Alien

Directed by Ridley Scott

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt

20^th Century Fox

Rated R for sci-fi violence/gore and language.

Stater rating: *** (three stars)

25 Years Later: Alien is still powerful

            In a documentary detailing the making of Alien, Ridley Scott claims that when the studio honchos at 20^th Century Fox saw the chestburster scene in dailies, one of the executives vomited in the theater. Now thats a powerful scene. Alien tells the disturbing story of a mining crew who discover, on an uncharted planet, a monster that is nearly unstoppable; a creature that will haunt crewmember Ellen Ripley for three more feature films as well as countless books, graphic novels and videogames.

Some 25 years later, Alien is still considered to be one of the most powerful, original and frightening motion pictures of all time. Thankfully, after spending millions of dollars restoring all four Alien films for a huge 9 disc DVD box set due this Christmas, 20^th Century Fox has decided to release the first, and arguably, most terrifying of the four films, the original; Alien. It has been remastered with added footage overseen by director Ridley Scott.

Because of eBay, the directors cut of Alien was actually available a while ago on laserdisc, an import from Japan. This directors cut featured over fifteen minutes of new footage, adding some fascinating scenes including the biggest deletion, the five minute alien cocoon sequence. This cut ran 132 minutes and was far superior to the original bringing new character depth and a more detailed story. It was surprising to see that the new cut of Alien, the so-called directors cut, actually ran 116 minutes, one minute shorter than the original 117 minute theatrical release. Was footage cut? Its actually impossible to tell what was deleted and its nearly impossible to tell what was added.

After careful inspection, it was found that less than four minutes were added, the biggest of which was the alien cocoon sequence in which Ripley discovers the cocooned bodies of Dallas (Skerritt) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). This sequence explains that once the alien takes a body, it is cocooned. The body melts into eggs and the cycle starts all over, thus negating the alien queen from James Camerons superior film, Aliens. Even this scene was trimmed, now running less than a minute. A few extras include an added shot or two of the alien itself, including a rather creepy shot of it in the rafters a few moments before Bretts death. The rest of the footage is sparse and mostly unneeded though a few scientific holes are filled.

What remains brilliant about Alien is that it hasnt aged a day. The movie really feels like it was filmed in the future. Due to a small budget, the clothes look cheap, but this only adds to the authentic feel of the crew, the ship and the situation at hand. Surprisingly, the effects are also not dated. True, a few effects are sure to gain a chuckle here and there, but for the most part, it was nice to see real ships and real aliens, not computer generated ones.

 In an age of computer technology, the simple but effective effects on Alien again offer a fresh look and feel. H.R. Gigers mischievous and gothic artwork is simply brilliant. The alien ship is terrific as is the cocoon sequence. The detail this man infuses into his work is simply incredible. There isnt a single frame of Alien that Giger hasnt influenced in one way or another.

            The film does fault, however, when it comes to pacing. It is nearly an hour into the film before anything really happens and a few scares are actually lost because of this. To genre fans, this film may be a bit boring by todays standards, but even at this pace, it is sure to scare newcomers to the series. As for direction, Alien is really the first film of many that director Ridley Scott would practice his style over substance technique. The story is pretty pain, but the visuals brighten the film with a power and majesty that no other sci-fi film can top, except maybe Ridley Scotts other sci-fi opus, Blade Runner.

            It wont cause people to faint, or to scream in terror and it probably wont cause people to hack up their ten dollar popcorn like it did in 1979, but Alien is still a very powerful pierce of sci-fi terror. With Alien and Kents own Demon Summer on the way and with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre already scaring it up at theaters, this is sure to be one hell of pleasing Halloween to any horror movie fan.