Posts Tagged ‘Alien’

It sounds crazy, but the remedy for a so-so prequel just might in fact be a sequel

Dear Universal Pictures,

Just an idea, but maybe you should dare to follow your prequel of The Thing with a sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, and make it a follow-up reminiscent of James Cameron’s Aliens.

In my review of Heijningen Jr.’s recently released prequel I note how transparent it is that what he really made was actually more of a remake. And although there is still a rather large cultural resistance to horror remakes (I’m going by fan forums here, not box office numbers), such a fact should not really be held against Heijningen Jr. himself. More appropriately, any hostility towards this truth should be directed at you because it was you who insisted on making a “prequel” that in this particular case couldn’t have been anything else but a remake. One way you could redeem yourself of this misguided decision, though, is by seriously entertaining the above suggestion.

It sounds almost paradoxical for me to suggest that the way to make up for a poorly conceived remake is to base another related story on a film that so many – including myself – consider a classic of such status that to even joke about “tampering” with it might be tantamount to heresy, but hear me out.

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Short Take: Not without intrigue, but flawed in its invention

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer; John W. Campbell Jr. (Who Goes There? novella)

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Eric Christian Olseen, Ulrich Thomsen

Length: 1h 43m

Synopsis: The following story takes place shortly before the events of John Carpenter’s 1982 film of the same title. A great scientific discovery has just been made in the wastelands of Antarctica, and top experts of various kinds are being assembled to research and document it. Paleontologists Kate (Winstead) and Adam (Olseen) are recruited by the venture’s director Dr. Halvorson (Thomsen), but exactly what their tasks will be remains a mystery to them until they’re shown what their dealing with. What the inexplicably curious discovery turns out to be is the remains of a giant alien spacecraft and a frozen specimen suspended in ancient ice. That specimen, they regret to find, is not as inanimate as one would assume. Incredibly, there is still cellular activity, and each cell is capable of imitating any foreign cell it comes into contact with. Before long the abstraction is able to, after killing them, perfectly impersonate whole people. Kate, Adam, and the rest must determine which of their fellow researchers are things, and fight to make sure they don’t reach civilization to infect the rest of the world. With so dangerous and cunning a species, this is far easier said than done.

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Movies that genuinely horrify are few and far between, and many feel it's been too long since the last one. It would appear American horror faces yet another threshold.

In order for a horror film to be affecting it must accomplish an array of feats that manipulate its audience in a way that steers it toward a desired end, which is usually one of disenfranchisement, disgust, dismay, or paranoia. But one key element to effective horror that goes largely unmentioned is the importance of pity. When a horror film does not take seriously this pivotal aspect, or neglects it altogether, what usually results is a campy flick that allows, if not promotes an audience to react with disinterest or laughter instead of shock, terror, or other sorts of psychological distress. In order to properly convey the importance of a scary movie’s ability to make an audience pity we must first examine precisely what pity is and how it works to assist a movie’s efforts to jar its viewers. From doing this we can hopefully discover the major faults of modern American horror, and see what needs to be done to revive it.

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Dan O'Bannon in a 2003 interview for the Special Edition "Alien" DVD

Famed screenwriter Dan O’Bannon passed away this week at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica Ca. after a 30 year battle with Crohn’s disease.

His most famous work includes the writing for Alien and Total Recall, as well as writing and directing the cult favorite The Return of the Living Dead. O’Bannon began his career as a sci-fi icon by working together with director John Carpenter on writing for their student-film-turned-low-budget-feature Dark Star.  And like Carpenter, he is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s film program.

O’Bannon was 63, and is survived by his wife and son.

Source: Variety