Favourite horror scene analysis

My favourite scene from a horror film is the iconic "Chestburster scene" from Ridley Scott's 'Alien' (1979).

This scene features many horror genre conventions like, in mise-en-scene, there's the use of body horror when the Chestburster, a quick and smart monster, also known as "the perfect organism", emerges and the blood goes flying to splatter the characters surrounding Kane. It also uses fill high key, motivated lighting to connote that the Nostromo spaceship is functionally operational and that the characters are just entering the stage of disruption according to Todorov's Theory of Narrative. After this scene in the film the lighting becomes more low key to represent the danger the characters are in the recognition and reslove stages of Todorov's theory.

The cinematography of this scene also features several close ups of the Chestburster emerging from Kane's chest to connote bloody gore and to represent to the audience how dangerous and disgusting the aliens are. It also gives the audience queasy and uncomfortable connotations as nobody knows what the creature is yet it killed a character by violently bursting through his chest. The scene also features handheld shaky cam to connote panic and fear which again feeds into the idea of making the audience feel uncomfortable and queasy of the unknown.

The editing of this scene varies using a slow paced montage to connote tension and horror to the build up of the Chestburster bursting out, a quick paced montage to connote panic and fear when the first blood splatter appears before cutting quickly to the characters faces to show the scared connotations on their faces. The blood splatter also represents the collision cutting in this scene from a slow to quick paced montage. 

The sound in the scene is parallel and the dialogue is also diagetic, which fits in with the mood of the scene to further connote fear and tension for the audience. 

The special effects in this scene were all practical and they used a combination of animal blood, latex a dummy model and a fake chest to push the dummy Chestburster through. In the behind the scenes documentary below, the cast and crew discuss the Chestburster effect (from 1:17:00- 1:26:00).

Alien also has themes that challenge the cultural dominant ideology, notably the ideology of male rape fear. Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith compare the facehugger's attack on Kane to a 'male rape and the chestburster scene to connote violent birth, noting that the Alien's phallic shaped head and method of killing the crew members add to the sexual imagery'. Dan O'Bannon, head writer, argues that the scene is a 'metaphor for the male fear of penetration, and that the "oral invasion" of Kane by the facehugger represents "payback" for the many horror films in which sexually vulnerable women are attacked by male monsters'. O'Bannon states he 'attacks them [the audience] sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women... I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number'. This film is outside the cultural dominant ideology to the extent where it represents a male's fear of rape which is never seen in film as they focus on the female victim character as, Propp used in his 1928 book "The Morphology of the folk tale", to represent a fear of rape.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28film%29#Analysis). 

Above; the Alien's phallic head which reinforces the connotation of sexual penetration.

Looking at the Industrial context of the time, there was no Hays Code and no other form of limitation were present as attitudes had become more relaxed due to the audience becoming more desensitized to horror, This meant Scott didn't have to hold back on the body horror that would've limited Auteurs like Hitchcock during the 1960's and could show gruesome events to attract the target audience's attention.

After looking at this scene I'd like to make an action/psychological horror film that can represent body horror and also the historical context of the time to make the audience feel uncomfortable when they watch the film.