The Alien being worshiped by a cult - Live Action

[Immortan Jonesy]

The psychological realism behind a group of people who worship the Alien in a cult / religion seems interesting to me. Of course, my interest intensifies when I think about the idea being executed in a movie. But what about you?

Do you think the Alien being worshiped by a cult / religion would be great?

[Corporal Hicks]

Any concept is going to depend on who is writing and directing it, but in general I think the concept could work. I'd like to see more of it! Especially if it's twisted in some way in that the cult is actually correct (like in the Covenant prequel book, but they weren't really worshipping the Aliens).

[SiL]

I think Aliens: Sacrifice had a very interesting take on the concept.

I think the main barrier for live action is you'd kind of need to set up the Aliens being around/common knowledge for a while for it to really feel justified. Otherwise you get A3's Golic-like toe-dipping into the concept.

[Kradan]

I think Aliens: Sacrifice had a very interesting take on the concept.

I think the main barrier for live action is you'd kind of need to set up the Aliens being around/common knowledge for a while for it to really feel justified. Otherwise you get A3's Golic-like toe-dipping into the concept.

Oh, this comic. Sooo good. Everyone wants Labyrinth to be turned into live-action but I want this one .

[SiL]

I'd prefer Sacrifice or Salvation over Labyrinth, honestly.

[Kradan]

Yes

[StrangeShape]

I think Aliens: Sacrifice had a very interesting take on the concept.

I think the main barrier for live action is you'd kind of need to set up the Aliens being around/common knowledge for a while for it to really feel justified. Otherwise you get A3's Golic-like toe-dipping into the concept.

Oh, this comic. Sooo good. Everyone wants Labyrinth to be turned into live-action but I want this one .

Agree. Such a chilling tale and one of my top favorites, but probably not enough for a full movie. A segment of sorts maybe

[Whiskeybrewer]

My idea for an Alien film always had this concept in it.

But thinking on it you'd need at least 2 films to really have the concept settle. Unless you want it to be the big twist

[Immortan Jonesy]

I've to read Aliens: Sacrifice and yeah, the idea is interesting by itself. One can speak of madness, but I can imagine some people being victims of manipulation by an insane ... as in real life cults. It would be great if a director explores the psychological side of worshiping a monster. Why would people do that?

Motivations

Maybe they admire the purity of the survivor; unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. So from that way of thinking, they start to interpret the Alien as a superior being or something.

Another scenario is that humans in a lost space society can no longer reproduce by sex and want to develop a life cycle similar to that of the Alien. That or maybe some kind of phallocentric cult, who see in the Perfect Organism a symbol of fertility through life and death. 

Of course we can't forget the old cliche of theistic satanism, with the Alien being interpreted by crazy folks as the antichrist or the Devil. 

Settings

1) Bladerunneresque: The Alien being worshiped by an erotic / kinky religion, with dudes that looks like the Cenobites from Hellraiser, in a cyberpunk setting.



Note: I'd be enthusiastic about a setting more or less similar to Vincent Ward's Alien³ or Scott Sigler's Alien - Phalanx: humans living with an age-old lifestyle despite being the future. So:

2) Vintage: I can portray in my head a colony on another planet where people live like humanity in the 17th century, all of them being organized by something like a space Puritan doctrine. 

3) Ancient: On the other hand, there is the possibility of reusing the concept of Dan O'Bannon for third time (AVP & Prometheus). At AVP we have a small glimpse of the idea of ​​sacrifices involving Aliens at a temple, but only for a brief flashback, and in Prometheus we don't have anything of that at all. The religious aproach is handled in a different way. I want to see the sacrifices (and why not, the torture too) being experienced by the characters thenselfs. So I was thinking of humans from the future building ancient-looking temples similar to Earth's pyramids, where Aliens are worshiped and terrifying rituals take place.

4) Medieval & Gothic: I still dig the medieval setting, which can be enhanced with gothic elements to build an even more unsettling atmosphere. That being said, I believe Eggmorphing would be neat for this.

[Stitch]

You could have a cult worshipping a god that they have no likeness of, and making a pilgrimage to somewhere that just happens to have eggs. Then the alien becomes the embodiment of their god, bursting from the chest of the preacher mid-sermon.
That way, you wouldn't need knowledge of the alien to be widespread.

[SpaceKase]

Some strong Henry Kane vibes up in here...

[SM]

Cult worshipping can work as an element; not sure as the main story though.

[Drukathi]

Aliens: Earth Hive (= oubreak, aliens book one) for the win!

Also - the true Aliens sequel.

[Corporal Hicks]

Another scenario is that humans in a lost space society can no longer reproduce by sex and want to develop a life cycle similar to that of the Alien. That or maybe some kind of phallocentric cult, who see in the Perfect Organism a symbol of fertility through life and death. 

This is actually something I think about a lot. Not the human angle, but the idea of something being so interested in the Alien due to its ability to reproduce. I think it was the most single interesting aspect of Aliens: Original Sin, and it's what I use as the Engineer (or Space Jockey) motivation for their fascination with the Alien in my headcanon. I think they're obsessed with reproduction. I think that's why we were created, as a way to explore the original evolution and reproduction of the Engineer form.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Another scenario is that humans in a lost space society can no longer reproduce by sex and want to develop a life cycle similar to that of the Alien. That or maybe some kind of phallocentric cult, who see in the Perfect Organism a symbol of fertility through life and death. 

This is actually something I think about a lot. Not the human angle, but the idea of something being so interested in the Alien due to its ability to reproduce. I think it was the most single interesting aspect of Aliens: Original Sin, and it's what I use as the Engineer (or Space Jockey) motivation for their fascination with the Alien in my headcanon. I think they're obsessed with reproduction. I think that's why we were created, as a way to explore the original evolution and reproduction of the Engineer form.

The idea of ​​Engineers as hermaphrodite beings is interesting to me.

"They are men – and yet not men" - Jon Spaihts

"If you look at the Engineers," they're tall and elegant ... they are dark angels. If you look at Paradise Lost, the guys who have the best time in the story are the dark angels, not God." - Ridley Scott

And since Scott mentioned the so called "dark angels", I think I'd have liked a science fiction style literalism: the Engineers are indeed angel-looking; an in between of male & female. Their current biology does not allow them to reproduce by sexual means. I definitely dig the theory. The Engineers searching for the reproduction blueprints of their original biology though mankind. Maybe the focus of their interest changes once they find / create the Alien.



The image below is a Prometheus concept art. I'm not a big fan of the design itself, but I dig the idea. I'd have preferred that there were no men and women in their kind, but androgynous beings instead.