The Film Alien

In the movie Alien the director Ridley Scott creates tension and suspense using a range of filmic techniques which include camera angles, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds and symbolic movie props. These techniques are used in the scene involving the isolated crew members searching for Jones the cat. The camera follows the group that includes the protagonist Ripley with two others, Brett and Parker, symbolizing something is going to happen to them.

The Alien is a science fiction horror movie. Its setting in space and the presence of technology and artificial intelligence empathizes on its science fiction genre. Moreover, the presence of the Alien and the fact that it is a threat to human lives reflects it is also a horror film. The movie revolves around seven human beings that have the mission to return to earth from the space.

In Hollywood film women 's roles have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and period settings. These factors contribute to the different representations of women 's roles in the film they are present in. The roles are diverse going from the traditional maternal role to that of manipulative murderer. Women 's roles in movies can be almost equal to the male roles, and the co-stars are not given the majority of the acclaims just because they are male. Society has set certain standards that women are supposed to follow. The most common image of women is that they are very passive and try to avoid conflict in any situation. More and more in society women are breaking down the social barriers that confine them to their specific roles. The films Rear Window and Resident Evil show women in roles that are untraditional for our society. These two movies help to show how women are rebelling against social norms and that they are taking more active and aggressive roles. In film noir’s we can see women represented as the femme fatale, a woman whose mysterious and seductive charms leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. In action movies we see the heroine who is strong both physically and mentally, and has the ability to use weapons. Women seem to be more trapped than men because they are supposed to live up to society’s standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics. These specific guidelines have been set by

“2001: A space Odyssey” opens in the African Rift Valley, where a tribe of hominids encounter a stone monument which has obstructed on their domain. This stone monument transmits radio waves that end up expanding their IQ 's, teaching them weaponry and other tool uses to help them live, as they proceed to defeat a rival tribe. Four million years later, we see the luxurious space travel that the vintage science fiction of the 1960’s, with space stations for air terminals and such. Dr. Heywood Floyd is heading to Clavius Base, a United States lunar station. Along the way, he finds out about gossipy tidbits about an unidentifiable disease going around on the Clavius Base and his responsibility to study a four-million-year-old structure. Floyd

The first Alien movie is one of my favors whose sound evokes terror and suspense. The scene that used sounds build terror and suspense is very intense was when Captain Dallas was inside the cramped air-duct. The other members were tracking the Alien on a computer and communicating it to Dallas. The computer was making clicking sound to show were it was located and then all the sudden the tracking sound stops and you have stone cold silent. This silence creates an eerie vacuum that sense of something impending is about to bust. Then all the sudden the clicking sound started up again and begins to get louder and louder and is moving towards Dallas. Then silent, and you then see Dallas gets out of air duct, turn and is face to face with the Alien.

Many horror films provide their audiences with scares and screams.  Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers.  However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s essay, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s.  The model that is a female is featured as a primary character and that the female tends to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film to become victorious.

During 1981 there was a huge development in technology. In that same year of 1981, Stephen King published an article in the Playboy magazine by the name of “Why We Crave Horror Movies.” In his essay he wrote about why people enjoy watching horror films. King intends this essay toward young men who watch horror films. He mentions that everyone is a little insane and that it is okay to be that way. He wants young men to know and understand that there is something more to it then just wanting to get scared when watching horror movies, it is for young men's insanity relief so that the good emotions can be expressed. Back then there was a stigma, mostly in religious people, parents, and psychiatrists, but it is still present today. Critics believe that horror films were made to scare viewers and draw in the negative things. King is famous for horror movies and is known to be the king of them. The article “Why We Crave Horror Movies” was written forty years ago by King who is the author of many popular horror books and films King persuades young adults that it is okay to watch horror movies because everyone is a little bit insane in the inside.

I’m using this source as it relates to my research question regarding history, myths, and exploitation of women in horror films. In Part 2 of the book “Audiences, Fans, and Consumption’, the article ‘Trashing the Academy’ by Jefferey Scone offers a detailed analysis of emerging politics in the genre of horror

During the Reagan-era in American society of the 1980s, there were more opportunities for middle-class college graduates and women for work as there was a rise in rise of hi-tech firms, finance and retail. Where as for men, the decline in heavy industry made it hard for men to find high paid full-time work in industry, in which so many working-class men joined the military. Yet Ripley with all these male attributes can relate more to men in the Reagan-era. ’ James Cameron rewrites Ripley as an action hero, as Aliens (1986) is a military expedition/combat film. At the same time, the political climate of the Reagan era informed the film’s conservative revision of Ripley into a socially authorized female role: the “mother” Ellen Ripley’.

Several film theorists have used a variety of tactics and view points to analyze feature films since their inception. One of the most prominent theorists of those that analyze films from a feminist perspective is Laura Mulvey. Mulvey is famous for her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” which presents an array of theories involving the treatment of women in films. Arguably the most notable idea presented in Mulvey’s work is the existence of the “male gaze” in films. This essay will examine Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze in relation to Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo. Vertigo does not fit the criteria of a film that

Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are

It’s crazy to think the world has made it such a bad place for women with such bad stereotypes and such bad use and Mysteries on what they do and how they are and how they work. that they can use being feminine to scare other people. Whether this is social commentary or just something they used because it’s seen as terror, it is deliberate. For example the first oral rape scene, when an alien creature is stuck to one of the crew members face, this is a common fear in women's heads, and a worse fear for men because they are not taught that this is a possibility for them. Another example to follow that is the birth scene, when the alien then tears out of the crew members stomach leaving bloody mess. Birth is a natural event for a woman, it’s hard to not see birth when you think about it. The baby alien comes out of his stomach which is commonly known for its fertility. This natural act has turned into unimaginable horror. The blocking in the birthing scene looks undeniably like a mother giving birth in a hospital. He gets up on the table and lines down with his legs up and he's breathing very heavy. The lighting in the room looks very sterile and white just like a hospital would look hospital. This is the same scene that woman would described if given the takes to. There's lots of blood and guts, acting like a birth scene because births are bloody as well. Everyone around her is panicked, like a mother giving birth everyone is panicked when the woman goes into labor period next everyone is staring at her when the when the alien comes out the stomach associated with fertility and birth and childbearing. The scene is horribly gross. The man end up dying during the birth, but this is actually something that happens to some women when they give birth. Bearing the baby is so hard it does kill them sometimes. it's so scary to

Cameron’s Aliens movie track the strength of gender stereotypes and identities through characters research and rescue mission, eventually breaking down the common idea In this film Ellen Ripley is the only survivor of the space freighter Nostromo, she was rescued after fifty-seven years and revived after drifting for fifty-seven years in hyper sleep. The story line of this science fiction movie Aliens, incorporate a search and short summary of the movie where Ellen Ripley go back to space after being rescued. Ellen agreed to

Alien is a classic Science-Fiction/Horror film that set the precedent for space related horror movies for decades to come, (Ridley Scott, 1979). But not only is the movie a fantastic trend setter of realistic science fiction movies, and terrifying claustrophic horror movies, but it is also a prime example of how Classism and Ideology can be effectively displayed in a film outside political and historical dramas. Alien takes place in a not too distant future, where a commercial mining ship, named the Nostromo, is returning towards Earth with tons of mineral ore and seven crew members aboard. When the crew receives a distress signal from a nearby planet, they make the decision to investigate and inadvertently let a perfect killing machine aboard

Creed, B. 1999. Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection. Feminist Film Theory, a Reader, edited by. Sue Thornham. New York: New York U P.