The ’70s have no shortage of memorable horror movies. But to me, it’s those movies you don’t expect to scare you that end up staying with you the longest.
In Ridley Scott’s Alien, most of the fright comes from not knowing what’s happening or what will happen. The crew is trapped on the ship. They can hide, but there’s nowhere to run.
Build The Anticipation:
The commercial salvage vessel Nostromo and her crew have been dispatched to investigate a distress signal from an alien vessel in deep space. The crew– Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm), and Parker (Yaphet Kotto)– awake from cryosleep and begin the investigation. The ever-sharp Ripley warns the crew that the signal might not be a distress beacon, but a warning to stay away. This is the first seed of tension planted for the audience.
Now, Scare the $h!t out of ‘em:
Another way to add to the tension is to introduce a problem, threat, or emergency, then resolve it. Despite the fact that the problem has been resolved, there’s a lingering trauma left over in the audience. After the creature falls off of Kane, he appears to be fine. They can find no medical problem with him and things return to normal. When they sit down to have dinner, things couldn’t be more relaxed.
But the audience has seen the danger and their vulnerability is exposed. Now, the audience feels safe, but fully aware that they could be in danger again at any time.
Lastly, give them something they don’t expect.
Instinctively, you know some kind of danger is coming by the dinner scene, but the viewer doesn’t know when.
While filming Alien, even the actors didn’t know what exactly was going to happen. What does happen is shocking and attacks the audience on an almost psychological level.
The creature smothering Kane’s face gives the sensation of being suffocated– the creature exploding from his chest, a heart attack. Everything that happens to Kane to this point is all-the-way-around terrifying.
This scene works on many levels. Despite the immense size of the ship, the workspaces are cramped and confined, giving the audience a subtle sense of claustrophobia. They’re in the most hostile of working environments– space. This cramped and gritty vessel is the crew’s only source of life, yet with the alien lose, it’s also a tomb. The first thing we want to do when we come across a threat is run. But in space, aboard a large but ultimately confined area, we’re trapped.
Alien puts the audience in a state of normalcy, yet surrounds it in an environment that keeps danger just beyond our reach. This relaxed yet ominous feeling is the best time to scare the living daylights out of an unsuspecting audience.
As the creator of your own story world, you can fill it with infinite unknowns.
How do you do this?
- Hide your enemy or conceal a clear view of them with lighting, camera angles, and editing.
- Give the antagonist abilities and functions that are contrary to what we know and understand.
- Make the antagonist invulnerable to our weapons, but not invincible.
- Have the threat stalk your main characters during their most intimate and vulnerable moments.
- Allow the pacing to give your audience a sense of normalcy and put them in an environment that they would be familiar or comfortable with. Then, turn it upside down.
Space is filled with many unknowns and one of the most frightening is the potential for alien life and its interaction with us. This is why Alien works so well.
Do you have a favorite horror moment? Let us know in the comments below. Maybe you have seen something we can all learn from.
Happy alien hunting!
Jason