I must have been 14 years old when I first saw Alien. It was one of those films that I had no chance of renting due to my age and I eventually got my hands on a copy by sneaking a blank tape into my parents video recorder and setting the timer for a late night broadcast.

Apart from the obvious chestburster moment, the scene that stood out for me was the Nostromo crew’s encounter with the remains of the Space Jockey.

Creepy, grim, horrific, yet absolutely epic in scale and uniquely beautiful, the set and the atmosphere from that scene remains one of my favourite moments in a film to this day.

The Space Jockey

Inspired by HR Giger’s book Necronomicon, Ridley Scott hired the Swiss artist to work on Alien (both in concept art and the production of sets, costumes and props) and later in 1980, Giger would be awarded an Academy Award.

And deservedly so, his influence on Alien is clear to see and in my opinion the films that followed in the series all lacked that other worldly, unknown and yet disturbing element.

Of course no dissection of Alien would be complete with some form of comment on John Hurt’s famouse chestburster scene.

Seen by many as analogy of mens fear of birth – to me, at the age of 14 it was just a balls out horrifying, what-the-hell-was-that moment. A moment that set Alien (and the whole series) apart from any other horror sci-fi.

This wasn’t just a bog standard sci-fi horror with a scary monster.

This creature would off it’s first victim in the most gruesome, horrifyingly way possible. And if that’s what it could achieve with it’s first moment of infancy, imagine what it was capable of fully grown.

John Hurt and the chestburster

The pace doesn’t let up and pretty soon, viewers are treated to more grisly moments.

Playing his cards pretty close to his chest, we never fully see the xenomorph and are only treated to glimpses and shadows. With Alien, less is more and it is a benefit to the film and probably one of the reasons it has aged so well.

We see it’s second jaw penetrate someones brain, we see it’s acid-like blood rip through several floors of the Nostromo and in the directors cut we see what it does to it’s victims. Yet we never get a full on wide angle shot of the creature, a wise decision that leaves the viewer constantly wondering what it actually looks like.

Watching Alien now, it’s the performances that stand out for me. Partly because you don’t see much of the creature – meaning the tension that is built up is all based upon the cast’s reaction to the horrific events around them and partly due to Dan O’Bannon’s superb script, which neatly gives the audience an instinctive impression into their lives, relationships and surroundings.

It’s no secret that when they were making Alien, the production team were aiming for a “truck drivers in space” angle. A brilliant decision as it makes the characters easy to relate to and it means they are completely unprepared for the proceedings (not that that did the marines in the follow-up any favours). They are not trained for this sort of thing, they are just workers in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley

Tom Skerrit, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright and Ian Holm were already well respected screen actors, but it was Sigourney Weaver who was hot off treading the boards at Broadway that stole the show. Arguably setting her off to stardom, the Alien series pretty much shaped her career and her performance in Alien is solid as the confident Ellen Ripley.

On scoring duties was Jerry Goldsmith and while controversially several tracks were omitted by editor Terry Rawlings, his work on the film was described by Ridley as “one of my favourite scores, seriously threatening but beautiful”.

Controversies aside, what music is featured does it’s job brilliantly and it’s great to hear that some of Goldsmith’s cues have made it onto the Prometheus soundtrack.

Alien remains to this day one of my favourite films and is possibly my favourite of the whole series.

While many people may say that preferring Alien over Aliens is like favouring Godfather over The Godfather Part II, James Cameron’s Aliens was very much the complete opposite of it’s predecessor and where it focused on the gung-ho action, it lacked the mystery and depth that was so prevalent in Ridley Scott’s Alien.

A new trailer has been released for The Possession, the latest film produced by none other than Sam Raimi.

Based on a true story, The Possession is billed as a terrifying true story of a girl’s increasingly erratic behaviour after buying an antique wooden box at a yard sale, and how her family must unite and enlist the help of experts in order to overcome an unspeakable evil.

Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick) see little cause for alarm when their youngest daughter Em becomes oddly obsessed with an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. But as Em’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, the couple fears the presence of a malevolent force in their midst, only to discover that the box was built to contain a dibbuk, a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.

The Possession is due for release in the UK on 31st August.

A number of clips have been released from the upcoming Barry Sonnenfield directed, Men in Black III.

Men in Black™ 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

How old are you?

Do you have these in the future?

Spiky Bulba

Turn your cellphone off

Who are you and what do you know?

A new trailer and poster has been released for the upcoming Cronenberg film Cosmopolis.

Based on the novel by Don DeLillo, Robert Pattinson stars alongside Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton and Juliette Binoche in Cronenberg’s latest film.

New York is in turmoil, the age of capitalism is drawing to a close and Eric Packer, a high finance golden boy is chauffeured across the city in his extravagant limousine to get a haircut. A visit from the President of the United States paralyses Manhattan and as the day goes by, an eruption of wild activity unfolds on the city’s streets. Eric watches helplessly as his empire collapses and as his paranoia intensifies during the 24-hour period, he starts to piece together clues that lead him to a most terrifying secret: his imminent assassination.

When a press release flutters across your desk pushing the release of a horror flick starring a zombified Osama Bin Laden, chances are you are going to take them up on the offer of a screener.

I certainly did, expecting some campy, over-the-top riot that made the most of what is, let’s face it, a truly ridiculous premise.

Boy, was I wrong.

The pitch here is that Bin Laden did not actually die for good when he was gunned down by US Special Forces – no, he had actually injected himself with a special serum prior to his execution, allowing him to return from the dead after his burial at sea.

To be fair, the opening scenes here are quite nifty – a shootout with zombies in the bunker where Bin Laden was holed up, before the terrorist is shot, then thrown off a ship, only to turn up on a shoreline somewhere, munching on an unfortunate swimmer Jaws-style.

Things slow right down after that as the story switches to a group of NATO forces sweeping Afghanistan for insurgents.

These troops, who include some truly appalling actors it must be said, then hook-up with Dusty, a yoga instructor from Colorado who is trying to track down her conspiracy theorist brother Derek.

Turns out Derek is one of a select band who believe Bin Laden still lives, so the thrown-together gang decide to trawl the country to see if his theories hold any water.

And that is pretty much about it, although if we are honest horror flicks of this ilk are hardly torchbearers for multi-faceted scripts.

To call this film a one-trick pony is a bit of an understatement, but what is scandalous on the part of director John Lyde et al, is just how little they make of their unique selling-point.

The zombie Bin Laden appears in the first five minutes, but does then not reappear until the final five minutes, with the rest of the 90-minute running time taken up by interminable scenes of the soldiers trekking across barren landscape, taking pot-shots at various zombies that pop-up.

Even worse, the whole thing is played with a straight face.

Now don’t get me wrong – I have no problem with zombie movies that adopt the serious approach.

After all, many of my favourites from the genre – Dawn of the Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters etc stuck to their realism guns and were all the better for it.

Even recent effort The Dead, which had a similar premise in many ways, decided to adopt the serious route – and was a great film to boot.

But do the makers of this flick really think that anybody hearing the premise and picking up the DVD is expecting, or wanting for that matter, a laugh-free exercise?

There is some decent gore on show, but it is all very samey, and after the 175^th zombie is shot through the head you begin to lose interest.

The dialogue is a mix of crap and cheese – ‘We’re the only thing standing betweenAfghanistanand a zombie apocalypse’ being a classic example.

I must admit my excitement levels for Osombie were pretty high when I sat down to watch this, but the truth is that enthusiasm waned very early on.

This is very much a poster child for a movie missed opportunity.

EXTRAS: None

A new trailer has been released for The Addicted.

In 1987, David is a resident at ‘The Manor’ Drug Rehab Unit. Whilst there he is being kept addicted to heroin by a Clinical Director Chris Hunter whilst he has an affair with David’s wife. Chris eventually poisons David with contaminated heroin leaving him with horrendous facial disfigurement and chronic pain. David soon hangs himself.

25 years later and we follow Chris’s daughter Nicole as she tries to break into TV journalism. Her boyfriend (Adam) suggests they spend a night filming with friends in the now derelict Drug Rehab unit. There have been recent reports of paranormal goings-on and they plan to try and film them. It soon becomes clear however that they are very much not alone…

Caution: contents of this trailer are a bit grisly.

The viral campaign for Prometheus continues with this video introducing Noomi Rapace’s character, Elizabeth Shaw.

Giving a little insight into the character, the clip shows Elizabeth to be both ambitious and naive.

Prometheus is due out on 1st June.

If this trailer is anything to go by, Exorcist and The French Connection director William Friedkin looks set to deliver another brutal offering with Killer Joe.

When small-time drug dealer Chris (Emile Hirsch) has his entire stash stolen by his very own mother, he plans to dispatch of her and cash in on her $50,000 life insurance to repay his debts. On recommendation he approaches Detective Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), an enigmatic, dirty cop, who moonlights as a contract killer. Unable to get his usual upfront retainer, Joe sets his sight on Chris’ innocent sister Dottie (Juno Temple) as collateral for the job. But the simple agreement turns complicated when Dottie forms an unusual bond with Killer Joe and everything begins to unravel.

Based on the play by Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts, “Killer Joe” is promised to be both controversial and a shockingly cool black comedy thriller.

A new clip has been released for The Dictator.

Sacha Baron Cohen has been promoting the film in character as the Wadiyan tyrant and was recently interviewed by Larry King.

The Dictator is released this week.

A new clip has been released from Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus.

Prometheus is due on 1st June.