Well…that just says it all, doesn’t it? Much like its minimalist poster, Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien is a film oozing with atmosphere and subtlety. The ingenious tagline “In space no one can hear you scream” is one of the most well-known lines in film history – and for good reason. With just eight simple words, it perfectly describes the tone and feelings associated throughout the entire story. Drawing on the bleak helplessness of being trapped with a ferocious beast, Alien expertly instills fear in the audience without over-relying on cheap jump scares or dramatic music. Instead, Alien accomplishes its goal by constantly keeping the viewer on edge with long, drawn-out silence while always keeping the monstrous Xenomorph (the official name for the alien) looming in the background. But most importantly, the film maintains a key aspect that is all but gone in modern horror films today – patience.

Setting the Stage

One of the most refreshing qualities of Alien is the tremendous amount of time it takes to build horror and suspense. The film is in no rush to get straight to the action, and is so filled with patience that it does not even reveal who the main character (Ripley) is until nearly half of the run time has passed. Instead, it allows the viewer to get engrossed in the vast emptiness of its space station setting, heavily emphasizing the helplessness of the crew should something go wrong. Roger Ebert expertly describes the importance of this build-up, noting “The result is a film that absorbs us in a mission before it involves us in an adventure, and that consistently engages the alien with curiosity and logic, instead of simply firing at it”. The audience spends the first 40 minutes getting a sense of these characters and their day-to-day routines, and this further highlights the importance of the film’s subtle opening – establishing characterization.

Just Your Average Space Truckers

Another interesting twist that Alien took towards the science-fiction genre was how it depicted the crew aboard the space station. As noted in the comedic commentary review by Red Letter Media, space crews in science fiction were typically depicted as brilliant and idealistic explorers, always seeking out extraterrestrial life out of fascination and curiosity. The crew aboard the USCSS Nostromo in Alien, however, are depicted as your average blue-collar workers just doing a job. In fact, this aspect was what Ridley Scott described as the main reason he decided to direct the film in the first place.

They curse, they smoke, they make lewd comments towards their female crew members. And they have no desire to respond to an S.O.S. until being reminded they they’ll lose their pay if they do not investigate. This creates incredibly relatable characters that the audience can insert themselves into, and thus can feel additional terror as though they were the ones being hunted by the ferocious Xenomorph. To paraphrase from Empire magazine’s online review, this crew class system is essential to ” set a new blueprint for sci-fi horror”, as we are no longer simply watching a perfect space explorer like Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk take on a foe. This time, we are the space explorers…and we are frighteningly unprepared.

Space Jaws!

Much like the Spielberg film Jaws, the terror is most felt whenever the creature is not on screen, and rather seemingly behind every corner. Though I would be remiss if I did not praise the ingeniously unique design by H.R. Giger, and it is glorious, the film loses some of its luster when it ceases the complete-silence-atmosphere and constantly reveals the Xenomorph. So much of what makes Alien great is the perpetual feeling of dread, and the Xenomorph is revealed a few too many times for the suspense to ramp back up. What made the initial attack of the Face-Hugger or the surprising reveal of the Chest-Burster so terrifying was the amount of time that was given beforehand. Once the Xenomorph is fully grown and on the prowl, the film does tend to overindulge itself in how often it likes to show off its brilliantly designed monster.

Conclusion

Even if Alien does peak within the first two-thirds of its run-time, it is still a masterpiece of suspense and sci-fi horror. Much like Kubrick’s “2001”, a film I strangely seem to connect to every review, Alien finds tremendous success by establishing a creepy atmosphere with patience and silence. I will always find the HAL-9000 to be a bit more frightening, as it an ever-watching threat that relies on its intelligence rather than brute force like the Xenomorph, but there is no shame in placing second to a Kubrick film. Sadly, this style of slow-moving, atmospheric film-making has mostly become a lost art for horror films of this era. But I suppose that just makes Alien all the more special for it, and one that I hope will inspire film-makers within the near future.