Alien Day

Kinder very surprised 

On the 6th of December 1979, John Hurt got a little bit too friendly with a randy space spider resulting in one of the most awkward dinner scenes in movie history. Whilst the tag line promised that in space no one can hear you scream, the crew of the Nostromo, including the iconic Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), certainly did scream, as did, I imagine, the majority of moviegoers when they saw the Chestburster rip and tear through John Hurt's chest and skitter off into the darkness of the vessel to grow and torment the crew.

If you are this close to an Alien you are in trouble.

The alien, or to give it its technical term "Xenomorph, boarded the Nostromo when Kane (John Hurt) decided to enjoy his space Easter a little bit too eagerly, opening an oozing egg, and got a face full of legs and other unsavoury parts down the gullet. Ash, the not at all suspicious science officer, overrides Ripley's orders to maintain quarantine and keep Kane and the other crew members off ship until the threat could be assessed. Whilst the rest of the film revolved and evolved with alien gestating in Kane the planet that he could have been abandoned on has gone on mutate and evolve in the Alien universe. That planet's was named Acheron during the brief and very unsuccessful human habitation in Aliens but before that it was merely assigned the code name LV-426. And LV-426 is what brought me to write this blog on this day - April 26th.

Starting last year, the Alien franchise nominated April 26th as the day to celebrate all things Alien and so celebration of all things Alien and in baited breath for the upcoming Alien: Covenant I thought I'd dedicate this blog to our slimy, acid blooded, chest-bursting buddies.

Alien was one of the first proper horror movies I saw. I guess I must have been around 11 or 12 and my aunty and uncle thought this was an appropriate age for me to see the gorefest that is Alien. They started the movie without a concern in the world but for one pregnant sentence "Oh but what about THAT dinner scene..." And so, much like Kane, I knew something awful was gestating in the picture but no proper knowledge of what, only that something was to happen at dinner.

And what a dinner scene. The crew gather in jubilation of Kane's revival sans icky spider beast on his face. All seems well as they sit down to dinner. Then Kane coughs. Then Kane splutters. Then Kane keels over the table. Then Kane howls. Then Kane's chest rips open and a metal toothed hissing serpent beast eyes his next meals and runs into the belly of the ship, intent on returning for seconds, thirds and fourths.

Aww ickle baby

I can't quite imagine what the audience reaction would have been when this was first shown in cinemas. But to 12 year old Joe, it was magic. To the actors in the scene they too had a big surprise as they were not actually told what would happen in this scene, only that something would happen and they should just react. Sigourney Weaver has said in interviews that she knew something was up when upon arriving at the set the entire camera crew were decked out in raincoats...Veronica Cartwright who played Lambert was so terrified by the scene that when a jet of blood squirted out of the twitching Kane onto her she fainted.

Mother of the year award got personal

I could write about this film from now to the end of time, it is that good, and if anything the direct sequel is as good if not even better, switching up mounting dread for all out terror and creating some of the most iconic movie lines ever ("Get away from her, you bitch!" "GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!").

Credit is due to everyone involved in the film but I think special praise must be levelled at the feet of H.R Giger, a Swiss artist, who's bio-mechanical work provided the concept for the alien itself. As you can see Giger's work has a somewhat (okay, very) sexual angle but in truth this is in keeping with the subtext that can read into the Alien films.

If you look super close you can see a dick. 

The Alien series has evolved, like its titular menace, through various media including comics, books, board games, video games, crossovers with Predator, sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. The mass appeal for this drooling beast is immense. My personal favourite of the last few years is the video game Alien: Isolation which puts you in the shoes of Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter, searching for answers for where her mother went on the ill-fated Nostromo voyage (see video below for footage of me playing and not dying like a bitch). This takes her to the mega-ship Svestapol where, guess what, there is an alien stalking the halls. For the majority of the game you are unarmed and even when you are you can merely distract or temporarily shake off the beast. The rest of the time you are just a meat sack. If the alien catches sight of you it is "GAME OVER, MAN!" It runs to you, heavy clawed feet pounding on metal, grabbing your head, crashing its extendable jaw into your fragile skull. The tension this game created is immense, every hiss of a pipe, clank of a grate could be a sign that the creature is near. Plus you have the simultaneously handy and terrifying motion tracker from Aliens to provide that nail-biting "blip-blip-blip" to let you know something is closing in on you. Is it on your level? Or is it in the vents above or below you? Stalk forward slowly and find out. Now just give me a sequel using VR and you can take all my money. (Speaking of VR if you have access to an Oculus Rift buy the Alien: In Utero VR experience released today and let me know how it is, I've only got PS4 VR and it isn't on that!!!)

Cthulhu lover

The planet LV-426 and what was found on there not only provided the nexus point for the movies Alien and Aliens but also the 2012 prequel Prometheus. This asked the question: where did the aliens come from? Who created them? Who made humans? And who the fuck is in charge of hiring these "scientists" who balk at the sign of a dead body but go poking a space cobra!? Okay, it is a flawed film, full of inconsistent characters, insane character choices (ROLL TO THE SIDE!) and plot logic that makes not a lick of sense. But the atmosphere, cinematography, Michael Fassbender's David, and the reach of the creators is laudable (much like the Engineers of the film, they had lofty goals but the end result is a bit of a deadly mess.) On the whole I enjoyed the movie but recognise its flaws. The greatest casualty of the film is that as the plot is just a high sci-fi version of At the Mountains of Madness, Guillermo del Toro saw it as another nail in the coffin for his often hoped for adaptation of that story.

In addition to all the goodies released today for Alien day (comics, merchandise, the aforementioned VR game) next month we will have a new proper Alien film, Alien: Covenant. This is a direct sequel to Prometheus, with a new ship named Covenant transporting human embryos to find a new planet for humans to colonise, stumbling across a seemingly uninhabited planet. Cue squishy body horror and gore. This has been billed as a proper return to full-blooded alien horror and the trailers so far suggest that as much (if revealing a little bit too much).

So load up your smart guns, ensure your motion tracker is fully calibrated, and stay away from any suspicious eggs, the Aliens are back big time.