The Hot Spot Rating
Sssssss (1973)
Cast: Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict, Heather Menzies
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Nutshell: obsessed mad doctor yearns to create a disease-free man of the future using his expertise with snake venom.
“One helluva rollercoaster ride” says Time Out who included Aliens – Director’s Cut in their Top 100 films.
“riviting, suspense sequel… all time classic – brilliantly concieved” Creature Features
“intense, exciting sequel – once it gets going there’s just no let up” Maltin’s
“stunning sequel is pure action excitement” Blockbuster Video
“one of the finest sequels in cinema’s history – one of the 80’s true classics” 80’s Horror
“unrelenting suspense…thoroughly frightening” Virgin
Cameron’s follow up to Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi horror does what few sequels are able to – it actually improves on the original. Ripley has survived 57 years of deep sleep, only to find herself being sent back to the original Alien Planet where a community of colonists has mysteriously disappeared.
Being the only living survivor to have survived an encounter with the Alien species, Ripley heads a team of high-tech marines sent out to investigate the disappearance. What follows is a full scale war between the Aliens and Ripley’s group of marines. The film in fact builds up slowly with the aliens not making an appearance until well into the first hour of the film.
The accent in the first half of the film as in the original is more on creating a dark, menacing, alien atmosphere. But from this launch pad the film literally takes off. Once the action starts, Cameron maintains a frenetic pace with the tension being upped to an edge of the seat level.
It is also further credit to Cameron that he not only recreates but manages to update and improve on Scott’s wonderful creations – namely the alien creatures, the alien nest, the outer space landscape and the alien mothership. Much more so that the original, it was Cameron’s Aliens which made both Ripley and the Alien creatures into icons of the sci-fi world.
Sigourney Weaver provides the steely central performance in the role from which she was to become the ‘female Rambo’. Her character is well etched out and we see Ripley gradually recovering her confidence and the taking charge. There is also time for her to show her more sensitive, maternal side. Weaver is supported by her motley crew of marines led by Paxton and Biehn.
Occasionally the ‘marine talk’ is jarring but overall it fits nicely with the tempo of the film. Aliens is an exciting, action packed film with genuine scares, tense sequences and some excellently executed set pieces. One of the best sci-fi horror films made.
