We Celebrate Alien Day! Part 1

The day Alien fans have been looking forward to is finally here! April 26th has officially been deemed Alien Day. The date was selected as an homage to the Alien's planet of origin in the original film and sequel, LV-426. There has been quite a bit of hype leading up to today, with major companies from Reebok to Neca revealing all types of Xenomorph related merchandise and promotions. We here at TrueHorror.net are huge Alien fans, and are excited to get in on the action and festivities. Originally wanting to host an Alien themed art show on our site, we were unable to get it organized as quickly and efficiently as we wanted. So in turn I decided to just create an all inclusive set of posts detailing all sorts of tidbits, new photos and tales of Alien nostalgia. So here we go and we hope you enjoy our little bit of Alien Day goodness. We will be splitting the posts into two parts, with this part one taking a trip down memory lane and my experiences with each Alien movie, so without further ado...


ALIEN:

I have been an Alien fan for most of my life. Whether it was the films, comics or toys, there has always been something Alien related in my home. Part of my fandom certainly stems from my older brothers affinity for Ridley Scott's original Alien film. Released the year of my birth in 1979, I obviously do not have any memories to accompany it's initial release, but I was fully aware of it by the time I was able to know about things and remember my brother also being a huge fan of H.R. Giger with whom as any good Alien fan knows, designed the now iconic creature. I really wish I could relay my first memory of seeing the original, but sadly it's all kind of a blur with that film, I am pretty certain it was on VHS that my brother and his friends had rented or something to that effect, as my brother worked in one of the local video stores in our neighborhood back in those days for short time. I unfortunately cannot nail down when I actually watched it in it's entirety but I do clearly remember three specific things as a kid. The Chest Burster scene, (one of the greatest shocking moments in film history without a doubt, I only wish I could have experienced that in a theater upon it's original release as crowds must have not known what hit them. The scene where the android Ash goes insane trying to kill Ripley and in turn ends up spewing his white blood (milk) everywhere after being hit to stop him freaked me out just as much as the Chestburster puncturing it's way out of Kane's chest earlier in the film. I also always remember the scene of Ripley running through the corridors of the Nostromo while those yellow emergency lights flash and spin. all while carrying her orange tabby Jones in his cat carrier.

The Alien itself was terrifying but also very cool to me. The Alien as shown here is one of the most well thought out and horrifying creatures ever created and it is for my money the greatest movie monster ever made. It's full life cycle on display for everyone to see, showing how much thought was put into it's creation. Alien as a film is a masterpiece on every level. From concept, to design to casting and final product. I only wish I had a better story to go with my memories of the original, but I guess you can forgive me since I was only a newborn.

ALIENS:

My true first experience with the Xenomorphs came in 1987. I had mentioned a bit about this story in my review for NECA's 1/4 scale Alien figure. The bit went as follows:

"In the summer of 1987 I was still just 6 years old and very much into all those things but at a friend's birthday sleepover we were all introduced to ALIENS via VHS. His dad felt it was the right movie for us as young kids to watch. He was right, even though the Aliens, Chestbursters and Facehuggers scared the shit out of us, we loved it just the same because it was freaking awesome. Remember this was 1987 a year when parents didn't coddle their children. If we could deal with Luke Skywalker losing a hand, Serpentor killing Duke and the traumatic death of Optimus Prime, we could certainly handle a little bloodshed and carnage."

And handle it we did. These memories are still very clear in my head and now is the opportunity to tell the story a bit more in detail. In 1987 I was living in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights in Queens, NY. While going to Public School 69 aka P.S. 69 (yes that was the name) I had a good group of friends and this particular friends name was James Jazwiecki, I remember this party really well as it had a couple of our other friends and began with a water balloon fight in the back alley. Well after the sun went down the nights entertainment (like any good 80's night for kids) was to watch a movie his father picked out for us, which as you already know was Aliens. I recall thinking I was a hot shot because I knew what Aliens was and what they looked like thanks to my brother. No one really cared, but I felt cool, so whatever. His dad sat there in his living room watching it with us and the one thing he I will never forget was him telling us "She (Ripley) has to be careful not to scare the shit out of her or they will lose her (Newt)" I don't know why I remember that, but I do. I guess it may be because he was just treating us like equals while watching this movie and trusted us to be able to watch it and not get traumatized. I remember vaguely some of us enjoying it and dealing with it better than others, but I loved it. It was such a cool movies, soldiers fighting the scariest monsters in the universe, while it had the lead actress get in some crazy yellow robot suit to fight the Queen Alien!? How could I not love this movie. After that I became a bit obsessed with it and the Aliens and in the following years, I would always be drawing them and watching the movie on VHS whenever I could. We don't always remember the first time we see certain films, but for me as such a huge fan, it is a nice feeling to be able to pinpoint the exact moment I truly became an Aliens fanatic. Since then I always flip flop on which film I like better Alien or Aliens, I feel they both are equally great and were light years ahead of their respective times. 

ALIENS: BOOK ONE by Dark Horse Comics (1988)

The year after my first Aliens viewing, my dad gave me what for the time was one of my prized comic book related possessions. The first Aliens comic series collected in hardcover format. I was so thrilled to have this and loved trying to copy the drawings of the Aliens within. The story takes place years after the film and features a now grown up Newt, older and still scarred Hicks along with new characters. I remember being so taken with it as this (along with the 2nd printing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6) were probably the first "adult" oriented comics I was ever given to own, not counting my brothers Heavy Metal mags that I snuck peeks at when he wasn't around. I loved this book and how violent it was, Aliens punching holes in peoples skulls with their inner mouths, impaling them with their tails. It was just a big deal for me and I took great care of it. I am proud to say that to this day I still have it, the dust jacket portion is gone, but everything else is intact and in good shape. I may reread it today as part of my Alien Day festivities. This bridged the gap for me to the other numerous Alien comics that Dark Horse would produce along with the Alien vs Predator comics and more Alien series like Genocide and Hive Wars. It was a good time to be a comic book fan and Alien fan and this book was the start of all that fun.

ALIEN 3

The first time I saw the poster for Alien 3 I was in NY walking with my brother, can't remember where to or where from, but remember it was out in front of a movie theater in the city. Only at this time of my life I was now living in Miami with my Mom, but clearly my brother and I both got pretty excited about seeing that an Alien 3 was actually coming out, remember no internet, so it was either posters or tv spots and a trailer that told you a movie was coming soon. Later that year my Mom and I went to go see Alien 3 at the Byron Carlyle Theater in Miami Beach (a theater where I saw many quintessential 90's films like Batman Returns and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles among others) I remember finding it pretty depressing and not as exciting as Aliens, I know I didn't like the fact Newt and Hicks died before the film even starts, nevertheless, by the time it was done, and at that age I was such an Alien fanboy I was still pretty happy that my Mom took me to see it and remember leaving the theater liking it, I liked it enough that I persuaded my Mom into buying me the Alien 3 cap they sold at the theater. This hat was the one with the films tagline on the back that said "The Bitch is Back" (referring to the Alien Queen and Ripley's famous"Get away from her you Bitch!" line from Aliens . I thought I was cool and remember some of my friends thinking so too this time! Sadly I cannot find a pic of this version online but the same exact one minus that it is pictured below.  I definitely even got in trouble at school once for wearing it. Sigh.

One more memory to go along with this film and the hat was a time my buddies Hector and little Joey (as we referred to him to differentiate from the big Joey in our group)  wanted to see it and I was cool with going to see it again (a trait I guess I always had) and they refused to sell us tickets to it, I had the hat on and showed it to the lady at the ticket window saying "Look I already saw it, would I have this hat if I didn't see it, I can see it again, it's fine" to no avail, so we bought tickets to Class Act...yes Class Act, the Kid n Play movie and snuck into Alien 3, now I remember that one of them needed to go use the bathroom, and thats how we got pinched, forced to leave Alien 3 and go watch Class Act, which we of course enjoyed, but it certainly was no House Party...

Real Good memories aside, over the years I had soured on Alien 3,but it has since has gone on to receive a version that is more inline with director David Finchers vision, featuring deleted scenes and story beats that work much better. Even if it is not ever going to be perfect, the newer version is improved and has given me a new appreciation for it as a whole.

ALIEN RESURRECTION

Fast forward to 1997 my first and only year of college (lets not get into regrets though shall we?) I am back up in NYC living in Queens and would spend a lot of the weekends up in Yonkers with my brother, so late November we decided we were going to go check out the new and somewhat under the radar Alien sequel. At this point other interests at the time superseded my Alien fandom like Basketball and music so my interest was tepid at best, even though I still loved the franchise, it just wasn't a huge deal to me anymore especially given how I felt about Alien 3. Still there was no way we weren't going to see it! It was supposed to be my brother, his wife and a couple other friends going, but in the end it ended up just being him and I, heading over late that night to the Cross County movie theater. I remember while watching it thinking that Alien resurrection had a lot of cool scenes and I was really enjoying it at the time, It was cool to finally see an Alien movie together and I think we both ended up having a good time watching it that night. In retrospect, Alien Resurrection is in many ways the weakest of the solo Aliens series but it is still entertaining in many ways and has some very cool Alien scenes throughout and was certainly more rewatchable than the dour Alien 3. My memories of the film don't go much beyond that night, but I am glad I remember it as well as I do.

DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS, LACK OF REAL XENOMORPH ACTION AND OVERALL WEIRDNESS, WE WILL BE SKIPPING PROMETHEUS IN THIS LOOK BACK.


ALIEN VS PREDATOR

"My Eyes, My Movie and My Director all suck! HELP!"

THIS MOVIE SUCKS. I am going to just list my main recollections of my mind state while watching this putrid mess of a film and still the only one I will NEVER ownl

0. Aliens and Predators rated PG-13
1. I really hate the non bio mechanical look of these Aliens, the design sucks and misses the point.
2. The Predators look really, really stupid, and have dumb human eyes and have overly bulky appearances.
3. This cast sucks.
4. Please don't let the predator team up with this lame female character who is nothing like the cool badass female character from the original Alien vs Predator comics.
5. Please don't let this be real while the two of them run side by side into the distance like Batman and Robin.
6. The tagline was "whoever wins, we lose" they couldn't be more correct.
7. After movie, called up my buddy Brock and as soon as I said "hey man just saw AVP" he responded with "WE LOST!"
8. My other buddy Scotto who saw it with me called it a chick flick.

Overall AVP for me is the low point in both franchises. It is so poorly directed by one of my least favorite directors in the world Paul W.S. Anderson who is so full of himself and thought his ideas were superior to everything came before him that he supposedly loved. It is just an unfun (not a word but I don't care), embarrassing effort and a debacle for what should have been one of the greatest sci fi event films ever made. For years people had been wanting to see Aliens and Predators fight and also see the Aliens reach earth, this film urinates all over the hopes and dreams of many.

ALIEN VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM

"My movie may not be great, but the Aliens I fight look cool and I don't have stupid human eyes, so I win."

AVPR gets a lot of flack, I didn't have high hopes for it after the crapfest that was the first AVP film. Still, that didn't stop me from going to check it out. Storywise it is a continuation of the first, however, it is also a much WORSE story. While the idea of an Alien infestation on earth finally comes to fruition, nobody really hoped it would take place in a small town in Colorado and unfold amidst some teen angst and random townspeople trying to get their life back together. It is an awful backdrop, still the directors, the annoyingly named "Brothers Strause" have a grip on what makes Aliens AND Predators cool and that much is on display here in a hardcore rated R film that pulls no punches, The lone Predator in this film known as The Wolf (ala Pulp Fiction's Harvey Keitel character) comes into the town to clean all traces of Predator activity when their ship crashes and unleashes the Aliens on the town. The Predator here is awesome and one of the best on screen Predators we have seen. The Aliens here are much better as well, with their look being much more like the ones in James Cameron's Aliens than the redesigned versions found in the original AVP film. The movie is "BAD" but it is also supremely entertaining and has some truly badass scenes involving the Predator and his hunt for the Aliens. It also introduces us to the Predalien hybrid which is also something that actually turned out to be pretty cool, and quite ruthless in it's own right. I can agree with many of the critics on AVPR, however, I can watch it and enjoy the cool stuff and carnage found within just fine, as opposed to AVP which I literally hate with every fiber of my being.

THE TOYS

Through it all the one thing that remains is that the Alien (Xenomorph as they are known) is an iconic creature that has maintained it's popularity for decades. A huge part of that is thanks to the merchandise put out by various companies. The coolest thing in my opinion has been the current toyline produced by NECA, sculpted with accuracy and detail. The NECA line of Alien figures has continued to expand and has most certainly played a huge part in rekindling my passion for the franchise and the love of the beautiful design of the Xenomorphs themselves. Their Alien Queen figure is one of the best things I own and is in itself a work of art and something no Alien fan should be without. The line is great in many ways, whether it be as shelf top display pieces, toys for kids (though be careful little dudes, these things are fragile) and for me personally, I enjoy photographing them. A wide variety of characters and creatures is available and soon to be expanded upon yet again when the new series releases. I highly recommend any fan to go out today and at least obtain ONE of these figures for their shelf to celebrate Alien Day, as if it weren't for these figures, I probably would not be back into the Alien world with such a deep interest.

THE FUTURE

As I type this, director Ridley Scott is at work on Alien:Covenant, which is a sequel to Prometheus. Now I didn't really know what to think of Prometheus, it's a strange film that didn't completely jive with some of the things that I have come to believe are part of the Alien franchise. Specifically the pilot corpse from ALIEN, there is no way that was an "Engineer" from Prometheus instead of some strange elephant like creature. The story put forth in Alien and it's mystery is a big part of the appeal, and for Scott to try to explain things...without even explaining them, was frustrating and dangerous. Still I have more hope for Alien Covenant, because it is in fact an ALIEN film, instead of a "Prometheus" film. So we will be getting the Xenomorphs we know and love and hopefully it will make up for the problems I had with Prometheus. I was much more excited for Neil Blomkamp's Alien 5 film that seemed to get crushed when Ridley Scott (probably) took issue with someone else making an Alien film that people were excited for instead of Prometheus 2. I was all set to see Ripley and Hicks return but sadly that is not to be the case, at least for right now, even as Sigourney Weaver says it can happen after Covenant. In the mean time, at least I can get excited about Danny McBride in an upcoming big budget Alien movie.

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PART 2