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Swiss Public Television reports that the surrealist painter and Science Fiction Hall of Fame honoree H.R. Giger, creator of the Alien design used in Ridley Scott's 1980 movie as well as numerous other works of art and design, has died at the age of 74 due to injuries sustained in a fall.
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HELP! Man trapped in a human body!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Covalent on Tuesday May 13 2014, @01:31PM
Giger had an amazing ability to tap into the deepest, most primitive centers of disgust in our brains and exploit them to amazing effect. Something about the wet, oily, almost palpable SMELL of his work just gives me the willies.
In my opinion, what made Alien so good (and the sequels so mediocre) was the cockroach-like "I almost just saw it" way the Alien was filmed. You hardly ever get a good look at the thing, but the glimpses you see turn your stomach.
A huge loss. You will be missed, sir. By all but the queasiest among us.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tibman on Tuesday May 13 2014, @01:47PM
I really enjoyed Aliens, the sequel. Their ability to camouflage and hide within their own environment was extra creepy. The smoke/steam made it impossible to tell the difference between a wall and one of those critters. Add confusion and screaming on top of that, yikes.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Covalent on Tuesday May 13 2014, @02:46PM
I'll give you Aliens. The subsequent movies were awful, though (imho).
I do laugh at the gratuitous panties scene in the original, though. I understand why they did it, but looking back it's so preposterous for her to be wearing those after what has just transpired that I can't help but laugh.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 1) by Lazarus on Tuesday May 13 2014, @02:58PM
The later movies got weirder, but on re-watching recently I found things to like in all of them.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday May 13 2014, @10:29PM
I personally thought Aliens was scarier than the first, because the first had a "spook house" feel to it. There is the "campers" in the crew and the "woogie boogie" in the monster, the latter hunts the former and picks 'em off one by one in a standard slasher style. With the second one you have a platoon of bad ass armed to the teeth marines...who get their asses handed to them within 10 minutes of engaging and after that its strictly kill or be killed survival. That scene where the marines are counting down the sentry guns ammo counters, knowing that when its gone they are gonna have to fight them? That was tense as hell.
Full disclosure...I liked Alien III and thought it made a good capstone to the previous movies. Sure the special effects aren't as good but you can't blame the director for wanting to catch the inhuman way the xenos moved and the only way to really do that would be CGI, and I thought the cast was good and the plot logical, unlike the layers of stupid that was Alien 4.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 1) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday May 13 2014, @04:08PM
Aliens was probably the best action-horror film to ever come out. My second to that would be Predator.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Tuesday May 13 2014, @07:11PM
...what made Alien so good (and the sequels so mediocre) was the cockroach-like "I almost just saw it" way the Alien was filmed. You hardly ever get a good look at the thing, but the glimpses you see turn your stomach.
Off-topic, but I still wanted to comment on that sentence. That is exactly what made the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre so amazing. They show you no gore, but what they suggest is happening is nothing short of mind boggling horror. They keep everything just slightly off screen and let your mind, the best artistic tool of all, left to paint the scenes that you just KNOW are unfolding. I cannot think of very many films that pull this stunt off, but the effect when done right is seemingly better than the real thing.