It’s Friday and that means we’re in for a brand spanking new Alien: 40th Anniversary Short! This week sees the release of Aidan Brezonick‘s Alien: Night Shift. Check out the synopsis and video below!
When a missing space trucker is discovered hungover and disoriented, his co-worker suggests a nightcap as a remedy. Near closing time, they are reluctantly allowed inside the colony supply depot where the trucker’s condition worsens, leaving a young supply worker alone to take matters into her own hands.
In addition to checking out Aidan’s short, you can also learn a little more about the man behind the camera in this “Meet the Filmmaker” video from the Alien: Anthology YouTube channel. They also have videos up for the filmmakers behind Containment and Specimen too!
Next Friday sees the release of Alien: Ore which was written and directed by the Spear Sisters: Sam and Kailey!
As a hard-working miner of a planet mining colony, Lorraine longs to make a better life for her daughter and grandchildren. When her shift uncovers the death of a fellow miner under mysterious circumstances, Lorraine is forced to choose between escape or defying management orders and facing her fears to fight for the safety of her family.
Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien and Predator! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
Fantastic detail and repugnant.
The behind the scenes shots of the creatures look pretty great here:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1vjTC_PTMzBjCE7ulstoNXSeGKRSsrlWH4_zv-p7E_wRYGJ6LW3V0ty5b4lo3JbpfbklcoCKlQeQ-yo-mQxBu0XjGz666LJFEbIYpPn9WzCTu7KSS7k1_BmPoN6fL7erMkYRewO5
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/nLFGdb_eiuQFnYs6rptokXqzPyalpe9TD_HkVkBxGVAb4tFNQQjma74Muk1WYQ3qm6sx2ttEisgKJQk9sNSfIFpB1ux9dDwhA0399zuQirfHQzZ1LUdVDKC7SUHpEAvb5zPOUYy8
It's a reference to the line from Alien:
"I feel dead"
"Anybody tell you look dead?"
Cinematography 2/5
The version that is currently online is horribly dark but I'm guessing this is a colour grading issue, not the fault of the DP. By brightening it in VLC media player I got a more reasonable picture. The soft lighting is a very odd choice for a horror thriller, where harder lights with deep shadows is what you typically want for an edgy, tension-filled drama. The opening Springer/Rolly conversation at the computer terminal, where they put an additional overhead soft box, looks too toppy for my taste. It gives Rolly and Springer that sinister effect you see in The Godfather, which might have been useful for other characters, but not these ones. (Interestingly, once the crew got the soft box mounted over top they left it there permanently and tried to disguise it as part of the set - it has the "no smoking" sign on it). The trouble wth so much soft light is that it tends to spill everywhere, making it impossible to flag off the walls. And the effect of that was to give the entire room a higher-key look than they probably wanted. I wonder if they had the walls specially painted that dark grey to try to combat this. And that leads me to wonder if maybe the dark colour grade was intentional after all, in order to restore some creepy, dark corners to the picture; but if so all they proved was that you can't simply crank down the brightness in post and expect to get well-exposed low-key lighting, after the fact.
Acting 3/5
I must admit, I got a bit annoyed with Welles's street-slang method-mumble which I sometimes found unintelligible. Apart from that all the performances were good.
Production Design 3/5
I very much liked the alleyway prologue and the spaceship VFX in the background. The "moon shed" location was a good choice; imagine how bad it would have looked if it had been set in a standard rectangular room. My main complaint is that it wasn't entirely convincing as a supply depot, more like a junk store.
Direction 2/5
Prologue worked well, except they should have revealed the face-hugger only at end of the scene, in the light from the spaceship. (It looks like in editing the director made a late decision to go with this approach by trying to conceal the face-hugger early on, with the subtitle placed over top of it.)
I wondered why the spaceship taking off was so silent - that was confusing - but now I think it being noiseless gave the scene an unsettling, ghostly effect.
I wasn't impressed with the ending much. The climax of the story being conveyed by offscreen sound FX felt a bit too cheap (I'm talking about the xeno outbreak). It was something you'd only grudgingly accept in a stage play. It also happened rather abruptly. The outbreak needed to be foreshadowed far more strongly.
Story 2/5
Most often, in order to hold the audience's attention, the main character needs to be powerfully motivated towards achieving some kind of goal. This needs to be signalled to the audience early on because it serves as the spine of the plot, taking us from the tale's beginning to end. We know Harper is carrying a chestburster, and we want to see the inevitable happen, so there is some interest in that to keep us watching, but for 2/3rds of the film no one in the story is aware of the life and death stakes hidden in Harper's chest and, in fact, no one is especially motivated by anything much. Welles is the only character driven by any kind of purpose and even then it's only to score some booze for the night.
Since everyone is oblivious to the chestburster time-bomb that's set to go off, the story really needs some other subplot to drive the narrative forward and put characters in conflict. If I may be so bold, here's how I would have rewritten the story:
Spoiler
Alleyway:
Welles finds Harper sleeping on the ground. Harper says he spent the whole day passed out in the alley. Welles shows Harper his new gun. He says they can use it to "persuade" the despatch office to give them free passage on the next cargo ship to Earth. However, first they'll need to use Harper's airside clearance to get past Security Control. Harper agrees. When he gathers his things and they walk away, a dead face-hugger is revealed on the ground beneath Harper's rucksack.
Despatch Office:
Two Despatch Officers, Springer and Rolly, are working the night shift. On the radio an announcer says some dangerous animals have escaped from a livestock shipment, and all personnel are advised to stay indoors while Port Authority handles the problem.
Rolly complains that the facility is shabby and in dire need of maintenance. She points to an old power board with frayed wiring in the corner of the room. Springer says the company doesn't care because there's so little traffic. Not like the old days when the office used to buzz with activity, what with all the space crews passing through. Then the work dried up because most of the cargo freighters converted to robot ships.
The front door bell sounds. Welles and Harper are outside. Via the intercom, Springer tells them they can only come in if they have security clearance. If so, they should use the retinal scanner. Harper looks into the scanner, the door opens, and the two of them enter.
Welles pulls out the gun and points it at Springer and Rolly. He demands two boarding passes for the next flight to Earth.
The back door leads to the port's landing pad. Through a port-hole window, a robot cargo ship can be seen out on the apron; the whine of its engines warming up penetrates the walls. Springer says the ship has a berth for only one human and he holds out a single boarding pass. He says, "Do you want it or not? The ship's ramp closes in 4 minutes." Welles says to Harper, you look too ill for travel, and reaches for the pass. But Springer, rather than handing it over, taunts Welles with it, then hits a remote control that locks down all the office's exits.
Welles goes gun crazy and riddles Springer with 10 rounds from the gun. He takes the pass from Springer's body.
The radio reports that the wild animals on the loose have caused widespread injuries and even deaths. Marshall law has been implemented while Port Authority brings the situation under control.
The stress causes the chestburster to bust out of Harper, killing him.
The creature runs at Welles but when he tries to shoot it, he finds the gun empty. It kills him in a frenzied attack.
While it's teeth are still embedded in Welles's throat, Rolly grabs a loose high voltage cable from the old power board and stabs it into Welles's body, electrocuting the creature.
There is commotion outside as the port is overrun by xenos. The window at the front of the office is smashed as a security team runs past, firing weapons. Lots of screaming.
Rolly takes the boarding pass, unlocks the back door, and sprints for the ship.
Overall 2/5
I thought the music score was excellent. The sound design too. There were obvious technical problems with the post-sync dialogue, which I think can be traced back to the choice of the "moon shed" as their set. It gave all the production sound a metallic reverb which you can hear when Springer says to Welles, "Do you mind?" - probably one of the few bits of original production sound remaining. That must be why the dialogue was replaced. I also liked the chestburster effects, apart from the one shot where it runs at Rolly.
Some technical weaknesses, but mainly falls flat in the story.
TC
^
It's a short film about Aliens. Even my mum would have spotted it. I thought the scene was framed just right, until the end.
You can do either, but not both. It either lingers off shot with just enough vagueness or you only catch it at the scene transition.
Yes, I do believe quite so.
That was just exquisite.
Yes very tasteful. Not overpowering nor gratuitous, but possessing a unique post-life stature with the slightest hint of jasmine, olive and passion fruit, with just the right sprinkle of decay.
And he's seen both Jism movies
This one gave me one of those hmmm moments, the chestburster scene seemed very familiar and of a superior quality to the rest of the short, just saying.
Going against the general feeling here and stating the story line was excellent. We get the feeling the story is set in an ongoing narrative, stuff has happened previously and will happen after ... check. Shock ending ... check. Likeable lead character ... check.
I'm perhaps more forgiving on these as the budget precludes the Oscar worthy cinematics some people are apparently expecting.
It's really the only thing it did right.
Not everybody is an alien fan. For many people, it's just another horror franchise or an old movie. The shorts are meant for more than us, and if I wasn't a hardcore fan, I might not notice the hugger there until it was pointed out by the light. As a fan, I look for that stuff everywhere. The general public might not. So what leaps out at us, might blend just fine for others.
Sound issues, guy shoots the ceiling ? Space balls alien. Ending was decent.
Feel bad shitting on a short, but this one misses the mark by quite a bit. Looked nice mind you.
Listen to this man, he's older and wiser than the rest of you.
If you would.
Well, it says "to love her is to die".
https://i.imgur.com/AV4SMsE.jpg
Never seen the sequel either.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDUyOGM5MDMtODllZS00NWY4LThlNGMtY2FjZDczZjU1YjQ5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDUzOTQ5MjY@._V1_SY1000_SX692_AL_.jpg
Politics is the realm of war, footsie and crossdressing.
#LeaveMyJismAlone
The long game.
https://media2.giphy.com/media/3o6ZsUJ44ffpnAW7Dy/source.gif
I suppose it's the only way one can legitimately say they've never seen Jism before.
Jism: The Movie "Its coming"
Spoiler
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Jism.jpg
I'm offended that someone would besmirch the good name of Jism, by using it in relation to politics.
To moan about it being new is laughable. And to bandy around labels like "easily offended jizz buckets" when no one had mentioned anything about offense is a massive giveaway to say nothing of incredibly ironic.
It was always too late to prevent that. Far too late.
Yeah, of course it was all "for the quality of the show". Sure that's what you meant.
I want this on a T-Shirt. The whole damned thing!
The idea that the race and gender of a character has never been a point of contention for some people before the last twenty years is insane
Indeed.
We all love a movie series that has had a female lead before it was cool.
I'm sure he meant when there wasn't so much bickering about almost any decision surrounding the making of a movie and instead people wanted to just discuss the material in the movie.
https://media.giphy.com/media/7x0PA6zCKuLKM/giphy.gif
Pretty much.
The "good old days" when nearly all film heroes were straight white men, and the people who didn't give a shit were also straight white men and that suited them just fine? The ones who now complain about the "good old days" because more women and people of colour are invading their straight white male movies?
Yeah.
Those were the days.
For sure. If that's what they're aiming for. I wouldn't mind an attempt from one of the later films to do that - regardless of character sex.
McAvoy is in everything.
Why so hardy for Hardy? Someone like James McAvoy is so clearly better suited for Alien than mumbles!
But for God's sake, can we please get Cillian Murphy in an alien movie already!
Just to be even meaner, Alien 3 should have included a line from Michael Bishop telling Ripley that they'd euthanize and vivisect her cat just in case if she wouldn't play ball.