Alien-A Masterclass in Atmospheric Horror and Realistic Characters
On my previous viewing many years ago, my tired state didn't allow me to fully appreciate Alien's effectiveness in providing a terrifying sense of atmospheric dread. Right from the opening moments, with those slow, methodical tracking shots through the ship's interiors, the film brilliantly builds up this internalized tension that permeates the entire movie. That tension builds and builds throughout the film, which it then releases in shocking moments of brutality. However, except for the chest-burster scene, the film rarely shows that brutality in explicit detail. Instead, the film cuts away early, uses camera angles to obscure the details, or shrouds these moments in darkness and shadow, which merely hints at the brutality. Like with all great horror films, Ridley Scott's direction is brilliant in its understanding that what you don't see can sometimes be scarier, as by obscuring the details, the viewer fills in the gaps of what they see in their head, which makes what they do see that much scarier.
What makes that tension and atmosphere so effective is how the film grounds it in a tangible sense of reality by providing a realistic cast of characters. Unlike most horror films, which portray the characters as vague, cookie-cutter archetypes to drive the story forward, the characters in Alien feel like genuine, authentic people. The film portrays these characters as working-class individuals trying to do their jobs, making them feel grounded and relatable. Much of the conflict in the film arises from the characters having conflicting ideas about how to do their jobs, which is a conflict that the audience can relate to. When the alien carnage begins, the conflict arises from the characters being overwhelmed by what to do, and this is still a genuine, relatable problem that the audience can understand despite the heightened circumstances.
The film's first act is a bit slow for my liking. The opening act mainly focuses on the characters performing their jobs, flipping switches, and checking protocols, which I find a bit tedious, making much of the first act fairly boring to me. However, once the characters depart from the alien planet, the film truly picks up, and the tension established throughout the rest of the movie doesn't let up until the end.
Despite a slow opening act, I've grown to appreciate Alien much more than I did when I first watched it many years ago. It's a film that brilliantly builds up this sense of atmospheric dread that it then releases at precisely the right moments. Through it all, there's a grounded relatability to these characters and their conflicts with each other, which makes the story all the more compelling and makes the film even scarier through how real these characters feel.
Watched theatrically for the film’s 45th anniversary. Now Streaming on Hulu in the U.S.
