The Sci-Fi movie Alien is today considered one of the absolute classics of the genre and is celebrated by fans. However, during the premiere, one scene in particular shocked cinema-goers so much that some fled the theater.
The classic Alien – The Strange Creature from Another World, directed by Ridley Scott, was released in 1979 and mixed sci-fi with dark horror elements.
The brutal moments of the film even led to people fleeing the cinema during the premiere, as the editor of Alien recounted.
Here you can see a trailer for the well-known sci-fi classic:
“People are feeling sick, it’s a disaster”
In the documentary The Beast Within: The Making Of Alien , the project editor, Terry Rawlings, spoke about the premiere of Alien. He also described how shocked the audience was by the sci-fi film.
He raved: “We arrived at this cinema run by these guys – you could have eaten off their floor. The cinema was fantastic. The sound was great. It was the most incredible premiere I have ever been to. I mean, people were screaming and running out of the cinema.“ (via Fandomwire)
In particular, a famous scene is said to have really affected the audience: the moment when an alien bursts out of a crew member’s chest while they writhe in pain.
While the management expressed concern about the audience’s reactions, the creators were pleased that the film generated exactly the feeling they wanted:
“We had the management there saying: ‘This is horrible. People are feeling sick, it’s a disaster.’ We thought: ‘That’s great.’“
Ridley Scott was quite offended that someone else should direct the sequel to his sci-fi classic. You can read more about it from our Filmstarts colleagues: “I was furious”: This is why Ridley Scott had a problem with James Cameron directing “Alien 2”
That the reactions to the brutal scenes in the film were so intense may be mainly because the audience at the end of the 70s was not yet accustomed to this level of blood and gore in mainstream blockbusters, as we see every day in movies and series today.
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