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ALIEN is a horror/science fiction film coming off the back of space films such as 2001 a space odyssey and planet of the apes.

The thing for me that is most striking about ALIEN is the feeling of both claustrophobia and normality.
The film begins with the inhabitants coming out of a routine deep sleep because the of the huge journey times.
The characters talk to each other about mundane topics such as the food or who does which jobs.

There isn't any gloss or romance which preceded it in other space films, in ALIEN things are allowed to be dirty the paint probably peels and the characters probably fart.
The only exception to this real world cosy atmosphere is a male character (ash) that is described as a synthetic. He comes across as chilling and creepy. I think this is because he doesn't participate fully with the family of people on the ship he always appears preoccupied with other things and he doesn't divulge everything he knows.
So in this warm friendly everyday atmosphere there is injected an element of the crew's nave trust being used against them whilst they work and sleep.

The alien itself in my opinion represents a dark intruder, he emerges from the shadows all the time, he is unseen most of the time. There are many elements to this intrusion the alien itself was designed by a surrealist artist H.R.Giger. from what I have observed of his work he uses death and darkness a lot. I believe he also did this in ALIEN.
The crew land on the alien home world and begin to explore its terrain.
Whilst exploring they find signs of alien architecture. Caverns and cliff faces are constructed meticulously with what appears like bones or fossils. To the astronauts this is exciting yet as a viewer it appears like death is everywhere.
The ALIEN at times appears phallic like he impregnates his victims and he has a phallic extra mouth that he taunts his victims with. I believe this is all intended to mimic a kind of sexual intrusion. This is of course one of the things that is considered truly horrific to us as people in the real world.
So the people are on a space vessel, are effectively imprisoned because there are millions/billions of miles from earth and they are under the threat of this horrific beast which is truly otherworldly and frightening. One the most terrifying moments of the film is when the alien in question is born. The director draws on the fears of child birth to present the alien. Over noodles the crew witness an infected crew member killed by the alien bursting

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