History NightmareFuel / Alien

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the Jelly!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the !!''JELLY''!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the ''JELLY''!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the '''JELLY'''!!!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the ''JELLY''!!!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the ''Jelly''!!!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MarsNeedsWomen Now I'm going to touch the '' Jelly ''!!!]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alien2_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[JumpScare Screeechhh!!!]]]]

* The famous John Hurt chestburster sequence, the gory details of which weren't told to most of the cast before the scene was shot (the look of horror on Veronica Cartwright's face as she's sprayed by a jet of sheep's blood is genuine).

* Once [[spoiler: Ash is revealed to be an android, his personality shifts dramatically. He immediately assaults Ripley, violently throwing her against the walls of the ship and then trying to suffocate her with a rolled-up magazine.]] The look of [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness pure violent rage on his face]] is terrifying to behold after his previous calm demeanor. When Parker and Lambert come to rescue her, it takes their combined strength just to pull him off her, and his movements become more erratic until he is brutally [[spoiler: decapitated by Parker, and still fights back until Lambert stabs him to death.]]
** When they interrogate him, the sight of his [[spoiler: decapitated head, covered in his own fluids, next to his torn-apart body, is deeply disturbing.]] Not helped by his completely calm, neutral demeanor, or his unsettling smile. Can't blame Parker for [[spoiler: using a flamethrower to finish him off afterwards.]]

* The whole scene where Ash is revealed to be a synthetic, up to his death, is this.

* There’s something about the [[UncannyValley oddly-human mouth]] of the Xenomorph that’s very troubling. That “something” probably being its usual expression before it strikes: it looks ''angry.'' [[FridgeHorror Let that sink in a little.]] Not only does this monster want to kill you/use you for breeding stock, '''[[OhCrap it absolutely fucking hates you.]]'''

** Apparently, Cartwright passed out during the scene after getting the blood in her face, and Yaphet Kotto (who played Parker) ran to his room afterward and refused to talk to anybody. It's made worse when you consider the cast didn't get ''too'' suspicious before filming the scene- after noticing ''everyone else on the set was wearing a raincoat''.
** Ron Cobb, one of the film's artists, sat down and saw the dailies for the chestburster scene. After sitting through the footage from all the cameras, he was so shaken up that he tried leaving the studio in a car that not only wasn't his, but it wasn't even the ''same color!'' Not to mention that he was blankly stammering and mumbling the entire time.
** Something to keep in mind is the historical context of the film and its impact on the genre. Until ''Alien'', most extraterrestrial films were low-budget scifi or less serious in nature. This film combined horror with special effects in a way that was completely new to EVERYONE, whether cast member or audience viewer. It's not hard to understand why everyone was so shaken up by it. It was literally unlike anything seen before.
** The cast ''did'' know what was going to happen, they had read the script (which describes the scene in fairly graphic detail on its own). What they ''didn't'' know was what the practical effect would look like, since no one had attempted something like this before. Even the effects team weren't certain if they'd be able to pull it off. They'd pepped the rig, complete with a scored t-shirt that the alien prop should be able rip through, and on their first try, it didn't. [[ThrowItIn This made it into the film,]] the first shot where the chestburster pops and pushes out the shirt, and everyone freezes. The actors in a fairly genuine "what the hell was ''that''?, the crew in an "OhCrap, it didn't work!" After a beat, everyone remembers their jobs, the crew makes the gag work, and the result is one of the most terrifyingly iconic scenes in cinema history.

** The cast ''did'' know what was going to happen, they had read the script (which describes the scene in fairly graphic detail on it's own). What they ''didn't'' know was what the practical effect would look like, since no one had attempted something like this before. Even the effects team weren't certain if they'd be able to pull it off. They'd pepped the rig, complete with a scored t-shirt that the alien prop should be able rip through, and on their first try, it didn't. [[ThrowItIn This made it into the film,]] the first shot where the chestburster pops and pushes out the shirt, and everyone freezes. The actors in a fairly genuine "what the hell was ''that''?, the crew in an "OhCrap, it didn't work!" After a beat, everyone remembers their jobs, the crew makes the gag work, and the result is one of the most terrifyingly iconic scenes in cinema history.

** However, one detail adds a more disturbing subtext to Lambert's death. She is wearing thick-looking pants and boots when the alien's tail is seen moving between her legs, but when Ripley finds her body, she is barefoot and appears to be no longer wearing pants. FridgeHorror kicks in when you remember the filmmakers stated the Alien is designed to be the embodiment of the fear of rape.

* The sight of the Alien/Xenomorph being jettisoned into the black, lonely void of deep space after getting blasted by the ship's engines.

** It also adds to, yet again, depending wether or not deleted scenes are canon (It IS a deleted scene, after all. Plus, the Xenomorphs are never seen doing that again in anything else, so wether or not the scene is canon is quite debatable.) another amount of FridgeHorror. This means that if this scene is canon, then this means that the Xenomorphs don't NEED a queen in order to make eggs. They can literally MAKE MORE from the bodies of those who have been face hugged if they lack one.

* In 1984, Argus Press Software released an Alien game for the C64, Amstrad, and ZX Spectrum. The crew of the ''Nostromo'', following the gory birth of the Alien, must track it down and either kill it or space it (or activate the self-destruct sequence and abandon ship). Naturally, trailing the Alien puts you at risk of an encounter that you are unlikely to survive. Oh, and the poor sod who gets a facehugger clamped to their face isn't always Kane, [[spoiler: nor is the traitorous android always Ash]].

* When Kane wakes up after the facehugger releases him, someone asks him what he remembers, and he says "Just some horrible dream about... smothering." ''He doesn't remember the facehugger grabbing him.'' A perfectly logical defense mechanism for the alien, preventing someone who's been grabbed from alerting others to their condition and threatening the embryo, but it also means [[ParanoiaFuel a person could be gestating an alien and have no idea until the pain starts.]]

* In one of the novels, a group of marines goes to the Xenomorph homeworld to serve as facehugger bait. One of them points out 2 facts.
** The Xenomorph is an invasive species most planets cannot handle, whereas on its homeworld, it probably struck an ecological balance with other species.
** On its homeworld, it may not be the dominant lifeform.
** One character thinks about the hypothesis that the Alien's have acid blood because ''it makes them taste bad.'' '''What the hell could be out there trying to eat the fucking ALIEN?!?'''

* There is a long, slow scene of Brett looking for Jonesy, finding him in a room with water dripping from the ceiling and chains hanging from the vents. This is before the adult alien has been seen at all and audiences are expecting it to still be tiny. In one brief shot of the ceiling, the alien is fully seen hanging from the chain above Brett, but from it blending in with the scenery the audience does not even notice it. They only realize they were looking right at it on a second watch, [[spoiler:after it has lowered down to snatch Brett]].

* The scene with Dallas in the air vents, featuring one of the biggest JumpScare moments in film history. Dallas appears to have climbed down a ladder to safety from the approaching alien, only [[spoiler:to turn around and find the alien ''right in front of him'', screeching and reaching out for him before the camera shorts out]].
* The absolutely nightmarish scene of [[spoiler:Parker and Lambert's deaths, seeing Parker killed by the alien's "second mouth", and not even [[NothingIsScarier seeing]] what it did to Lambert (apart from moving its bladed tail [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything up between her legs]]), only hearing her anguished death cries over the radio]].
** The book "Alien: Out of the Shadows" revealed what happened to Lambert: [[spoiler: the Alien ripped a hole in her face]].
** However, one detail adds a more disturbing subtext to [[spoiler:Lambert's death]]. [[spoiler: She]] is wearing thick-looking pants and boots when the alien's [[spoiler:tail is seen moving between her legs]], but when Ripley finds [[spoiler: her]] body, [[spoiler: she]] is barefoot and appears to be no longer wearing pants. FridgeHorror kicks in when you remember the filmmakers stated the Alien is designed to be the embodiment of the fear of rape.
* The climax of the movie, following Ripley as she beelines for the escape pod, is one of the most intense chase scenes in film history [[spoiler: even though the alien isn't actually chasing her, and is eventually revealed to have turned around and gone in the complete other direction.]]
** During the entire movie, Ripley manages to take nearly everything pretty well, including [[spoiler:finding Parker and Lambert's mutilated corpses and finding Dallas and Brett half-transformed into eggs]], so seeing her lose her cool and almost break down while running through the Nostromo's claustrophobic hallways inspires a deep feeling of terror in one's heart.

* In the director's cut of Alien, there is also the scene where Ripley finds [[spoiler:Dallas and Brett in the process of being changed into alien eggs]]. It is not only revolting, but it's also UncannyValley.

* The whole scene where [[spoiler: Ash is revealed to be a synthetic]], up to his death, is this.

* As noted above, there are several times throughout the film where the Xenomorph is so well camouflaged that it can be placed right in the plain sight in the frame and still not be seen until a second viewing [[spoiler:like with Brett and Dallas's "death" scenes and the last jump scare in the escape pod]]. Even on a first watch, the audience eventually catches on to this, and it makes the dark, flashing corridors of the Nostromo even more terrifying: every single pipe, tube, or wall could be the Xenomorph.

* In the comic/novel ''Aliens: Labyrinth'', a critical piece of backstory involves the story's MadScientist. When he was younger, he and his fellow colony members were captured by a colony of xenomorphs that was dying due to some sort of disease. Trapped in the hive, he only managed to survive by [[LesCollaborateurs deliberately working with the aliens to nourish and care for the other captives]]. Among the horrors he sees is a former female friend of his who has had facehuggers ''implant her womb'', causing her to swell up in an obscene parody of pregnancy before she is torn apart by three grotesque half-developed adult xenomorphs, still linked to her by umbilical cables. Eventually, he finds the source of the disease and uses it to poison the colony, but the colony tries to use him to breed with a female captive to create new hosts. He's presented with a woman who has had her limbs ''gnawed off'' and cauterized, driven quite insensible by her abuse at the hands of the xenomorphs. [[spoiler: The woman is his mother.]] Driven mad by the realization, he gives her a MercyKill. For this, the queen has him implanted with the last surviving facehugger. When he wakes, he finds the plague has finished destroying the colony and the chestburster inside of him is stillborn. Then he has to escape from the hive and perform surgery ''on himself, without anesthetic'' to remove the embryo before it decays inside of him and gives him fatal blood poisoning. It's no wonder he's gone absolutely insane!

* There’s something about the [[UncannyValley oddly-human mouth]] of the Xenomorph that’s very troubling. That “something” probably being its usual expression before it strikes: it looks ''angry.'' [[FridgeHorror Let that sink in a little:]] not only does this monster want to kill you/use you for breeding stock, '''[[OhCrap it absolutely fucking hates you.]]'''

* The 2019 stage play adds a level of TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou, as the first proper appearance of the grown alien has it roar from behind the audience and then crawl down the aisle, with only its back spines visible to anyone not in an aisle seat. Sigourney Weaver herself stated that the show scared her, and she was constantly on the lookout for where it might be.

* ''NightmareFuel/Alien 40th Anniversary Shorts''

* ''NightmareFuel/Alien40thAnniversaryShorts''

** The ominous opening in particular really drives the horror of the film home, as a sequence of apparently random white bars appear at the top of the screen, slowly forming identifiable letters. It's only when the word, a word most of would use quite casually without thinking about its connotations, is spelled out so slowly and menacingly that the true ''eerieness'' it conveys really occurs to us. Try saying it out slowly out loud and listen to yourself carefully:

* In-universe, Ellen Ripley herself... before and after she was cloned. Feared by both Aliens and some humans. YEP, you heard that right. Even the ''XENOMORPHS'' are '''''afraid''''' of this one human.

* In-universe, Ellen Ripley herself... before and after she was cloned. Feared by both Aliens and some humans.