Wow. Tobias, you have outdone yourself. This is truly a sublime review and historical treatment of the movie. How do you know all this stuff? HDS is dead. Long live HDS. x
Thank you so much, Whitney, that's very kind. The fact that its one of my favourite movies means I have watched a lot of making-of documentaries and read a lot of oral histories down the years. Indeed, I am writing this wearing my replica cap that's a copy of the one HDS wears in the film ;)
This is a fantastic essay! My daughter and I have a shared love of horror and we’ve recently been talking about watching the original Alien after seeing Alien: Romulus (flaccid and derivative. Surely this is the worst in the series?) I’ve just bumped it up the list.
I think horror from the 70s and 80s holds up remarkably well actually, probably because of the limitations you discuss. Alien is a masterful example of suspense and edge of the seat horror. The claustrophobia of Tom Skerritt crawling through the vents has always stuck with me. It doesn’t matter that the story is pulp fiction, it is beautifully executed.
For another look at the casting of this film, this essay from Cole Haddon is very good.
Oh no! I somehow missed this comment first time round. I think you're right about older horror movies. It feels like there was a perfect moment where effects technology got good enough to do terrifying things, but everyone still had the character driven approach of older movies that weren't so effects reliant.
And that Cole Haddon essay is great! That's definite subscribe, thank you very much
Wow. Tobias, you have outdone yourself. This is truly a sublime review and historical treatment of the movie. How do you know all this stuff? HDS is dead. Long live HDS. x
Thank you so much, Whitney, that's very kind. The fact that its one of my favourite movies means I have watched a lot of making-of documentaries and read a lot of oral histories down the years. Indeed, I am writing this wearing my replica cap that's a copy of the one HDS wears in the film ;)
This is a fantastic essay! My daughter and I have a shared love of horror and we’ve recently been talking about watching the original Alien after seeing Alien: Romulus (flaccid and derivative. Surely this is the worst in the series?) I’ve just bumped it up the list.
I think horror from the 70s and 80s holds up remarkably well actually, probably because of the limitations you discuss. Alien is a masterful example of suspense and edge of the seat horror. The claustrophobia of Tom Skerritt crawling through the vents has always stuck with me. It doesn’t matter that the story is pulp fiction, it is beautifully executed.
For another look at the casting of this film, this essay from Cole Haddon is very good.
https://open.substack.com/pub/colehaddon/p/a-tale-of-two-unexpected-heroes-night?r=1pwf0t&utm_medium=ios
Oh no! I somehow missed this comment first time round. I think you're right about older horror movies. It feels like there was a perfect moment where effects technology got good enough to do terrifying things, but everyone still had the character driven approach of older movies that weren't so effects reliant.
And that Cole Haddon essay is great! That's definite subscribe, thank you very much