ALIEN Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

ALIEN

(1979, USA)

DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott.

STARRING: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Bolaii Badeio, Helen Horton.

One of the best sci-fi films in history about a crew of researchers on the flight vessel Nostromo in space. The ships computer orders them to answer a distress call on anther landed ship. In doing so the whole crew are dispatched by a deadly alien, hence the title. All the carnage starts when on the stranded ship a crew member ( John Hurt, I think) gets what is well known as a face hugger attached to his face. The face hugger eventually comes off easily and dies. Hurt starts developing a big appiteite and soon he is writhing in pain as one of the little alien bastards rips out through his chest spewing blood everywhere and on everyone (Infamous scene here)

The crew then spend the rest of the film searching for the alien and they usually find it but die. The good cast has Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton and Tom Skerrit to name most of them. Ian Holms plays the Android. It all turns out that the whole rescue mission was a farce and the whole idea was to capture the alien and study it or something. Theres some really pulled off quickly kill scenes. The pre ending with weaver getting her cat is a bit tiresome. Probably Weavers best role. The ending with her hauling off her clothes made me a bit ill but I liked the film.

I would call it a popular well known film but the character development in this was zero, I mean they are so wooden and the stalk and kill approach didn't impress me much, it seemed almost like a slasher in space during a couple of scenes. Heres an interesting fact you might not have heard. An artist named Petagno drew up the original design of the face hugger on Kanes face with a long penis like rod going down his throat impregnating Kane with its offspring. The design was just the way writer Dan 'O Bannon wanted it but Ridley Scott cut it out due to it being too explicit. Dan was generally pissed and the design was replaced by some shitty stock footage of blood pumping through veins. Its interesting what you can learn from Sounds Of Death magazine! Good film.

Rating: 4 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

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