The Alien Franchise

[Silver Nemesis]

Earlier this week I re-visited Mario Bava's Terrore nello Spazio/Planet of the Vampires (1965), and while it's fresh in my memory I thought I might as well note some similarities between it and Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). Scott claims to have never seen this movie, as did Alien screenwriter Dan O'Bannon. However, O'Bannon later admitted that he had in fact seen and been influenced by it.

In both films the crew of a spaceship (Argos/Nostromo) detect a signal emanating from the surface of an unexplored planet (Aura/LV-426). They land on the planet's surface in order to investigate the signal's source.

The world that awaits them is a dark, inhospitable wilderness marked by jagged rock formations and smoky dust clouds.

The humans explore the planet until they find the ancient wreckage of a crashed alien vessel. Scott's film contains a low-angle shot looking up at the alien ship that recalls a similar shot from Planet of the Vampires, only in Bava's film it is a shot of the exterior of the protagonists' ship.

Bava later uses another similar low-angle shot when his characters encounter the wreckage of the ancient alien ship.

The interior of the alien wreck features tubular passageways with large round doors.

While exploring the ancient vessel, the humans find the skeletal remains of a giant creature. In Bava's film they find one of these giant skeletons outside the wreckage of the ancient ship and a second skeleton seated inside the vessel. In Scott's film they find just one.

Dan O'Bannon confirmed that he got the idea for the 'space jockey' from the giant skeleton in Bava's film. The Making of Alien book quotes him as saying:

"I stole the giant skeleton from the Planet of the Vampires."

The nature of the alien menace in both movies is subsequently revealed to be a parasitic life form. In Bava's film the antagonists are spectral beings that possess the reanimated corpses of their hosts, while in Scott's film the parasite impregnates its host's body with its offspring. In both movies the surviving humans use flamethrowers to defend themselves against the alien threat.

And in both films the humans escape from the planet, only to then realise that the alien menace has infiltrated their ship using the body/bodies of their crewmate(s).

One last visual note to make about Planet of the Vampires is the recurring image of the crew's space helmets resting on the seats next to the ship's controls. This struck me as similar to the imagery of the Nostromo's autopilot system in Scott's film, which resembles a row of space helmets perched atop the crew's chairs.

I think that about covers the similarities between the two movies. The English-language poster for Planet of the Vampires shows the protagonists battling giant creatures that resemble the xenomorph from Alien. I think they're meant to be the giant skeletons, but at no point in the movie do those skeletons come to life and attack the humans like this. The rocket ship on the poster also looks nothing like the spaceships in the film, making this a good example of the way old b-movie posters would often portray scenes and images that weren't actually in the motion picture they were advertising.

The speculative fiction aspect of Planet of the Vampires makes it an interesting addition to Mario Bava's oeuvre, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to modern viewers unless they already have an interest in retro sci-fi. It's an inferior film to Alien in every respect, and while it scores high on visuals and atmosphere, it rates low on characterisation and drama. With the exception of the lead actor and two attractive female co-stars, most of the other cast members appear interchangeable in their dimly-lit spacesuits. They're not individualised or adequately developed by the script, and consequently it's hard to care when one of them gets killed. This obviously is not the case in Alien, where each character death packs its own dramatic punch. But despite its flaws, Planet of the Vampires is not a terrible film and for fans of science fiction horror it's worth seeing at least once.

[thecolorsblend]

Blomkamp was on Rogan and talked a bit about what his Alien project would've been last year. And somehow I completely missed it. But here it is anyway.

[Silver Nemesis]

There's a new Alien film in the works. Fede Álvarez is writing and directing. Ridley Scott will produce.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/alien-movie-fede-alvarez-20th-century-studios-1235037155/

[thecolorsblend]

Fede Alvarez's participation indicates a horror tone. This could be interesting.

[Silver Nemesis]

A new Alien game has been announced titled Aliens: Dark Descent.

[Silver Nemesis]

Here's some concept art from the upcoming FX Alien TV series.

It looks nice, but I'm still not sold on this.

[The Joker]

[Edd Grayson]

Personal preference:

1. Aliens - one of the best action films I've ever seen.
2. Alien - one of the best horror films I've ever seen.
3. Alien: Resurrection - not great but not bad. Just adequate
4. Alien 3 - not that good. Especially because they decided to scrap Newt and Hicks.

[The Joker]

I know that this is art, and I like it!

[Silver Nemesis]

Director Fede Alvarez says Ridley Scott has seen an early cut of his movie Alien: Romulus and given it the thumbs up. Romulus, which will be the ninth film in the Alien franchise, is scheduled for release on August 16th 2024.

Little is known about the movie's plot at present, but I have low expectations. I've seen two of Alvarez's earlier movies – his 2013 Evil Dead remake and Don't Breathe (2016) – and I didn't care for either. Don't Breathe was ok, but IMO undeserving of the acclaim it received. The Evil Dead remake was extremely average, as was the more recent Evil Dead Rise. If Romulus can deliver a gripping story that expands the Alien lore in a satisfying way while doing something fresh with the familiar ingredients, then it might be worthwhile. If it's just a retread of the earlier films, then I don't seen the point. I don't want to write the movie off completely, because I still believe the Alien franchise has potential. It's not quite as far gone as Terminator, Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr Who, etc. But if Romulus disappoints, I'll have to consign Alien to the speculative fiction graveyard alongside those other franchises.

As a more general point, there are a lot of sci-fi sequels coming out in 2024: Transformers 8 (not counting the 1986 animated movie), Alien 9, Planet of the Apes 10, Godzilla 38! Right now the sci-fi movies I'm most looking forward to next year are Dune: Part II and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.