Alien Film Review

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Francis Carolan

Alien is a 1979 Science Fiction Horror film directed by Ridley Scott, who successfully evoked fear into his audience whilst also making his film one of the most iconic science fiction horrors of all time. The story's narrative structure certainly isn’t the most unconventional, as it follows the classic ‘trapped in a can’ structure. The space crew are trapped in their own spaceship, being maliciously hunted by a rapidly growing violent Alien. Following this movies large excitement and praise, also came concern for the Alien being presented as too ‘sexy’ and showing a ‘perverse view of reproduction’(2).

In 1979, this film was originally released with the X rating, due to its largely terrifying beast viciously killing off the space crew 1 by 1, much like every other horror/gory film during that time period. However, a lot of people argued that this film was unsuitable for younger views because of its sexual imagery. For example, the Alien itself. Ridley Scott decided not to use any CGI for the alien, which I believe was a clever idea, as the real life model/costume they had used made the Alien incredibly real and believable. Although, it’s design and structure may be a little bit perverted. The alien stands tall and skinny with an enormous skull which is undoubtedly shaped like an erect penis.

The sexual imagery is further reinforced by the famous dinner scene. This is one of the most horrifying, iconic scenes of Sci Fi horror in which one of the crew members, Kane, practically gives birth to an alien after being orally impregnated by a creepy hand-type creature. However, this wasn’t the most conventional birth, as this baby Alien swirled around in Kane’s stomach, giving him excruciating pain at the table, before violently bursting out of his stomach, killing him. “A 14 year old girl might not be able to cope with the aftermath of such an experience in the same way as a 34 year old.”(3) Again, this baby alien slowly crawls out of the caved belly of Kane, shaped rather like male genitalia with teeth. A scene like this opened a lot of doors, such as men being brutally introduced into the idea of men giving birth, which is said to be a man's greatest fear yet a woman's pride; pregnancy.


Bibliography:


Reel3com. 2012. Reel 3. [Online]. Available from: http://reel3.com/reassessing-alien-sexuality-and-the-anxieties-of-men/

Barker, M., 2015. Alien Audiences. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

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