COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 28-“ALIEN” AND “ALIENS”

In honor of the witching season, we’ll profile a new Halloween-centric title every day throughout the month of October.

TODAY, THE COUNTDOWN OFFERS UP A TWOFER!

Article by Adam Mast

ALIEN (R)-1979
ALIENS (R)-1986

In 1979, Ridley Scott delivered a classic slice of other worldly terror in the form of ALIEN; A brilliantly executed sci-fi monster movie that was as scary and intense as it was breathtakingly beautiful to look at.

In ALIEN, a exploration crew discover what looks to be a nest of eggs aboard a crashed spacecraft on an unidentified planet. A curious crew member (played by John Hurt) is attacked by a strange creature that springs from one of these eggs and what follows is a tension filled potboiler in which the men and women of a U.S. commercial space vessel called the Nostromo must do whatever they can to stop a bioform from picking them off, one by one.

Ridley Scott can build tension like nobody’s business and clearly, his production design team worked overtime on ALIEN because visually, this picture is positively gorgeous. The entire cast is spot on with the standouts being newbie Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, stoic Tom Skerritt as crew leader Dallas, mysterious Ian Holm as crew member Ash, and John Hurt as crew member with one hell of a stomach ailment.

ALIEN is sci-fi at its very best. It’s dark, gritty, and terrifying. And if the last act of this movie doesn’t cause your palms to sweat, I don’t know what will.

Miraculously, James Cameron followed up Ridley Scott’s masterwork with a masterwork of his own. While sequels very seldom live up to the legacy established by their predecessors, ALIENS is a follow-up that absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as THE GODFATHER PART II, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and EVIL DEAD II. Yes, this movie is that good!

While ALIENS is intense, it trades in the all out suspense  of the first picture for a more balls to the wall action movie sensibility complete with space marines, a planet full of Xenomorphs, and a war of epic proportions.

As is the case with Scott, Cameron is an expert world builder. He not only expands on the physical universe we were witness to in ALIEN, but he also expands on the alien’s origin, itself. Translation; We are witness to who (what) is laying those eggs, and to put it mildly,  she’s quite the bitch!

Leading the charge in ALIENS is a returning Sigourney Weaver whose left to forge in a world she no longer understands after  suffering through an abnormally long hyper sleep. Her now lost Ripley has evolved into a tough as nails woman who wants nothing more than to take on the nightmares that plague her, head on.

New to the film are Michael Biehn’s tough but sensitive corporal Hicks, young Carrie Henn’s survivalist Newt, Bill Paxton’s wise cracking Private Hudson, Paul Reiser’s shifty corporate man Carter Burke, and Lance Henrikson’s intellectual but all too ambiguous Bishop.

I love, love, love ALIENS! It isn’t necessarily a better movie than ALIEN, but at the very least, it’s every bit  as good. ALIENS is also the perfect representation of what a great sequel should be; It expands on an established storyline all while pulling back and showing us its respective universe from a much larger perspective. Plus, this movie is damn exciting! An action film of the highest caliber. In fact, ALIENS remains my all time favorite James Cameron movie and if you’ve seen this guy’s resume, you know that’s saying a lot.

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN

October 27th-“The Cabin in the Woods”– Click Here
October 26th-“Blood-O-Ween”–Click Here
October 25th-“Horror-Fest/Guerilla 2015” Recap–Click Here
October 24th-“Jaws”– Click Here
October 23rd-“Frailty”– Click Here
October 22nd- “Psycho” – Click Here
October 21st-“Killer Klowns From Outer Space”– Click Here
October 20th- “Horrorfest 2015” – Click Here
October 19th- “Hocus Pocus” – Click Here
October 18th-“The Exorcist”– Click Here
October 17th-“Prince of Darkness”– Click Here
October 16th- “The Omen” – Click Here
October 15th-“Dawn of the Dead”– Click Here
October 14th- Student Bodies”–Click Here
October 13th-“Habit”–Click Here
October 12th- “The Twilight Zone” – Click Here
October 11th- “Creepshow” – Click Here
October 10th-“Shaun of the Dead“-Click Here
October 9th-“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”– Click Here
October 8th-“The Final Girls”–Click Here
October 7th-“Something Wicked This Way Comes”–Click Here
October 6th- “We Are Still Here”–Click Here
October 5th-“Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn”–Click Here
October 4th- “Phantom of the Paradise“-Click Here
October 3rd-“Poltergeist“-Click Here
October 2nd-“The Babadook“-Click Here
October 1st-“John Carpenter’s The Thing“-Click Here

About Author

Adam Mast

Adam Mast has been a lifelong film enthusiast dating back to age 6 when his parents took him to see a little movie called JAWS at a drive-in theater in Northern California. This would lead him to several writing stints for various publications and outlets. Mast would also have a hand in several film projects of various shapes and sizes. In 2014, Mast would join forces with colleague John Pugh to create Cinemast.net as a means discuss film from a fan and analytical perspective. Together, Mast and Pugh would also create the 501 (C)(3) nonprofit, Film and Media Alliance of Southern Utah (FMASU) in 2017. FMASU’s mission is to encourage, inspire and educate filmmaking talent and to preserve film history. Adam currently resides in southern Utah with his amazing wife, Tonja, and their four wonderful children.

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