If you had to put Alien into ONE genre, what would you choose: Horror or Sci-Fi?

[aus101]

I've just been looking at the lists for sci fi movies going back to the 1980s and there was no falloff at all, every decade is stacked with popular sci fi movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_science_fiction_films

even if you take out all the action movies, horrors and comedies you still have a ridiculous amount of quality and/or popular sci fi's released every single year. No kidding, I've been reading through these lists since your last reply.

You’re right, ever since 2001 a space oddessy was the biggest money make of 68 Hollywood has been cranking out high budget sci fi. I’ve all the major future set “sci fi’s” on blu ray and there is nearly one from every year, from 1971’s a clockwork orange to 2017’s blade runner 2049.

 

[j123]

I'd say action before sci-fi. It's literally a slasher movie with a robot when you break it down though.

It is , T2 and onwards are more action, but the original was a horror film. Very horror-like formula. Powerless protagonists, and immortal baddie. Similar acrch type with Michael in Halloween and Anton Chigurh in No Country.

 

[Adamant]

Horror, no doubt.

 

[fallable]

Not much of a thought on this one, which may be bad but its horror.

The location and what the killer is is truly what inserts sci fi.

Thinking further, i thought of the effect of the movie. Horror is meant to scare, whereas sci fi doesnt intentionally. Which gives you nightmares? Horror and this movie could and does do that.

The way I look at it is like this. The Alien isn't out to terrorize people, it's just basically trying to carry out its life functions so it can successfully reproduce. It's like a tiger. Tigers can be very dangerous animals that have the capability of killing and devouring humans, but tigers aren't out to terrorize or horrify people, they are just trying to eat and survive. We mostly revere and appreciate tigers although they have the capability to scare us. But because we understand what a tiger is we understand it's just an animal trying to survive.

Alien is basically a predator like a tiger. It just so happens that it is unique from anything we humans are familiar with and that unfamiliarity is frightening to us. If in the movie the crew came upon a space tiger that was bigger and more vicious than Panthera Tigris, it's still just a bigger more fierce version of a tiger. At the end of the day I would classify Alien as Sci-fi because it essentially speaks to our place in the universe compared to other life forms that may exist out there and what form they might take rather than the horrors of the human mind or human condition and the deliberate infliction of those horrors on people.

To say Alien is a horror movie would be like saying Starship Troopers was a horror movie. It's just people fighting bugs.

It's been a long time since I've watched any of the movies so forgive me if I'm missing or forgetting something essential or obvious.

 

[moreorless87]

The way I look at it is like this. The Alien isn't out to terrorize people, it's just basically trying to carry out its life functions so it can successfully reproduce. It's like a tiger. Tigers can be very dangerous animals that have the capability of killing and devouring humans, but tigers aren't out to terrorize or horrify people, they are just trying to eat and survive. We mostly revere and appreciate tigers although they have the capability to scare us. But because we understand what a tiger is we understand it's just an animal trying to survive.

Alien is basically a predator like a tiger. It just so happens that it is unique from anything we humans are familiar with and that unfamiliarity is frightening to us. If in the movie the crew came upon a space tiger that was bigger and more vicious than Panthera Tigris, it's still just a bigger more fierce version of a tiger. At the end of the day I would classify Alien as Sci-fi because it essentially speaks to our place in the universe compared to other life forms that may exist out there and what form they might take rather than the horrors of the human mind or human condition and the deliberate infliction of those horrors on people.

To say Alien is a horror movie would be like saying Starship Troopers was a horror movie. It's just people fighting bugs.

It's been a long time since I've watched any of the movies so forgive me if I'm missing or forgetting something essential or obvious.

You could of course have a horror film made in which a tiger is the antagonist plus I would argue a lot of the Alien's design/life cycle is intented to play on human sexuality in order to make it more horrifying and arguably make a link to rape. On the other side as well you could argue the Alien also has a technological look to it like a lot of Gigers work reflecting the industrial design of the ship.

The film does actually echo what you highlight , when Ash is revealed he specifically states that the Alien is acting on instinct rather than on a human level. This side of the story being overlooked is I think why many find the film "boring" when ultimately setting up the crews careerism and Ash's nature takes up a sizeble amount of the film.

The science behind the Alien is I would say gone into a significant amount as well with Ash studying the face hunger.

 

[fallable]

You could of course have a horror film made in which a tiger is the antagonist plus I would argue a lot of the Alien's design/life cycle is intented to play on human sexuality in order to make it more horrifying and arguably make a link to rape. On the other side as well you could argue the Alien also has a technological look to it like a lot of Gigers work reflecting the industrial design of the ship.

The film does actually echo what you highlight , when Ash is revealed he specifically states that the Alien is acting on instinct rather than on a human level. This side of the story being overlooked is I think why many find the film "boring" when ultimately setting up the crews careerism and Ash's nature takes up a sizeble amount of the film.

The science behind the Alien is I would say gone into a significant amount as well with Ash studying the face hunger.

Well, there is "Ghost and the Darkness" with lions, "The Edge" with a bear, and a Korean movie called "The Tiger" that I haven't watched but saw a preview to recently. They are classified as action/drama, drama, and adventure/drama respectively. Is a movie where a tiger stalks, kills, and eats deer horror? Or does it only become horror when a tiger stalks, kills, and eats people? Because there are lots of documented cases of very prolific man eating Bengal tigers in India. These cases usually arise from an injured or aging tiger. People just happen to be easy to stalk and kill. And in India, there is no shortage of people. These aren't cases of horror or psychological torment, it's just nature. Wrong place wrong time, like a car crash.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is this. A movie where a person stalks and kills other people can very easily fall into the horror genre depending on how it's portrayed. People are self aware, animals are not. A portrayal of a tiger or the alien from the Alien movies killing people is different. They don't understand they are frightening people or causing torment. They are not self aware, they are just trying eat and/or reproduce. They are trying to fulfill life processes. Michael Meyers, Jason Vorhees, and Freddy Krueger are not trying to fulfill life processes, neither is Buffalo Bill, or the people that pay to kill and torture other humans in the Hostel movies.

Also, Alien doesn't know that humans might read into its reproductive cycle as reflecting some aspect of sexual rape anymore than a botfly or a tapeworm knows humans might link their intrusion into us metaphorically in some way. It's just how they live and reproduce. Although I admit some of those botfly larvae videos on YouTube are pretty horrific. But not in a psychologically tormenting or blood curdling way. In a "damn nature, you scary" kind of way.

But I do think you make one very important point. If there is a horror aspect to Alien, it lies in the plot detail in which "the company" has ordered Ash to return with the Alien and has deemed the crew expendable. The idea that certain people offered up other people to be sacrificed so that some creature could fulfill its life cycle through them, thus giving the other people access to specimens of that creature would definitely classify as physical and psychological horror and torment. And as you say, setting this up actually encompasses a lot of the movie. But at the end of the day Alien is no different than if a giant botfly was set loose on a spaceship. That's why I think it is Sci-fi, because it basically deals with "what else is out there, what form might it take, and how will we interact with it" as opposed to what does it mean to suffer, or be terrorized, or tormented.

 

[moreorless87]

Well, there is "Ghost and the Darkness" with lions, "The Edge" with a bear, and a Korean movie called "The Tiger" that I haven't watched but saw a preview to recently. They are classified as action/drama, drama, and adventure/drama respectively. Is a movie where a tiger stalks, kills, and eats deer horror? Or does it only become horror when a tiger stalks, kills, and eats people? Because there are lots of documented cases of very prolific man eating Bengal tigers in India. These cases usually arise from an injured or aging tiger. People just happen to be easy to stalk and kill. And in India, there is no shortage of people. These aren't cases of horror or psychological torment, it's just nature. Wrong place wrong time, like a car crash.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is this. A movie where a person stalks and kills other people can very easily fall into the horror genre depending on how it's portrayed. People are self aware, animals are not. A portrayal of a tiger or the alien from the Alien movies killing people is different. They don't understand they are frightening people or causing torment. They are not self aware, they are just trying eat and/or reproduce. They are trying to fulfill life processes. Michael Meyers, Jason Vorhees, and Freddy Krueger are not trying to fulfill life processes, neither is Buffalo Bill, or the people that pay to kill and torture other humans in the Hostel movies.

Also, Alien doesn't know that humans might read into its reproductive cycle as reflecting some aspect of sexual rape anymore than a botfly or a tapeworm knows humans might link their intrusion into us metaphorically in some way. It's just how they live and reproduce. Although I admit some of those botfly larvae videos on YouTube are pretty horrific. But not in a psychologically tormenting or blood curdling way. In a "damn nature, you scary" kind of way.

But I do think you make one very important point. If there is a horror aspect to Alien, it lies in the plot detail in which "the company" has ordered Ash to return with the Alien and has deemed the crew expendable. The idea that certain people offered up other people to be sacrificed so that some creature could fulfill its life cycle through them, thus giving the other people access to specimens of that creature would definitely classify as physical and psychological horror and torment. And as you say, setting this up actually encompasses a lot of the movie. But at the end of the day Alien is no different than if a giant botfly was set loose on a spaceship. That's why I think it is Sci-fi, because it basically deals with "what else is out there, what form might it take, and how will we interact with it" as opposed to what does it mean to suffer, or be terrorized, or tormented.

I think your making an incorrect argument that certain subject matter automatically puts a film into a certain genre. A film made from the perspective of a deer being hunted by a tiger could absolutely be done as a horror, its not the subject matter that desides this but how its depicted. The antagonist being self aware is not a prerequisite for horror if you ask me, many in the past haven't been such as say The Blob, the Triffids, etc

However in this case I would agree that the Alien not being self aware is actually an aspect of how this film is made that bends towards scifi. It obviously shifts the moral blame away from the Alien itself and towards the company and this aspect of the film is I think closer to sci fi as it tends to be treated in a less horror like fashion.

 

[HIMBOB]

Sci fi
It's not shitty thus can't be horror.

 

[moreorless87]

A recent similarly Kubrickian alternative you could ask the same question of is...

 

[Norman Khabib]

A recent similarly Kubrickian alternative you could ask the same question of is...

Sci Fi and I still don't understand the criticism of Johansson's body . . . the things I'd do to that if rape were legal

 

[moreorless87]

Sci Fi and I still don't understand the criticism of Johansson's body . . . the things I'd do to that if rape were legal

Cover her in petrol?

I spose it really comes down to the film being made from her/its perspective which would normally be the antagonist which means the earlier segments are not generally treated like horror(although the men being processed is) where as the latter stages were she/it is personally under threat are.

 

[Norman Khabib]

Cover her in petrol?

yup, petroleum jelly

 

[Adamant]

To say Alien is a horror movie would be like saying Starship Troopers was a horror movie. It's just people fighting bugs.

You're forgetting one very important thing...... Tone. Starship Troopers has the tone of an action movie. It's shot like an action movie. It has the score of an action movie. Alien has the tone of a horror movie. It's shot like a horror movie. Its score is that of a horror movie. It's merely set in sci fi. But at its core, it's horror.

 

[Iroh]

It doesn't matter to me and I have no real opinion on the matter , but I'd still like to see the poll result without influencing it.

 

[moreorless87]

You're forgetting one very important thing...... Tone. Starship Troopers has the tone of an action movie. It's shot like an action movie. It has the score of an action movie. Alien has the tone of a horror movie. It's shot like a horror movie. Its score is that of a horror movie. It's merely set in sci fi. But at its core, it's horror.

That's really what it comes down to I'd agree, not subject matter but how its represented.

I wouldn't say Alien comes across soley as a horror film though even if these aspects are certainly very strong, a lot of the scenes of the crew interaction are played much more as realistic drama than wer typically see in horror. Indeed I think that's probably along with prime Scott's eye for atmosphere the main thing that's been lacking in all the sequels, they've all been much more cartoonish dramatically.

 

[Organic Damage]

IF you had to pick one, horror. But it's as close to a 50/50 split as I think I can think of.

You could take the xenomorph as a cypher for the unknown or the evil lurking within humanity (to say nothing of the psychosexual overtones), and in that way the space setting is almost incidental to the core drama.

Compare with the Thing. That was set on Earth in the "present" with a similarly alien antagonist. Yet I would say that movie leans more to horror as well.

 

[Just Creed]

Horror movie which is set in space

 

[moreorless87]

Really when you look at it I would say the majority of the best horror and quite a high percentage of the best sci fi over the past 40 years has had a similar mix...

Alien, The Thing, Videodrome, Terminator, The Fly, Aliens, Predator, Scanners, Existenz, Pitch Black, 28 days Later, Sunshine, Moon, Under The Skin, Ex Machina, etc

It seems to be a kind of unspoken idea post Alien that if you want to make more ambitious horror you go the sci fi rather than the supernatural route, the only exceptions that comes to mind for me are The Shining which came out very soon afterwards plus then Angel Heart, Jacobs Ladder and the Sixth Sense. Obviously that was a change relative to the 70's prior to that which was mostly about more supernatural stuff like the Exorcist and the Omen which I spose highlights the influence of Alien.

 

[ObamaPhoneLady]

Jaws in Space.

And that settles it for me. That means it's a horror movie.

It's just a very very good, non traditional horror movie. Just like Jaws.

Jaws and Alien are my number 1 and 2 movies of all time respectively.

 

[moreorless87]

Somehow I read that as "Jews In Space"...