User blog comment:ShawnCognitionCP/Alien: The Horror God, and if You've Been Influenced/@comment-26030957-20150227052405

I am not a gamer. But as far as media, culture, horror and modern film go, I am in complete agreement with you, Shawn. I have often marveled over the lack of recognition this film has gotten.

Ridley Scott is a genius and the thematic tones, the ambiance, the gritty realism, that he set a benchmark for in this remarkable film are many. The space truckers: dirty, smoking cigarettes, cursing, a tough bunch; these aren’t the clean astronauts of Kubrick’s 2001. The gnarly special effects and gore, like you said, it set precedence.

I assume you are fan of Geiger, and as I’m sure you know, many of the original drawings Geiger made for the film Alien, were originally for the version of Dune that the great cult film maker Jaradowski was unfortunately never able to finish. As I’m sure you all know, Jaradowski made Holy Mountain, among other great art house films of the 1970s. Be sure to check out the excellent documentary Jaradowski’s Dune- yeah, it's on Netflix.

The entire AI concept. There it was, years before anything else. Artificial Intelligence. Androids among us. And we can’t tell who is real and who isn’t. Ever notice what Ash is trying to kill Ripley with? What he is literally shoving down her throat? It’s porno. Take a closer look.

And the ship’s computer is called Mother. This film is a piece of art.

The natural progression that the alien takes, so much like a parasitic wasp and other creatures found commonly in nature. The darkness and shadows and tension and mist and fog and narrow corridors, things we take for granted,

Looking forward to thinking a bit more about this and posting more tomorrow.

Great blog, Shawn.