Tested: About a decade or so back, I did a lengthy interview with screenwriter Dan O’Bannon about the film he would always be best known for: Alien. Alien first came together from several scripts O’Bannon came up with. One was called Omnivore, a sci-fi horror story about creatures that emerge from a million year life-cycle during an ecological dig. Then he wrote Star Beast, which later morphed into Alien.
3 comments:
I remember watching Alien as a little kid with my two older brothers. They were obsessed with sci-fi and horror at a young age, and I was always dragged along. I remember being terrified of the movie when I was little, but I also remember seeing it again when I was older and thinking that it was a very well-done sci-fi movie for its time. I love watching old horror movies like this, because that's what the genre should be all about. Today's society is so desensitized to gore that most horror movies just go for shock value. If you can shock today's audiences and make it believable, then you've done your job. What happened to the development of plot-lines and the suspense that marked great horror movies of our parents' decades? That's what makes a great horror movie in my mind, and I will always choose watching an original like House on Haunted Hill or Evil Dead over the remakes.
Alien was the first scary movie I remember watching, accidentally viewing the infamous "bursting out of the belly scene" circa age 6 while my uncle was babysitting. Besides being absolutely scared to death, that has started my horror movie obsession. I really enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look at the movie that started it all. One aspect that really spoke to me was the horrific paintings/ story boards created by HR Giger. The production team did an excellent job recreating this petrifying being. Overall, this movie has done an excellent job being a quality movie. I say that because not only is the story line intense (it's been followed by multiple sequels and spin-offs), it's special effects (for the time, top of the line), and it's female protagonist.
So I totally watched this movie way WAY to young. Probably around 7 I watched the third one, which is totally not as scary as the first. I just have a image in my head of the chest buster alien doing his buttering thing and as a 12 year old being totally freaked out.
More importantly I enjoyed the article and just reading about O' Bannon passion for his work. He loved what he did and trying to really make a quality script. That movie was a success and totally freaked me out.
I was also interested in their point about the movie being really slow compared to modern standards of pace for story. Well maybe movie should slow down and teach us some patience?
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