Our Daily Trailer: ALIEN
As PROMETHEUS prepares to open this week, go back to LV-426 with the crew of the Nostromo where the xenomorph first began.
The opening of this trailer for Alien is incredible. The silence, with the foreboding alien landscapes that intercut with the geography of a strange and mysterious egg, builds thick atmosphere and suspense. The trailer takes its time, bringing you in before the egg cracks, unleashing a staccato series of images from the movie, scored with haunting howls.
Ridley Scott's movie is an undeniable masterpiece, one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, as well as one of the greatest horror movies. The titular alien has become an integral part of the modern pop culture, as identifiable as Frankenstein or Dracula - which is amazing considering it was hidden in shadows for most of the movie.
But while Scott's skills made the movie so extraordinary and horrifying, we have to remember that Dan O'Bannon was the seed of this unforgettable tale of extraterrestrial terror. O'Bannon, who had been working on the failed Jodorowsky Dune, turned his attention to a more commercial-seeming project, and he brought along some of his Dune collaborators, like HR Giger. This triumverate - Scott, O'Bannon, Giger - created something that has been unparalleled in what ended up becoming a long franchise of diminishing returns.
