“People were running from the cinema”: today it is a monument of science fiction, but the first audience hit it!

The year is 1979 and science fiction has been in vogue for two years after the release of Star Wars. But if many projects do not achieve this success, one of them will also be the beginning of a saga that has not yet said its last word. Signed by Ridley Scott, Alien, The Eighth Passenger will be, in fact, only the first in a long series of films made on the subject, but the most iconic, the most surprising – and above all, the one that made the public react.

The terrifying space camera promised its informed audience bloody transitions, and yet, if it warns you that “No one in space can hear you scream“: On earth it is a completely different reality. And there was crying, especially during one of the screenings of the film, as revealed in the documentary The Beast Within: The Making of Alien.

Indeed, in it, editor Terri Rowling said that one of the first screenings of the feature film was particularly busy:

“We went to this movie theater run by guys… you can eat off the floor. The cinema was fantastic. The sound was insane. It was the most incredible preview I have ever seen. Imagine: people were screaming and running from the cinema!“

Remember, this is 1979 and, finally, about the times Alien He didn’t hesitate to go far – the most visible moment was the birth of a xenomorph baby in John Hart’s womb. And the scene also caused a lot of intense physical reactions from certain viewers who just weren’t ready.

“We could hear the management saying, “It’s terrible! People are vomiting everywhere and are very tense.” And we said to ourselves: “That’s great.”Rowling said.

The scene is really hard to take, but it remains one of the most iconic films – and the genre as a whole, so much so that even Stanley Kubrick was amazed and asked a colleague how he filmed it without seeing the editing. . Ridley Scott Then he explained to her his technique: the moment was filmed with several cameras, because the “cheat” only worked once.

“After the tray was covered with blood, it could not be cleaned,He explained Ridley Scott to the Los Angeles Times. John Hart Therefore, he was forced to kneel down, leaving only his head through the hole made on the edge of the table and put his false body on the table.

“I saw a small creature out of sight of the actors. There were no digital effects at the time, so the creature actually came out of that torso.“And that’s what makes it all so realistic, and why some people run away, or others vomit altogether. Terror is guaranteed – and still is today!

Alien: The Eighth Passenger is still available on Disney+ – as you know, at your own risk…