effects are outdated, I understand why it’s a cult classic. The Alien invokes fear from its victims before it attacks, and it’s this fear and the anticipation of the next attack the drives the film. For me, that’s absolutely necessary for a monster to be frightening, whether it’s on the screen or on the page.

On a side note, I love how all the Alien seems to want is some quality time with the cat. Maybe my cat-lady bias is clouding my judgment, but I a part of me just wanted to see what the Alien would do when left alone with Jones. I’d like to think after a stressful day of human hunting, Alien would have come home to snuggle the cat.