Aliens

1. I don’t ever watch horror movies but I know they build up suspense and tension to create an anxiety feeling for the audience. Horror boosts people’s adrenaline and leaves them at the edge of their seats. They bring out certain emotions that other genres could never achieve. Lots of horror villains come from some sort of folklore such as Zombies, Witches, Aliens, and so on. Tropes are common as well such as the ‘dumb blonde’, the ‘mean jocks with football jackets’, they could also have tropes like a ‘Heroic Sacrifice’, or someone dying in someone else’s arms. Horror movies can be considered ‘scary’ or ‘mind bending because humans as a species are usually afraid of the unknown. Horror usually has very disturbing visuals and sound effects but can also show very beautiful and peaceful visuals. The peaceful scenes give the disturbing scenes a stronger impact because one moment it’s quiet and safe until everything goes to hell. These are the very few things I know about Horror because it’s the last genre I want to watch.

2. In the film Aliens a random/shake shot is used to create a hectic look to show what the characters see and provides a sense of franticness. When there are moments of suspense the scene is quiet/still and the characters are as well, to try to hear any unidentifiable noises or see anything moving, their movements are slow and calm to build the initial “jump” of the moment when the scene pace speeds up again. Once something does appear, such as an alien, there is a loud sound effect to try and scare the viewers. The movie is very visually dark and doesn’t really have any bright colours, this determines the mood of the scenes that it’s a very serious situation and the characters are in a state of focus and determination to (at first) get off the planet where the unknown species are and late, wanting to kill the aliens.

3. Horror movies in general have many pivotal points to continuously keep the story moving and to keep the audience guessing. Aliens specifically is full of pivotal points, here are just a few examples: Ripley (protagonist) was severely traumatized form past events (Alien) and she recognizes that she just has to confront her fears and go with the team to try and save the families on a different planet from the aliens and the face-huggers. A big turning point of the movie is when none of the marines knew what they were walking into while entering the colony ship; they then realize what they were up against and after losing some team members they all started listening to Ripley after laughing at her before the mission. Another example is Ripley realized Burke (The guy who asked her to come on the mission) was bad news because when she placed her weapon on the bed and laid next to Noot under the bed, when they woke up, Burke had taken her gun and placed it outside the room and locked the doors on them while releasing 2 face-huggers inside. There obviously are multiple pivotal points but these stuck out the most to me and the ones I wanted to include.