Alien

Release Date: May 25, 1979

Watch Date: October 16 – October 17, 2024

“When a crew of the space-tug Nostromo responds to a distress signal from a barren planet, they discover a deadly life form that breeds within human hosts. Now the crew must fight to stay alive and prevent the creature from reaching Earth. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver in her breakout performance, this legendary fist film in the Alien saga will leave you breathless!”

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   I did it. I watched the horror…thriller…sci-fi classic. I watched the film that launched it’s own genre. I watched the film that made Sigourney Weave a household name. I did it.

   I did not like it. But I did it.

   I don’t know. There’s something about bugs latching on to my face and then bursting out of my chest that is incredibly uncomfortable for me to watch, and kind of takes away from any of the building suspense because how am I meant to enjoy claustrophobic sets or fear what might happen next when I definitely know one of the things that will happen is a bug bursting out of someone’s chest?

   I did get to enjoy an alternate universe history lesson from Bob, who apparently knows a lot more of the Alien Universe lore than I expected him to, since I expected him to know none of it. There’s a lot of deep plot that is going to be stuck into this film decades later, and I do like a well-developed plot and world so maybe that will make future viewings of future alien movies more enjoyable for me? Maybe?

   Mostly I was just glad nothing bad happened to the cat.

   I will say that the final form of the alien, the Xenomorph or whatever? I didn’t actually find it to be that scary. Probably because special effects at the time aren’t as advanced as what we can do now, and it definitely just looks like a statue or a dude in a suit. Something, either way, that moves very slowly and uncomfortably. Not really a top-notch predator. It felt like it was much more dangerous in his procreation stage than as an adult.

   Also, is it sleeping at the final scene of the movie? I can’t really tell. Is the Xenomorph as hard to wake up in the morning as my husband? It appears so. It takes a blast of cold air, several, repeated blasts, to finally get that thing up and moving. I’ve heard a bucket of cold water would work on Bob, but then that requires my bed getting soaked and that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

   So, all in all, I’m surviving this Halloween themed month, by hook or by crook, but I am surviving. I’m just hoping the increasing reliance on CGI and the desensitization as a culture to blood and gore doesn’t make this steadily worse for me as we go on.