Loving the Alien

The last couple of days I have been watching all of the Alien movies. I already owned the fourth movie and I recently bought the other three. I don’t care much for horror movies in general, but for some reason I really like these. I think it stems more from really liking Sigourney Weaver’s character in all of them.

I was talking with a friend of mine about the movies and he offered the observation that the first 2 movies in the series were the only ones worth mentioning. Granted, the third movie which takes place in a prison isn’t the greatest in terms of plot, but I still think it turned out ok. This is the movie where she finds out that she has an alien inside of her. Of course, with her death at the end, it would make sense that it would be the end of the series. HA! It’s the beauty (and the beast) of Sci-Fi, I suppose. You can make up any type of outrageous scenario you want. Death of the main character? No problem. Let’s just re-grow her in a Petri dish.

For me, the fourth movie is probably the one I find the most disturbing. Some may say it is easily the weakest in the series (and no I’m not counting that stupid Alien vs. Predator movie) but I think it is one of Sigourney’s more interesting performances. The story takes place 200 years after she dies in the 3rd movie. The scientists basically combine her DNA with an alien and use her as a host to make an alien queen. They had to make 7 of her before they finally got it right with number 8.

There is a scene where she comes across the first 7 versions of herself and it is a really unsettling scene. The other scene in the movie which I find particular mesmerizing as well as emotional is when the final alien hybrid is killed. Ripley (Sigourney’s character) is essentially killing her own child. The look on this thing’s face as it is dying is just awful to watch. The writer for this one (Joss Whedon, who I think wrote the Buffy series) did a really good job with the script. That last scene is easily the one that is burned in my mind whenever I think about this entire series.

Interestingly enough, these movies don’t give me nightmares. Maybe it’s all the special effects and the fact that its pure fantasy has something to do with it. I feel the same way about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and the Hellraiser series. No, the horror movies that really freak me out are a lot more psychological in nature. The Silence of the Lambs, The Ring, and The Sixth Sense scared the crap out of me. Those are the ones that cause me to lose sleep at night. In general, I avoid most of those types of horror movies.

As a side note, my title is in reference to a song (of course) by David Bowie. I don’t know why I even remember this song. I think I may have seen the video once or twice. I remember looking for a copy of the song and I could never seem to find it. I haven’t looked for it on iTunes in some time, so maybe I’ll give it another search the next time I am out there. It lives on a short list of “songs I can’t find.” ThreeL- maybe you have this one on your hard drive you mentioned? You seem to have everything else!