Alien (1979)
Just as America was bracing itself for the dawn of the Space Shuttle era, director Ridley Scott took on us a different kind of space adventure — into the world of terror.

We could only hope not to encounter such an Alien in our travels. Here is a creature that hatches from an egg, attaches itself to your head, lays an egg in your chest, bursts through your chest at birth, killing you. Then the creature grows to adulthood virtually overnight, taller than man and many times as fierce. Acid for blood. Problem-solving intelligence. And a desire to turn YOU into the next incubator for, you guessed it, more Aliens.

Plot summary for Alien:
A team of space miners on the ship Nostromo respond to a distress call in deep space only to discover a ship full of strange eggs. A crew member returns with a creature attached to his face, and all hell breaks loose when an alien bursts out of his chest and disappears into the spaceship’s ventilation ducts. The little Alien grows full-size by the time the crew next encounter it - with disastrous results for them. Soon only Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is left to do battle with the fearsome Alien.

Memorable scene from Alien:
After the facehugger releases crewmember Kane, the crew is enjoying a leasurely meal when Kane appears to choke on his food. As he rises, the crew has to restrain him. He falls onto the table and, as the crew moves in to help him, the Alien bursts out of his chest and scurries across the table.

Memorable quote from Alien:
“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but … you have my sympathies.”

Why Socreepy loves Alien:
What could be more creepy than being trapped on a spaceship far from Earth with an Alien on board that starts picking off the crew one by one? Other pluses — the amazing set and creature designs; the artful storytelling of Ridley Scott; strong performances by Sigourney Weaver (as Ellen Ripley), Tom Skerritt (as Captain Dallas), John Hurt (as the unfortunate Kane) and Ian Holm (as the android Ash).

Frightening Fact:
The alien’s life cycle, which involves laying eggs in the stomach (from which the hatchling alien will later burst out) was inspired by the spider wasp, which that lays its eggs in the abdomen of spiders. This image gave the screenplay writer such nightmares that he included the concept in Alien.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2005 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Horror Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.