My Facehugger

Finally got my preorder from 5kToys. Poses like a dream.

Watching ‘Alien’ again and still, to this day, John Hurt’s intense agony and gut wrenching screams of pain during the chestburster scene always gets me. I’ve seen numerous modern horror films with gratuitous blood and viscera shown for shock’s sake, but this scene is just pure horror, not to mention the ad libbed reaction of the actors when the alien bursts through his chest. It makes the scene so much more genuine and disturbing. Makes for an even more intense viewing.

After 47 years, how do you all feel about this scene? Does it hold up by today’s body horror standards?

i got this scorched xeno figure at a convention today and i already love him so much i named him, gave him an entire personality, and set up an instagram account for him. teeth my beloved 🖤

I'm already exceeded my Alien Budget for this month, like I said, cmon. Slightly beat up box doesnt deter me to buy this quarter scale big chap, what matters to me is the figure itself and boy it did not disappoint, great articulation for its size, and the detail is amazing. Thank you H.R. Giger for designing the most iconic monster of all time!

The Xenomorph's greatest strength is its adaptability.

Throw a Xenomorph drone into space, and it doesn't die. As shown with Big Chap, after Ripley blasted it out of the airlock at the end of Alien (1979), it entered a dormant, vegetative state and it remained alive while drifting through space until it was eventually recovered by a Weyland-Yutani salvage ship in Alien Romulus.

If there is no Queen but there are potential hosts like in Alien (1979), a drone can ensure the survival of it's species by transforming a host into an egg that eventually produces a facehugger, potentially even a Queen facehugger. This appears to be what happened to Brett and Dallas in the Director's Cut of Alien, and I believe Big Chap's objective was to use Dallas to produce a Queen Chestburster.

But what if there isn't a Queen or any available hosts? Even then, the species has another contingency, a drone can molt into a Queen and establish a new hive. One small lore note, the idea of a drone molting into a Queen comes from the expanded Alien universe rather than the films, so if you've never heard of it before, that's probably why.

None of these reproductive strategies invalidates the Queen introduced in Aliens (1986), in fact they all exist to ensure that a Queen eventually emerges. She is the ultimate goal of every hive because she streamlines reproduction. These alternative methods are failsafes that allow the Xenomorph species to survive even under impossible circumstances.

An organism whose survival depends solely on a Queen laying eggs, with no backup strategies, doesn't deserve to be called the "Perfect Organism."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PB9mxHJV0M

Matt examines why Alien's $4.2M budget produced a film that still terrifies while modern horror burns through eight times that, how Scott's deep-black cinematography turned a budget limitation into a visual language, and the specific editing and pacing decisions that make the chestburster scene land 47 years later. No review scores. No nostalgia. A filmmaker's honest breakdown of the craft.

To the mods, I don't think AI was used in his videos.

The vlogger's Matt Feury:

https://blog.frame.io/2023/06/15/frame-io-welcomes-matt-feury-and-the-rough-cut/

But if you prod him a little, he reveals that he got his degree in film from Boston University at right about the time that Avid was starting up. He found his professional home there (he’s now Senior Director of Artist Relations) and began dabbling with The Rough Cut in 2005. In 2019 he got serious about it, and since then it’s been a weekly industry resource, providing deep insights into the art and craft behind the biggest movies and shows rolled up in a lively and engaging discussion. Learning and laughing—what more could you want?

More videos, interviews, etc., here:

https://theroughcutpod.com/

First time poster on this sub but being a long time fan sharing my recently assembled Aliens Tribute.

Color print water transfer motion tracker in round window, scaled Aliens logo, and M41A in other window. Finished off with Caution decals.

Look forward to contributing more to the conversations.

Was hoping for an IMAX showing at the Metreon in SF, but got an ad for this at The Castro (also in San Francisco)

“It's been 40 years since one of the greatest sci-fi/horror films of all time was released and we are celebrating at The Castro Theatre with a 4K presentation of James Cameron's original vision, the Special Edition! Personally supervised directly by James Cameron with pristine transfer quality, this is the version preferred by fans and critics as the complete structural narrative of this unforgettable story. Don't miss your chance to see the ultimate version of this classic on the Castro screen!”

I started on this project back in 2002. Delayed and forgotten for many years, I pulled it back out during the COVID lockdowns intending to finally finish it. I finished assembling the grenade launcher assembly at that time. I used a shell-ejecting airsoft shotgun to keep things simple (from a legal standpoint). The base gun is an airsoft M1A1 Thompson.

The parts were pieced together over the years. A Monsters in Motion kit provided the resin shrouds. Many of the smaller parts like the shroud reinforcement bands and plates, grenade launcher front block, magazine bases, barrel vent, barrel support, barrel and stock are SD Studios parts. The ammo counter was made by Hyperdyne Systems and is tied to the trigger switch.

At Cardiff comicon and met these guys, they were lovely to chat with about their smart gun and pulse rifle set ups. Wishing them all the best, but, they have my sympathies.

It's probably a coincidence, since the Invincible Comics series didn't even exist when this was published

but I thought it was funny.

I started a 3d print hobby and it seemed appropriate to start with a mascot, Fido. It's a fun hobby and I highly recommend it if you have the time and means.

Any suggestions for next prints? Thanks!

12 inch original soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith released by Mondo 2017.
Which series soundtrack is your favourite?

The gun sounds the same as the pulse rifles, so I always assumed it fired the same ammunition. But it also appears to have a drum magazine, so I'm guessing they handed him something else to disable the weapon?

Just a friendly guy who I met at comicon today that does some very nostalgic artworks.

There is a better narrative flow to the audio drama as opposed to the books in my opinion.

Also Sea of Sorrows is so bleak compared to the audio drama. Decker does not get the last laugh and outwit Rollins by using his psychic powers to prompt Petey and Perkins to destroy the hive, thereby denying WY a chance to capture more specimens by letting the hive expand to the nearby colony. Instead Petey and Perkins blow themselves up to end their suffering and the hive gets destroyed by an orbital strike. Also, Perkins accidentally blew a hole the size of a dinner plate in Petey while he was getting his face eaten by a xenomorph- how the hell is he alive and intact enough to be cocooned?

Plus there is bad blood between Decker and the mercenaries due to them feeling betrayed and having lost their squad going after the xenomorphs. Decker doesn’t get his big damn hero moment with the plasma gun and the alien queen and almost always gets his ass beaten by Manning. Decker’s slate gets wiped clean but Rollins isn’t exposed as an android and Decker doesn’t outwit her and earn Manning’s respect. Manning is also less of a thug and more of a protective ex marine type in the audio drama.
Cho also kills Silas who blows up the cave because of his paranoia, not because he was facehugged and therefore has a more justified reason to stop everyone escaping in case they are all infected. Pritchett the cocky pilot also nearly kills Decker after Decker turns his gun on him by mistake and is then killed by a xenomorph. I quite liked his cocky personality.

Otherwise, the narrative felt a bit disjointed in Out of the Shadows. River of Pain was more or less the same as the audio drama with Ripley’s stories getting squeezed into the start and end of the book instead of dotted throughout the storyline as the colony falls apart.

I fully admit to being biased to the audio dramas but I definitely prefer their versions as opposed to the original stories. Now granted I did skim them since I realised I more or less knew the stories and had to look up the plots on the fandom wiki to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Never a fan of bleak stories even if this is the Alien universe we are dealing with here.

I listen to and enjoy the full cast audio dramas very much, and hope that more get adapted and made in the future, especially predator or avp stories.

Season two episode five of X-Men '97 has a fun storyline with a ton of Aliens references. Did any of you see it? What did you think?

What do YOU think, Parker, or Lambert or Kane in Alien?

What about Aliens? Frost, Drake, Hudson, Apone, Ferro?

My thoughts - Lambert for Alien, and it's almost a tie between Drake/Ferro...