The perfect trailer for the perfect horror film.
This coming May, Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he launched with Alien: Covenant, the first of three planned prequels that will lead directly into the events of the original Alien. Needless to say, we’ve got the 1979 classic on our mind at the moment, and so we wanted to take a minute to revisit what has to be considered one of the greatest horror movie trailers of all time.
Alien premiered in theaters on June 22nd, 1979, and it was escorted to the screen by a trailer that still to this day manages to impart fear. Running just under two-minutes long, the trailer was able to effectively sell audiences on the sci-fi/horror masterpiece without actually spoiling a single thing about the plot, which is something we can appreciate now more than ever.
What’s most interesting about the original Alien trailer is that it didn’t even feature any dialogue. Instead, the audio was completely removed from the snippets of the film included in it, replaced with eerie sounds that were both jarring and unsettling. It explained nothing, told you nothing, and barely even showed you anything; and yet, it ensured you HAD to buy a ticket.
The first 50-seconds play out like a teaser, with the camera swooping across an otherworldly landscape and then focusing on an egg. The egg splits open, emitting a strange glowing light, and the subsequent 60-seconds feature a smattering of random, disorganized fragments of the film that assault the senses. We see quick flashes of alien landscapes and creepy corridors, and it’s clear that the ill-fated humans have come face-to-face with *something* very inhuman. But back in the spring of 1979, we had no idea what. And the trailer retained those secrets masterfully.
What made it so great? It was a trailer, oddly enough, that showcased NONE of the film’s “trailer moments.” We can be pretty sure that if Alien was released today we’d be shown the Xenomorph, Chest Burster and Face Hugger long before buying a ticket. In 1979, we were instead shown a series of images of an orange tabby cat looking terrified. And goddamn was it effective.
The eerie trailer worked, as Alien pulled in over $80 million at the domestic box office during its original run, going on to launch a franchise that has proven to have incredible staying-power. And because audiences hadn’t already seen what was coming prior to entering the theater, you better believe they were terrified by the very first appearances of the franchise’s iconic monsters.
What you’re about to see is nothing short of a master class in trailer editing.
