Alien was supposedly originally pitched to studios as Jaws in Space and to be fair the similarity is certainly evident. Exchange the vast ocean for the Nostromo, Brody for Ripley and the giant man-eating shark for an equally large alien hell bent on destroying all organic life and you will see the two films are far more similar than you might think. Indeed both Jaws and Ridley Scotts film both operate on tension rather than horrifying action. More often than not Alien will terrify us with some slight movement in the shadows rather than something more apparent. This was the fundamental issue with James Camerons sequel released seven years later, Aliens. Where Scotts offering had spent the best part of an hour establishing a suitably tense atmosphere in which the ONE alien on the Nostromo could wreak havoc, the crew of Camerons film were able to slaughter them by the spaceship-load.
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
