Not only is it Friday, it’s Alien Day! And that means that we’re being treated to the last two Alien: 40th Anniversary Short! First up we have Benjamin Howdeshell’s Alien: Harvest!
“The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along.”
And once you’ve finished watching Alien: Harvest, head on over to the Alien Anthology YouTube channel to check out their Meet the Filmmaker video with Benjamin!
What do you think of Alien: Harvest? Be sure to let us know below! And keep an eye on the Perfect Organism Podcast for their upcoming interview with the writer and director!
Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on the Alien 40th Anniversary celebrations! 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!
100 % agreed
My dad said that when he read my first book.
I'm kidding, he refuses to read my work...
It's Prometheus-ish the experience is worse each time.
Well, that was the case with the queen but i always assumed she did so because she was f**king outraged in general and Bishop helped her enemies flew off. But in Harvest android actually helped alien to get people, so yeah still a bit strange.
But outside of the logic it was pretty terrifying seeing alien's tail through her chest and her twitching as hell in convulsions. I think it served the creepiness of the ending pretty well.
Harvest is my favourite one. It was the only one that scared me to shit. That ending to me was creepy as f**k. That egg really terrified me. And that evil smiling android. I didn't expected that! Story made me believe that now everything is ok and safe and BAM! everybody is doomed. For 10 minutes short it was damn good.
It was kinda strange though that xeno killed android character with its tail ('cause usually aliens don't do so with synths ) but that didn't bugged me too mucn.
Yeah righto, because that doesn't say "I don't like evil smiling robots". Somebody give this man some spectacles.
Pretty much what her face was like. It lets the short down a bit. Would have been better had she just had an apathetic expression.
He wears a bonce?
Yeah righto...
https://i.gifer.com/origin/8a/8a9025c2813bef262f577345e0b21c3c_w200.gif
Exactly, its just too over the top and there is no need to pull such an expression, because honestly its not just smiling, its a competely psycho face.
No one even said that. And there is a difference between a smile and a full blown supervillain psycho face.
Or a pathetic justification of a ridiculous smile I'd say.
Ash isn't all that different from Hanks.
A shocking twist! A betrayal! And look -- look at that smile! The fiend!
It was cheesy even for a short film.
No. It can't, because David's a prototype.
A one of a kind, Prometheus' own sequel establishes fairly concretely David's the outlier and the successive generation of Android's emotional "expression" is redacted.
This is only reinforced by the portrayal of Walter, Ash, Bishop and Bishop again.
+ (Samuels, Davis, Marcus, Hanks)
There's something human in them, but not maniacal evil intent.
It's irrelevant because "robots can only smile evilly if they're prototypes" is asinine.
And even if it were the case - the Harvest robot can be a prototype too.
So David's hardly a precedent setter for anything, by Ridley Scott's own admission.
If only, but smiling pleasantly without kubrick stares will just have to do.
No, that's more of a "i pooped in their donuts" face.
https://www.alien-covenant.com/aliencovenant_uploads/shawdavid_(2).png
Like this?
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffo4mw16y1z42edr6j2m4n6vt.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fash1-560x288.jpg&hash=2c23cb408cf2a1298b869269f3a7df0a67dd7212
The guy who played Nass in the first short has been in a few things, most obviously the first Inbetweeners film, and is starring in a new comedy series starting on British TV in the near future.
Having watched Harvest recently, I think the android thing lets it down ny being too over the top. I mean seriously, smiling and having the "yes I am evil" facial expressions? that was a minus for me personally. It would have been better if the synthetics face was expressionless, apathetic rather malevolent.
The other thing that let it down was the facehugger effects too, it could have better done as a practical effect and it would not be too hard me thinks as you can get all sorts of alien merchandise online these days.
Other than that it was one the ones that I enjoyed better and it was good to see more of the adult alien. The sets were great as well.
Interestingly, the actress who plays Hannah is Jessica Clark, an actress who has had some major roles in mainstream media, namely as Lilith in season five and six of True Blood. I am not sure if there is any other known actors in these shorts, other than the woman who played Lorraine in Ore. Makes me wonder how they got her, did use most of the budget to hire her or did she do it for same amount as the other actors?
They've been sharing behind-the-scenes of the shorts after each has been released.
The director actually worked on a couple Resident Evil films (Extinction and 1 other, I think) in the cutting room as some kind of asst.
TC
But I really want to see something fresh and new that not your typical cat and mouse scenario or the is a creature in the room with us. If Fox/Disney do more awsome shorts like this for Alien Day in the future, can we please get fresh ideas like Alien Alone or even Specimen were it has a slight twist at the end.
Overall I have loved these shorts hope we get more in the future.
It's not especially nuanced or clever, but it is entertaining. As someone else said, at least one of these shorts had to go for the straightforward, Alien-stalks-people-and-kills them route. And I still got a good, macabre laugh out of the conclusion.
Other than doubling down on the mad robots, it makes for a nice companion to Alone because it's the polar opposite in terms of style and tone.
Anyone have any idea who the "Laurel Tooms" character is supposed to be? She's listed in the credits but I only see four in the film (plus the Alien).
It reminded me of a basking shark. Maybe that was the intention. Very cool though.