Alien

Ridley Scot- 1979 Alien is a horror film that is bordering on the line of being a slasher film, mainly because it is almost a typical haunted house film where the characters are killed off one by one until the last character manages to kill the creature. Though at the time, Alien was received with some screams. It was originally showed in the st Louis theatre, which suffered very poor sound and so- the full impact of the film was not felt until it was shown in Dallas, Texas where the sound was of a much higher quality. Alien was proven so frightening that the British film certificate given was an x rating, which is considered to be a high 18+ certificate now.

Alien was based upon H.R.Giger s art, giving the film a stylised look. Giger designed all the creatures, the Xenomorph face Hugger and Chest burster . The most noticeable thing in Giger s art is the sexual themes, which was carried on to the film, especially the theme of the fears men face of Female sexual organs- hence the Xenomorph s second mouth that has even more teeth. In one of the scenes that Giger originally painted, a giant carcass of a creature (know called the space jockey ) lay in a seat surrounded by a circular room. Only half the set was built and so the creature revolved on a platform to create the illusion of an entire circular room. It is also noted that child actors were put in front of the statue to make the prop look bigger than it was.

The theme of sexual organs continues with the plot-line, the Xenomorph s life-cycle is full of male rape symbolism. The face-hugger is a very good example. Looking like a hand that wraps around a

person s face (in alien, the executive officer Kane, played by John Hurt) and inserts a proboscis down the throat,

Giger s design for the Face hugger, only this time, it had an eye in the centre

After Executive Officer Kane is freed from the face hugger, he was asked about the ordeal; Well What do you remember? Ripley

I remember a dream I was being smothered - Executive Officer Kane It could mean smothering- like how a mother smothers her child to protect or shield them from the outside world, giving that Giger s work for the face-huger resembles both female tendencies (smothering) and male appearance, it could be a symbiotic representation for male rape, whereas the Xenomorph could represent male fears of female sexual organs, and the chest burster could be what some men feel when their partner is pregnant- a condition called Couvade Syndrome more commonly known as Phantom pregnancy, which is most common in woman, but can appear in men, mostly a call for attention when their partners are pregnant, since they feel left out of the motherfoetus relationship.

Female relationships are present throughout the film, and not just with men. The space ship s computer is directly named mother , The ship will automatically detonate in T-minus 5 minutes You BITCH! - Ripley In the conversation above is a good example for the mother/female relationship depicted in the film, giving the ship a female aspect and making it almost evil . mother

Xenomorph Alien. The Xenomorph was a creature ripped directly from Giger s art-work. When Ridley Scott first approached Giger to design the alien, he was astonished by the elongated human skulls Giger drew. At first, Giger wanted to add eyes to the creature, but Scot refused the changed, saying it would make the creature more relatable- something that he didn t want.

Giger s original painting