Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien) directs this lavishly mounted fantasy film that’s high on style but low on action. The sets are jaw-dropping, whether it’s the huge, scintillating fairy forest or the fiery underground dungeons of hell. Makeup artist Rob Bottin (The Howling, The Thing) showcases some spectacular Oscar-nominated work. Just look at Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show‘s Dr. Frank-N-Furter) as Darkness, in his head-to-toe prosthetic makeup, red skin, cloven hooves, and immense black horns. It’s one of the most breathtaking achievements in the history of movie makeup.
This movie does two things extraordinarily well. It transports me and it terrifies me. Before anything scary even happens, director John Carpenter succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that locks me into the film and chills me to the bone. The story features a group of men holed up in an Antarctic research station who discover an alien (the outer space kind) buried in the ice. They carve the creature out of its entombment and bring it back for study, and that’s when all hell breaks loose. While it certainly services those who just want an amazing creature feature, it also operates as a nail-biting mystery. Since the alien can take any shape or form, the characters never know who to trust. They begin suspecting each other and the horror, which had already been pushing in on them from the outside, is suddenly among them. That’s when things get really good.
