The screen opens to an unsettling black background when lines slowly appear before your eyes. The title is just as unsettling as the lack of sound, and it sets the mood for the rest of the film. In an interview with Richard Greenberg, the one who created the title, says, “I think Steve Frankfurt once said to me that sound is 50% of a film and I agree with that. So we abstracted the idea of the off-putting sound but in a typographic way. We wanted to set up tension and as these little bits come in, they seem very mechanical.” This tension and off-putting sound sum up the film perfectly, like a perfectly crafted work of art.

In all the articles I have gone through about Alien (1979), one thing stays the same. Critics seem to always mention the attention to details and how the atmosphere is perfected created to give you chills. Derek Malcolm from The Guardian says, “Scott, a recruit from advertising, where instant atmospherics has to be the order of the day, manipulates his audience in a far stronger fashion than he managed with The Duellists. His combination of space fiction and horror story is no great shakes as a work of art. Artifice, however, it has in profusion.” He says it the best, with those tricks and perfect timing, Scott manages to keep us on the edge of our chairs the whole time.

We can see an example of this in the trailer for the movie. Everything starts out calmly, then as the music starts to become jumbled, things start to happen. Pieces of the movie come together and build up one at a time, faster and faster until it is a flurry of sound and images. It sounds very similar to a scream, even though there is the sound of a cat, of cymbals, and other noises. Even still, a scream is what it sounds closest to, so it is fitting that they choose a slogan that fits perfectly. “In space, No one can hear you scream.” The trailer makes you want to know more and feels even more so like an ad for a fast food place or new brand rather than a horror movie. It is carefully crafted, just like the movie, taking parts of something and turning it into a stunning, shocking whole. It is a conventional, blockbuster movie, yet at the same time helped set the tone for horror movies from that point on.

For a blockbuster movie made to return money, it is interesting to see that there are a few things left undefined. For one, it is never revealed what the monster chasing them is. In most horror films to that point, it was always clear and set out. In this, it keeps changing and growing, until finally, it is a tall faceless humanoid. During the film I kept asking why the ship had stopped, why this had happened, only to find it was apart of something bigger. That feeling was exciting, thrilling, and made me wanting more. Keeping these things unclear while providing smaller clues really helps get the viewer thinking, and adds to the overall fear.