Cinematography 4/5
I like that they went the extra mile for that Alien '79 look. Smoking up the set worked well (except the opening wide shot of the interior - someone forgot to give the smoke machine a quick squirt). I also like the true anamorphic instead of a simple crop to get the widescreen aspect ratio. The oval bokeh added that extra touch, although the picture is missing the blue horizontal lens flares that are characteristic of anamorphic. There are lots of plug-ins readily available to add flares in post, a shame they didn't have one.
Acting 5/5
Excellent performances all round., especially the actress playing Albrecht. She had the best opportunities to play some different sides to her character (nervousness and shame, defensiveness, a touch of pride, fascination with the creature), and she made some good choices there.
Production Design 4/5
Wardrobe; excellent. Set design was generally good, but I thought the bulkhead cross sections weren't industrial-looking enough. Also, too many blank spaces on the walls; set dressing needed to really pack them with industrial clutter to create lots of deeply shadowed crevices for that creepy, what's-hiding-in-the-dark effect.
Direction 2/5
The bit where Ward climbs on to the seats and steps across the patient to avoid the chestburster running around the floor was silly. She's already spent so long sitting on the floor, it would have made more sense to take 3 quick steps to the airlock door. My guess is that the script explicitly describes her climbing across the seats, but tunnel-vision on the part of the director meant he was unable to see for himself, once on set, that it wouldn't play very well. The same with the contrived action of having Albrecht fall against the door control, accidentally opening it and falling outside. A lacklustre idea, clumsily portrayed, and confusingly shot. I had to watch it again to figure out what happened.
Screenplay 2/5
It's hard to take the audience on much of a journey in 9 minutes, so you're never going to get that epic feel you experience from the movies. 9 minutes is, in essence, a one act play. That being said, the exposition of the opening distruction scene is brilliant, very efficiently establishing the premise and setting in the minimum amount of time, and without elaborate and detailed visual effects.
I suspect that the logline that would have sold the story probably emphasised the mystery of: Who amongst the survivors is a carrier? (Albrecht voices this question outright). But no sooner is this raised than it is immediately answered, dispelling the promise of any tension.
Overall 3/5
Most fan films that you see on the internet are basically recreations of the filmmaker's favourite scene from the movies. This short suffers from a bit of that.
Entertaining but uninspired.
TC
