October 31, 2013 13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2013: Night #13 Alien (1979)
In space, no one can hear you scream. Iconic words for an iconic movie. It isn't the first horror in space movie, but it is the first that comes to mind, and with good reason. If you've never seen it, let me give you the spoiler free description. A mining ship out a vast distance away from Earth answers a distress call from the surface of a planet. They find an alien ship and run afoul of a creature in the ship's hold. You'll just have to see for yourself what terror awaits as the crew struggles to survive. This is one of the classics, and its obvious why there are so many sequels, as well as the prequel from Night#2.
Ridley Scott directed Alien, and then went on to direct Blade Runner (1982) (movie), Legend (1985) (movie), Hannibal (2001) (movie), and of course Prometheus (2012) (movie). The Alien script was written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. Dan wrote some part of Dead & Buried (1981) (movie), but how much is hard to ascertain, as he also did with Total Recall (1990) (movie). However, Dan is the principal writer, and the director of The Return of the Living Dead (1985) (movie). Meanwhile Ronald Shusett worked with O'Bannon on writing Dead & Buried and is credited for it. Ronald and was also a writer for Total Recall as well. For cast I have to mention that Tom Skerritt starred in Poltergeist III (1988). We also have Sigourney Weaver who is in all of the Alien sequels, as well as I'll mention Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), The Village (2004), and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) out of her long list of film credits. Since it came up before, Ian Holm was also in Time Bandits (1981), and of course in Night #5's Frankenstein (1994). Last but not least I want you to know that Yaphet Kotto was in The Running Man (1987) (movie), and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) (movie).
Happy Hallowe'en everyone! Stay safe and have fun!
by Danny Elfman. 
