The Alien Saga 2003 Horror Movie Review

The Alien Saga showcases a two hour documentary that aired on television many years back. The real kicker for the documentary is that it is narrated by John Hurt, and boy does that make this thing feel special. It covers ALL of the Alien movies in relative detail, although it seems the further down you go in the sequels the information becomes less and less. The Alien segment gives a good deal of production information, including details from Sigourney Weaver’s test footage (including some of the footage) and HR Giger’s work on the film. The Aliens segment shared its content between production and the overall reception and marketing aftermath. Alien 3 was somewhat a sour note in the series, and the documentary does touch on the troubles the film had (although not nearly as concise and (brutally) honest as the Alien 3 Anniversary Edition) as well as the technical breakthroughs. Alien Resurrection delved mostly into interviews with Sigourney on the theme of the movie along with various footage and some technical notes. All in all a satisfying documentary.


If you think The Alien Saga was all you got from this disk then prepare to be pleasantly surprised. You get a ton of the original Alien test footage with Sigourney Weaver including the controversial “release” scene (sorry folks… the version on this DVD is panned and scanned for family viewing… no partial nudity). Also included are a good number of tv promo featurettes that aired while these movies were released on theaters. Some are pretty informative and entertaining, but keep in mind these were fluff pieces to help sell tickets. There are at least one featurette per movie with Aliens having more than one. Not bad.


If you love the Alien franchise be sure to get this DVD to round out your collection.