Alien 2 scene analysis

Alien Scene Analysis


The Alien film is easily one of blockbusters most iconic Sci - Fi horror movies released to date, it was directed by Ridley Scott and became an instant hit, two of the most popular scenes was the infamous 'chest burster' scene and the 'Here Kitty' scene because they did so much with so little.

The 'Chest Burster' moment was intended to be a horror/thriller scene, it was scripted to show Kane (John Hurt's character) recovering from a surprise attack off of a facehugger while eating dinner with his fellow crew, its obvious they're eating dinner because the use of mise-en-scene, the camera angle used was a mid shot with the crew around a table, i saw the crew sitting around a table eating cereal, using cutlery and having joking banter. The acting in this scene was believable and realistic..(due to only some of the cast during filming actually knowing what was going to happen)..of Course the events were not, the scene shows Kane and the crew eating cereal, a few seconds into the scene Kane starts coughing and holding onto his chest, after a few more seconds the crew click on that the matter is severe and lie Kane down on the table, he rolls around on the table screaming until his chest bursts and an alien emerges, the crew look on devastated as the alien looks around, makes a snarl and then runs away, this scene was as i stated before created to be a horrific scene which was supposed to scare and thrill the audience, back in 1979 when the film was released the response the creators intended was delivered, but personally this scene didn't scare me, with the effects used and the technique shown (being outdated now day's) i found it more humorous then i did scary. The scene wasn't consisted of much editing,just cut shots, personally i think this was done to make the event look more serious and due to the Still shots followed by the hand held shots i believe the message was delivered, the rhythm of the scene was face paced which shown seriousness to the situation, there was much diegetic sounds in the scene with the crew talking to one another, the sounds of objects falling from the table, the chest bursting and the alien snarling then running away, Surprisingly the Lighting was high-key, this made me feel comfortable, like the worst was over and Kane had indeed recovered, but to my surprise he had not.

The 'Here Kitty' scene shown Brett (Harry Dean Stanton's character) looking for the ships cat while also looking for the alien, after looking for a few minutes Brett comes across shedded skin which at that moment in time didn't appear to be the aliens, using a hand held shot while walking curiously towards and threw the door added a sense of realism and made me more curious because you can't read the characters facial expression so i didn't know what was going to happen, when threw the doors the character Brett was in a long shot supported by low key lighting throughout this scene, the long shot made me believe he was supposedly alone until a mid cut shot of the Alien hanging from chains came into the frame, after wondering for a few seconds Brett saw and tried catching the cat, after failing to do so numerous of times there was a close up of the cat which was now cornered which i believe was used to show how close the cat now is and that it is in fact trapped, then a reverse shot was used from the cat to Brett showing the alien slowly creeping his way from the chains into the shot, the alien was out of focus which made me more curious and eager due to not seeing the alien fully grown until now, then reverse shot back to the cat to which hissed at the alien behind Brett, there was then a close up of the aliens head, at first i was impressed with the concept behind the alien due to the times the film was made technology wasn't that great so Ridley Scott had to use a guy in a costume, so this close up i marvelling at the look of the alien which i believe is the response the creators wanted to gain from the audience with this shot, then cut back to the cat recoiling away, to which Brett turned around to and saw the Alien, a close up shown of Bretts face showing fear. In my opinion i believe this scene certainly did create more of a thrill then the chestburster scene did, the low key lighting certainly added to the suspense and thrill through out the scene, it made the background seem more mysterious, the alien seem more horrific and added to the level of acting throughout, mise en scene wasn't used too well i don't believe in this scene, yes the costumes of both Brett and the alien was believable and the level of acting made the situation seem serious but there wasn't really many props used in this scene, i couldn't make out where Brett was, the only object i recall being used is a few boxes which the cat was hiding behind and what was behind the alien, but maybe I'm wrong, other people probably know where Brett was and saw more objects then i did but overall the scene did create a level of thrill, horror and anxiety, the scene involved diegetic sounds of Brett talking to the cat, the cat hissing, the sound of water falling and the sound of chains, there was only one non diegetic sound throughout this one scene and that was what i believe to be the over dramatised sound of Brett's heart, different to the chest burster scene which was fast paced this scene was slow paced which was done by the creators to add tension and weariness.