Midnight Marquee 78

Includes a study of Alien and A History of the Horror Film Portmanteau Re: Aleien: Some of us find it hard to believe that 2011 marks the 32nd anniversary of Ridley Scotts landmark science-fiction picture Alien which 20th Century Fox released on May 25 1979 (exactly two years after the studio premièred George Lucass phenomenal Star Wars although its hard to imagine two more different s.f. movies). This article was originally presented as a paper at the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic (Boca Raton Florida March 26 1981).. Since that time there have been some major contributions to Alien studies including David Thomsons book-length study The Alien Quartet (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 1999)--not to mention the commentary that can be found on the various DVD issues of the Alien films. But none has ever looked at the movie the way that In Space No One Can Hear Your Primal Scream does. Thus for the first-time publication of the complete text of this article I have for the most part used as references those articles and interviews that came out shortly after the movie played theatrically as they have the advantage of freshness--of being critics and filmmakers initial thoughts before the sequels and many imitations got in the way