The Xenomorph from Alien has become a
cultural phenomenon over the years, making appearances and references in
multiple films and other media. There are several reasons why this is the case,
mostly because of how horrifying it was during the time and even today, it uses
true fear rather then just jump scares that frequently happen in horror films
today.
To the left is a mood board of behind the
scenes photos from the film Alien, as well as official merchandise of the film.
It’s difficult to get an exact reference as each Xenomorph in all the films
have different designs.
The design of the Xenomorph in the first
Alien film is unique to creature design of its time, there are no visible eyes;
you have no idea if this creature is sleeping, awake or aware and looking right
at you. The structure of the body is very complex, it makes your eye dart along
its body, you cant get a good look at it, especially within the dark. Which
will make most people feel uneasy. The creature also looks almost insect like,
especially with its horrific life cycles that are common within the insect
world. A lot of people seem to have an irrational fear of insects including
spiders, beetles, slugs etc. Having any near them makes them want to scream, no
surprising that the 8foot Xenomorph is especially terrifying to them as all
together, it is a strange mix of bones, mucus and death.
The gore within the film has a very sexual
theme to its design, along with most of H. R. Giger’s work which you can see on
the right a mood board of his work. His work has a lot of sexual, bio-mechanical
themes which you can clearly see where the alien got most of its inspiration
and design from. The film targets two common fears, rape and childbirth. The
rape aspect coming from the face hugger and death in childbirth from the chest
buster, both parts of the Xenomorph’s reproductive cycle that have been forced
upon each victim.
There is also a strange connection to men
who watch the film as they don’t fear these two in the same way as women,
therefore adding a whole new category of fear for them. Giger’s aims to create uneasiness
when viewing his work and finds ways to incorporate that into his work for
Alien. During production of Alien 3, Giger had so many ideas that by the time
the script was finished they didn’t want to push the start date back and they
continued with the main finished designs that the team liked, leaving Giger
with very little contact with the team and Fox.
The art team wanted to respect Giger’s work
by trying their best to incorporate his style as well as using his colour
palette on the characters. Towards the end of the film, Giger was not involved
at all with the film and he did not react favorably to the final designs of the
alien.
Over all, there are many aspects,
inspirations and other artists for the design of the Xenomorph. The creature is
not only complicated as it is terrifying, but is completely and truly thought
out in each life cycle and behavior. It is a shame that contact with Giger was
lost as he had many unfinished ideas that he wanted to share and ended up with
a design that he didn’t fully like but had his name attached to it. If he had
had his way the films could of ended up completely different, which I’m not so
sure would of made Alien and its franchise as huge as it is today.
Below are videos on H. R. Giger talking
through his work process on Alien and when he was redesigning the alien for Alien
3 and interviews with other crew members on Giger during filming of Alien.
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