The main goal of every horror movie is to scare people, and the visual design in “Alien” brings chills to the viewers. The film’s visual style is a major part of its content and is central of the way the movie communicates with the audience. The mise-en-scene affects the human mind and explores the subconscious fears of the audience through a confined set, dark and gloomy atmosphere, and terrifying special effects. It all begins with the title design. The letters appear as white dismembered forms, working their way from the outside in. The space in between is “unsettling,” as the designer commented. It takes the viewer some time to figure out that those little bits will create letters. The wait creates suspense, and when the word is finally on the screen, the audience is already engulfed in heavy tension. The word and its display are used as a medium to convey the dark message of the film.
The movie begins with an empty spaceship with presence of people visible, but the people are absent. This creates a ghostly feeling and makes the viewer wonder where everybody is. The set of Nostromo was built as series of connected rooms, so the actors didn’t have exit to the outside world, which brought more realistic effect to their performance. The set dressing is industrial, with
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The main creature - the xenomorph - is absolutely terrifying. Although we hardly see the whole body, it is intentional so that our imagination can recreate the rest, and be even more horrified. The huge metallic-looking elongated head is scary because it doesn’t have eyes and the audience never knows if it’s watching. The always present saliva is a sign it’s constantly hungry and ready to kill. The worst feature is the alien’s mouth and that second head hiding inside, which resembles a tongue with teeth. It’s not just the appearance that freaks out, the inner mouth is also a weapon with the power to shatter