Isolation is terrifying. When the protagonists of a horror story are trapped and isolation, it’s almost guaranteed to increase the tension. A lot of different settings can accomplish this. A little house out in the rural countryside is isolated. A base in the middle of Antarctica is isolated (we’ll get back to this in a couple of weeks, don’t worry). A ship in the open ocean is isolated. But is anything more isolated than a ship out in deep space?
Space is terrifying. I love learning new things about space. I can watch documentaries about NASA and the space program for hours. And when I think about the astronauts of the Apollo missions going out there and landing on the moon–or orbiting the moon alone, which is what the third astronaut did while the other two went down to the moon, you know–I have to think that they were some of the bravest people in the world. It’s not just all of the unknowns and all of the things that could go wrong that get to me, but just the sheer fact that they were all the way out there, so far away from everyone back here.
Aliens are also terrifying, as well as being something else I can watch documentaries about for hours. And when I consider different types of monsters… Let me put it this way. I’m 99.9% positive I will never, ever encounter a legitimate vampire. Or a werewolf. Or any of a number of classic monsters. Zombies are unlikely, though I won’t completely discount the possibility. And you might know that despite my fascination with hauntings and willingness to listen to evidence and anecdotes, I don’t really believe in ghosts.
But aliens?
I’m not saying I believe in aliens. I don’t, really. Probably. I just think there’s a much better chance of aliens existing than any of those other creatures I listed. If I turned on the news and saw that we’d made contact with extraterrestrial life, I’d be shocked, but not completely. So I may not believe in aliens, but I believe there’s a chance that aliens exist.
Demons are another story entirely, but we aren’t talking about them today. We’re talking about aliens, or more specifically, Alien, the 1979 film.
Sometime in June, when I saw I’d be watching this movie for class, I went to one of the forums I frequent and told them that after the coming semester, I’d finally understand all those Alien references they make. Their response was…enthusiastic. It consisted of things like, “Wait, you’ve never seen Alien before?!” and “That is one of the few perfect movies in the world.” So of course I’m going to link them to this post. (Yes guys, I’m talking about you. :)) That gave me high hopes for the film. It also had a good cast, or at least, I like Sigourney Weaver. I also wondered about the actress who played Lambert, because her name sounded familiar. It turned out Veronica Cartwright is the sister of Angela Cartwright, who I’ve seen on Lost in Space.
Space is not as terrifying for her.
Space and aliens are both terrifying, which puts this movie off to a good start in the realm of horror just from its premise. The ship itself, the
Nostromo, reminded me of an article I’d recently read about a game called
Routine, which wants its futuristic setting to look like the future was imagined in the 80s, rather than current high-tech visions. More importantly, however, the ship created an environment that was both claustrophobic and vast. If something stalks you in the setting like that, you’re trapped and constrained, while at the same time your enemy has many possible hiding places.
This is the point where anyone who hasn’t seen Alien and doesn’t want spoilers should stop reading.
You know what my favorite thing about the movie was? (Okay, to anyone who guessed “the cat,” you might be right, but I’m being more general here.) The way the alien, once it was full-grown, could blend in with the ship’s environment. It looked enough like regular stuff on the ship that it had even more hiding places than one would expect for a huge alien. I want to watch the movie again if only to try to spot it in the background in certain scenes. I love stuff like that–background events that have more meaning when you see them the second time, or things you don’t even notice the first time you see them, but were there all along. (Kind of like this awareness test, except scarier.)
So, how does the alien of Alien (a Xenomorph? Is that right, or am I mixing up franchises?) do as a monster? Fantastic! It’s got the nigh-unstoppable power and lack of morality we saw from Rawhead, and even though it faded into the background–sometimes literally–for large portions of the movie, it remained a constant threat looming over the crew. It also looked scary, especially when you only got little glimpses of it. Oh, and then there’s all the sexual symbolism. I’m pretty sure that’s been discussed to death already (considering I knew about it before I even saw the movie), so I’ll skip over it in favor of a brief discussion of the other “monster” in the film.
Let’s keep some to study!
What could possibly go wrong?1
I didn’t trust Ash, but I assumed he was just an evil science guy, the sort of scientist who puts research and knowledge above the lives of other people. He’d rather study the alien than destroy it, even if that could lead to the deaths of everyone on the ship. Those kinds of scientists show up often enough in science fiction, after all. Instead, he’s actually a robot, programmed to follow the orders of people like that. (His superiors would have been in for a nasty shock if he made it
home with the alien.) Ash the Android took me completely by surprise and nearly distracted me for the rest of the movie. I wasn’t expecting a robot at all. Once I took a few moments to think about it, however, it didn’t bother me as much. I was willing to accept a horrific alien thing onboard a ship transporting ore through space, but a robot was too weird for me? I’m fine with it now, and even read some interesting theories about his actions throughout the movie. But as a monster, the alien definitely has him beat.
In short, I enjoyed Alien and I might consider the alien itself to be the best monster we’ve looked at so far this semester.
1: Halo. I know the Forerunners might have had legitimate reasons. But still, when you have to wipe out nearly the whole galaxy to stop an alien race, keeping a bunch to study is a terrible idea.
Update: It seems I became a fan of Alien at the perfect time to become excited for the upcoming survival horror game Alien: Isolation.
Mortimer knows something has to be done, but he doesn’t want it to be known that Abby and Martha were murderers. He finally decides that since everyone already knows that Teddy is crazy, if he can commit him to the sanitarium now, it’ll be assumed he was responsible if the bodies are ever discovered. And without Teddy to dig the canal, Abby and Martha won’t be able to take care of any more gentlemen. He begins a frantic race to commit Teddy, keep his new wife from becoming too angry with him as he delays their honeymoon, and keep his aunts from killing anyone else in the meantime.
But while Mortimer is gone, his criminally insane brother Jonathan returns to town with his assistant, Dr. Einstein–on the run from the police and with a dead body to hide. As far as Jonathan is concerned, the house is a perfect hideout. He can find a place to hide the body, get Dr. Einstein to change his appearance yet again (especially since people keep comparing him to Boris Karloff), and maybe, just maybe, eliminate his hated brother Mortimer once and for all.
