Thursday, May 31, 2012

Alienalia

I was 11 years old when Alien came out in the theaters. Somehow I managed to talk my dad into taking me to see it. I loved it. I remember afterwards he asked me if it scared me. "Yeah! When that thing jumped out of the egg at Kane!" "Well, that wasn't scared, that was surprised. Is there any part that actually scared you?" "Hmm. No, I guess not." Of course now when I realize how horrific it was supposed to be it kind of freaks me out.

The sequel, Aliens, was awesome, largely because they shifted from science-fiction horror movie to science-fiction action movie. The third and fourth movies I didn't much care for because they completely destroyed what was great about the first two. The third might have been good if it hadn't started by killing off two of the characters that everyone who saw the second movie was expecting the third movie to be about. I never saw the Alien vs. Predator movies.

Anyhoo, Ridley Scott, the director of the original, has come out (it's already opened in Belgium) with a prequel to Alien entitled Prometheus, and it looks like its going to be ... well ... completely awesome. My friend John never saw the original Alien and he's waiting until he sees Prometheus before he does. I noticed something in the preview that I think he would appreciate.

 

Namely, that screaming sound-effect towards the end that really communicates the horror. What's interesting about that is where they got it. Here's the trailer for the original Alien:



I like that. They reused a sound-effect that I don't think is from the actual movie 33 years ago, but is from the trailer from the movie 33 years ago. Just to show you how effective it is, check this out.

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