For the next few weeks, we will be counting down our 25 favorite blockbusters! Read all of the entries here.

20. Alien (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979)

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

I often wonder what it was like to see a film like Alien on the screen when it was released. There is so much about this film that feels so all encompassing and isolating that an in-theater viewing must have been quite the experience. It is a film I have never had the chance to see on the big screen, even though Alien is one of my favorite films. This is not necessarily some grand statement considering the amount of love there is for this film. However, for me, it was a film that I loved before I was really into the horror and sci-fi genre. When I rewatch it as an adult, the horror elements in this are ultimately what jump out at me the most. It has some of the best elements of a typical slasher: a strong final girl, incredible practical effects, great kills, and the ultimate bad guy. While this film goes on to have several sequels as well as prequels, there is something inherently special about Alien that the other films in the series are never quite able to grasp. 

Alien was directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’ Bannon. Released in 1979, the film is populated with incredible established actors including John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm. It also has actors who populate many genre favorites like Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto. The ensemble cast of this film is astounding but nothing truly compares to Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, with this being one of her bigger starring roles early in her career. The film follows the crew of the Nostromo spaceship, who unleash an alien creature onto their ship and one by one the crew members are picked off. It seems to be up to Ripley to mitigate the damage and make sure this terrifying creature does not survive. 

When we talk about Alien, we have to talk about the insane practical effects of the film, specifically the xenomorph, which was designed by H.R. Giger. O’Bannon was lucky enough to meet Giger while working on a Dune adaptation for director Alejandro Jodorowsky. That film never came to fruition, but O’ Bannon remembered the incredible designs Giger created and brought him on board. This is how the Xenomorph we know and love comes to fruition, with a suit designed by one of the most interesting visual artists of the time. The fact that the creature is simply a man in a costume is astounding. Bolaji Badejo, an artist from Nigeria, was the lucky one picked to wear the costume. With its design they needed to find someone who was both thin and incredibly tall. The crew started the impossible task of finding someone who fit this description so they were lucky when the casting director met the almost 7 foot man at a bar. With the perfect actor in the perfect suit one of the most terrifying movie monsters was created. 

The film also has one of the best kills in the history of horror cinema, the famous chest burst scene with John Hurt. The baby xenomorph popping through Hurt’s chest is such an iconic scene that I remember seeing it long before I saw the full movie. While practical effects are one of my favorite things about films around this time, it is clear that sometimes making these scenes work is a little too gross. Hurt was attached to a mechanical torso that was packed with compressed air and a lot of animal guts. While it creates an effective and terrifying moment the actual set up for this scene is disgusting to think about. Although it is far less bloody, the Ian Holm death scene might still be the worst, there is just something really unsettling about the pool of robot goop around him. 

Ridley also offers the perfect ensemble cast to this film. Although most horror films would populate the film with plenty of horny teenagers ready to do drugs and each other, Alien still manages to give us characters we like, but not so much that we are overly sad when they die. The crew members are rough blue collar types who seem to care very little for the protagonist who is trying to act in everyone’s best interest. Unfortunately most of the crew are not prepared to deal with the alien and its acid blood giving us plenty of good kills along the way. That being said the cast is entertaining to watch and have great chemistry when they are able to act against one another. 

There is then of course Sigourney Weaver as Ridley, perhaps one of the best female protagonists in film history. Much like many women in the professional realm, she is constantly dismissed and ignored by her mostly male crew. Ridley is the one who tries to prevent her co-workers from bringing a potentially dangerous creature on board the ship. This is one of the top “listen to women” films in cinema history. Weaver is so smart and cool in this role and constantly pushes to be an authority figure even when no one wants to listen to her. Unfortunately she does not get to tell any of them “I told you so” because the crew meets their demise quickly against the Xenomorph. The one creature she is able to save is Jonesy, the ginger cat who acts as her sidekick. 

We also get the darker conspiracy side of the film while not entirely necessary does give us more bad guys to root against, capitalists. While the crew is fighting for survival Ash, the android science officer of the ship, is supposed to keep the alien creature alive for the company they work for. They realize their lives are expendable and that makes their chances of survival even harder. While the Alien is the one tearing people apart, it is doing so to survive, so the reveal of a darker villain, the one that lets the alien aboard the ship and has control of their computer is even better. 

There are so many good things about this film that it really is no surprise it was a success. Cinematographer Derek Vanlint creates an incredible design for the Nostromo which amazes me every time I see this movie. The almost blinding whites of the film and many of the communal locations create a stark difference to the darker areas of the alien ship, the halls of the ship, and the alien itself. Given that the Alien gets the smallest amount of screen time it is incredible how interesting and engaging the film is to look at, while we wait for the xenomorph to pop out of any corner. 

Again it is no shock that this film made the list, or that it was such a hit when it came out. Given the incredible cast and crew behind it there seems little chance they could have given an audience anything other than terrifying. The fact that it plays well as both a sci-fi film and a horror/slasher also makes it one of the more interesting of either genre. With so many of us being packed into our houses for the past year and a half the claustrophobia of this might hit a little close to home but I guarantee it is still the perfect summertime watch.