“I think it’s safe to assume it isn’t a zombie.”

I haven’t seen this in over a year, so I was definitely quite excited to revisit it this Halloween season. I was glad that it still very much holds up, and though I wouldn’t say it is the most rewatchable film ever, it still always manages to keep me intrigued pretty much the whole time. It still is and will always be one of my favorites.

It begins with a space crew waking up from hibernation aboard a ship called the Nostromo, where they are directed to take on a rescue mission that, let’s just say, wasn’t part of the original plan in their minds. Automatically, that builds up dread because you already know this isn’t going to lead to any good outcomes, which is what this film does so, so well. They go to that planet only to discover something never before seen by any human, and well, that’s as far as I’m going to go explaining the premise without getting into spoiler territory.

A word that I used in the last paragraph was the word “dread,” and that would be the best word in my opinion to describe the entire movie. It builds up suspense and an unnerving feeling from the very beginning, all the way until the very end, keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire runtime. Despite it very much being a “slow-burn” type of movie, it never once gets too slow that it takes you out of it, for the sole reason that you always know something bad that is going to happen is right around the corner. There isn’t really much comedic relief at all to help give the audience a breather, because this movie wants you to feel the dread and terror that the characters themselves are experiencing. It’s one of the most effective uses of suspense that I’ve ever seen.

A thing that adds to the dread is definitely the atmosphere, which is simply something that makes this film hard to forget. This is certainly not a movie for people with claustrophobia, as practically the entire movie is spent on one spaceship that, despite actually being huge, feels rather tiny and crammed. It also just has a very subtle but rather unsettling look and design to it that gives you the feeling of “I want to get off of this thing,” even before any of the actual horror stuff starts happening. The mysterious A.I., simply named “Mother,” that controls it also makes it even more unsettling.

Adding more to the story, it, to put it blatantly, is just so excellently written. It’s full of surprises, shocking moments, and revelations that had me in awe the very first time I watched it. What’s actually really cool about the twists and turns in the story, and what makes twists and turns in any movie the best, is that the writing is right there on the wall when you rewatch it. Everything that you learn by the end of the movie is not-so-subtly foreshadowed right from the beginning. It’s one of those movies that almost makes you feel dumb for not realizing certain things on the first viewing.

Also, while the characters aren’t exactly “deep,” they don’t need to be because they are written in a way that they are supposed to make the audience feel like it’s almost them, experiencing all the horror, the anticipation, the dread, everything. Only a couple of characters are actually given proper development, but this surprisingly doesn’t matter because the movie still accomplishes its task of making you feel as if you were there with the other characters, or even as if you were the other characters themselves. It, adding to the atmosphere, makes for an extremely immersive watch, which is why I think Alien is one of the most effective horror movies ever made.

Everything leads to an incredibly climactic and effective third act. The movie completely turns itself on its head with the pacing speeding up to a max. This is when things become most intense and heart-pounding to say the least. Characters rush to save themselves, and the sense of doom is at its peak, with everyone having to force themselves into even more uncomfortable situations to gather the materials they need to survive. The way everything pays off is both some of the most surprising stuff I’ve ever seen in a film, and some of the most satisfying.

I’ve already talked a lot, and haven’t even mentioned the cinematography yet. A lot of the movie is rather dark but also has a rather cold look, which definitely fits the tone. There are some pretty incredible shots as well, the standouts being the ones in the air ducts. I also mentioned that the movie felt claustrophobic, and that’s mainly due to the camerawork and set design. Number one, the set design is absolutely stunning; the spaceship is designed amazingly well with that retro-futuristic (for the time) kind of feel that’s almost somewhat similar to Star Wars, but completely different at the same time. The reason why the camerawork makes the movie feel claustrophobic is that it’s shot so that you really don’t see much of anything other than what the characters can see. My last comment on the cinematography is that I just love how the camera moves in the movie. There are plenty of scenes where the camera moves around the sets rather slowly and with the characters, making it an even more immersive film as you are going through the ship along with the characters themselves, and obviously, you don’t know when something unexpected is going to show up or something bad is going to happen.

Before I start wrapping things up, I just want to briefly mention the special effects done in this movie. They are pretty much all entirely practical, with miniature models just like the original Star Wars trilogy, which helps this movie age so incredibly well. Practically everything, no, literally everything, still looks believable to this day because it was, in fact, done for real and not on a computer (which they obviously wouldn’t have had the technology to properly do at the time). Even adding onto that, the designs of the spaceship, the sets that I’ve already mentioned, and the alien are simply incredible and iconic to put it bluntly.

Really, the pacing is the only mixed thing I have to say about Alien, and it’s not even something that really bothers me personally. I’ve already said it’s very much a slow-burn movie, and let me tell you, I really mean that when I say it. It definitely takes its time, but for me, that makes the dread and tension build up better than it would be otherwise. For others, though, I could definitely see it being a bit much, which is why I totally understand why plenty of people prefer James Cameron’s more action-packed but still very much a horror movie, Aliens, which I also love and plan to rewatch soon, by the way.

Even on my fourth visit, I still absolutely love this film, and it remains to this day my favorite horror film of all time.