Alien Trailer Review

The trailer begins with a shot of what seems to be either stars or sparks
flying past the frame. This indicates to the audience the potential genre of
the film. In this case, Science Fiction is the case. The Alien trailer uses this
slow build-up of no sound with the first shot as it gradually builds up, and
with it so does the suspense of the trailer. The darkness of the shot can
perhaps symbolize the emptiness of space with the stars as the only
possible signs of something worth looking at.

This following shot in the trailer confirms it as a Science Fiction film. With
3 symbols forming a pattern above, the audience is clueless at this point
as to what they are forming. The barren landscape below combined with
the darkness of the sky suggests that it is some sort of planet. This planet
appears to be quite harsh and unforgiving with no brightness or life to it,
symbolic of what is to come in the film.

The patterns by this point have now formed to read Alien. This is the
audiences first look at the title of the film. The egg in the shot is lowly lit
to make it appear suspicious to the audience. Paired with the writing
above spelling Alien the audience is forced to conclude that the egg
houses an alien. The word alien is commonly associated with Science
Fiction and space, therefore reinforcing the trailers approach as that of a
sci-fi flick.

Combined with the slowly craning and tilting camera work, this next shot
seems almost a bit creepy. The egg opens as an intense white light shines
through, symbolic of life. With the previous word Alien at the top of the
screen, the audience now believes that the life force within the egg was
an alien, and is now hatching and therefore forming the plot complication
of the movie.

What is often the case with a trailer, the first person we see in a close up
shot tends to be the main character of the film. Obviously with knowledge
on the film, its the same case with this one. We see our female
protagonist running down a hallway as if away from something, creating a
sense of panic and mystery in the audience as to what it is thats chasing
her. With the previous shots of the egg in mind, the audience may now
believe that its the alien chasing her.

The following shot chases that same female character through the
hallway, to imply that there is in fact something chasing her from behind.
The darkened hallways with occasional light-beams up the suspense
through the unknown. By now, we as an audience, can tell that she is onboard some sort of spacecraft due to the dark lighting and metallic
surroundings. The shaky cam effect again adds a sense of panic to the
trailer.

This shot gives us a look at some of the other characters in the film.
Notice that we do not see their faces. This could be deliberate so that we
give more attention to the female character that we saw in the beginning
of the trailer in a close up. Not seeing these characters faces also gives
the audience a sense of mystery and caution and not to approach these
characters with high hopes of them being the obvious heroes. The space
suits they are wearing give the final nail on the coffin that we are in fact
viewing a trailer for a science fiction film.

This shot is very bright and quite bland compared to the other shots of the
trailer. Everything seems quite pristine in this shot with the white colour
scheme. However there is little contrast in the white with darker colours.
This gives the audience a sense of the future and caution. While
everything may seem clean and wonderful, it seems a bit too sterile when
compared with the other shots in the trailer.

With the shots lasting no more than 2 seconds by this point, this shot
seems unsettling for a few reasons. A) The shot lasts roughly half a
second. B) The cat is in extreme close-up when with a cat, it could be
unnerving due to the highlighted eyes. C) The low lighting in the
background of the shot with the lit up face of the cat lets the audience
know that it is watching a scene unfold. Much like the audience, the cat is
in disbelief or seems to be startled so the audience therefore cast their
own personality onto the cat.

By this point in the trailer, the audience know that something has gone
horribly wrong. The shaking crewmate may seem unsettling to some
people due to the violent motions he is enduring. The music has now
started including a screaming sound effect and the shots are getting
shorter and shorter. This acts as a crescendo to the trailer where the
horror truly starts to set in.

The cat as seen in a previous shot now seems to be in pain or at least

some discomfort. As the audience may have cast their personality onto
the cat, they may be reflecting these same emotions or feelings. The
trailer has grown to an uncomfortable part in the build up with the horrors
depicted and the music growing and this is the audiences involvement in
the trailer summed up.

This is the highest point in the trailer as we are given some insight to the
antagonist of the film being the alien. The shot shows something white
and not from this world attacking a crewmate in a violent and horrible
fashion. The audience now know that they were not just watching a trailer
a science fiction film, but also for a horror film. The soundtrack now
includes the actual human characters screams almost matching the other
metallic screeches.

This image could be seen as the most distressing shot in the trailer as we
see a human character in clear discomfort and pain. For the time (1979)
this trailer was a landmark in controversy and horror. The unadulterated
adventure of the trailer erupts in human characters clearly in peril and in
particular, this male character writhing around on a table. This distressing
image allows for the audience to fill in the gaps of what is doing it to him.

Its quite interesting that the first human face we see was the female
characters Ripley and it ends up being the last human face we see in the
trailer. This is due to the institution clearly wanting the audience to know
that she is the main character of the film, and that in this shot in
particular, she is in severe danger as shown by the violent camera
movements and the crescendo surrounding the shot.

The minute long crescendo of the trailer has now erupted into this:
nothing. The tagline of the movie can be read as In space no one can
hear you scream. This acts as a message to the audience of true
hopelessness as all that we have seen would have no real resolution as
the characters are doomed. The sound build up followed by silence allows
for the audience to catch their breath and be stunned by the tagline. The
tagline clearly relates to what we have just witnessed as no sound can
now be heard, but only what we can see. The planet seems to have a
beautiful touch to it as it slightly reflects the brightness of a star but yet
remains mostly in shadow. This imagery further deepens the mystery of
what we have just seen and also gives the audience a sense of solitude.