Alien Analysis

Alien Chest Bursting scene

This scene shows the character who was affected by the alien seem to recover. He is normal, eating food with his crew members. I think that is what makes this scene so famous, because it was such a shock.

The cinematography in this is very simple really but extremely effective. It concentrates mainly on the character “Kane” who is in intense pain on the table. The camera is close up on Kane but also gives enough space to show the other characters in the shot, making it very claustrophobic.

When Kane’s chest bursts and all you see is a large splat of blood on his top; for a split second you are lead to believe that the pain is over. But then he starts to be in pain again and that’s where the horrific chest burst takes place. A small, odd-looking creature appears. You are not sure exactly what it is all you know is that this creature is not human and the events that just took place aren’t normal. On this part of the scene there is a high shot. On this shot you can see all of the characters reactions, as they looked shocked, scared and angry. 

Then the shot cuts to a close up of the creature (the alien). The shot is in focus of the alien but you can still see Kane twitching and blood all on his face and hands. The alien just stands out of his chest starring at the witness’s looking back at him.

The next shot is meant to be scary but I can’t help but laugh. Maybe in 1979 the scene scary and horrific but compared to what is seen as scary in 2012 its nothing. But I can see why people would be scared of something like that. To me it made me think the film wouldn’t be as scary as first thought, I was wrong. The shot shows the alien run on the table then cuts to the characters watching the alien. It’s a clever cut because you don’t see where the alien has gone but when its cuts to the characters looking in a direction you know where the alien went just by looking at there eyes.

The Here Kitty scene

When you send someone to look for a cat on there own when there’s an alien on the loose, you know what’s going to happen. I think that’s makes this scene so tense. I prefer this scene to the chest-bursting scene because it made me even tense. I’m not a fan of horror films per se but I felt that this scene better cinematically.

There was a good use of low-key lighting, which sets the mood of the scene, showing that dark events are upon us. There are a lot of point of view shots in this scene, which drags you into the situation. When I say drag into the situation I mean it feels like you’re the person walking through the spaceship. By doing this it also establishes the scene for viewer.

The scene also switches close ups of the characters face. This shows the characters full emotions so you know that character is petrified. You can see everyone drop of sweat running down his face, which automatically made my palms sweat.

There is a good use of camera focus or “depth of field” in this scene. When the character spots the cat and the cat runs off you don’t see the cat just a blur in a cat figure. The sound makes you jump as your unsure if it’s the alien or not.  There is also a good use of non- diegetic sound used in this scene. I heartbeat effect is used this puts pressure and brings tension to the audience. In my mind I was screaming for him to get the cat quickly because it was getting too much for me. 

Near the end of the scene when he has found the cat, the camera looks down at the cat as a point of view shot. The cat cries “meow” quite violently, the camera almost focuses on the cat because the character or you as the audience do not want to see what’s behind you so your begging for him not to look although you know its inevitable that he will. The alien still shocked me when he roared because although I new he was behind him I didn’t know when he was going to look or what was going to happen when he looked.

If you notice there is little to no music in this scene but there is just over exaggerated footsteps and background noise. I think this works effectively so when you hear the smallest crash or noise you jump immediately.