How will Blomkamp achieve making the Alien scary again?

[LastSurvivor92]

that's what I think about every time I'm swimming in the ocean. I always am afraid there's a shark around me.

Jumbo squid are worse. :-]

One word, Australia. Nearly every other thing there is worse than sharks and squids and they also have those!

I think of Culuthlu and jumbo squid if I'm way out in the middle of the ocean on a cruise or fishing. Sharks are something far more relevant toward the shore.

I go to Florida a few times a year. We stay at a timeshare right on the ocean near some fancy hotels and there have been many times where staff and residents have spotted bull sharks and a couple great whites. I remember one of the cabana boys telling me he was on a paddle board paddling out from the shore when he saw a bullshark swimm right below his paddle board. Quite terrifying. I can only imagine if he fell off the paddle board.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

I think another thing that blomkamp will need to look for is actors that are really god at showing fear. great example would be lambert from alien and Hudson from aliens.

...and Golic from A3 and Purvis from A:R.

[Murfy426]

I think another thing that blomkamp will need to look for is actors that are really god at showing fear. great example would be lambert from alien and Hudson from aliens.

...and Golic from A3 and Purvis from A:3.

I Know who golic is but you will have to forgive me which one is Purvis? Sorry been ages since I watched the third movie

[Son Of Kane]

Purvis from A:R my friend.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

I think another thing that blomkamp will need to look for is actors that are really god at showing fear. great example would be lambert from alien and Hudson from aliens.

...and Golic from A3 and Purvis from A:R.

I Know who golic is but you will have to forgive me which one is Purvis? Sorry been ages since I watched the third movie

Sorry about the confusion. Fixed my post.

Golic is the mentally unstable inmate calling the Alien "a dragon". Purvis is one of the guys used for a host in A:R.

[Xenomorphine]

Golic was more mentally unhinged than scared. From what I recall, his mentality was that the Alien was there to cull everyone else and leave him and Ripley as the new Adam and Eve.

Says a lot about his personality that he must have seen Fury as the Garden of Eden...

Same applies to Hudson; he was more on edge than being genuinely scared. Lambert, yeah, she often very nervous and even fearful.

[Born Of Cold Light]

One way they could make the series scary again is by returning to the slow motion dynamics of the first film.  The last few films have featured aliens screeching jumping around like jackrabbits which has caused them to lose much of their horror potential.  If they returned to the idea of the Alien being this slow, deliberate, sadistic hunter, you could return some horror to the series.  The Alien didn't pop down and grab it's victims, it took its time with Brett, Lambert and Ripley.  This greatly increased the horror factor as you did not know what was going to happen: 







Something else visually that they could do is to return the aura of death that surrounded the xenomorph in the first film.  I don't mean that by simply making it dangerous, as that's to be expected, but almost make it seem like it itself is afflicted with something.  When you see the Alien in the first film, it just doesn't seem quite right.  Its head shakes when it's waiting to strike, making it appear more visceral than what we see in later films when the xenomorphs struck quickly and with absolute fluidity.  This shaking, combined with the uncontrollable drool (all Aliens drooled but the one from Alien seemed to be frothing at the mouth), almost makes it look sick and old, almost geriatric.  It almost at times looked like it was struggling to attack:





Of course, as far as we know, it wasn't, but a return to this ancient, ever so slightly creaky feel without actually compromising the power and danger of the Alien could bring back the horror.  A scene with an Alien being portrayed in this way would be like watching an avatar of death bringing down victims into hell as it itself rotted away.  This would be far scarier than the pumped action figures we saw in Resurrection and the AVP films (Aliens and Alien 3 partially retained the dynamic I mentioned, especially Aliens).

[Xenomorphine]

There's nothing wrong with speed. I'd love to see them properly leaping between walls/posts, like in 'Aliens', again. Remember the one which came at Ripley, after she released Newt? That's what I'm talking about - and makes their movement pattern very unpredictable, too.

If they move slowly around, they'd just be very big targets.

The problem is that the fast movement hasn't been portrayed well since the eighties (like a lot of things about them), not that it does not suit them.

[Born Of Cold Light]

Speed is fine if used right, as you said, like what we saw in Aliens.  The creature in the first film did use speed to some degree, like when it struck with its tongue and when it whipped around to attack Parker.  The thing is, the Alien in the first film was like an inexorable juggernaut; it just kept coming slowly and nothing could stop it.  This is perfectly illustrated with Parker's death; you have Parker lunging and punching at the Alien while it just slowly pins him and then kills him with ease.  The Aliens in Aliens did take their time as well, like what we saw in Burke's death, but we haven't really seen again the 'walking death' image that we got in Alien.  As for it being a target, one way to rectify this is to pit it against another group of people who are scared and have no idea what they are doing, like the crew of the Nostromo.  Also, there's the issue of the acid blood burning through the hull, and this just wasn't just seen in Alien.  In the scene right after Elgin's death, the characters had enough weapons to blow the Alien to pieces yet they didn't since they would have all died.  Thus you had all these tough guys with big guns spending all their energy trying to break down a door while the Alien slowly stalked them.

[NickisSmart]

"A scene with an Alien being portrayed in this way would be like watching an avatar of death bringing down victims into hell as it itself rotted away..."

Brilliantly way to look at it. The first film certainly had a lot of psychological elements and visual motifs. I remember Rob Ager explaining these different elements in his analysis of Alien. Alien 5 needs that kind of depth. Of course, the film was a brainchild of a union of artists: Dan O'Bannon, Ron Cobb, H. R. Giger, Ridley Scott, among others. So the film is an extremely visual one. Neil himself is a gifted artist, but he needs a team of like-minded individuals.

Also consider the use of sound and pacing in Alien. There are many scenes without music, and scenes where nothing occurs. The beginning is slow and dreamlike. Ash's identity is revealed in the most jarring manner possible, as is the 8th passenger from inside Kane's chest. It's all expected, now, but when it first happened, it was total shock. Neil's gotta find a way to surprise the audience the way Scott did in 1979, or James did with the Queen in Aliens. Alien 5 needs a couple fresh trips up its sleeves.

[NetworkATTH]

It's a good way to do it, but Ridley always intended there to be speed, motion, in the creature itself. He actually wanted it to run, and while it was running, scream. But they realized that was impossible, couldn't be pulled off. You could actually see some of his original intentions in the story boards he mapped out, showing the motion he thought the Alien should move in. Cameron actually adapted Ridley's original intentions on screen, to a degree. I'm sure there's a way to pull it off with erotic elements within it. Feminine ones.

[JungleHunter87]

Alien 5 needs that kind of depth. Of course, the film was a brainchild of a union of artists: Dan O'Bannon, Ron Cobb, H. R. Giger, Ridley Scott, among others. So the film is an extremely visual one. Neil himself is a gifted artist, but he needs a team of like-minded individuals.

Also consider the use of sound and pacing in Alien. There are many scenes without music, and scenes where nothing occurs. The beginning is slow and dreamlike. Ash's identity is revealed in the most jarring manner possible, as is the 8th passenger from inside Kane's chest. It's all expected, now, but when it first happened, it was total shock. Neil's gotta find a way to surprise the audience the way Scott did in 1979, or James did with the Queen in Aliens. Alien 5 needs a couple fresh trips up its sleeves.

^This.

Although I don't know where today one could find modern day dopplegangers of the likes of Cobb, Mead, Giger, Fost, Moebius, or even a Stan Winston? The kind of talent that were assembled for the first two films was almost like a wish list of great maverick artist. Whose styles seemingly complimented each other nicely. If Blomkamp IS lucky and/or intelligent enough to find people like those mentioned above. The question I then fear the answer to be, is if he will be able to sort through all the noise and pull together a cohesive idea on how to make the Alien cinematically terrifying again. Whilst being original. Without it coming off as hackneyed or desperate.

[Born Of Cold Light]

Brilliantly way to look at it. The first film certainly had a lot of psychological elements and visual motifs. I remember Rob Ager explaining these different elements in his analysis of Alien. Alien 5 needs that kind of depth. Of course, the film was a brainchild of a union of artists: Dan O'Bannon, Ron Cobb, H. R. Giger, Ridley Scott, among others. So the film is an extremely visual one. Neil himself is a gifted artist, but he needs a team of like-minded individuals.

I agree, I hope he does get some great artists to contribute to what he already has (which, despite the naysayers, is a good start).  There actually are a number of Deviantart artists whom I think could greatly contribute to a horror feel for the next movie.

Also consider the use of sound and pacing in Alien. There are many scenes without music, and scenes where nothing occurs. The beginning is slow and dreamlike. Ash's identity is revealed in the most jarring manner possible, as is the 8th passenger from inside Kane's chest. It's all expected, now, but when it first happened, it was total shock. Neil's gotta find a way to surprise the audience the way Scott did in 1979, or James did with the Queen in Aliens. Alien 5 needs a couple fresh trips up its sleeves.

Good pacing definitely needs to be there, and I agree with you about the soundtrack.  To be honest, I wouldn't mind an Alien 3-style beginning that throws you into the thick of things, but then gives you a down time where you start to think everything is alright.  Also, while all of the Alien films (minus the AVP ones) have had great music, none of them captured the sense of isolating dread that you heard on Alien.  And definitely, no music can be just very effective, such as when Brett was attacked.

One great composer that might be good for these kinds of effects would be the dark ambient artist Lustmord, whose done work for films like The Crow.  His song Black Star sounds almost exactly like something from the Alien soundtrack:
http://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/purifying-fire

Also, check out the songs Dark Companion and Abaddon (hell, nearly all his stuff would be perfect).

It's a good way to do it, but Ridley always intended there to be speed, motion, in the creature itself. He actually wanted it to run, and while it was running, scream. But they realized that was impossible, couldn't be pulled off. You could actually see some of his original intentions in the story boards he mapped out, showing the motion he thought the Alien should move in. Cameron actually adapted Ridley's original intentions on screen, to a degree. I'm sure there's a way to pull it off with erotic elements within it. Feminine ones.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sCQmVnAaRW8/UCA77NFY9MI/AAAAAAAACho/kCZv9omEgAQ/s1600/ALIEN-38.bmp

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ud0eAukDgFg/UCBTYy4NlsI/AAAAAAAACks/eq_3M-h_H-8/s1600/ALIEN-44.bmp

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-st48qIEYOTU/UCA-1mInjCI/AAAAAAAACi4/biY4GD8wIhY/s1600/ALIEN-51.bmp

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HHHxruAYh6U/UCA9TfR1RzI/AAAAAAAACiI/W8cjdkkU910/s1600/ALIEN-45.bmp

I've seen those pictures before, but I didn't know that Ridley wanted the Alien to move fast and scream all the time.  While I no doubt know that he would have made it awesome, I kind of like that we got the mostly silent, slow-moving beast.  One way to make fast work would be to remove the 'bounding' movement we saw in later films and replace it with something that is simultaneously more human in some ways (running mostly bipedally while on the ground), while twisting itself into all sorts of bizarre contortions while using the walls and ceiling.  This could play on the notion that things that are more familiar and human are somewhat more terrifying than those that are strictly alien in appearace (e.g., a humanoid robot is in some ways scarier than a big Transformer) while also being so alien that it moves in ways no Earth-like creature should.  We need to get away from the simple four-legged animal movement.

[Xenomorphine]

As for it being a target, one way to rectify this is to pit it against another group of people who are scared and have no idea what they are doing, like the crew of the Nostromo.

'Aliens' proves that wrong.

Just like in 'Aliens', this needs to have a mixture of both methods. That's what I'm aiming for in my own fan-film project: A fanged, spectral phantom when circumstances mean it can afford to stalk/intimidate. When they don't, it's a proverbial chainsaw tornado.

That's what makes real footage of things like large sharks and squid so engaging. You can see there's intelligence behind their actions, but they come at their prey like a vicious, nuclear-powered freight train when they feel determined to.

We'll get the 'Alien Isolation' vibe, but so long as they don't just slowly wander around and look superficially menacing, that's what it needs.

This is what made the 'Aliens' nursery chamber scene so effective. You really get that sense of building pressure as they're silently out-flanking - and then abducting - the Marines. They're horrifying because we see them effortlessly loom up behind their victims and then snatch them with speed, like massive, biomechanical trap-door spiders. Then teh threat becomes plausible because we're seeing the soldier's react, but not having much actual effect against their stealthy enemies.

Then it all goes haywire as they're running to the exit and you can see, in just short, snapshot glimpses, that the creatures are adapting, likewise. They're not just lumbering around. They're like a bipedal school of barracuda, swift and efficient. Using walls/ceilings in a way the human characters can't.

That shot of one rising up behind Newt has a really powerful visual impact. But seeing one leaping between walls at Ripley when she's extracting the girl... The one lunging at lightning speed at Hicks in the elevator... Even the one which stealthily rises in anticipation to strike at the distracted Drake, only to whirl with inhuman speed at Vasquez... Stuff like that is the ideal combination and it works so very well.

You'll also notice that most of the feeling conveyed to the audience isn't actually with shots of the creatures. It's mostly via motion tracker, allowing the director to conserve those money shots of the costumes.

[NickisSmart]

One thing about Aliens that I liked a lot are the Aliens' abilities to attack from the ceiling and jump off walls. And the speed of the one that nearly gets Hicks and Ripley in the elevator was great. But there was certainly quite a bit of buildup between attacks. Not as much as in Alien, but enough, like Hicks pushing the elevator button and them waiting... So excruciating!

I think a huge step is the music, though.

Personally I think the Alien: Isolation team knocked it out of the park with their music. Just amazing stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeunRV9LE90#ws

Another great example of that spooky ambiance I think Alien 5 needs is the Doom PSX OST:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV5UnANIj3c#

The right music married to the right visuals, with a good pace to the visuals, with moments to soak in the dread, essentially will carry the film. The actors themselves need not be complex, but convincing (realistic dialogue like in Alien, instead of the scripted Prometheus-style dialogue). The set needs to be peopled with believable characters. Not big-name thespians reading their lines in bombastic fashion.

If these conditions are met, the story can be kept minimal. No explanation needed when you see the Space Jockey. : )

Edit: Of course, the original score for Alien in its complete form wasn't released until after Jerry Goldsmith's death. I think it was released in 2010, but I could be wrong. In the original firm, the opening was rewritten, and the ending replaced with Howard Hanson's Romantic Symphony (imo, the best ending theme of any science fiction film, ever). Also, the film's editor, Terry Rawlings, listened to Jerry Goldsmith's Freud while editing the film (which was silent as a workprint). The music worked so well that they used it during the acid test, and while Dallas is in the vents.

I think Jerry wanted his score used unchanged, but Scott happily cut it into little pieces and used it when he felt like it. Some of the best scenes have no music at all, but instead have ambient sounds: breathing, heartbeats, and machine noises. Some scenes, such as Ripley undressing, are almost complete silent except for sound effects. Or, the crew in the Derelict, with the only sound being heard are their helmets. The lighting of that tunnel is so incredibly and eerie when all you can see are the shadows of the space suits, hear the breathing of the venting helmets, and nothing else. Pure audio/visual bliss.

Of course, the score itself featured a lot of unusual instruments, or instruments played in strange fashion. That weird wind sound that occurs several times, such as during the opening scene, which the makers of Alien: Isolation later dubbed as the "space whale." I'm hoping the sound guys for Alien 5 tap into that. Create bizarre otherwordly sounds that will drive our imaginations crazy. And for God's sake, keep the movie dark! The reason the first film works so well is it's not what you see, but what you think you see. And once you start hearing things, your mind plays tricks on you.

On a different note, one of my favorite films of all time is Halloween. In it, JC loved to have the Shape in the foreground and background with the other actors unaware of it. I can't remember if anything like this happens in Alien or not, but I remember the medic in Aliens saying "Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all!" before the alien warrior climbs out of the wall and grabs her. The shot works very well -- and the Shape in Halloween worked so well -- because there wasn't a cut. We're given time to dwell on what we're seeing, like an evil magic eye that kills you when you solve it. I hope Alien 5 has minimal cuts and long takes. Alien did, much to its benefit.