It was one of the most memorable theatrical experiences of my youth - a theater full of drunk Soldiers and Airmen (and women) from San Antonio, packed theater called The Galaxy, lots of laughing at Hudson, lots of freaking out and screaming when the aliens were coming through the ceiling and when the one detached from the wall to attack Dietrich, etc.
That sounds amazing. I was six when it was out, but I do remember my parents going to see it (I was left with grandma). I saw it two years later, after it was recorded on television (with sentry guns, thank God!).
Saw it in theater...loved it! The thing I remember was that I didn't even know it was being made.
Before the Internet trailers were on tv or at the movies. If you had a social life you might miss the trailer,as I must have.about two weeks before the release I saw a print add in rolling stone for a flashy new pair of reeboks,I think alien stompers of something like that. They were a product tie in for the new movie, and I sh!t myself...and then went to see the movie and really shit myself...good times!!!
It would have been a treat back then. We've got so much to compare sci-fi/horror to these days in our collective conscious, that a theatre doesn't react like they would have then. In 1986 the crowd would have been going crazy because they had very little to compare the experience to.
This was my first ever 18 certificate and I was literally on my edge of my seat after the first hour. I'd seen Alien on a tiny B&W portable when it was on TV and loved it but Aliens really blew me away.
Remember, this was before the days of internet spoilers so, apart from knowing the first movie, I had very little information.
I remember thinking that none of the characters were going to survive, it was just one relentless attack after another. The biggest shock of all was the Alien Queen cutting Bishop in half on the Sulaco - just didn't see it coming.
Still unmatched for pace and thrills, Aliens is one of my favourite films of all time, I can watch it over and over and never get tired of it.
I no longer watch trailers or read spoilers - I must be one of the only people on the planet who didn't know about the digital resurrections on Rogue One!!!
I know what you mean, it's never the same on the small screen. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife that night at the cinema watching this during the evacuation etc. Great days 👍
It's a pity they don't do that more often over here these days with the old classics.
There's a few I'd like to see on the big screen, especially Jaws as I missed its re-release last time around a few years ago and I was too young when it came out.