Not seeing the full xenomorph made it the best. We knew it was very strong, had claws, a big head, a second set of teeth and a very long tail, but the exact proportions were hidden.
Yes, true but the only reason we never got a full image of the alien is because it would've been obvious in the fact it was a guy in a rubber suit sometimes and a puppet in other times. They turned a setback into a crucial part of the aesthetic of the first alien movie and my god was it incredible.
I just have to say that Bolaji Badejo, who played the xenomorph (in his one and only film role) was perfect for the role!! Go watch his screen test! The dude's physicality is something else!!
I remember a video in which the Nostalgia Critic tried to argue in favor of jump scares. "People say jump scares aren't scary, they're just startling. Well, is there a difference?" Yes, there is. Something that startles you is scary for exactly one second, then it wears off instantly. True horror is visceral and sticks with you even after you leave the theater. Jump scares are cheap and easy to do. To truly horrify someone requires talent.
You can do both that the same time though. A jumpscare revealing a very horrific scene or revelation that sticks with you. Not the jumpscare itself but the horror revealed by the jumpscare. That could happen and I'm pretty sure has been done before.
@@metalfury5153 i just watched alien last night and the number one thing i truly feel about horror is the more you show off the source of the terror, the less terrifying it becomes. the game Alien Isolation truly embodies how suspense makes good horror. im 2 hours in and the only thing ive seen are people and guns, yet opening every door is a terrifying experience. just imagining what lurks behind it scares me to death and i love it. wish more movies would scare through our imagination instead of CGI
Prometheus was a good movie, but it was not a good prequel to Alien. Alien: Covenant was good looking, but was neither a good movie, nor a good prequel.
For me, Prometheus was pretty good on its own, but not as any part of the Alien franchise. I thought "Alien III" was a good pick-up of the story and setup for what the corporation was capable of and might later do. I couldn't stand "Aliens." That kid screaming every five minutes by itself ruined the movie. It reminded me too much of "Battlestar Ga-Laxative," where that robot dog, "Muffet" (what a wimpy name) would get into something, the kid "Boxy" would get into further trouble trying to rescue an easily duplicated toy, then "Pa Cartwright" always would endanger the whole civilization to save the dumb kid and dog. There's a name for that kind of vehicle, but I don't recall it. It's one of the "don'ts" of fiction, anyway. (SPOILER)... Parts of "Resurrection," e.g. when Ripley sees the prior attempts to clone her and even kills one to put it out of its misery. In fact, others may also have been alive... that had me thinking!
Every time I see that giant alien in the chair I just love it, it's so mysterious, it's so disturbing to discover, it's so alien, it looks like a huge beautiful archaeological find.
“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...” ― Stephen King
Luis Fernando good quote. I feel like that's better than Show, Don't Tell. It's basically Don't Show, Don't Tell. Just suggest, and leave the rest to your imagination.
And then they're junji Ito who makes Gross-out horrifying terror: having abstract concepts manifest in dangerous beings that have extremely gross bodily characteristics.
i lost a cup for two days then i go out for milk at 2am; when i get home my lost cup is sitting in the sink! True story and only happened two hours ago!
It's so interesting that you mentioned the use of an unfamiliar setting as a source of discomfort and unease, leading to heightened horror, because David Lynch, who is also masterful at creating a sense of horror, does the exact opposite. Lynch sets his stories in the familiar, usually the American suburb, and then creates horror within the familiar. Instead of introducing something as the other, as most horror films do, he casts the familiar, and by extension ourselves, as the other. At the end of his films, the audience is unable to eject the other through the literal or symbolic slaying of the monster, since the monster is what we identify with. I believe this is what makes his films extra unsettling. The setting should not determine the success of a film in achieving horror. Craftsmanship and intent are more important determinants.
@@samuraibear5102 And he accomplishes this horror for the reader, by leaving the descriptions largely up to them, instead of telling them what things look like
Stanley Kubrick was the master of horror, even though he only made one horror movie, he still perfected how to scare the audience. Full metal jacket had the bed scene and the bathroom scene, 2001 had HAL and the black monolith, almost all of a clockwork orange was terrifying and the shining was the scariest movie I have ever seen
"Fear of the unknown." THANK YOU! I've been saying for years that that is why so many of the oldschool horror movies work so well, and so many new ones don't. I'd throw John Carpenter's The Thing up here at the top with Alien too, because of the claustrophobic, isolated setting and the mounting tension and dread.
One more element that makes me love Alien is how the protagonists don't really make mistakes, they try their best to survive, yet they are constantly beaten by the Alien, adding to the characters and making you the viewer try to find a possible way to escape.
@@cimignigni8360 The Thing was scary not because of when we saw the monster, but when we couldn't. It created a sense of mistrust, and forced the audience to ask, can I trust my friend in this life and death scenario. The Thing was at it's scariest when it was not seen, and that's why it's one of my favorite horror movies and favorite horror monsters.
Oddly enough, I didn't find the unearthing of the lunar monolith in 2001 frightening. The establishing shot of the Space Jockey in Alien on the other hand.
They're both amazingly eerie. I have such a soft spot for the Space Jockey reveal - it's Lovecraftian, mysterious and awe-inspiring in equal proportions. It's so bonkers that Scott decided what we needed is to see that it was just a blue guy in a spacesuit who was mad at humans because we killed Jesus all along.
I agree. The monolith had already appeared in the movie and did no (direct) harm. Also, it's the shape of a domino, not that terrifying. To me it was just interesting, and I mainly wondered how the modern humans would react to it (study it, claim it, shoot it into space?)
Would you consider yourself to be a good person? Try the test: How many lies have you told, and what do you call someone who lies? Have you ever stolen something (even when you were small. Even from your parents. Even a sweet), and what do you call someone who steals? Have you ever taken God’s name in vain (very serious; in Old Testament times, the Jews wouldn’t even say the name of God for fear of blasphemy) - even ‘OMG’? Jesus said whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart; have you ever looked with lust? One more: Ever disrespected your parents? Well I’m not judging you - but if you’ve done these things then you’re a liar, thief, blasphemer, adulterer-at-heart and rebel, so you're not good enough to go to heaven; that’s how seriously God takes sin. He is Holy (perfectly good/righteous and separate from sin) which means that He is perfect in justice; that means that just like a just judge does sentence criminals to pay for the wrong they caused, do does God sentence the payment of all sins - and if He were to judge you by the moral law (we’ve already looked at 4 commandments) would you be innocent or guilty? Heaven or Hell? The answer is hell - the wrath of God upon you for your sin And the just God will punish ALL sin. Is that concerning? But fortunately, God’s will is not that you perish. He wants all men everywhere to be saved. So do you know what He did for us guilty sinners? In self-giving mercy, He sent His Son Jesus Christ (and here is why). He lived the perfect life that we should have lived - tempted at all points and yet He NEVER sinned. Through His life, being in very nature God, He revealed God to men; but we in our hatred condemned Him to death. On that cross as Jesus suffered, He took on the sin of the world and was judged in our place; receiving God’s wrath. You and I broke God’s law, but Jesus paid the fine. God can justly forgive us. On that cross He died, then He was buried, but 3 days later He was raised from the dead - conquering death and Hell and ushering in The Kingdom of God. He then ascended to the right hand of God the Father (where He came from) now Lord of the living and the dead. God has fixed a date when He will judge the world in righteousness. What you need to do is repent (In humility, acknowledge your sin before God and turn to a relationship with Him) and trust ALONE in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross; and God will grant you the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then be baptised. Jesus' perfect righteousness will be accredited to you and you can stand in a relationship with the God of the Universe, a Father. If you repent and believe the gospel. ROMANS 10:9 - If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
Its just so amazing how even today how great Alien looks. It looks like a slick new movie even though it came out in the 70s. If I saw a new trailer of it today I'd be hyped at how slick it looks. It's beautiful piece of art and timeless. Giger's alien design and the suites are still the most realistic alien looking monster created in any film. I don't think Alien will ever be surpassed. The closest thing to it is Aliens, and The Thing, but besides those.. nothing really comes close.
leon bushnell starwars did great with set design and bulding a world, like alien did, they aren't the greatest movies ever, but they are really good and besides every movie has flaws alien and starwars just have less than others
I have to sa though, Jumpscars aren't cheap. Cheap jumpscares are cheap. If it has a great build up, then the reveal has a good pay off, making the jumpscare good.
@@josephhoffman2992 They are good at making a viewer scared, but one thing that (in my opinion at least) all great horror films do is make the viewer feel terrified not scared
@@corwynn_ Completely agree. I'd rather not have a jump scare and instead have suspense but I still don't think all jump scares are bad. Some can help build the tension in a film. Even ALIEN did this.
@@josephhoffman2992 I just feel that pretty much all jumpscares are just put in due to lack of effort to make the film suspenceful but then I've never made a horror film, so what do I know
@@corwynn_ WaVe Intel I personally think good film makers use jump scares to end suspense so as to release tension and close a scene. Though I agree that most film makers probably use it because they themselves don't know how to create tension. Again like in ALIEN, the air vent sequence is massively suspenseful and Ridley ends the scene with the Alien giving Dallas a hug in the form of a Jump Scare but it works because it happens during the peak of tension in that particular sequence.
Some other reasons why Alien has superior horror: The introduction to the ship. It is implied to fly on autopilot as there are no people anywhere. But then we see.... at 2:17 the pages of a book flutter in a wind gust ... on a spaceship. Is there a hole in the hull threatening everybody's lives? Is there someone or something moving in the room outside camera view that made the pages flutter? Then a bigger scare comes into view at 2:27 Something looking remotely like a head moves in the dark background of a supposedly empty room. Then the biggest scare at 2:51 when the moving "head?" comes into closer view but still is unrecognizable. That was masterclass of horror. The fear of the unknown. The subversion of an uninhabitated room with undefined objects suddenly moving for no reason. The creation of suspicion that there is something horribly wrong with this ship but we cannot see what exactly it is. Another reason is the round shapes everywhere. All other sci-fi objects (ships) are constructed of sharp edge structures, but in the Nostromo the interior all looks rounded, like a living organism, making it *difficult to distinguish the ship from potentially threatening lifeforms* . The spaceship of the "space jockey" is even more so composed of round shapes like a organism. When the humans explored it, I felt like they entered the body of a life form that could devour them at any moment. At 3:10 the entry into the stasis room is also frightening because of wind gust appearing for no reason and in the darkness you see *something* ... that *could be* threatening... later to be revealed as the crew. The scene of discovering the monolith on the Moon was scary because of the music which foreshadowed that something horrible will happen.
The Conjuring is a modern horror classic. If you ever find the time, watch it. It is so well crafted. The horror is very suspenseful, and based off the unknown. It's probably the only recent horror film that I found to be truly terrifying. I felt uneasiness and dread throughout.
The alien they found in the chair was really creepy and had its mouth open ..in prometheus they made it out to be a space suite and helmet which was crap! Just some over sized hairless human
The mysteries and unanswered questions of Alien was one of the film's main strenghts. Then Ridley started to answer questions with Prometheus and actually managed to subtract from his original film. Impressive.
Alien is my favourite film of all time. I first saw it when I was 9, it was on tv late night during school holiday. I'd never seen anything like it. The cast are fantastic, the way they interact is totally believable. I loved that the woman survives, women were usually portrayed as feeble and hysterical in early 80s tv. The creature was a new type of terror for me, it was frightening and beautiful at the same time. The whole film really got under my skin.
Great work, as per usual! I'm a game designer, wanting to make my own horror game, so any sort of look into the horror genre is great for me, especially ones as good as this. Great insight!
Don't take this guy too seriously. People like him can sometimes overanalyze useless details and be a bit pretentious (for example there's no way he literally cried watching that 2001 Monolith scene; he's probably just saying that to seem more refined and artsy). I'm not saying he doesn't have good points just that he's a bit over-the-top at times.
Funny, I also thought the same thing of what makes horror story truly horrifying. The sense of the unknown. We know Freddy Kruger, we know who he is, what he does and his origin. It's scary but not truly horrifying because our mind knows what we can expect from him. But make a creature with slander arms and slander legs with a mouth drooling blood and glowing eyes with no name, no information, no origin and tell me which one is more terrifying? Freddy or this creature? The answer would be the creature because again, we don't know who it is or where it came from which makes it unpredictable because our mind doesn't know what we can truly expect but can only assume.
The original Nightmare on Elm Street was actually quite scary and a titillating idea - a ghost who uses our fears against us in dreams. The dated '80's teenager appeal distracts and horrors in that day often had a comic mix.. Freddy is no longer an unknown element after countless sequels and reiterations. It is hard for today's viewers to connect with the fact that the original movie was, well, very original at the time.
Try reading some manga by Junji Ito, he plays off the fear of the unknown in truly terrifying ways. He never gives a proper explanation, if any, and every line in his meticulous artwork is done with the express purpose of scaring the viewer
Alfred Hitchcock once said, "There is no fear in the gunshot, just the anticipation of it." Also, the best scene to watch when talking about a description vs a picture is the scene in "The Silence of the Lambs" when Clarice sees the photo of what Lecter did to the nurse. Truly amazing way of doing it.
The same can also be said for the opening scene of Silence of the Lambs's predecessor Manhunter. The opening shot is a POV of the Tooth Fairy sneaking into the Leeds house while the synthesized drone plays. After the opening credits, it cuts to Jack Crawford explaining to Will Graham that they were killed. We never see the murders on screen, but the implications of what he did to the Leeds family is incredibly unnerving!
I think I can distinguish horror and terror. Horror: the reaction of something scary or repulsive Terror: is the prediction. The unknown Horror: seeing an actual corpse or someone getting stabbed Terror: you’re laying in bed in the middle of night and suddenly you hear knocking on your front door. However, the sound of knocking sounds more like a jiggle than a normal knock. Then a few minutes later, you hear the doorknob being twisted. As you get ready to call 911, you hear your front door open Honestly terror is more scarying
I have been watching your videos for a few days now. And I have to say I absolutely love them. I am taking a lot of what you say into consideration. If I had the money to donate to you I would, but for now just keep it up!
i think a big part of what made Alien so scary was their use of HR Giger's artwork. The purely alien feel to the movie. the odd themes of sexual deviancy and the merging of biology and machine life make for a great atmosphere
Wait a second... if horror is better when you let the viewer imagine, then it's "tell, don't show", or "don't tell, don't show", but definitely not "show, don't tell". Right ?
Well I see where your coming from. To put it simply to convey an idea in a book/film you have to either show or tell. There is no other way of conveying an idea. Telling would be saying: In the corner sat Geoff's baseball bat, he used it last night to murder a police officer. Showing would be saying: In the corner sat a baseball bat with a thick blood soaking into it's grain. A drop slowly slid down it's coarse handle as if to suggest it had not yet had time to dry. As you can see the show example is more provocative because it engages the readers imagination. But to engage their imagination you must first present information. Showing is telling them part of the picture, telling is telling them the whole picture. Hope that helped :)
I was also a little confused since you used an example where the girl could show a picture or tell a story, and then went onto explain how telling a story was a better example of "show, don't tell". But thanks for clearing that up. Excellent video!
Alien is a masterpiece. So glad we have it to enjoy. I view the movie two or three times a year, and it only gets better every time. I really think it is the best movie ever made (yes I know they messed up the cut scene with Ashe's head but it doesn't matter). The story, the fantasy of outer space, the cinematography, special effects, the creature, the atmosphere, they just got everything right in a way you don't experience in most movies. Brilliant how you don't know who the protagonist is until over half way through the movie (Ripley), or that Ashe is actually a robot who's been plotting the crew's demise the whole time (he's freakier than than the alien!). The cast was mostly Broadway theater actors and actresses, so maybe that's why they were so good in selling their roles. I read somewhere supposedly Sigourney Weaver didn't even like sci-fi before getting the role (but most were pretty bad until Alien), so find it funny she may have been saying her lines somewhat sarcastically and yet end up playing the best most iconic sci-fi roles ....ever, Ripley is my favorite protagonist in all film. Alien is absolute masterpiece, an amazing movie experience. So glad they made a sincere huge effort in all aspects making it, amazing story telling, and they made it work perfectly, and glad we all have it to enjoy.
The screenplay of Alien is a master class of horror that luckily end up becoming a movie. I believe there are thousands of great scripts out there that doesn’t have a chance to get in the hands of movie producers. There are many talented people writing horror stories.
My favorite films that master the fear of the unknown - Alien - The Void - Annihilation - The Thing - The Blair Witch Project - Banshee Chapter - The Last Broadcast (this one especially had me on edge) - The Tunnel
You so effectively articulated something I had discovered myself mid-2017. I started watching a series of anime horror shorts called "Yamishibai". It had an eerie paper cut out style. Even though it had visuals accompanying the narration, the dialogue itself still had so much weight to give it some sense tension and mystery (at least for the good episodes). When I realized that I could close my eyes and still feel chills just listening, that's when I realized that good horror first and foremost must work as a short story/spoken tale. This is what happens when you put jumpscares to the medium of a one man no effect podcast: "He opened the door and BAM! There was the ghoul-! Or so he thought. As he took a moment to catch his breath, CRASH!". The best horror works as a poem or short story.
Definetly agree with all of the points you made in regards to this but as a horror fan, I have to say that not all horrors are like Paranormal 'Inactivity'. In fact with recent horrors like The Babadook, It Follows, Raw and The Witch, I think we are definetly going to see a resurgence of horror that does the same thing you say Alien does, makes us think.
Alien is a total and complete Masterpiece. The Nostromo might be the best sci Fi ship ever made. Also I just realized that Godzilla stole the music from 2001 A Space Odyssey :(
1:57 - Some things do go wrong, they wake up before schedule, they go to a planet to check something that they didn't want to... While nothing terrible happens, some things do go wrong or at least not right. 2:11 - That's mostly from the long takes, they are unconfortable. also the fact that we don't know what to expect from the ship, we don't know what is out of place, so we look everywhere. 2:43 - Allow me to disagree, most great horrors have a misterious antagonist (which is an easy way to make something scary, let the audience fill the blanks) but not all. Case in point, Halloween. We know who the villain is (the kid from the opening that we see escape the mental hospital), we know why he kills (he's pure evil, according to his own doctor), and we see why he goes after Laurie (she goes at his house and grabs his attention, by chance). and this is all stuff we get before he even starts killing people, wuite early in the movie. Sure, we don't know everything about him. but can you name even 1 person you know everything about? 2:49 - "Unholy" setting? what do you mean by that? seriously. 3:47 - While I agree it's a bad moment of horror, that's quite a loaded question isn't it? you're telling the audience to go nitpicky at the scene before showing it. I believe a better way of doing this, woulb be to they us to "watch this scene from the conjuring trailer", and then go into why it's a bad horror scene. But here's the main issue, was the scene made to be a horror scene? No. It was supposed to be a jumpscare. it was supposed to give a last "boo" to the audience before the trailer ends, and it did just that. 4:26 - Yes it was, so? 4:34 - Please watch the movies you're talking about. What if that scene fits perfectly in the story? You don't know. 4:38 - I agree, but were they going for horror there? or just a scare? They do the same thing in Alien, in this very scene on the screen aswell. and when the captain goes in the Ducts and the Alien surprise hugs him. jumpscares and horror are not mortal enemies 6:22 - Also, no horror. suspense. 6:30 - terrifying? how? 6:58 - I would say annoying, but maybe it's because I played too much Ocarina of time and that fire temple song can't seem to leave my head... :p 7:40 - That's what you think. and not really the way I would say most people would think about it. You go on saying that, "we are the only ones who could put this here" and "This can't exist", but why? Who said we are the only ones who could put this here? who said it can't exist? why is this terrifying? Fear of the unknown is powerful, but the unknow isn't scary on it's on. Imagine a dark alley, you don't know what's in there, you feel scared of it, why? because you know dark alleys are not safe places. replace this alley with any well lit street. Someone could just as easily be hiding there. yet you're not afraid, because you don't associate well lit streets with danger back to 2001, why should I be scared of this? While I may not understand it, I don't associate it with danger. 8:34 - Kinda, they tell us they died from a chest bursting thing. we see the Alien doing a chest burst later and voila, we have the cause of death. I don't remember every single dialog from Alien, so I can't say if the characters ever put it together. but this isn't horror, it's mistery. This is what any good detective story will do. 9:06 - Make this exact scene take place in a well lit house somewhere and it won't create horror. The horror comes from the things around this scene. The ambient, the lack of music, the lack of something happening. we are dreading the moment something will happen, this is where the horror in this scene comes from. 9:26 - I would say it's action. Can you imagine how boring it would be if an action movie didn't show the action and only talked about it? at least with horror you didn't go in expecting to get hyped. 9:57 - far less horrifying than what? You're comparing apples and oranges here. text to video. the example would work better as "we go into the room vs seeing a picture" or "we see the picture vs someone describes the picture to us". because in a movie, more often than not I would rather have a picture than someone describing it to me. Show don't tell. 10:23 - That's quite a claim. one I don't particularly agree with. The thing came out after Alien and I think it did that better.
My fav horror scene is in 28 days later, when the protagonist wakes up in the hospital. They dont show the zombie outbreak, they show you the aftermath and make you imagine what must have happened. It's brilliant.
My phone fell as the warning came along in the end. I didn't see what it said so I brought my phone closer so I could rewind the video but that's when the jumpscare played. Great video! The bruise I got on my nose was worth it.
Just a minor correction- the crew of the Nostromo didn't land on an asteroid. They landed on a moon. At the time, the moon only had a catalog name of LV426. It would eventually be renamed Acheron in order to make it more appealing to potential colonists(the Hadley's Hope colony, which would go on to be massacred in the sequel, Aliens). LV426/Acheron is one of three moons orbiting around a ringed, gas giant planet named Calpamos. One of Calpamos' other three moons, LV223 is the main setting of the movie Prometheus. Calpamos orbits the star Zeta2 Reticuli. I don't mean to be one of THOSE fans, but the Aliens universe is one of my obsessions and has been ever since I was an angst ridden thirteen year old girl back in 1997. I have seen and heard far too many people incorrectly label the moon various different celestial bodies over the years. As both an Aliens and astronomy buff, that really sticks in my craw.
It's deeply refreshing to find a video analysis of Alien that doesn't use any variation of the medical terminology for naughty bits. I'm weary unto death of people explaining to me that I find the xenomorph scary because it looks like a large walking version of something that I see every single day.
Honestly while I greatly respect Alien, I find John Carpenter's The Thing to be superior. The monster is far more alien: it is completely amorphous, incredibly intelligent, and most importantly creates an atmosphere of suspicion through its assimilation and imitation. The Xenomorph is ultimately a big bug: an animal with predatory instincts. The "Thing" is exactly that. A thing. Something beyond description, because it can take any form. Including yours.
I also mention The Thing in the same times I talk about Alien and great horror. They are the two above all else. The Alien is a better monster design though in the way it looks truly real and alive in every way, and yet totally Alien and not just some rubber suit on a man. It's animalistic, especially when you see them jump after falling from the Ceiling in Aliens. The Thing while amazing still looks a bit fake a bunch of special FX thrown together. It's the best it can be practical fx though. It's close but not quiet as good. I'd love to see a true Thing sequel!
The Thing is probably the best horror film done, at least in my opinion. The fact that so many horror fans I know have never heard of it kills me, It's only mirrored in horror by Silent Hill 2 & 3 and the stalked tension/terror that Dino Crisis/Resident Evil create. Not to compare it unjustly to games, I feel that horror games add an extra element lost when viewing a film. Very few films can master the art of creating tension by knowing what will happen and being unable to stop it, of feeling incredibly helpless, that games can. Another top film you might enjoy is Return of the Living Dead, the Tar Man is by far the height of my horror love and my fascination with zombies, it's such an amazing intro to a movie that everything after the initial incident pales drastically, which does make the film tedious to rewatch unlike others (Shaun of the Dead has better lasting power then Return, thanks to it's sort of... punk catered vibe, done beautifully in Green Room, falls very short in RotLD) I'm ranting, my advice to horror fans though would be to watch The Thing, ignore the reboot, and ignore Harbinger Down
I hate how hard it is to find Horror Sci Fi books. There's no category for them. You either have to look for sci fi or horror but to try to find both is just looking for a pin in a haystack. Even book lists just mention the same ones usually which are usually the ones already made into movies. Its such an open horror genre that has barely been tapped into.
A bit of horror sci-fi but also... a different kind of horror: Daemon by Daniel Suarez. That book is amazing. If you want good sci-fi stuff, try the Frankenstein books by Dean Koontz, hell the Odd Thomas books are amazing as well, and while they lose interest a few novels in they do get fairly horror laced and intense
I like to add that Alien really took Lovecraft's idea of great horror and took it to the visual medium. It has everything: something evil from space, that is somehow exponentially more powerful than us humans and seems unbeatable; it's not visible most of the time so that your imagination does all the work; it defies human logic and seems to be really different to us; and finally, there is no hope, we are all about to die one way or another.
This is why the first Halloween movie was great. The music alone was spine tingling. And when people got killed, all you saw was the knife going toward them, no blood. John Carpenter was compared to Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, for doing that in Halloween. Alien was a fantastic film. I enjoy watching it over and over and getting scared in the process. Now when I watch it again, I will keep these points in mind. Thanks
Wonderful reasoning in this video. And haha at the end there :) I feel that these Alien films have been ruined ( just like Star Wars has ) by the EU fandom and their influence on each progressively worse film. Fanboys ( talking film makers as well as film go-ers ) are the reason we live in a world where Alien vs. Predator films exist...yeeesh... The constant need for instant gratification and spoonfed information about the who, why, where of things has taken what was once a terrifying and beautiful mystery and turned it into yet another toyline. Where fans are no longer even particularly interested in a good film, rather than what kind of cool new Xenomorph can be designed and turned into a toy for their gaming room shelving. The constant crying out for prequels ( even though the continuously suck ) so people can have every little facet explained is why these stories constantly write themselves into corners, having to reverse engineer what was a profound, yet simple idea in the very first instance. Why was there a "Space Jockey"? Who was the alien? Why was the alien? When was the alien? People seem to forget that it was all so terrifying in the first place because having it unexplained made it all the more disorientating - as you already eloquently explained in your video. But for some reason, everyone feels they have earned the right to know everything, because they put a couple of bucks down to go see it. Must have it all wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end, because anything ambiguous is too mind-bending to deal with. They want answers, yet there will be NO profound, earth shattering, illuminating answers at the end. Just a disappointing fart of an idea, because there were no long term ideas from the start ! Writers are being brought in to try and backpedal to some starting point of an idea that never had one in the first place! So, instead, the writers will continue to have to bumble their way through a revisionist history and ridiculously inept character logic, to try and jam a square peg into a round hole. And everyone will say. " Oh THAT SUCKED, but the new alien they designed looks real cool, so i'll still pre-order the posable action xenomorph for my room ! " I guess when they can turn child killer Freddy Kruger into an action figure for kids, why not do it with everything else ? That's all these films are now. All flashy imagery and very light on anything substantial. All those things you talked about in your video. You hit the nail right on the head with everything. It's always so inevitable and tiresome to see a good idea get turned into an embarrassing clusterfuck of half baked ideas, due to cynical studios and rabid fanboys keeping the circle jerk moving. Why can't - for once - a great little idea, that made everyone leave the theatre pondering and intrigued, be left alone to BE just that? To stand the test of time on it's own merit? Why is it that people have to take it and flog it toward a pitiful death?
You know, the weird, unsettling, and utterly unknown setting is also what takes Event Horizon beyond its limitations. It STILL has one of the greatest trailers of all times for exactly that reason.
I'm not saying that anyone is wrong for thinking Alien is a great horror, but when I watched it I just... Didn't find it scary. At all. Don't really know why, but I didn't.
I tend to find the most memorable horror movies, those I remember long after seeing them, aren't that scary. It's usually because they are focused on being good movies before making you jump on your seat. To expand a little on that Idea, I feel like their is a trade-off in durability: superficial horror can scare you more in the moment, but often at the detriment of other aspects: character, theme, mood... while more subtle horror can leave you thinking about it long after, even though you were never in danger of having a heart attack when you watched. It also means that you can recapture more of that fear on a rewatch, while superficial horror has very little to offer on a second viewing, since it has sacrificed storytelling.
One reason Alien is less scary is because it's been so ingrained into pop culture that all it's iconography is known, even by people who haven't seen the movie. Imagine how shocking and terrifying it would have been in a movie theater in 1979 if you didn't know before hand that the alien would burst from his chest. Even the whole facehugger impregnation thing is well known, so the shock value is worn away. I will say, there are still genuinely tense moments. When Dallas dies, and they're using the motion tracker in the vents, it's such a claustrophobic space it always stresses me out. Or the ending when sirens blare and steam obscures your vision, and Ripley is running through the long hallways in agonizing long takes (similar to the tricycle scenes in The Shining). I actually think the Shining is another prime example of a movie losing it's shock value because of it's widespread parody in pop culture.
I love this channel. As a passionate movie maker as myself i have to say you cover everything i've wanted to get off my chest. It's a thrill to know the're are other people who think so deeply into what makes movies great and how to correctly connect with an audience. Subscribed!
The fear of the unknown, is the same thing as you, as a child hiding under your blanket (or when you're an adult, hiding from the bills) and you don't know what's there, soon you learn and understand your over active mind and except that, not being scared anymore, but under neath your blanket it terrifies your childish mind. This is that feeling good horror movie writers/ directors hit when they make horror movies. With movies like The Conjuring or Insidious, they play with the part of your brain that makes you flinch, but watching the movie again doesn't even faze you, but with movies like The Shining or Alien, they keep you thinking every time you re-watch the movie. One good movie that plays with this is The Thing, because they soon learn more about it and understand the threat, but the viewer is trying to piece together what is and what it does off screen, and why the end of the movie is still talked about today, because you don't know who is the true thing.
I submit that the single scariest question ever asked is whether or not there is other life beyond Earth, because there are only two Possible answers, both of which are terrifying.
The scariest movie I’ve ever seen is Bird Box because it doesn’t give you detail on what the “monster” could actually be. You know anything about it except for what it does to you, you don’t know what it looks like (they show you drawing of it though), and worse? You cannot stop it. It comes for everyone with no reason and you cannot do anything about it. It feel like it was a metaphor for death.
The most terrifying scene in a movie I have scene is the final one in The Woman In Black (spoilers), because it's like the ending to Terror on Elm's Street but without a jumpscare - jumpscares are to me just sudden sound like a sign saying "get scared!", but my favourite kind of horror is "realisation". The keepers of the zoo are completely calm, and at ease, but arrive at their stations after their lunch to see the lock to a cage is broken, and its door is open - you realise that during their lunch break something broke out, and is moving freely now. The ending to The Woman In Black is one of the best cases of realisation horror I can think of, especially because it has no jumpscare, cheap or not - the viewer is completely calm, at ease, the setting is light and promises that everything is alright. But then you realise, it's not.
You know what's impressive about this scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey? When I looked up the script, this scene is just a few sentences. If I count correctly, there are only 3 complete sentences and two partial, 5 total, including "Air-view." I'm amazed how script writers can convey so much in such a few words where we novel writers get far too vorbose. Love this video, would like to see more breakdowns of classics like these - though I know they prob don't get as many views as the more current film analysis. I think they are indispensable when trying to break down why stories stick with us.
YOU ARE MY BROTHER! thank you! You even had oddessey in the video, and I concur! Yes indeed the wailing music made me think it was horror when I saw it for the first time in the Egyptian theatre, Hollywood.
The best horror movies do this well. Jaws and Predator played with our fear of the unknown; whereas in Night of the Living Dead and It Follows, you can see the danger coming - no (or very few) jump scares. Even in For Your Eyes Only, the film uses a horror device of showing an underwater scene from the bad guys point of view: all we see is a dark lonely room and hear the sound of breathing. Sinister
Not so much a fan of horror that makes you 'think'. Wondering about the mystery IN horror is all well in good, but my goal with horror would be to make people FEEL fear--not through jumpscares, but with suspense and tension. Because jumpscares outside the realm of the perfectly-timed, built-up ones that the movie or book or comic has been building up to for a while are cheap and harden the watcher or reader to the fear. They're, in essence, someone playing a prank. And people get tired of it after a while. What I aim for are the unsettling moments we get from uncanny valley situations--something calling from the woods with your best friend's voice, even though your best friend is standing right beside you, the quiet moments when that thing at the end of the hall peaks its head around the corner but instead of accompanied by screeching strings, there's just... nothing. No external indication that anything had happened at all. Because, in reality, this thing would not get a helpful alert chime. This thing would just EXIST, peaking its head around the corner. And if the watcher or gamer didn't see it. Well, it'll be there to freak them out the second go around. The creeping horror, the build-up horror, the unexpected horror. There can be no perfect scary thing, because we all fear different things. But we can learn the overlapping things that we all fear. It's why I was disappointed by Poppy's Playtime's second chapter. Chapter One has an antagonist that does not look like us, does not speak like us. The more comfort we find in a scene or a monster or villain, the less scary we find it. Because it is no longer 'unknown'. But when Chapter Two rolled around, suddenly we have a speaking antagonist with the title of 'Mrs'--already two HUGE steps into the comfort direction. That's like how people find Predator less scary than the Xenomorph. It is semi-humanoid and we even get a look inside its motives, can even root for it in some of the later movies. It just seems like no one really pays attention to what's 'scary' anymore
Last time I felt terrified and claustrophobic was when I watched Rec. The final act was fantastic. Specially once they are locked in the room and turn on the infrared camera only to see....
Ridley Scott created so much mysticism with the origins or the Alien and the Pilot in his first Alien movie with this “show don’t tell” ethos. Then went on to make two Alien prequels that wanted to “tell” us all about their origins which is probably why the majority of people are not overly enamoured with them. I love Aliens and maybe one of the few that likes Alien 3 too, well at least the Directors Cut - and those movies didn’t go too deep into their origins but rather gave us more of a peek into other behaviours. The same can be said for the Predator franchise. I love Predator and Predator 2, but to me the not knowing too much about the alien hunter was all part of the appeal. It was all left to the imagination, which was great because we could all imagine our own personal horrors of what these aliens were about. The movies that came after tried to do something a little different and go deeper exploring aspects of the Alien and Predators culture, which just takes away the mysticism, and thus nullifies some of that dread. I get it, that maybe filmmakers are probably scared that the modern movie critic is striving for something different, and in the attempt to deliver something new they explore areas and ask questions we don’t necessarily want to see or have answered.
It's such a legendary sci-fi classic. The first time we ever see or hear about the originally terrifying and fascinating...Xenomorph. It's has to be the best movie creature/monster ever made. This is also thanks to the twisted genius artist, H.R. Giger. As a Sci-Fi horror...it nearly stands alone as the ultimate standard of that genre. Masterpiece!
Another horror film along these lines that I quite enjoyed(and is terribly underrated, even with its many flaws) is the movie Sphere. A group of scientists explore a spacecraft deep at the bottom of the sea, and when they interact with the unknown artifact, terrible things start happening to them. I won't spoil it, but the big plot twist really did catch me off guard. But basically, Sphere was a flawed but great horror film that explores the fear of the unknown.
The fear with the monolith at 535 is that the team stopped as the music crescendo ed and there was an expectation something would happen, but it didn't. Then the team continued on with us as the cinema goers now even more expecting something to go wrong . We were expecting sometime to "jump out" but it didn't, now we are expecting even more which did not materialize, now we spend the rest of the movie to be either jump scares or something even worse,, something we have to imagine
The example of the girl describing the murderer’s lair reminds me of 28 days later and 28 months later. In 28 days later, the description of the train station is incredibly powerful. While listening to Mark describe what happened, the loss of life, of humanity is palpable. It’s terrifying, horrifying, and moving. In 28 months later, a similar scene is shown, but it’s not powerful. Their humanity is gone, but you don’t feel it as a loss. It simply horrifies. These might be some of the only times “tell, don’t show” is more effective in film.
Nice to see someone acknowledging that the theme of rape in the film isn’t the SOLE reason that it’s scary. I also saw multiple other video essayists base their entire claim on this and while it does add to the fear, I found it hard to believe that was what Ridley Scott was going for when making Alien. I much prefer the idea that Scott was masterfully utilizing the fear of the unknown to scare us.
How funny - I wrote everything you just said pretty much word for word as a comment to "Why Alien: Covenant Failed". Have a look! That was the first video of yours I watched. I've subscribed to your channel, and this is the second video of yours I'm watching. I find it refreshing to know there's another person who can strip a movie down to bear bones & explain why horror movies nowadays are not "horror" at all. They're simply an hour & a half of spoon fed jumpscares. Audiences have become lazy & rely on that formula (if it even is a formula). Make them think, fill in the blanks or, heaven forbid, discuss a movie and they won't like it. Your exercise involving picturing the bloody room is perfect!
This is sorta why I liked IT. IT looked like a normal place, but then you see there is something deeply wrong with it. Then when the kids start seeing signs of fears it slowly builds up. I would say the best case would be with Georgie and Ben. Georgie we know will die and the suspense as we are shown Georgie fall for Pennywise's trap makes us scared. Eventually he dies and you can't help feel unjust for Georgie because he was so nice. So with Ben as see the head pop up over and over again until he looks over and sees a red balloon, something that is IT'S sign as children start singing in the backround, and it floats on it own. Then flaming eggs appear, something only we and Ben know of, asking "Who else knows?" Then a boy walks behind Ben, slowly. He is holding eggs, bringing in the same question, until... he doesn't have a head. I love both of these scenes because it's as if IT knows they are afriad of something, and as if IT has your power of being the viewer.
This is why i really love The Thing. It has a really good suspense, and you just don't know what or who the monster is, and the characters all make good and logical decisions. One thing that is common and bad in most horror movies, like you showed with the conjuring, is that the characters are all freacking dumb. "whats that? a noice in the distince?Let me walk towards it and die." Or "I have seen countless of unexplained things happening, but i won't do anything about it, because then the movie will be over." Those are some of the things i hate most in horror movies. I will always come back to the slow and really thrilling movies like Alien and The Thing.
Fun fact: The Xenomorph in the first movie was played by an actor. It was played by Bolaji Badejo, who sadly passed away at age 39 from sickle cell disease. It was his only film role. Someone on the casting team met him at a Soho pub and offered him the role due to his height and long legs (he stood at 6'10). Later he went back to Nigeria and began running an art gallery
Love this video, but I do have one point to make about The Conjuring: It was definitely made for a newer audience; the kind that likes jump-scares and horrors that can't actually hurt you like they do in film. However, there was one scene in particular towards the beginning that gripped me so much that I had nightmares about it for weeks. I want to explain why, but it would take a while to do through comments. In essence, it made the audience think... frantically. You couldn't see what the characters could, disconnecting the audience in a way that was so frightening that I've checked every dark corner of every room ever since. "What is it? What does it look like? Where is it? How can you escape? How did it get over there so fast? What the hell is it?!"
Very well put. TMA-1 (the "official" name of the monolith on the Moon) is roughly consistent with an Eldritch Abomination. It "cannot" exist, but it is here anyway.
I never got the feeling of rape from the facehugger. But then I was already familiar with insects that parasitize their host with their eggs, so that seemed the obvious inspiration. It never occurred to me on first viewing that it was supposed to be anything else.
Best examples of “show don’t tell,” good and bad, is the opening exposition of The Force Awakens and Rogue One. If you don’t know already google something on it
I propose the similarity to both 2001 and Alien was the foreknowledge. Alien used it to foreshadow danger, but the monolith symbolized guided knowledge. Thus, the latter was suspenseful not scary. Thanks for posting.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."- H.P. Lovecraft
This
It’s not what’s in the dark you’re afraid of, it’s the fear of not knowing what’s in the dark
Amen to that.
I'm scared of his cats name
@@seansmith6255 but i'm sure you've said 'vinegar' before
or read the foreign names on a black crayon? don't be a child :p
Not seeing the full xenomorph made it the best. We knew it was very strong, had claws, a big head, a second set of teeth and a very long tail, but the exact proportions were hidden.
Yes, true but the only reason we never got a full image of the alien is because it would've been obvious in the fact it was a guy in a rubber suit sometimes and a puppet in other times. They turned a setback into a crucial part of the aesthetic of the first alien movie and my god was it incredible.
I just have to say that Bolaji Badejo, who played the xenomorph (in his one and only film role) was perfect for the role!! Go watch his screen test! The dude's physicality is something else!!
I remember a video in which the Nostalgia Critic tried to argue in favor of jump scares. "People say jump scares aren't scary, they're just startling. Well, is there a difference?" Yes, there is. Something that startles you is scary for exactly one second, then it wears off instantly. True horror is visceral and sticks with you even after you leave the theater. Jump scares are cheap and easy to do. To truly horrify someone requires talent.
No replies in two years, odd
@@josuelugosarchive1864 ikr, especially since it's a good comment
You can do both that the same time though. A jumpscare revealing a very horrific scene or revelation that sticks with you. Not the jumpscare itself but the horror revealed by the jumpscare. That could happen and I'm pretty sure has been done before.
@@metalfury5153 i just watched alien last night and the number one thing i truly feel about horror is the more you show off the source of the terror, the less terrifying it becomes. the game Alien Isolation truly embodies how suspense makes good horror. im 2 hours in and the only thing ive seen are people and guns, yet opening every door is a terrifying experience. just imagining what lurks behind it scares me to death and i love it. wish more movies would scare through our imagination instead of CGI
Real horror horrifies you every time, a jumpscare only works the first time. Once you know it's coming it has no effect on you.
"We're not told who created it, how it crashed or why everyone on board died"
... and then Prometheus and Alien: Covenant ruined everything
D Tipps Prometheus was my least favorite
I actually really liked both those movies and am looking forward to the next movie (whenever that may come) :(
Prometheus was a good movie, but it was not a good prequel to Alien. Alien: Covenant was good looking, but was neither a good movie, nor a good prequel.
Was a let down for me that the engineers are humanoid. Also, they should have just called them Space Jockeys instead of renaming them Engineers.
For me, Prometheus was pretty good on its own, but not as any part of the Alien franchise.
I thought "Alien III" was a good pick-up of the story and setup for what the corporation was capable of and might later do.
I couldn't stand "Aliens." That kid screaming every five minutes by itself ruined the movie. It reminded me too much of "Battlestar Ga-Laxative," where that robot dog, "Muffet" (what a wimpy name) would get into something, the kid "Boxy" would get into further trouble trying to rescue an easily duplicated toy, then "Pa Cartwright" always would endanger the whole civilization to save the dumb kid and dog. There's a name for that kind of vehicle, but I don't recall it. It's one of the "don'ts" of fiction, anyway.
(SPOILER)...
Parts of "Resurrection," e.g. when Ripley sees the prior attempts to clone her and even kills one to put it out of its misery. In fact, others may also have been alive... that had me thinking!
Every time I see that giant alien in the chair I just love it, it's so mysterious, it's so disturbing to discover, it's so alien, it looks like a huge beautiful archaeological find.
“The 3 types of terror:
The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm.
The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm.
And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”
― Stephen King
Luis Fernando good quote. I feel like that's better than Show, Don't Tell. It's basically Don't Show, Don't Tell. Just suggest, and leave the rest to your imagination.
You watch Vsauce?
that was one great episode
And then they're junji Ito who makes Gross-out horrifying terror: having abstract concepts manifest in dangerous beings that have extremely gross bodily characteristics.
Seems to be that Alien does all of the three.
i lost a cup for two days then i go out for milk at 2am; when i get home my lost cup is sitting in the sink! True story and only happened two hours ago!
It's so interesting that you mentioned the use of an unfamiliar setting as a source of discomfort and unease, leading to heightened horror, because David Lynch, who is also masterful at creating a sense of horror, does the exact opposite.
Lynch sets his stories in the familiar, usually the American suburb, and then creates horror within the familiar. Instead of introducing something as the other, as most horror films do, he casts the familiar, and by extension ourselves, as the other. At the end of his films, the audience is unable to eject the other through the literal or symbolic slaying of the monster, since the monster is what we identify with. I believe this is what makes his films extra unsettling.
The setting should not determine the success of a film in achieving horror. Craftsmanship and intent are more important determinants.
"it is scary because it makes you think" ... well now we know that the saying Ignorance is Bliss , is true :D
Anubis Master hey the main theme of lovecraftian horror is knowing something you really wish you didn't
@@samuraibear5102 And he accomplishes this horror for the reader, by leaving the descriptions largely up to them, instead of telling them what things look like
Mathematics....... OH GOD! O.O The Horror!
Stanley Kubrick was the master of horror, even though he only made one horror movie, he still perfected how to scare the audience. Full metal jacket had the bed scene and the bathroom scene, 2001 had HAL and the black monolith, almost all of a clockwork orange was terrifying and the shining was the scariest movie I have ever seen
Pickle Rick No, he was just the master overall.
NoctisMinato well uh, super eyepatch wolf made a video about how the shining is terrifying so u could go watch that if u want
Aside from the Shining and some elements in 2001, I really don't see why he is "the master of horror" tbh. And I am a huge SK fan
Pickle Rick when pickle Rick talks about this shit, there’s something wrong.
junji ito is the same
"Fear of the unknown." THANK YOU! I've been saying for years that that is why so many of the oldschool horror movies work so well, and so many new ones don't. I'd throw John Carpenter's The Thing up here at the top with Alien too, because of the claustrophobic, isolated setting and the mounting tension and dread.
One more element that makes me love Alien is how the protagonists don't really make mistakes, they try their best to survive, yet they are constantly beaten by the Alien, adding to the characters and making you the viewer try to find a possible way to escape.
Have you had a look into the Thing
*The thing sequel in 1982*
The Thing was more about gore and body horror
@@cimignigni8360 The Thing was scary not because of when we saw the monster, but when we couldn't. It created a sense of mistrust, and forced the audience to ask, can I trust my friend in this life and death scenario. The Thing was at it's scariest when it was not seen, and that's why it's one of my favorite horror movies and favorite horror monsters.
@degree7 It's better than Alien
@@cimignigni8360 Nope it was about paranoia.
Oddly enough, I didn't find the unearthing of the lunar monolith in 2001 frightening. The establishing shot of the Space Jockey in Alien on the other hand.
They're both amazingly eerie. I have such a soft spot for the Space Jockey reveal - it's Lovecraftian, mysterious and awe-inspiring in equal proportions. It's so bonkers that Scott decided what we needed is to see that it was just a blue guy in a spacesuit who was mad at humans because we killed Jesus all along.
NotAffiliated sci fi horrors should take more ideas from Lovecraft rather than keep making more jump-scares
I agree. The monolith had already appeared in the movie and did no (direct) harm. Also, it's the shape of a domino, not that terrifying. To me it was just interesting, and I mainly wondered how the modern humans would react to it (study it, claim it, shoot it into space?)
put in on the floor, put a pole in it, a nice strip club scenery
Nope. Take away the soundtrack, and that monolith scene has absolutely no horror whatsoever.
This is honestly one of the most overlooked youtube channels. Everything about your videos is great.
Thank you, my lord.
Kneel before me and I shall be forgiving.
JK thanks that means a lot :D
The Closer Look lol
Agreed
Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
Try the test: How many lies have you told, and what do you call someone who lies? Have you ever stolen something (even when you were small. Even from your parents. Even a sweet), and what do you call someone who steals? Have you ever taken God’s name in vain (very serious; in Old Testament times, the Jews wouldn’t even say the name of God for fear of blasphemy) - even ‘OMG’? Jesus said whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart; have you ever looked with lust? One more: Ever disrespected your parents?
Well I’m not judging you - but if you’ve done these things then you’re a liar, thief, blasphemer, adulterer-at-heart and rebel, so you're not good enough to go to heaven; that’s how seriously God takes sin. He is Holy (perfectly good/righteous and separate from sin) which means that He is perfect in justice; that means that just like a just judge does sentence criminals to pay for the wrong they caused, do does God sentence the payment of all sins - and if He were to judge you by the moral law (we’ve already looked at 4 commandments) would you be innocent or guilty? Heaven or Hell? The answer is hell - the wrath of God upon you for your sin
And the just God will punish ALL sin. Is that concerning?
But fortunately, God’s will is not that you perish. He wants all men everywhere to be saved. So do you know what He did for us guilty sinners? In self-giving mercy, He sent His Son Jesus Christ (and here is why). He lived the perfect life that we should have lived - tempted at all points and yet He NEVER sinned. Through His life, being in very nature God, He revealed God to men; but we in our hatred condemned Him to death. On that cross as Jesus suffered, He took on the sin of the world and was judged in our place; receiving God’s wrath. You and I broke God’s law, but Jesus paid the fine. God can justly forgive us.
On that cross He died, then He was buried, but 3 days later He was raised from the dead - conquering death and Hell and ushering in The Kingdom of God. He then ascended to the right hand of God the Father (where He came from) now Lord of the living and the dead. God has fixed a date when He will judge the world in righteousness. What you need to do is repent (In humility, acknowledge your sin before God and turn to a relationship with Him) and trust ALONE in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross; and God will grant you the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then be baptised. Jesus' perfect righteousness will be accredited to you and you can stand in a relationship with the God of the Universe, a Father. If you repent and believe the gospel.
ROMANS 10:9 - If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
Its just so amazing how even today how great Alien looks. It looks like a slick new movie even though it came out in the 70s. If I saw a new trailer of it today I'd be hyped at how slick it looks. It's beautiful piece of art and timeless. Giger's alien design and the suites are still the most realistic alien looking monster created in any film. I don't think Alien will ever be surpassed. The closest thing to it is Aliens, and The Thing, but besides those.. nothing really comes close.
I find alien to be the starwars of horror films
POW!
thats a good comparison.
leon bushnell starwars did great with set design and bulding a world, like alien did, they aren't the greatest movies ever, but they are really good and besides every movie has flaws alien and starwars just have less than others
Alien is how horror is done right as Aliens showed us that mixing horror and action can still make good films.
Chris Brasel horror, SCI FI, & action.
The dark souls of horror films
I think jump scares are the cheapest of all scares, you just jump, shit your pants but then what? So.... what?
I have to sa though, Jumpscars aren't cheap. Cheap jumpscares are cheap. If it has a great build up, then the reveal has a good pay off, making the jumpscare good.
@@josephhoffman2992 They are good at making a viewer scared, but one thing that (in my opinion at least) all great horror films do is make the viewer feel terrified not scared
@@corwynn_ Completely agree. I'd rather not have a jump scare and instead have suspense but I still don't think all jump scares are bad. Some can help build the tension in a film. Even ALIEN did this.
@@josephhoffman2992 I just feel that pretty much all jumpscares are just put in due to lack of effort to make the film suspenceful but then I've never made a horror film, so what do I know
@@corwynn_ WaVe Intel I personally think good film makers use jump scares to end suspense so as to release tension and close a scene. Though I agree that most film makers probably use it because they themselves don't know how to create tension. Again like in ALIEN, the air vent sequence is massively suspenseful and Ridley ends the scene with the Alien giving Dallas a hug in the form of a Jump Scare but it works because it happens during the peak of tension in that particular sequence.
Some other reasons why Alien has superior horror: The introduction to the ship. It is implied to fly on autopilot as there are no people anywhere. But then we see.... at 2:17 the pages of a book flutter in a wind gust ... on a spaceship. Is there a hole in the hull threatening everybody's lives? Is there someone or something moving in the room outside camera view that made the pages flutter? Then a bigger scare comes into view at 2:27 Something looking remotely like a head moves in the dark background of a supposedly empty room. Then the biggest scare at 2:51 when the moving "head?" comes into closer view but still is unrecognizable. That was masterclass of horror. The fear of the unknown. The subversion of an uninhabitated room with undefined objects suddenly moving for no reason. The creation of suspicion that there is something horribly wrong with this ship but we cannot see what exactly it is.
Another reason is the round shapes everywhere. All other sci-fi objects (ships) are constructed of sharp edge structures, but in the Nostromo the interior all looks rounded, like a living organism, making it *difficult to distinguish the ship from potentially threatening lifeforms* . The spaceship of the "space jockey" is even more so composed of round shapes like a organism. When the humans explored it, I felt like they entered the body of a life form that could devour them at any moment.
At 3:10 the entry into the stasis room is also frightening because of wind gust appearing for no reason and in the darkness you see *something* ... that *could be* threatening... later to be revealed as the crew.
The scene of discovering the monolith on the Moon was scary because of the music which foreshadowed that something horrible will happen.
The Conjuring is a modern horror classic. If you ever find the time, watch it. It is so well crafted. The horror is very suspenseful, and based off the unknown. It's probably the only recent horror film that I found to be truly terrifying. I felt uneasiness and dread throughout.
The alien they found in the chair was really creepy and had its mouth open ..in prometheus they made it out to be a space suite and helmet which was crap! Just some over sized hairless human
Prometheus was a huge disappointment.
"Where there's no imagination, there is no horror." - Sherlock Holmes.
The mysteries and unanswered questions of Alien was one of the film's main strenghts.
Then Ridley started to answer questions with Prometheus and actually managed to subtract from his original film.
Impressive.
Great commentary. It's tough finding channels with intelligent commentary on films nowadays. Thankfully, you're one of the good channels.
Alien is my favourite film of all time. I first saw it when I was 9, it was on tv late night during school holiday. I'd never seen anything like it. The cast are fantastic, the way they interact is totally believable. I loved that the woman survives, women were usually portrayed as feeble and hysterical in early 80s tv. The creature was a new type of terror for me, it was frightening and beautiful at the same time. The whole film really got under my skin.
Great work, as per usual! I'm a game designer, wanting to make my own horror game, so any sort of look into the horror genre is great for me, especially ones as good as this. Great insight!
No problem, good luck with your game :)
Don't take this guy too seriously. People like him can sometimes overanalyze useless details and be a bit pretentious (for example there's no way he literally cried watching that 2001 Monolith scene; he's probably just saying that to seem more refined and artsy). I'm not saying he doesn't have good points just that he's a bit over-the-top at times.
Fear 1 scare the shit out of me.
Funny, I also thought the same thing of what makes horror story truly horrifying. The sense of the unknown. We know Freddy Kruger, we know who he is, what he does and his origin. It's scary but not truly horrifying because our mind knows what we can expect from him. But make a creature with slander arms and slander legs with a mouth drooling blood and glowing eyes with no name, no information, no origin and tell me which one is more terrifying? Freddy or this creature? The answer would be the creature because again, we don't know who it is or where it came from which makes it unpredictable because our mind doesn't know what we can truly expect but can only assume.
Very true :)
Lost Crusader Exactly... which is why Alien Covenant has killed not only the franchise, but the original movie as well.
The original Nightmare on Elm Street was actually quite scary and a titillating idea - a ghost who uses our fears against us in dreams. The dated '80's teenager appeal distracts and horrors in that day often had a comic mix.. Freddy is no longer an unknown element after countless sequels and reiterations. It is hard for today's viewers to connect with the fact that the original movie was, well, very original at the time.
Try reading some manga by Junji Ito, he plays off the fear of the unknown in truly terrifying ways. He never gives a proper explanation, if any, and every line in his meticulous artwork is done with the express purpose of scaring the viewer
Chad Farrell I read his manga especially the Hanging Balloon which is what made me understand what a true horror story should really be like
Alfred Hitchcock once said, "There is no fear in the gunshot, just the anticipation of it."
Also, the best scene to watch when talking about a description vs a picture is the scene in "The Silence of the Lambs" when Clarice sees the photo of what Lecter did to the nurse. Truly amazing way of doing it.
The same can also be said for the opening scene of Silence of the Lambs's predecessor Manhunter. The opening shot is a POV of the Tooth Fairy sneaking into the Leeds house while the synthesized drone plays. After the opening credits, it cuts to Jack Crawford explaining to Will Graham that they were killed. We never see the murders on screen, but the implications of what he did to the Leeds family is incredibly unnerving!
I think I can distinguish horror and terror.
Horror: the reaction of something scary or repulsive
Terror: is the prediction. The unknown
Horror: seeing an actual corpse or someone getting stabbed
Terror: you’re laying in bed in the middle of night and suddenly you hear knocking on your front door. However, the sound of knocking sounds more like a jiggle than a normal knock. Then a few minutes later, you hear the doorknob being twisted. As you get ready to call 911, you hear your front door open
Honestly terror is more scarying
The most important emotion in a horror film is Awe. The Space Jockey reveal is the most astonishing moment in the history of cinema.
I have been watching your videos for a few days now. And I have to say I absolutely love them. I am taking a lot of what you say into consideration. If I had the money to donate to you I would, but for now just keep it up!
Thanks :)
I've watched analyses of this movie buy a dozen different UA-camrs, and it never quite seems to get old.
i think a big part of what made Alien so scary was their use of HR Giger's artwork. The purely alien feel to the movie. the odd themes of sexual deviancy and the merging of biology and machine life make for a great atmosphere
The Thing is one of my favorite horror films. It makes you think what would you do in this situation
It’s the music
Without the music the tension of the scene would be almost entirely gone
I’m glad I’m not the only one terrified by that monolith scene, it always makes me tear up!
Finally someone who has the same taste in horror movies as I do. Great job on the video.
Thanks :)
Wait a second... if horror is better when you let the viewer imagine, then it's "tell, don't show", or "don't tell, don't show", but definitely not "show, don't tell". Right ?
Well I see where your coming from. To put it simply to convey an idea in a book/film you have to either show or tell. There is no other way of conveying an idea.
Telling would be saying:
In the corner sat Geoff's baseball bat, he used it last night to murder a police officer.
Showing would be saying:
In the corner sat a baseball bat with a thick blood soaking into it's grain. A drop slowly slid down it's coarse handle as if to suggest it had not yet had time to dry.
As you can see the show example is more provocative because it engages the readers imagination. But to engage their imagination you must first present information. Showing is telling them part of the picture, telling is telling them the whole picture.
Hope that helped :)
The Closer Look Very insightful.
I was also a little confused since you used an example where the girl could show a picture or tell a story, and then went onto explain how telling a story was a better example of "show, don't tell". But thanks for clearing that up.
Excellent video!
Alexablabla .
Alien and The Thing will forever be my favorite horror movies, i couldn't say which one is better, both are masterpieces.
Another great example is The Indianapolis monologue in Jaws. You're mind paints a scary picture.
The first time I saw 2001 I also found that scene with the scientists viewing the monolith extremely unsettling.
I was 12 when I saw this movie and I have never seen the allegory for rape before... Its like a 2nd trauma 😂
Alien is a masterpiece. So glad we have it to enjoy. I view the movie two or three times a year, and it only gets better every time. I really think it is the best movie ever made (yes I know they messed up the cut scene with Ashe's head but it doesn't matter). The story, the fantasy of outer space, the cinematography, special effects, the creature, the atmosphere, they just got everything right in a way you don't experience in most movies. Brilliant how you don't know who the protagonist is until over half way through the movie (Ripley), or that Ashe is actually a robot who's been plotting the crew's demise the whole time (he's freakier than than the alien!). The cast was mostly Broadway theater actors and actresses, so maybe that's why they were so good in selling their roles. I read somewhere supposedly Sigourney Weaver didn't even like sci-fi before getting the role (but most were pretty bad until Alien), so find it funny she may have been saying her lines somewhat sarcastically and yet end up playing the best most iconic sci-fi roles ....ever, Ripley is my favorite protagonist in all film. Alien is absolute masterpiece, an amazing movie experience. So glad they made a sincere huge effort in all aspects making it, amazing story telling, and they made it work perfectly, and glad we all have it to enjoy.
Every time I watch one of these I have to watch Alien again.
The screenplay of Alien is a master class of horror that luckily end up becoming a movie. I believe there are thousands of great scripts out there that doesn’t have a chance to get in the hands of movie producers. There are many talented people writing horror stories.
My favorite films that master the fear of the unknown
- Alien
- The Void
- Annihilation
- The Thing
- The Blair Witch Project
- Banshee Chapter
- The Last Broadcast (this one especially had me on edge)
- The Tunnel
I feel like Jaws should be on this list.
That scene from 2001 A Space Odessey was SUPEEEEEEEEEER terrifying!
You so effectively articulated something I had discovered myself mid-2017. I started watching a series of anime horror shorts called "Yamishibai". It had an eerie paper cut out style. Even though it had visuals accompanying the narration, the dialogue itself still had so much weight to give it some sense tension and mystery (at least for the good episodes). When I realized that I could close my eyes and still feel chills just listening, that's when I realized that good horror first and foremost must work as a short story/spoken tale.
This is what happens when you put jumpscares to the medium of a one man no effect podcast: "He opened the door and BAM! There was the ghoul-! Or so he thought. As he took a moment to catch his breath, CRASH!".
The best horror works as a poem or short story.
Definetly agree with all of the points you made in regards to this but as a horror fan, I have to say that not all horrors are like Paranormal 'Inactivity'. In fact with recent horrors like The Babadook, It Follows, Raw and The Witch, I think we are definetly going to see a resurgence of horror that does the same thing you say Alien does, makes us think.
Alien is a total and complete Masterpiece. The Nostromo might be the best sci Fi ship ever made.
Also I just realized that Godzilla stole the music from 2001 A Space Odyssey :(
1:57 - Some things do go wrong, they wake up before schedule, they go to a planet to check something that they didn't want to... While nothing terrible happens, some things do go wrong or at least not right.
2:11 - That's mostly from the long takes, they are unconfortable. also the fact that we don't know what to expect from the ship, we don't know what is out of place, so we look everywhere.
2:43 - Allow me to disagree, most great horrors have a misterious antagonist (which is an easy way to make something scary, let the audience fill the blanks) but not all.
Case in point, Halloween. We know who the villain is (the kid from the opening that we see escape the mental hospital), we know why he kills (he's pure evil, according to his own doctor), and we see why he goes after Laurie (she goes at his house and grabs his attention, by chance). and this is all stuff we get before he even starts killing people, wuite early in the movie.
Sure, we don't know everything about him. but can you name even 1 person you know everything about?
2:49 - "Unholy" setting? what do you mean by that? seriously.
3:47 - While I agree it's a bad moment of horror, that's quite a loaded question isn't it? you're telling the audience to go nitpicky at the scene before showing it.
I believe a better way of doing this, woulb be to they us to "watch this scene from the conjuring trailer", and then go into why it's a bad horror scene.
But here's the main issue, was the scene made to be a horror scene? No. It was supposed to be a jumpscare. it was supposed to give a last "boo" to the audience before the trailer ends, and it did just that.
4:26 - Yes it was, so?
4:34 - Please watch the movies you're talking about. What if that scene fits perfectly in the story? You don't know.
4:38 - I agree, but were they going for horror there? or just a scare?
They do the same thing in Alien, in this very scene on the screen aswell. and when the captain goes in the Ducts and the Alien surprise hugs him. jumpscares and horror are not mortal enemies
6:22 - Also, no horror. suspense.
6:30 - terrifying? how?
6:58 - I would say annoying, but maybe it's because I played too much Ocarina of time and that fire temple song can't seem to leave my head... :p
7:40 - That's what you think. and not really the way I would say most people would think about it.
You go on saying that, "we are the only ones who could put this here" and "This can't exist", but why? Who said we are the only ones who could put this here? who said it can't exist? why is this terrifying?
Fear of the unknown is powerful, but the unknow isn't scary on it's on.
Imagine a dark alley, you don't know what's in there, you feel scared of it, why? because you know dark alleys are not safe places.
replace this alley with any well lit street. Someone could just as easily be hiding there. yet you're not afraid, because you don't associate well lit streets with danger
back to 2001, why should I be scared of this? While I may not understand it, I don't associate it with danger.
8:34 - Kinda, they tell us they died from a chest bursting thing.
we see the Alien doing a chest burst later and voila, we have the cause of death. I don't remember every single dialog from Alien, so I can't say if the characters ever put it together.
but this isn't horror, it's mistery. This is what any good detective story will do.
9:06 - Make this exact scene take place in a well lit house somewhere and it won't create horror.
The horror comes from the things around this scene. The ambient, the lack of music, the lack of something happening. we are dreading the moment something will happen, this is where the horror in this scene comes from.
9:26 - I would say it's action. Can you imagine how boring it would be if an action movie didn't show the action and only talked about it? at least with horror you didn't go in expecting to get hyped.
9:57 - far less horrifying than what? You're comparing apples and oranges here. text to video.
the example would work better as "we go into the room vs seeing a picture" or "we see the picture vs someone describes the picture to us".
because in a movie, more often than not I would rather have a picture than someone describing it to me. Show don't tell.
10:23 - That's quite a claim. one I don't particularly agree with. The thing came out after Alien and I think it did that better.
My fav horror scene is in 28 days later, when the protagonist wakes up in the hospital. They dont show the zombie outbreak, they show you the aftermath and make you imagine what must have happened. It's brilliant.
“I’m too much of a [coward] to actually watch the movie” - me too, man, me too 😂
My phone fell as the warning came along in the end. I didn't see what it said so I brought my phone closer so I could rewind the video but that's when the jumpscare played. Great video! The bruise I got on my nose was worth it.
Just a minor correction- the crew of the Nostromo didn't land on an asteroid. They landed on a moon. At the time, the moon only had a catalog name of LV426. It would eventually be renamed Acheron in order to make it more appealing to potential colonists(the Hadley's Hope colony, which would go on to be massacred in the sequel, Aliens). LV426/Acheron is one of three moons orbiting around a ringed, gas giant planet named Calpamos. One of Calpamos' other three moons, LV223 is the main setting of the movie Prometheus. Calpamos orbits the star Zeta2 Reticuli.
I don't mean to be one of THOSE fans, but the Aliens universe is one of my obsessions and has been ever since I was an angst ridden thirteen year old girl back in 1997. I have seen and heard far too many people incorrectly label the moon various different celestial bodies over the years. As both an Aliens and astronomy buff, that really sticks in my craw.
It's deeply refreshing to find a video analysis of Alien that doesn't use any variation of the medical terminology for naughty bits. I'm weary unto death of people explaining to me that I find the xenomorph scary because it looks like a large walking version of something that I see every single day.
Honestly while I greatly respect Alien, I find John Carpenter's The Thing to be superior. The monster is far more alien: it is completely amorphous, incredibly intelligent, and most importantly creates an atmosphere of suspicion through its assimilation and imitation. The Xenomorph is ultimately a big bug: an animal with predatory instincts. The "Thing" is exactly that. A thing. Something beyond description, because it can take any form. Including yours.
Carpenter's The Thing was fantastic - another of my faves. It had the same quality but was pure horror, not sci-fi horror.
I also mention The Thing in the same times I talk about Alien and great horror. They are the two above all else. The Alien is a better monster design though in the way it looks truly real and alive in every way, and yet totally Alien and not just some rubber suit on a man. It's animalistic, especially when you see them jump after falling from the Ceiling in Aliens. The Thing while amazing still looks a bit fake a bunch of special FX thrown together. It's the best it can be practical fx though. It's close but not quiet as good. I'd love to see a true Thing sequel!
The Thing is probably the best horror film done, at least in my opinion. The fact that so many horror fans I know have never heard of it kills me, It's only mirrored in horror by Silent Hill 2 & 3 and the stalked tension/terror that Dino Crisis/Resident Evil create. Not to compare it unjustly to games, I feel that horror games add an extra element lost when viewing a film. Very few films can master the art of creating tension by knowing what will happen and being unable to stop it, of feeling incredibly helpless, that games can.
Another top film you might enjoy is Return of the Living Dead, the Tar Man is by far the height of my horror love and my fascination with zombies, it's such an amazing intro to a movie that everything after the initial incident pales drastically, which does make the film tedious to rewatch unlike others (Shaun of the Dead has better lasting power then Return, thanks to it's sort of... punk catered vibe, done beautifully in Green Room, falls very short in RotLD)
I'm ranting, my advice to horror fans though would be to watch The Thing, ignore the reboot, and ignore Harbinger Down
I hate how hard it is to find Horror Sci Fi books. There's no category for them. You either have to look for sci fi or horror but to try to find both is just looking for a pin in a haystack. Even book lists just mention the same ones usually which are usually the ones already made into movies. Its such an open horror genre that has barely been tapped into.
A bit of horror sci-fi but also... a different kind of horror: Daemon by Daniel Suarez. That book is amazing. If you want good sci-fi stuff, try the Frankenstein books by Dean Koontz, hell the Odd Thomas books are amazing as well, and while they lose interest a few novels in they do get fairly horror laced and intense
I like to add that Alien really took Lovecraft's idea of great horror and took it to the visual medium. It has everything: something evil from space, that is somehow exponentially more powerful than us humans and seems unbeatable; it's not visible most of the time so that your imagination does all the work; it defies human logic and seems to be really different to us; and finally, there is no hope, we are all about to die one way or another.
This is why the first Halloween movie was great. The music alone was spine tingling. And when people got killed, all you saw was the knife going toward them, no blood. John Carpenter was compared to Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, for doing that in Halloween. Alien was a fantastic film. I enjoy watching it over and over and getting scared in the process. Now when I watch it again, I will keep these points in mind. Thanks
I don't think H.R GIGER gets NEARLY enough credit. Especially since there wouldn't even BE an alien movie without his artistic genius.
Wonderful reasoning in this video. And haha at the end there :) I feel that these Alien films have been ruined ( just like Star Wars has ) by the EU fandom and their influence on each progressively worse film. Fanboys ( talking film makers as well as film go-ers ) are the reason we live in a world where Alien vs. Predator films exist...yeeesh...
The constant need for instant gratification and spoonfed information about the who, why, where of things has taken what was once a terrifying and beautiful mystery and turned it into yet another toyline. Where fans are no longer even particularly interested in a good film, rather than what kind of cool new Xenomorph can be designed and turned into a toy for their gaming room shelving.
The constant crying out for prequels ( even though the continuously suck ) so people can have every little facet explained is why these stories constantly write themselves into corners, having to reverse engineer what was a profound, yet simple idea in the very first instance. Why was there a "Space Jockey"? Who was the alien? Why was the alien? When was the alien? People seem to forget that it was all so terrifying in the first place because having it unexplained made it all the more disorientating - as you already eloquently explained in your video. But for some reason, everyone feels they have earned the right to know everything, because they put a couple of bucks down to go see it. Must have it all wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end, because anything ambiguous is too mind-bending to deal with.
They want answers, yet there will be NO profound, earth shattering, illuminating answers at the end. Just a disappointing fart of an idea, because there were no long term ideas from the start ! Writers are being brought in to try and backpedal to some starting point of an idea that never had one in the first place! So, instead, the writers will continue to have to bumble their way through a revisionist history and ridiculously inept character logic, to try and jam a square peg into a round hole.
And everyone will say. " Oh THAT SUCKED, but the new alien they designed looks real cool, so i'll still pre-order the posable action xenomorph for my room ! " I guess when they can turn child killer Freddy Kruger into an action figure for kids, why not do it with everything else ?
That's all these films are now. All flashy imagery and very light on anything substantial. All those things you talked about in your video. You hit the nail right on the head with everything.
It's always so inevitable and tiresome to see a good idea get turned into an embarrassing clusterfuck of half baked ideas, due to cynical studios and rabid fanboys keeping the circle jerk moving. Why can't - for once - a great little idea, that made everyone leave the theatre pondering and intrigued, be left alone to BE just that? To stand the test of time on it's own merit? Why is it that people have to take it and flog it toward a pitiful death?
You know, the weird, unsettling, and utterly unknown setting is also what takes Event Horizon beyond its limitations. It STILL has one of the greatest trailers of all times for exactly that reason.
That jump scare just brought back my nightmares that took years of therapy to get rid of, thanks a fucking lot
I'm not saying that anyone is wrong for thinking Alien is a great horror, but when I watched it I just... Didn't find it scary. At all. Don't really know why, but I didn't.
Isaac Jones Same except the Shining
I tend to find the most memorable horror movies, those I remember long after seeing them, aren't that scary. It's usually because they are focused on being good movies before making you jump on your seat.
To expand a little on that Idea, I feel like their is a trade-off in durability:
superficial horror can scare you more in the moment, but often at the detriment of other aspects: character, theme, mood... while more subtle horror can leave you thinking about it long after, even though you were never in danger of having a heart attack when you watched.
It also means that you can recapture more of that fear on a rewatch, while superficial horror has very little to offer on a second viewing, since it has sacrificed storytelling.
One reason Alien is less scary is because it's been so ingrained into pop culture that all it's iconography is known, even by people who haven't seen the movie. Imagine how shocking and terrifying it would have been in a movie theater in 1979 if you didn't know before hand that the alien would burst from his chest. Even the whole facehugger impregnation thing is well known, so the shock value is worn away. I will say, there are still genuinely tense moments. When Dallas dies, and they're using the motion tracker in the vents, it's such a claustrophobic space it always stresses me out. Or the ending when sirens blare and steam obscures your vision, and Ripley is running through the long hallways in agonizing long takes (similar to the tricycle scenes in The Shining). I actually think the Shining is another prime example of a movie losing it's shock value because of it's widespread parody in pop culture.
I love this channel. As a passionate movie maker as myself i have to say you cover everything i've wanted to get off my chest. It's a thrill to know the're are other people who think so deeply into what makes movies great and how to correctly connect with an audience. Subscribed!
+Golden Gargoyle Thanks, good luck with your movies :)
The Closer Look Cheers.
Alien is scary because it is Lovecraftian perfection. Fear what you do not understand, fear the unknown.
The fear of the unknown, is the same thing as you, as a child hiding under your blanket (or when you're an adult, hiding from the bills) and you don't know what's there, soon you learn and understand your over active mind and except that, not being scared anymore, but under neath your blanket it terrifies your childish mind. This is that feeling good horror movie writers/ directors hit when they make horror movies. With movies like The Conjuring or Insidious, they play with the part of your brain that makes you flinch, but watching the movie again doesn't even faze you, but with movies like The Shining or Alien, they keep you thinking every time you re-watch the movie. One good movie that plays with this is The Thing, because they soon learn more about it and understand the threat, but the viewer is trying to piece together what is and what it does off screen, and why the end of the movie is still talked about today, because you don't know who is the true thing.
I submit that the single scariest question ever asked is whether or not there is other life beyond Earth, because there are only two Possible answers, both of which are terrifying.
The scariest movie I’ve ever seen is Bird Box because it doesn’t give you detail on what the “monster” could actually be. You know anything about it except for what it does to you, you don’t know what it looks like (they show you drawing of it though), and worse? You cannot stop it. It comes for everyone with no reason and you cannot do anything about it.
It feel like it was a metaphor for death.
John Carpenters "The Thing" builds suspense and makes you think a lot... personally, one of my favorite horrors
The most terrifying scene in a movie I have scene is the final one in The Woman In Black (spoilers), because it's like the ending to Terror on Elm's Street but without a jumpscare - jumpscares are to me just sudden sound like a sign saying "get scared!", but my favourite kind of horror is "realisation".
The keepers of the zoo are completely calm, and at ease, but arrive at their stations after their lunch to see the lock to a cage is broken, and its door is open - you realise that during their lunch break something broke out, and is moving freely now.
The ending to The Woman In Black is one of the best cases of realisation horror I can think of, especially because it has no jumpscare, cheap or not - the viewer is completely calm, at ease, the setting is light and promises that everything is alright. But then you realise, it's not.
You know what's impressive about this scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey? When I looked up the script, this scene is just a few sentences. If I count correctly, there are only 3 complete sentences and two partial, 5 total, including "Air-view."
I'm amazed how script writers can convey so much in such a few words where we novel writers get far too vorbose.
Love this video, would like to see more breakdowns of classics like these - though I know they prob don't get as many views as the more current film analysis. I think they are indispensable when trying to break down why stories stick with us.
If it weren't for this video essay, I wouldn't have had the enthusiasm and curiosity to watch the entire Aliens Trilogy. Thank you!
That’s why I like ghost stories, in them they describe monsters/ghosts but it’s my imagination that creates a terrifying image in my mind
YOU ARE MY BROTHER! thank you! You even had oddessey in the video, and I concur! Yes indeed the wailing music made me think it was horror when I saw it for the first time in the Egyptian theatre, Hollywood.
The best horror movies do this well. Jaws and Predator played with our fear of the unknown; whereas in Night of the Living Dead and It Follows, you can see the danger coming - no (or very few) jump scares. Even in For Your Eyes Only, the film uses a horror device of showing an underwater scene from the bad guys point of view: all we see is a dark lonely room and hear the sound of breathing. Sinister
Not so much a fan of horror that makes you 'think'. Wondering about the mystery IN horror is all well in good, but my goal with horror would be to make people FEEL fear--not through jumpscares, but with suspense and tension.
Because jumpscares outside the realm of the perfectly-timed, built-up ones that the movie or book or comic has been building up to for a while are cheap and harden the watcher or reader to the fear. They're, in essence, someone playing a prank. And people get tired of it after a while.
What I aim for are the unsettling moments we get from uncanny valley situations--something calling from the woods with your best friend's voice, even though your best friend is standing right beside you, the quiet moments when that thing at the end of the hall peaks its head around the corner but instead of accompanied by screeching strings, there's just... nothing. No external indication that anything had happened at all. Because, in reality, this thing would not get a helpful alert chime. This thing would just EXIST, peaking its head around the corner. And if the watcher or gamer didn't see it. Well, it'll be there to freak them out the second go around.
The creeping horror, the build-up horror, the unexpected horror. There can be no perfect scary thing, because we all fear different things. But we can learn the overlapping things that we all fear.
It's why I was disappointed by Poppy's Playtime's second chapter. Chapter One has an antagonist that does not look like us, does not speak like us. The more comfort we find in a scene or a monster or villain, the less scary we find it. Because it is no longer 'unknown'. But when Chapter Two rolled around, suddenly we have a speaking antagonist with the title of 'Mrs'--already two HUGE steps into the comfort direction.
That's like how people find Predator less scary than the Xenomorph. It is semi-humanoid and we even get a look inside its motives, can even root for it in some of the later movies.
It just seems like no one really pays attention to what's 'scary' anymore
Last time I felt terrified and claustrophobic was when I watched Rec. The final act was fantastic. Specially once they are locked in the room and turn on the infrared camera only to see....
I almost shat myself at the end.
Thanks for that.
No problem ;D
Ridley Scott created so much mysticism with the origins or the Alien and the Pilot in his first Alien movie with this “show don’t tell” ethos. Then went on to make two Alien prequels that wanted to “tell” us all about their origins which is probably why the majority of people are not overly enamoured with them. I love Aliens and maybe one of the few that likes Alien 3 too, well at least the Directors Cut - and those movies didn’t go too deep into their origins but rather gave us more of a peek into other behaviours. The same can be said for the Predator franchise. I love Predator and Predator 2, but to me the not knowing too much about the alien hunter was all part of the appeal. It was all left to the imagination, which was great because we could all imagine our own personal horrors of what these aliens were about. The movies that came after tried to do something a little different and go deeper exploring aspects of the Alien and Predators culture, which just takes away the mysticism, and thus nullifies some of that dread. I get it, that maybe filmmakers are probably scared that the modern movie critic is striving for something different, and in the attempt to deliver something new they explore areas and ask questions we don’t necessarily want to see or have answered.
It's such a legendary sci-fi classic.
The first time we ever see or hear about the originally terrifying and fascinating...Xenomorph.
It's has to be the best movie creature/monster ever made.
This is also thanks to the twisted genius artist, H.R. Giger.
As a Sci-Fi horror...it nearly stands alone as the ultimate standard of that genre. Masterpiece!
Another horror film along these lines that I quite enjoyed(and is terribly underrated, even with its many flaws) is the movie Sphere. A group of scientists explore a spacecraft deep at the bottom of the sea, and when they interact with the unknown artifact, terrible things start happening to them. I won't spoil it, but the big plot twist really did catch me off guard. But basically, Sphere was a flawed but great horror film that explores the fear of the unknown.
The fear with the monolith at 535 is that the team stopped as the music crescendo ed and there was an expectation something would happen, but it didn't. Then the team continued on with us as the cinema goers now even more expecting something to go wrong . We were expecting sometime to "jump out" but it didn't, now we are expecting even more which did not materialize, now we spend the rest of the movie to be either jump scares or something even worse,, something we have to imagine
The example of the girl describing the murderer’s lair reminds me of 28 days later and 28 months later. In 28 days later, the description of the train station is incredibly powerful. While listening to Mark describe what happened, the loss of life, of humanity is palpable. It’s terrifying, horrifying, and moving. In 28 months later, a similar scene is shown, but it’s not powerful. Their humanity is gone, but you don’t feel it as a loss. It simply horrifies.
These might be some of the only times “tell, don’t show” is more effective in film.
Since, the film "bird box" got almost all the elements of horror from alien, adding even more unkown about the creatures. And it is as good as alien.
Nice to see someone acknowledging that the theme of rape in the film isn’t the SOLE reason that it’s scary. I also saw multiple other video essayists base their entire claim on this and while it does add to the fear, I found it hard to believe that was what Ridley Scott was going for when making Alien. I much prefer the idea that Scott was masterfully utilizing the fear of the unknown to scare us.
How funny - I wrote everything you just said pretty much word for word as a comment to "Why Alien: Covenant Failed". Have a look! That was the first video of yours I watched. I've subscribed to your channel, and this is the second video of yours I'm watching. I find it refreshing to know there's another person who can strip a movie down to bear bones & explain why horror movies nowadays are not "horror" at all. They're simply an hour & a half of spoon fed jumpscares. Audiences have become lazy & rely on that formula (if it even is a formula). Make them think, fill in the blanks or, heaven forbid, discuss a movie and they won't like it. Your exercise involving picturing the bloody room is perfect!
You could break down why Event Horizon is the second best and most scary SciFi movie ever made.
The pan of this pieced together ship is also frightening.
Dude I was just listening to this while playing Minecraft and your jumpscare scared me to death lol
alien is in my heart but The Thing is my favorite sf/horror/mystery film of all times. hope you make a video about it in the future. good stuff.
This is sorta why I liked IT. IT looked like a normal place, but then you see there is something deeply wrong with it. Then when the kids start seeing signs of fears it slowly builds up. I would say the best case would be with Georgie and Ben. Georgie we know will die and the suspense as we are shown Georgie fall for Pennywise's trap makes us scared. Eventually he dies and you can't help feel unjust for Georgie because he was so nice. So with Ben as see the head pop up over and over again until he looks over and sees a red balloon, something that is IT'S sign as children start singing in the backround, and it floats on it own. Then flaming eggs appear, something only we and Ben know of, asking "Who else knows?" Then a boy walks behind Ben, slowly. He is holding eggs, bringing in the same question, until... he doesn't have a head. I love both of these scenes because it's as if IT knows they are afriad of something, and as if IT has your power of being the viewer.
This is why i really love The Thing. It has a really good suspense, and you just don't know what or who the monster is, and the characters all make good and logical decisions. One thing that is common and bad in most horror movies, like you showed with the conjuring, is that the characters are all freacking dumb. "whats that? a noice in the distince?Let me walk towards it and die." Or "I have seen countless of unexplained things happening, but i won't do anything about it, because then the movie will be over." Those are some of the things i hate most in horror movies. I will always come back to the slow and really thrilling movies like Alien and The Thing.
Fun fact: The Xenomorph in the first movie was played by an actor. It was played by Bolaji Badejo, who sadly passed away at age 39 from sickle cell disease. It was his only film role. Someone on the casting team met him at a Soho pub and offered him the role due to his height and long legs (he stood at 6'10). Later he went back to Nigeria and began running an art gallery
Love this video, but I do have one point to make about The Conjuring:
It was definitely made for a newer audience; the kind that likes jump-scares and horrors that can't actually hurt you like they do in film.
However, there was one scene in particular towards the beginning that gripped me so much that I had nightmares about it for weeks. I want to explain why, but it would take a while to do through comments. In essence, it made the audience think... frantically. You couldn't see what the characters could, disconnecting the audience in a way that was so frightening that I've checked every dark corner of every room ever since. "What is it? What does it look like? Where is it? How can you escape? How did it get over there so fast? What the hell is it?!"
“Show don’t tell”
Two seconds later
“Describe something instead of just showing it”
Event Horizon does brilliantly as well, the first time the lights flicker and you see the goo and red viscera in the control room is insanely intense.
Very well put. TMA-1 (the "official" name of the monolith on the Moon) is roughly consistent with an Eldritch Abomination. It "cannot" exist, but it is here anyway.
I never got the feeling of rape from the facehugger. But then I was already familiar with insects that parasitize their host with their eggs, so that seemed the obvious inspiration. It never occurred to me on first viewing that it was supposed to be anything else.
Best examples of “show don’t tell,” good and bad, is the opening exposition of The Force Awakens and Rogue One. If you don’t know already google something on it
I propose the similarity to both 2001 and Alien was the foreknowledge. Alien used it to foreshadow danger, but the monolith symbolized guided knowledge. Thus, the latter was suspenseful not scary. Thanks for posting.