jerry goldsmith

Number 6 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : The crew of the spacecraft, Nostromo, intercepts a distress signal from a planet and set’s out to investigate : although Ridley Scott’s ALIEN is not the best film in the franchise (that in my opinion goes to it’s sequel Aliens) it’s certainly the scariest : filmed on a budget of approximately $12 million and released in 1979 the film was a big hit at the box office, launching Sigourney Weaver’s career whilst setting up a successful franchise : in crafting one of the scariest sci-fi horror movies of all time Ridley Scott turned to Swiss Artist H.R. Giger to assist with the film’s creature design, the Swiss ultimately helped create the face-hugger, chestburster, space jockey & more and was part of the special effects team that won the Oscar for visual design : Alien is full of atmosphere and the jumps come thick & fast, take the chestburster scene (one of the most iconic talked about scenes in movie history), WOW that scene, my god, I nearly jumped through the roof…. and those scenes with Dallas tracking down the Alien inside the belly of the ship, crawling through a labyrinth of air ducts armed with only with a flamethrower, you feel claustrophobic & you find yourself biting your nails as Dallas the hunter becomes the hunted (talk about tension)….. and how about when science officer Ash decides to go batshit crazy and attempts to suffocate one of the crew with a newspaper….. let’s be honest I could fill a telephone directory with so many memorable moments throughout the film that will not only scare you half to death with Scott’s injection of suspense & sheer cruelty but will also make your jaw drop in amazement with how visually beautiful the film looks, those magnificent sets in Alien are something to behold : and let’s not forget Jerry Goldsmith’s sensational score, it’s both creepy yet beautiful & Dan O’Bannon’s imaginative story without which we’d have no movie, his concept is sublime : overall Alien is an astonishing 2hrs of scifi horror that will make you want to scream….. but remember, In space no can hear you scream ★★★★★

Number 19 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : After switching his child at birth in an Italian Hospital, an American ambassador & his wife start to suspect that the child they are raising could actually be the Antichrist : From the nanny hanging herself in dramatic style at a child’s party, Father Brennan being impaled by a lightning rod from the church roof, the vicious attack by the rottweilers in the cemetery, Lee Remick’s window plunge to Warner’s decapitation THE OMEN has a darkness about it that scared the hell out of me growing up and still does today : I love horror and films that deal with the supernatural and the Devil and they don’t come much better than Richard Donnor’s The Omen, an eerie, slow building low budget chiller that spawned four sequels, a remake and won the great Jerry Goldsmith his first & only Oscar after 18 nominations for original score : my favorite scene in the movie is when Thorn played by Gregory Peck discovers the 666 on his son’s head and is then subsequently attacked by the nanny, the whole scene packs a punch from it’s suspense to the ferocious attack : if you’ve never seen The Omen the film comes highly recommended, it’s not only a creepy bone chilling movie experience but with a cast that includes Peck, Remick and Warner it would be crazy to ignore : SUPERB ★★★★★