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Asghar Farhadi’s New Film Tackles 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks
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‘Batman Forever: Schumacher Cut’ to Screen on May 29 in L.A.
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Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

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A Test-Screening Audience Reacting to the Chest Bursting Scene in ‘Alien’

March 3, 2023 Jordan Ruimy

Do I even need to describe the iconic scene in question? The chest-busting moment in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” is easily one of the most shocking scenes in movie history.

We all know how the scene goes down. Kane (John Hurt), a crew member of the commercial spaceship “Nostromo,” has a nasty alien latching onto his face and impregnating the poor guy with a murderous parasite. Eventually, the facehugger detaches itself, and Kane shows up in the the dining room. Everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves…and then something horrible rips out of Kane’s chest.

Above is an image from an “Alien” test-screening which occurred in early 1979. Everyone looks freaked out and then there’s that guy in the back who is enjoying it a little too much, he’s probably uttering to himself “that’s awesome.”

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Dahmer on the right there isn't remotely fazed. He’s been to the darkness and back, you can just tell. Or he just saw much worse shit in ‘Nam.

About that iconic scene, no one on the set knew it was going to happen except Ridley Scott and actor John Hurt. So the actors’ on-screen reactions were very real. The panic was genuine. They knew something was going to happen, but not that specifically. They actually thought Hurt’s character was a heart attack.

Stanley Kubrick wanted to know the secrets of the practical effects. “I remember Stanley Kubrick called me up saying, ‘How’d you do that?’” Scott told LA Times in an interview. “He said, ‘I’ve run it through slowly, I can’t see the cut.’”

Scott talked Kubrick through the details, “[Kubrick] said, ‘OK, I got it. I got it, it worked.’”

← Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest’ Almost Ready? I’m Skeptical.Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘AND’ is Three Short Stories With the Same Actors Playing Different Roles in Each →

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