In 1986, seven years after the release of Alien, the sequel, often lauded as one of the best sequels of all time, Aliens released into theaters to critical and commercial success.

20th Century Films

In 1999 with the release of a boxed DVD set featuring the franchise’s films, a director’s cut of the movie was included, a version that many fans find superior to the theatrical release. I am not one of them.

According to director Cameron, on the audio commentary for one of the releases, the film was coming in long and as non-linear editing had not yet been widely adopted and the production was running out of time, performing numerous small edits here and there throughout the film to shorten it proved to be insufficient to the task. Producer, and then spouse to Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd noted that the entire reel containing all of the colony material prior to Ripley and the Marine’s arrival could get dropped without impacting the plot. A simple, fast fix that allowed the production to meet that rapidly approaching deadline. When given the chance to re-edit the film with digital editing tools for the box set, Cameron restored the reel and several other scenes that had been excised from the theatrical release.

In my opinion, the longer, less focused, run time damages what was a nearly perfect film in two major ways.

The first is in perspective. With the time spent on the colony meeting a few of the colonist, Newt prior to her horrific experiences, and such dilutes the powerful telling of Ripley’s story. This story is about Ellen Ripley, her post-traumatic stress dealing with the terrors she encountered and the guilt of her survivorship. She is the character the audience invests their emotional capital with, and it is her pain and suffering that makes us tense hoping and praying for a happy ending. To take 10 or 15 minutes away from Ripley for characters we scarcely know and are not at all emotionally invested in their stories. This dilutes the film’s power. Aside from Newt, how many colonists can you name from the director’s cut?

The second issue I will admit is more pedantic, but it is one that bothers more and more when I watch the film.

Each alien drone/warrior comes from a single impregnated victim, and it’s stated that the colony on LV-426, — and don’t get me started on the colony name — had a population of 158 person. 158, that’s  a small movie theater’s worth of people. I have never counted but it looks to me, particularly in the Director’s cut that there are a lot more than 158 aliens that attack the characters in the siege. A favorite sequence for many in the extended version is the automatic guns, set up to guard the tunnels leading into the base where our heroes have barricaded themselves. The guns firing automatically cut down waves of alien drones. Even after all that there remain scores that make the final assault and even still more in the nest to threaten Ripley and Newt’s escape.

Especially in the director’s cut there are simply far too many aliens something that chips and erodes away my ability to suspend disbelief for the movie.

Your opinion may be different and that’s part of the beauty of art, but to me the theatrical is the best version of Aliens.

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Omega Project

Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) a widower of about ten years and a workaholic with the help of a film producer friend sets up a series of auditions for a non-existent production in hopes of finding the right young woman to become his wife. From the moment Asami’s (Eihi Shiiina) headshot and CV cross his desk Shigeharu is fascinated and soon obsessed with the mysterious young woman, ignoring the communist parade of red flags surrounding Asami. Soon enough Shigeharu discovers the depths of Asami’s unbalanced mind the hatred she harbors for deceitful, manipulating men.

Audition came to my attention due to a YouTube video about frightening moments in film and I have to agree the scene where what appears to be a large laundry bag moves if startling and unsettling. While this film has a generally good score in its reviews and overall, I did enjoy it I think it runs a little long in duration. The second act, the middle of the film, feels a little aimless slows down just a tad too much for my tastes. It many ways the feels much like many Frankensteinadaptations first acts. We know what is coming and the delay in getting that building very little in tension of suspense. At an hour and fifty-five minutes I think Audition might benefits for just being 10 to 15 minutes shorter.

That said, if foreign film works for you and if subtitling doesn’t interfere with your suspension of disbelief than Audition is worth a watch.

Audition is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and Shudder.

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The trope of the ‘final girl’ is one born of the slasher films of the 70s and 80s. The term was coined by Carol Clover in her essay analyzing the gender dynamics of those films. Today the term is pretty much used for any surviving woman or girl of a horror movie that manages to escape or defeat the killers or monsters of the story. The zenith of the concept in a meta-story manner is the ritual sacrifices as presented in the film The Cabin in the Woods which suggests that only when the morally superior, that is virgin, woman is last to die or survive is the ritual, that is the slasher formula, properly solved. A recent film though has me pondering the mutable nature of the trope and just who justly qualifies as a final girl.

The rest of the post/essay will contain spoilers for the film Companion up to and including its ending and its major reveals and reversals. Proceed only if spoilers for Companion are of no consequence for you.

SPOILER WARNING ENGAGED

Iris in Companion is the ’emotional support’ android companion for Josh. That is, she is his sex bot and sex toy, fulfilling a role for which he could find no actual human being. On a trip to a millionaire’s secluded cabin, the wealthy host, Sergey, attempts to sexually assault Iris and she kills him in self-defense. Key to understanding this event and how it unfolded is that the character of Iris in utterly unaware that she is in fact a piece of technology. Like Rachel in Blade Runner, she possesses artificial memories giving her the illusion of being a human being. Her defense against her would be rapist is the for all purposes the same as any woman in that horrid situation. Learning of her ‘true’ nature spins iris into a crisis of self-doubt that is only made worse by the further revelation that the murder has been a planned event. Josh, having modifiers her operating parameters and releasing safety measures, plotted with Sergey’s mistress for his death. Iris escapes and seizing control of the app that regualtes her psychological nature first tries to escape but when that fails defends herself, killing all of those who plotted and tries to end her individual existence. In the end Iris ‘survives’ and escapes to live a life unconstrained by preprogrammed boundaries.

So, is Iris a ‘final girl’?

While the human characters are vile, greedy, and without moral standing, it is Iris who is the ‘slasher’ in this story. She is the force that one-by-one dispatches the humans, ending their lives. While it is not uncommon to give the slasher an understandable if exaggerated motivation rarely is it so sympathetic or empathetic as Iris’ in Companion. The emotional release as she drives away in Sergey’s classic Ford Mustang is as great as Laurie Strode’s in Halloween or Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Iris, though the killer in the film, certainly feels like a final girl. So far as I am concerned, she is one.