Alien and Aliens

Ok, I will admit that I’m kinda biased with these two. Alien is one of my favourite films. It got me tensed up, got me scared for the characters and let’s face it- how can you not love the xenomorph?

Do I really need to give a quick summary? John Hurt gets a thing on his face, explodes and the alien hunts down the crew, leaving only one of them alive at the end (and the cat).

Alien has everything I love in a film: good, well acted characters; a story with extra layers to it that avoids being pretentious (Alien gives us an exploration of rape, particularly of men) and an aesthetic that only adds to the film as a whole. In my opinion the scariest part of Alien wasn’t necessarily the chestbursting sequence. I found Dallas climbing through the vents with the alien much scarier, but the chestburster is probably the more memorable bit for most.

Aliens is a damn good sequel, too. In it Ripley (the only survivor of the first film) returns to the planet where the alien came from and we meet the alien Queen. Where Alien was very mch a gothic horror-sci fi crossover, Aliens is a action film. Both films have great effects and it’s just a shame that the series had to get so ridiculous after these two (though Alien Resurrection will always make me laugh). I actually agree with bravo on the scariest moment this time- Newt and Ripley getting trapped in the infirmary really had me on edge.

So, yeah. Loved both of these films, would happily reccommend them to anyone (plus they both have some pretty scary bits).