Editorials
‘Alien’ is the Perfect Haunted House Movie
In 1983, comedian/actor Eddie Murphy released one of the greatest stand-up comedy specials ever in the form of Delirious. During that special, Murphy addressed the concept of families moving into a haunted house and he found himself wondering “Why don’t they just leave?”
It’s a good question and one that definitely deserves its fair share of attention. Using the examples he gives, which are The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist, the question has merit but is complicated by matters brought up within the film. In the former, all the money of the family is tied up in the house. Anyone who’s gone through financial difficulties knows just how stressful and seemingly impossible it is to get out of that situation. With the latter, the thought of leaving behind one of your own, no matter how terrifying and hopeless it might feel, is simply unthinkable.
Yes, I realize that I’m trying to dissect a joke, which takes all the fun out of everything. However, haunted house movies are a big part of the horror genre and finding one that really, truly scares you is a bit of a gem. And in the midst of rubble, debris, and flawed jewels lays Alien, Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece, which is, in my opinion, the perfect haunted house movie.
Set aboard the commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, the film follows seven people on their way back to Earth after a picking up over 20 million tons of mineral ore. No one in this crew is the best-of-the-best in their field. These are blue-collar workers who are doing their routine job and suddenly get caught in a situation that they aren’t really ready for and they’re certainly not the most willing of participants.
Right away Alien sets itself apart from many other haunted house films in that the “house” is a spacecraft they consider home during their missions. The “house” is already there from the beginning. The crew knows it, they feel comfortable in it, they are intimately aware of how it works and how to navigate it. This isn’t a situation where people are thrust into a new environment where they have no idea what is around each corner, such as House on Haunted Hill or The Amityville Horror. The Nostromo may be foreign to us but it’s not to the crew and their familiarity gives us, the viewers, a sense of security. It’s only after the Xenomorph bursts from Kane’s chest that this cold yet strangely secure environment became a labyrinthine maze of potential terror. This interloper radically shifted the dynamics of the crew and their “home”, forever tarnishing and damaging their relationship.
With most haunted house movies, leaving is a feasible option, no matter how troubling it might be. As mentioned before, in The Amityville Horror the Lutz’s could’ve left at any point. However, they’d be bankrupt and without any money. The upside is they’d have their lives. In Poltergeist, the Freeling’s could’ve taken off at any point if they were willing to leave behind Carol Anne. It’s a situation whereby there is a pro/con scenario and the film does its best to make sure the audience believes that the cons of just packing up and leaving far outweigh the pros.
In Alien, there isn’t even really a need for this discussion. There are three options that are made available to the crew:
1) They leave the ship. However, outside is space, which means they’ll die instantaneously. In a strange yet absolutely brilliant move, leaving is more dangerous than staying, no matter how you look at it.
2) The crew can all pile into the escape ship. However, they don’t have enough supplies for everyone to survive, so there’s no telling who will make it and who will die. Again, it’s not a viable option because there is no certainty.
3) They stay on board and fight the Xenomorph. This option carries the greatest reward and, oddly enough, the least amount of risk. In the other two options, death is a certainty. In this one, it’s a possibility.
Apart from being a “haunted house” movie where no one can leave, the Nostromo itself is a gorgeous example of a gothic establishment where atmosphere remains king. Let’s look at the following clip where Brett is trying to find Jones, Ripley’s cat.
This scene simply exudes the kind of atmosphere that feels eerie and eldritch. Chains dangle from the ceiling, clinking and swaying although they have no right to. After all, where is the wind in this room? Then there’s the constant dripping of water, which gives off that miserably cold aura that makes you want to wrap yourself in a blanket and drink hot cocoa. The walls are grimy, the lighting sparse, and everything is imbued in a darkness. It’s not just the absence of light I’m talking about here. It’s the overall aesthetic that would feel disheartening no matter how it was viewed. This is essentially a Hammer Horror set, just built for a spaceship and not a European castle.
Another moment that makes this film so wonderful is Ripley’s escape aboard the shuttle. While we believe she has found sanctuary, it is soon revealed that every part of the “house” is “haunted”. She thought she had vanquished her foe by detonating the Nostromo but instead she took the one remaining intact piece of her “home” and the Xenomorph possession was a part of it there as well. What is made throughout the entire movie to be the only viable option for safe escape has become a potential tomb in which Ripley will meet her demise if she does not fight with every ounce of her intelligence, courage, and resources.
In Alien, the haunted house genre faced all of its flaws and issues and they were each accounted for. The Xenomorph “ghost” that seemingly could appear anywhere at will made sense. The possibility of leaving was not a doable unless people were willing to sacrifice themselves and who wants to do that? The environment itself was unsettling and unsafe. Pretty much everything you could want out of a haunted house movie was brought forth for Alien and it presented them in the best ways possible.
Unless a damn good argument can be made otherwise, I’m saying Alien is the perfect haunted house movie.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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