Imagine, if you will, the vast emptiness of space, the echoing corridors of nothingness, lit only by the countless stars thousands of miles away dotting the black backdrop.  Now, imagine a massive ship sliding through the abyss of space, traveling through galaxies to a destination unknown.  Its boxy features and immense volume seem miniscule in the greater scheme of the vast, unformed territory.  Travel inside the ship, and move through its rough designs and simplistic layout.  The silence inside the space ship is only matched by the stillness on the outside of the ship’s massive walls.  All of this is broken by the operating  of the ship’s computer system as it flickers to life, an operating system showing brightly off the glass mask of a helmet sitting in the captain’s seat.  You’ve just experienced the opening of Alien, probably one of the best films ever made.

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The opening of Alien is brilliantly directed, thanks to Ridley Scott’s (Blade Runner, Gladiator, among others) amazing talent and keen eye for what works.  A similar opening can be found in the classic spaghetti western, Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone.  Both films feature a story opening that doesn’t need dialogue to set the tone or to give exposition.  The viewer is immersed in the world of the Nostromo (the space ship that Alien takes place on), or the city in the west where three men are about to clash in a high-stakes explosion.

The crew is woken from their sleep state and begins to get ready for their return to earth, complaining about shares of money and all the things one would expect when finishing a job.  This is one of the many things that make Alien such a believable film.  There are no flashy death beam lasers or swords made of throbbing lights, there’s just a bunch of grumpy people wanting to get home and get paid.  Dallas (Tom Skerritt), the captain of the ship, is called into a private room by the computer where he is debriefed about the situation the ship is in.  It turns out that things are not as previously thought, and instead of almost being home, the Nostromo has gone off-course to investigate what may be an SOS signal from a nearby mass.  Of course, the crew is none-to-happy about the turn of events and leading the charge is Parker (Yaphet Kotto) one of the two maintenance guys on the ship, and the only true humor in the entire film. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), in a roll that put her, and women in general, on the map for kick-ass parts in action films, ignores their complaints and decides to follow-the-book and get the job done.

The crew boards a smaller craft and heads down to investigate the signal.  Three members, lead by Kane (John Hurt) make their way across the surface of the small planet and stumble across a brilliant alien space craft that has crash-landed on the planet’s face.  From here on out the film kicks into a level of terror and tension rarely found in films, ever, and just about forgotten in most modern films.  The crew finds something and their lives, well, what’s left of them, are sent into frenzy.  A similar idea, on a much lighter note, can be seen in the film Hellboy, where finding Hellboy himself, as a child, effects entire civilizations and causes anarchy later on for the cast.

As I stated earlier, the first ten minutes, approximately, of the film have no dialogue at all.  Hell, there are no characters up until the sleeping units begin to open.  Every hallway, cockpit, and crevice on the ship is magnificent but an ominous feeling floats through the air.  The Alien doesn’t show up until about 45 in the film, but something seems wrong from the moment Dallas finds out that the crew isn’t heading home yet.

Now, the Alien.  The reason anyone has ever seen the film and the reason why my collection of horror figures has grown immensely.  The creature was designed by H.R. Giger  and it shows.  It’s sleek massive skull, it’s powerful claws, it’s lanky body, it’s black-as-night exoskeleton; everything about this creature is meticulous.  To quote Ash (Ian Holm) “You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.”  It even bleeds acid (how friggin’ cool is that?).  The Alien doesn’t think, feel, or have any emotions to get in the way from what it does best.  Surviving.  Scott doesn’t allow the audience to see the Alien as a whole, but rather, gives the viewers bits and pieces in frame to allow their minds to piece together the beast on their own.   Jaws is another classic film that uses this technique. Spielberg would only give the audience a shot of the shark’s head, eye, dorsal fin, or tail, it was almost never shown in it’s entirety (even when it leapt from the water some of the shark is submerged).  Of course, the Alien was a guy in a rubber suit, not a mechanical device, but the emotion both creatures elicit are about the same.  And, don’t forget those face-huggers; the spider-like creatures that lay the Alien eggs deep within their hosts’ chests while attaching their crab-like legs to the victim’s face.  Shudder.  To me, those things are probably the creepiest crawlies ever to scuttle across the big screen.  And, because of these little bastards the audience is treated to one of the most shocking on-screen events ever.  The chest burst.

The story continues on, following the characters as each tries to find his or her way through the ordeal, all the while wondering how they’re going to get their payload home.   There’s another twist (that I won’t say here as there’s probably the one person that hasn’t seen the film reading this) that puts M. Night to shame in every way possible (oh, and it actually works too!).    I could go on for hours about Alien, but I’ll just say that it’s just a well-done, perfect film that has solid story telling, beautiful cinematography, a haunting score by Jerry Goldsmith and a cast that couldn’t have been better assembled. 

The beauty of Alien is that it’s a slow burn with several gut-punches along the way.  I’m sure almost anyone that’s reading this review has seen Alien, and if they haven’t, what is wrong with you?  Stop reading and rent, buy, steal, do whatever it takes but get your hands on this masterpiece.  A lot of people I’ve talked to find Alien to be slow, and prefer Aliens.  I can totally appreciate that as I enjoy the faster paced shoot-em-up sprint of Aliens.  The problem is that horror films today have forgotten what atmosphere, tension and wonder are all about.  Have you seen Frontiere(s), the recent horror arrival from France?  Many spoke about it as the second-wave of new horror films (along with Inside, High-Tension and a new film coming called Martyrs).  Well, if Frontiere(s) is the future of horror, then I’m glad we have so many classics lining the vaults of the film industry.  Frontiere(s), as well as it’s brethren, seems to forget that a viewer needs to be broken down and set in a mood before they can be scared.  Instead, the audience is assaulted by shot after shot of gore and violence.  What Alien did (and Fronteire(s) forgot to do…amongst many other things) was to allow the world surrounding the characters to take shape, to have each choice they make actually have an impact, and to set up each sequence without flash-cutting to someone getting their throat slit open.  If you’re looking for a generic Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off, you can always run down to Wal-Mart and pick up Frontiere(s), but if you’re looking for a film that will be influencing entire genres for years to come, watch Alien immediately.