Characters are an extremely important ingredient for horror writing. The audience needs to like someone if they’re supposed to care about their potentially grizzly death. Otherwise, they’re the cinematic equivalent of an upsetting news headline.
With Halloween just a few weeks away, I figured it was time to get into the seasonal spirit. And what better way to do that than to celebrate a few of the icons of horror cinema. Not the monsters; that’s a celebration for another year. This time, I wanted to focus on our leading victims heroes.
Starting with one of my personal favorites: Ellen Ripley of the Alien series!
In Alien, Ripley takes the role of warrant officer on the Nostromo. When the titular monster begins its killing spree, she is among the crew members to keep a level head and begin strategizing. Essentially, she’s the glue that keeps them all together. All the while, she unwittingly unravels the conspiracy of their mission.
As the film goes on and more and more of the crew gets slaughtered, her calm disposition gradually slips away. By the time she’s the last woman standing, she’s in a full-on panic. Despite this, she never loses her most important weapon for survival: her wits. Terrified as she is, she still manages to outsmart the xenomorph, eject it into space, and save herself.
And the cherry on top: she saved the cat. Heroine of the century!
In Aliens, we learn more about the life she had before the Nostromo disaster. Turns out, she was a mother. Second reveal: she’s been in cryostasis for nearly sixty years and her daughter is dead. Which is rather unfortunate.
It also sets the groundwork for her character in this movie. No longer is she a lone survivor desperately trying to escape certain death. Now she’s a mourning mother sheltering a lone child from an even more dangerous and certain death. Gone are the days she runs away from xenomorphs. Now she steps into heavy duty robots and whoops their asses with iconic one-liners!
As for Alien 3… yeah, I’m not touchin’ that one. Nor will I touch Alien: Resurrection, wherein she becomes part xenomorph. Let’s just pretend those movies don’t exist.
Though to be fair, we wouldn’t have Metroid Fusion without Resurrection, so… I’m going off on a tangent, I’m sorry.
A large part of what makes Ripley so iconic is her actress: living legend Sigourney Weaver. She perfectly manages to capture the calm confidence Ripley carries scene to scene. It makes it all the more engaging and powerful when fear slowly but surely starts to take effect on her. Walking that line is difficult for any actor, and Sigourney Weaver toed that line perfectly.
Ripley is a phenomenal character. Badass yet relatable, confident yet still afraid, she’s the perfect lead for a horror series. It’s no wonder the series has struggled to find its footing without her.
Which is probably for the best, if we’re being honest. We as a society need to normalize letting pop culture IPs fade away.
On a completely unrelated note, we’re talking about Halloween next week!
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