Here Kitty Kitty

          My Saturday was thoroughly wasted playing Borderlands 2, then a few anticlimactic rounds of Up and Down the River and the post-it game with Laura, Lauren, Iris and Sean. We also watched Alien and Aliens, as if to prove just how good we are at doing nothing useful. We debated it for some time, but I stand by the argument that Alien is more thematically a horror film than a work of science fiction. How much do we know about the xenomorph, compared to any other scary-movie critter? Last-girl syndrome. People getting grabbed and dragged off screen. People splitting up like morons. Gruesome deaths. Dark corridors. Jump scares. A hidden threat within the good guys (both literally and figuratively, ho ho ho.) The science officers in both the first and second films are easily my favorite characters (Bishop: "Not bad, for a human.") I also appreciate Sigourney Weaver's almost entirely nonsexualized Ripley (if we can ignore the fanservice right at the end of the first film); her performance was a groundbreaker in terms of female heroes.