The ALIEN FRANCHISE Appreciation thread.

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

33 minutes ago, JTN said:

I miss more innocent times where I had to shut my eyes when the alien burst out of Kane’s chest.

 

 

[JTN 2,152]

1 minute ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

 

Now I had to shut my ears.

[Edmilson 7,524]

I remember when I had The Empire Strikes Back's plot twist first "ruined" by Toy Story 2. By the time I saw TESB I already knew that both Luke and Leia were Vader's kids.

 

And some classic Simpsons episodes "ruined" Planet of the Apes' plot twist. At least the 68 one. The 2001 remake caught me by surprise and pretty much "traumatized" me. How come such a grim movie involving slavery wouldn't have a happy ending, 8-year-old me thought. I remember even asking my mom after just seeing the movie: "mom, is the movie going to have a sequel?".

 

These days I'm thankful we didn't got another awful Apes movie by Burton...

[GerateWohl 4,429]

25 minutes ago, JTN said:

@GerateWohlHave you showed him The Thing yet? Let’s see if that scares him. Hehehe…

Let's see. But to avoid misunderstandings, my goal is not to scare my boy, I just wanted to show him a movie classic that has been immitated by many new movies, that he knows and likes. In that sense I am happy if he is not scared.

[JTN 2,152]

5 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Let's see. But to avoid misunderstandings, my goal is not to scare my boy, I just wanted to show him a movie classic that has been immitated by many new movies, that he knows and likes. In that sense I am happy if he is not scared.

Absolutely, I was only kidding. I wouldn’t show any of these films to my child before the age of 12-14. I know how scared I was when I saw them, probably way too early, and who knows how it messed with my head. 
On the other hand, kids deal with trauma way better than adults, so maybe your son will enjoy The Thing. But I seriously don’t recommend watching The Exorcist, that film is too much, even for an adult, let alone a child.

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

17 minutes ago, JTN said:

Absolutely, I was only kidding. I wouldn’t show any of these films to my child before the age of 12-14.

I loved Horror movies as a kid...

 

For my 10th birthday party, we watched 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' while eating cake and drinking cream soda floats. An innocent, wholesome memory for me. lol

 

My folks had no problem letting me watch scary flicks, or feeding my interest by buying me magazines like 'Fangoria' and 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' — but, they took issue with me seeing nudity...

 

So, for example, they forced me to cover my eyes during the naughty scenes in 'The Howling'...but I peeked between my fingers!

 

Oo-la-la! 
 

 

[JTN 2,152]

My parents officially wouldn't let me watch scary movies, but I did anyway, and they pretended they didn't know about it.  

The only film I was genuinely scared of was the aforementioned Exorcist. That film still scares me, and I'm an atheist, but that film is so powerful it makes even me fear demons.

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

4 minutes ago, JTN said:

The only film I was genuinely scared of was the aforementioned Exorcist. That film still scares me, and I'm an atheist, but that film is so powerful it makes even me fear demons.

Yeah, The Exorcist is intense — and I haven't seen anything in the whole exorcism genre since that comes close. But as a kid, the one that chilled my blood the most was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And probably still today.

[A24 4,359]

In 1979 I thought Alien was the scariest movie ever. Now I think it's a masterpiece in mood, design and direction (storytelling).

 

It also makes me wonder what the frack happened to Ridley Scott.

[Marian Schedenig 8,238]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Now playing Alien: Isolation? Whoooo, that's different.

 

I managed to get to the first confrontation with other humans before being too frightened and turning it off. I never got to meet an actual xenomorph.

[Thor 7,582]

Generations change, I suppose, but ALIEN is the most scary film I've ever seen (a bit too early, at 10 or so). Xenomorphs haunt me in my actual nightmares to this day. Even if I've seen the film close to 100 times.

[JTN 2,152]

37 minutes ago, A24 said:

It also makes me wonder what the frack happened to Ridley Scott.

He got old. He's not "hungry" anymore. He should've left ALIEN alone, not ruining his own mythos (e.g. giving an absolutely unnecessary origin story to the space jockey etc.). He forgot what he perfectly understood when making Alien and Blade Runner: that less is more, and leaving certain things to the imagination is better than giving a lackluster explanation that can never live up to the mystery. 

 

 

13 minutes ago, Thor said:

Xenomorphs haunt me in my actual nightmares to this day.

And let's not forget about a completely different type of dream that occurs after Sigourney Weaver walks around in her tiny little panties and tank top...  

 

[Andy 4,176]

I saw Alien in the theater. I was 7 in 1979.  
 

Yes it scared me. 
 

But later that year I was TRAUMATIZED by Tobe Hooper’s made for TV Salem’s Lot.  That one melted my brain, as well as every other unfortunate kid whose parents figured it would be mild if it was on network television.  The floating undead vampire children and the Nosferatu like Mr. Barlow haunted me for what seemed like months after.  Slept with my back to the window for a lot of my childhood. 

[Tallguy 3,421]

Say what you want, but the one that gave me a lifetime phobia was Kingdom of the Spiders!

[Thor 7,582]

While there are plenty of solid, scary movies that I've seen at various points in my life (THE EXORCIST was pretty heavy too, on VHS in the early 90s), only two have been absolute nerve-wreckers - ALIEN, as mentioned, and the US version of THE GRUDGE (seen with a hangover and nerves on the outside).

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

I saw Alien in the theater. I was 7 in 1979.

Didn't it have an 'R' rating? How did your parents slip you in??

 

And kudos to them for doing so! That's my kind of parenting! 

 

4 hours ago, JTN said:

 

Ridley Scott: Find me the skimpiest pair of knickers... Two sizes too small, and held together by a band so thin that if it got just slightly frayed it would come undone.

 

Costume department: On it!

[Edmilson 7,524]

I was a pretty scared child (who turned up to be a very anxiety-ridden adult) so I didn't see many horror movies especially in early childhood.

 

I remember when I was 6 and my dad rented The Matrix on VHS. I was absolutely HORRIFIED during the interrogation scene, where Neo loses his mouth and some creepy insect is inserted on him via his belly button. Then, during the scene where he awakens in the real world totally nude and bald in that horrifying landscape I was so scared that I ended up vomiting. 

 

Funny thing is, not many years later I started to really like the martial arts and action scenes. My dad was obssessed with that movie and so he bought the DVD and kept replaying the gun fights and martial arts, so eventually I thought those were awesome.

 

Now, The Matrix is one of my favorite movies ever, and I love the whole trilogy. But it remains a very scary movie franchise given current technological inovations.

 

Another embarrassing childhood memory: 6-year-old me was afraid of the fucking poster for The Mummy... lol. I thought that huge scary face made of sand above a pyramid was really creepy.

 

[Thor 7,582]

I can relate to that, Edmilson. The poster for FRIGHT NIGHT did the same for me (far more so than the lacklustre film itself), although I was as old as 10 when I first discovered the film:

 

[Richard Penna 3,731]

The Mummy is one of the first DVDs I ever bought, and it was in a shop somewhere that had a load very cheap so I bought it blind. Guess I found the cover more exciting than scary!

 

Although I now have two copies because I had to own the region 1 version with the isolated score.

 

As far as Alien goes, I have Prometheus, Covenant and Resurrection on Blu-ray - the latter about 95% due to the iso score.

[Andy 4,176]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

Say what you want, but the one that gave me a lifetime phobia was Kingdom of the Spiders!

 

Please, come join us in the Cult Exploitation Trash B-Movie Thread and share more!  Plenty of Shatner there too!

 

39 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Didn't it have an 'R' rating? How did your parents slip you in??

 

And kudos to them for doing so! That's my kind of parenting! 

 

 

I guess you could get in under 18 as long as you had an adult.  I was the youngest of 4, so my parents sort of let the wolves raise me by the time I came along.  

 

My brother had the ALIEN graphic novel by Walter Simonson, which I can strongly recommend.  I think staring at these pages messed me up more than the film itself.

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Thor said:

I can relate to that, Edmilson. The poster for FRIGHT NIGHT did the same for me (far more so than the lackluster film itself):

 

 

 

You take that back!!!

 

 

 

[Edmilson 7,524]

13 minutes ago, Thor said:

I can relate to that, Edmilson. The poster for FRIGHT NIGHT did the same for me (far more so than the lackluster film itself), although I was as old as 10 when I first discovered the film:

 

When I was 12 I saw the poster for The Exorcism of Emily Rose and on that same night (I was traveling to the beach with my family) I had nightmares about it. 

 

It's a pretty effective poster, actually. Eerie and atmospheric without being overtly "in your face", and this combined with the word "exorcism" on the title makes a subtly but effectively scary poster. I wish more horror movies these days have posters are good as this (too bad the movie itself is meh).

 

[Andy 4,176]

I collect toys. Here are some of my ALIEN figures.  Happy ALIEN Day. 
 

 

 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

I guess you could get in under 18 as long as you had an adult.

Oh, well, here in Canada, it was restricted to 18+. Except in the province of Quebec, where it was 13+. French-Canadians are more relaxed about these things. lol

 

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

Had this at one time. Was never a big fan of Walt Simonson's style, but he did an admirable job here.

 

30 minutes ago, Thor said:

The poster for FRIGHT NIGHT did the same for me (far more so than the lacklustre film itself)

 

"BACK! SPAWN of SATAN!"

 

[Edmilson 7,524]

24 minutes ago, Andy said:

I collect toys. Here are some of my ALIEN figures.  Happy ALIEN Day. 
 

 

 

Let me try to guess all the franchises that appear on this photo of your collection:

• Alien obviously;
• Star Wars (most of it);
• Adam West Batman;
• There's the feet above I couldn't identify to whom they belong...

[Andy 4,176]

 

10 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

• There's the feet above I couldn't identify to whom they belong...

Your powers of observation are EGGstraordinary!

 

 

That’s Egghead (Vincent Price)

 

On topic: I wonder if there’s a facehugger in there.  And speaking of eggs, I have ALIEN chocolate egg molds and made this for Easter. 
 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

 

Seeing this just pours salt into the wound...

 

In the early days of eBay, I finally got my hands on one of these—in the box, and with the mini poster insert too.

 

Then, years later, I thought I'd outgrown this stuff and put it back on eBay. Fool that I was!

 

And now...regret.

 

But I got the NECA 19" 40th Anniversary "Big Chap," which I think is the best-looking figure to date. I squint my eyes a little, and it looks like it came straight out of the movie.

 

But I still love the Kenner, with the metallic grillz!

[Andy 4,176]

Oh yeah that NECA figure is superb.  My Aunt picked my Kenner Alien up for me at a garage sale back in the mid 80s.  It’s in superb condition, although I had to restring the arms as the rubber straps broke over the years. 
 

There’s always such cool Alien stuff being produced. 
 

And believe me, I know that pain of regret for selling things off.  Although the older I get, the more it just becomes stuff I will have to sell before I go into elder care, or preferably some island off the coast of Spain or something 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

Although the older I get, the more it just becomes stuff I will have to sell before I go into elder care, or preferably some island off the coast of Spain or something 

To those who say "You can't take it with you," I say: "Watch me!"

 

I'm going to dig a burial chamber for me and my collection—pharaoh-style!

 

 

[JTN 2,152]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

My brother had the ALIEN graphic novel by Walter Simonson, which I can strongly recommend.

I also recommend the novelization by Alan Dean Foster. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Another embarrassing childhood memory: 6-year-old me was afraid of the fucking poster for The Mummy...

 

1 hour ago, Thor said:

The poster for FRIGHT NIGHT did the same for me

This one is pretty scary too.

 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

 

A pattern is emerging... A BIG, SPOOKY face!

 

And this is the one that haunted me as a wee lad...

 

 

 

And here's one that hung on the wall of a local video store back in the day that creeped me the f*ck out...

 

Look—if you DARE!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Faleel 5,398]

1 hour ago, Mr. Hooper said:

And this is the one that haunted me as a wee lad...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tom 4,685]

2 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

A pattern is emerging... A BIG, SPOOKY face!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,636]

Somehow, Carol Ann kneeling in front of the TV with her hands on the screen, and the little teddy bear on the floor, really spooks me. It's oddly prescient.

[JTN 2,152]

3 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Somehow, Carol Ann kneeling in front of the TV with her hands on the screen, and the little teddy bear on the floor, really spooks me. It's oddly prescient.

I don't know, maybe I was a horny little kid, but whenever I think of POLTERGEIST, I think of this:

 

 

 

70s and 80s horror films were kind of my introduction to sexuality.  Some of these young women were the sexiest, and the directors knew this very well and used it. May they be blessed for it.

[Thor 7,582]

I dig this turn of discussion about scary film posters (although there's a whole separate thread there).

Meanwhile, somewhat back on-topic, I was at the annual critic's dinner two days ago, and I sat next to a colleague who's just as much a fanboy as I am in certain areas. He even likes film music. While his main interest is TRANSFORMERS, he's pretty knowledgeable about ALIEN too, which is MY main area for film nerding. It was great just geeking out for a couple of hours, which is something that I can't really do with the other, more serious critics.

 

Anyways....it made me think about the remaining ALIEN holes in my collection. I'm still looking for those Dark Horse comics, as well as the novels. I look around for them sometimes, on the interwebz, but they're too expensive. The action figures and other memorabilia is not something that I NEED, necessarily, but a few of them would be nice to have. I think even my tiny apartment could house those.

 

I don't know if anyone else has attempted this, but at some point in time, I would like to go through ALL of the ALIEN timeline in chronological order. All the films, shorts, TV series (soon), comics, novels and computer games (at least watching the gameplay) in story sequence. I've attempted a version of it a couple of times, with the films, shorts and gameplay watching, but not with comics and novels.

[JTN 2,152]

I guess I'll never (want to) be that level of geek about ALIEN, or any other film franchise for that matter. I'm perfectly happy with the three films (I sometimes watch the fourth one, but I don't really consider it an integral part of the Alien franchise), the great scores and the novelizations. 

 

With that said: I need a new ALIENS super deluxe edition, NOW. 

[Thor 7,582]

I never really wanted to be that much of an ALIEN geek either. It's not something that I set out consciously to be. It just happened that way because the first film was so seminal in my formative years.

[JTN 2,152]

I never not wanted to be an Alien or SW or ST geek, either, it just happened.
 

I adore ALIEN, all three films, and my favorite part of the first film is when they get into the derelict space ship and find the “space jockey”, who to me always seemed like some sort of an “elephant” race and always thought “what a huge effin gun!”. Not knowing the backstory, the shroud of mystery surrounding it all made it much more interesting and frightening. When the camera zooms in on the eyes of the creature, it’s very scary. And when Kane descends to the cargo hold and finds the eggs under the laser forcefield, it’s all so well done, amazing that they could make a film like that 45 years ago with zero CGI, and it looks so cool. It’s a classic.

 

 

[JTN 2,152]

 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

7 hours ago, JTN said:

 

 

70s and 80s horror films were kind of my introduction to sexuality.  Some of these young women were the sexiest, and the directors knew this very well and used it.

Yeah, I crushed a little on JoBeth Williams, too. A very pretty gal.

 

7 hours ago, Thor said:

Anyways....it made me think about the remaining ALIEN holes in my collection. I'm still looking for those Dark Horse comics, as well as the novels. I look around for them sometimes, on the interwebz, but they're too expensive.

The first Dark Horse mini-series was so popular that it went into multiple printings, as I recall. So if you don't want to pay the price for first-printings, there's that option.

 

And collectors these days seem to just want graded and "slabbed" comics, so you might even find "raw," un-slabbed first-printings for relatively cheap.

 

The problem with eBay, of course, is the shipping cost—which has risen to the point where I often pay as much for it as the item itself.

 

6 hours ago, JTN said:

I adore ALIEN, all three films, and my favorite part of the first film is when they get into the derelict space ship and find the “space jockey”, who to me always seemed like some sort of an “elephant” race and always thought “what a huge effin gun!”.

And to think that they built that as a life-sized set. How awesome would that have been to behold. I bet the actors didn't have to do much acting when asked by Scott to look at it in wonderment.

 

But, as I recall reading, H.R. Giger—uncompromising artist that he was—was disappointed that shortcuts were taken for budgetary considerations, such as turning the walls from the egg chamber on their sides to form the gangway... But all in all, he couldn't have been too disappointed. They did a fantastic job.

 

I'm glad to hear the reports that 'Alien: Romulus' has gone the practical route as much as possible. The video just released showing a remote-controlled "facehugger" was really cool, and the actors get to react to something that's actually in front of them, instead of a tennis ball on a stick.

[Thor 7,582]

7 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

I'm glad to hear the reports that 'Alien: Romulus' has gone the practical route as much as possible. The video just released showing a remote-controlled "facehugger" was really cool, and the actors get to react to something that's actually in front of them, instead of a tennis ball on a stick.

 

That's good to know. I thought the trailer for ROMULUS was fine, but I was a little disconcerted about the extremely agile and fast facehugger swarm. Hopefully, it's a little more tactile than that.

[Andy 4,176]

6 hours ago, JTN said:

I never not wanted to be an Alien or SW or ST geek, either, it just happened.
 

I adore ALIEN, all three films, and my favorite part of the first film is when they get into the derelict space ship and find the “space jockey”, who to me always seemed like some sort of an “elephant” race and always thought “what a huge effin gun!”. Not knowing the backstory, the shroud of mystery surrounding it all made it much more interesting and frightening. When the camera zooms in on the eyes of the creature, it’s very scary. And when Kane descends to the cargo hold and finds the eggs under the laser forcefield, it’s all so well done, amazing that they could make a film like that 45 years ago with zero CGI, and it looks so cool. It’s a classic.

 

 

You may already know this but that beautiful sculpture along with some eggs, were on display at the Egyptian theater premiere.  Sadly, there were some “weird politics” surrounding the release of the film, and vandals (radicalists?) destroyed them by burning them to ashes. 
 

Alien Display at Egyptian Theatre

 

 

[JTN 2,152]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

You may already know this but that beautiful sculpture along with some eggs, were on display at the Egyptian theater premiere.

I didn’t know that, that’s so cool! It looks scary even in a well-lit place. 

[Tallguy 3,421]

3 hours ago, Andy said:

Sadly, there were some “weird politics” surrounding the release of the film, and vandals (radicalists?) destroyed them by burning them to ashes. 

 

I knew it was vandalized and destroyed, but I never heard why.

[JTN 2,152]

20 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I knew it was vandalized and destroyed, but I never heard why.

They wanted to nuke the entire site. It was the only way to be sure.

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

1 hour ago, JTN said:

They wanted to nuke the entire site. It was the only way to be sure.

Hold on, hold on just a second... That "Space Jockey" had a substantial dollar value attached to it!

 

[Nick1Ø66 4,742]

Well Alien is one of the greatest movies ever made, full stop. There's nothing for it. Ridley Scott showed us a vision of space wholly apart from what we'd seen before from Kubrick, Lucas, etc. Instead of wondrous...cold and terrifying. It goes without saying that Goldsmith's score is pitch-perfect. On this subject, JWFAN, there can be no debate.

 

The film is just flat out brilliant, and I'll have words with anyone who says differently. 

[Mr. Hooper 1,854]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

The film is just flat out brilliant, and I'll have words with anyone who says differently. 

[A24 4,359]

8 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Well Alien is one of the greatest movies ever made, full stop. There's nothing for it. Ridley Scott showed us a vision of space wholly apart from what we'd seen before from Kubrick, Lucas, etc. Instead of wondrous...cold and terrifying. 

 

I thought it was already clear that in 2001: ASO, man's achievements are wondrous (or so it seems*), but space is cold and deadly. 

 

 

* Seemingly because in space man is still at its infancy, merely taking baby steps into the universe, and his achievements are also working against him (later repeated by Ash in Alien).

[JTN 2,152]

It’s interesting to compare Alien to 2001:ASO, it has never occurred to me. The similarity with Star Wars was more evident - even Scott talks about its influence on him in the great documentary Empire of Dreams - in terms of the rugged, used look of the Nostromo. I would never have compared Alien to 2001, but obviously some do, and it’s an interesting notion that is not far fetched at all. But I consider Alien a pretty original piece of work, if such a thing even exists in art anymore. Clearly Ridley had his influences, and it’s possible that one of them was 2001. Scott, like Lucas, used these influences and took them to another level, made something new and special. That’s what great artists do.