MINDLESS MUSINGS

***Spoiler Alert***

(Especially if that title means nothing to you)

When we picked it up from the video store it was “that movie where the monster busts out of the man’s chest”. There was a strange kind of grapevine for movie recommendations back then. Beside the movies you already knew about and the ones you saw in the previews that played at the beginning of every tape, there was the word of mouth in the school yard. Movies were often endorsed on the basis of one unforgettable scene.

Problem was that when that scene arrived, we already knew what was about to happen. Make no mistake, it was still shocking, and I never forgot it, but can you imagine what it must have been like to see it having absolutely no idea it was coming? On the big screen? Fucking awesome!

I’m sure there were lots of people who picked up that cassette box form the video store with no clue of how that monster reproduced and I do envy them. Those people who saw it when it was first released in the cinema and collectively witnessed the “chest burster” scene for the first time with no idea it was coming – Total freak out!

Except for that guy in the back-left during a test screening in 1979. Looks like we have a gore hound folks.

Now a bit of trivia: rumour has it that the actors in the scene had no idea of what was going to happen either. Seems the director thought it illicit a more genuine reaction from the actors. They do look proper shocked.

Of course this is only a half truth. The effects people would have had to working before and during the scene, so the actors would have suspected something coming. The script read “the monster appears”, it just didn’t explain how or from where.

Regardless of how much they figured out through John Hurt’s positioning and the FX people under the table (it is possible that this could have been set up in advance without the crew present I guess) I do not think they had any foreknowledge of what the monster would look like, nor were they warned of how much blood there would be and the shock of the actual bursting part.

Fucken awesome scene! Spoiled or not.