Alien and Prometheus

Space Jockey in Alien, 1979

With Prometheus only a few short days away, I find myself trying to understand the film I'm about to see. Is it a fully fledged Alien prequel, or an entirely original film with minor Alien influences? Will it be a horror film, or is it a sci-fi epic with horror elements? Will the film conclude where 1979's Alien began - despite the Director insisting that it doesn't contain the planetoid or the crashed alien vessel from that earlier movie - or will it expand the series in new directions? We know the Space Jockey will feature at some point, but will the original alien organism also make an appearance? Or are we getting an entirely new variant of the Xenomorph's life cycle?



With so many prominent questions in my mind at this point, Ridley and his team really must be congratulated for maintaining such a sense of mystery around the production. It's incredibly rare that I find myself less than a week away from a big budget feature, yet still fairly clueless as to exactly what I'm going to see. I've watched every trailer and read every snippet of information that's reached the web, and yet Prometheus still remains undefined and uncertain. The filmmakers have been quite careful about spoilers, perhaps conscious that the full 'shock value' of the film could easily be damaged by revealing too much. The most recent trailer perhaps shows a little too much in terms of body horror, but apart from that it's been fairly secretive, with a large portion of the marketing campaign consisting of short viral videos and faux infomercials, giving Prometheus a sort of tangible plausibility. Fox have also refused to screen the film to the press until just two days before it hits cinemas nationwide on June 1st (US viewers won't see the film on their continent until June 8th), so you'll be less likely to glimpse a genuine review of the film before release night, unless ofcourse you were to go looking for one. All things considered, I hope this means I can watch the film on Saturday night and have the crap frightened out of me by something wildly unexpected. Anticipation is ramped up to its maximum.

Space Jockey in Prometheus, 2012

Inevitably, I watched the 2003 Director's Cut of Alien again yesterday to refresh my memory in preparation for Prometheus. I first watched Alien when I was just 8 years old (in a horror marathon with John Carpenter's The Thing no less), at which point I spent most of the film's duration hiding behind the sofa, yet unable to tear my eyes away from the gruesome happenings on screen. Up until that point, I hadn't seen anything remarkably scary apart from a re-run of Jaws on network TV, so it's fair to say Alien frightened the life out of me, and has remained vividly in my memory ever since.
But yesterday, I watched it with someone who hadn't yet seen the film in its entirety, and I was curious as to how they would react to the classic sci-fi shocker thirty three years after its release. They summed up their feelings as follows.

'It was okay. It wasn't really scary, but I think if it wasn't for the sequel, many people would have forgotten about it. It's just that not much happened in the film at all'

That was not the reaction I was expecting. How can anyone say that about Alien - a landmark sci-fi horror movie? 'It was okay?' and 'nothing happened it it?' Although I strongly disagree with them, I have to admit I'm curious as to why they reacted this way.

Don't be expecting to see much of this

The problem is, almost anyone who watches Alien now reacts similarly. They say it's not scary, poorly paced and even boring. They say they prefer the sequel, likely because of its familiar action-movie pacing and broader accessibility. Truth be told, Alien has not aged all that well. The effects look dated, and in some cases (the chestburster, Ash's decapitation) look laughably fake. In 1979, the effects were certainly passable, but everyone was too busy being terrified out of their minds to take much notice. Now, audiences are so desensitised by the elevated level of gore and violence in popular cinema (Saw, Hostel) that anything but the most gut-wrenching physical violence doesn't hit home like it used to. Even the stylistic approach - depicting a future full of of rusting spacecraft and lower class 'truckers' in space - has been repeated numerous times in lesser films. Alien was once a pioneer in its genre, but now its innovation and genuine originality has been muddied into an overcrowded sub genre with hundreds of similar films which, ironically, owe their very existence to Alien. No doubt the exploitation of the titular creature throughout six movies, numerous videogames, graphic novels and an action figure series has also damaged the impact of the film. The once enigmatic, threatening and purposeful parasitic alien life form has now evolved into a mere 'movie monster,' known for spitting acid and screeching like a demented velociraptor. Alien can no longer rely on atmosphere and scares alone to affect the modern, battle hardened viewer.

And it's for this reason - as much as I might like it to be otherwise - that the original alien will probably only appear for the briefest of moments in Prometheus, if at all. It's been well publicised that Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite Jon Spaihts' original Alien prequel script, and that during this process he was encouraged to eliminate as much Alien symbology from the script as possible in order to allow the new film to stand on its own. Scott knows the 'wow' factor and credibility of the original creature is well and truly gone for all but the most avid enthusiasts, and to shock modern audiences, he most definitely has to show us something new. After all, the life cycle of the alien life form revolves heavily around the core concept of adapting to its environment and inheriting traits of its host's DNA, and Prometheus must likewise make adjustments to an overused format in order to meet the requirements of its modern audience. Here's hoping it succeeds.

Check back here this coming weekend for my full review of Prometheus.