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Two new ho the strong n.. r\ .1 j n^.1. ?. oy utiviu Dtmur Entertainmant Editor Because of several toppled box-office records, every magazine from Variety to Newsweek is predicting Alien to be the summer's biggest hit. Strangely enough, each prognosticator has neglected to consider the possibility that Alien might be making money simply because it was the ill bi uiajui auiiiiuci 1 mil iu auivc ai uic nation's theatres. If a distributor puts a film into an empty marketplace, it's naturally going to make money until the marketplace fills up. With that fact in mind, my guess is when the summer's other major films (Moonraker, The Main Event, Lost and Found) open, Alien's box-office strength will collapse completely. My remarks about Alien are disparaging because even though the film supplies more thrills than any recent movie in memory, the thrills are not elicited in the spirit of fun. In fact, Ridley Scott has directed the film in a manner so oblivious to the viewers' feelings that Alien often seems downright sinister. As the film begins, we find ourselves on board an Earth-bound space-tanker called thp Mftntrnmn Whilp thp shin's numerous computers chatter away, the camera takes us on a grand tour through the ship's inner recesses. Many of the Nostromo's narrow corridors are gleaming and white, but most are blackened and grubby with use, giving the ship the appearance of a space-age haunted house. The camera eventually brings us to a shiny, dome-shaped room where the ship's seven-member crew has been awakened from suspended animation by a computer which has picked up an unidentified distress signal emanating from a nearby planet. The eantain. Kane (John Hurt), orders the ship down to investigate. He and two other crew members, Dallas and Lambert (Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright), then brave the planet's icy weather until they come upon a downed spaceship. After going inside, they discover the remains of what was probably once the pilot and then they stumble upon a giant room filled with giant eggs. As Kane is inspecting one of the eggs, a slimy, squid-like creature bursts forth shattering Kane's helmet and attaching itself to Kane's face, sending him into a coma. Dallas and Lambert drag Kane back to the Nostromo and, against the wishes ol the second mate, Ripley (Sigourne> Tf IE ROLLS OF REPI WE'VE GOT THE TOP OE THE LINE COPIER WITH ALL THE EXTRAS, BUT AT THE ECONOMICAL PRICE OUR EXTRAS INCLUDE: Srx3tless Legal and Let'or Si/o Cooies ! Iwo-S'ded Copies Cooies on <. Glared ,.atx?ls You Letterhead 933 MAIN STREET 799 3807 KiniiU rror films for of stomach Weaver), bring Kane and the baby alien on board. Before anyone realizes it, the creature has disengaged itself from Kane and disappeared. When next the crew sees it, it's obvious that the little fellow isn't nearly so benign as the chorus line of Pillsbury doughboys were in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Alas, the crew members in Alien almost never use their brains to outwit the T M AAttlir C/1AMA f T Clin Li cdiuic. ill unc cai ijr olcuc, hicj ouv.cessfully track down the creature with radar, but after the scene ends, they don't bother to use the radar again, even when the creature is slaughtering people faster than they can be counted. As each remaining crew member's intelligence grows into stupidity, it becomes 5? r. _ 11 _ A il 1 1. 4 painiuny apparent uiai uiey arc jusi straw men being set up to be picked off (each in a way more nauseating than the one before him). Honestly, anything Scott perceives as potentially jolting (or revolting) to an audience, he puts onscreen. Certainly, the first three killings are chillingly effective, but after that, the suspenseful half-film Cnnff Kao Kann oKln A pr/iafo HodnnDratpc I id O wwii auiv tv vivuvv uv^vuviuvvu into nothing more than a mechanical scareshow, wherein the beady-eyed alien pops out every ten minutes or so just to ensure the audience that he's still lurking somewhere on the ship. These shots of the alien have roughly the same effect as that of a cattle prod. It's too bad Scott didn't realize that two hours of intermittent goosing is more than anyone would want to endure ? especially if they have to pay for the privilege. Alien's ad campaign (the tag line of which reads "In space no one can hear you scream") may lure a great number of people to the theatre and talk about the scenes of disembowelment might lure in a few others, but there's no chance that Alien -- 111 ^ M/\MAn 4 ktintMAno fUnt [ will letcivc ctny ui uic icpcdi uuanicaa uiai often turns a borderline hit into a runaway ; smash. Newsweek covers be darned. AS FAR AS HORROR movies go, the summer's biggest hit will probably b i Prophecy, a delightfully scary movie thai , John Frankenheimer has somehow ; managed to fashion from the ridiculous i material in David Seltzer's excruciatingl> ; silly novel of the same name. F The film takes Dlace in Maine's Manatee r Forest, where environmental expert Rot RODUCTION p in 1 _. Ac ?f Pe' c<>py Reductions Collation I Paper C "ardSkX k III a\$ Hours M/0& ''oil Thurs 8 30 7 00 f'lday 8 30 6 00 Saturday 10 00 b O0 B39BBBb2^V 4 I feiSpijsst MtMoUM^i7 WxISl 19 ?%M Vern (Robert Foxworth) has been flown in from Washington, wife Maggie (Talia Shire) in tow, to settle a dispute between a tribe of Indians and the local paper mill. The Indian leaders, John and Ramona Hawks (Armand Assante and Victoria Racimo), and the mill's manager, Bethel lseiy (Kicnara uysaru, are soon jocKeying for a position in the Verns' good graces. Isely supplies the couple with food and then the Hawks supply them with stories horrible enough to make them lose it, such as tales about Indian babies being born so deformed i they had to be put to death. When a tuna-sized salmon splashes Rob and a convulsing racoon attacks Maeeie. the two begin to believe that something is indeed wrong in the Manatee. At Isely's insistence, Rob and Maggie : visit the mill to check out his assertion that ; no chemicals are escaping from it. The visit t culminates in Rob's discovery of the r dreaded methyl-mercury in the mill's i soaking ponds. ' Twenty minutes later, the Verns, the Hawks. Iselv and a handful of others are ; stranded in the forest at the mercy of a > rampaging mutant she-bear. izza Expre Five Points Large I Only $i ;o Super Subs & FREE Delivery At thi? nnint Prnnhp^v onpc frnm K#?ina u ... f , - . " run-of-the-mill potboiler to a Jaws-type mixture of thrills and escapism, with the mutant bear taking the place of Bruce the shark. Prophecy's script, however, never manages to be as engaging as Jaws, but the acting often makes up for what the script lacks. Assante, Dysart and Racimo do exceptionally well with their underwritten roles and Foxworth, too, has some nice moments. The fly in the ointment is Shire, whose simpering portrayal of Maggie Vern all but torpedoes every scene in which she appears. More than once I wanted to see her gobbled up Dy tne monsier, or at tne very ieasi ripped to shreds by a renegade racoon. For all its faults, however, Prophecy is as irresistible to a movie fan as sterno is to a dried-out drunk. For those who want to be scared without being sickened, Prophecy fills the bill nicely. Prophecy's Richard Dysart talks about how fun it is to be eaten by a bear in an exclusive interview in next week's Gamecock. Mzza 3. OO T'ricink Qalaric . V>I Vyt ' 783-2119