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Alien, Predator, AvP (news)

(Weeps quietly in the corner, because I’ve always wanted non-horror Alien movies and that’ll never happen. There’s so much you could do with it if you treat it as a science fiction universe instead…)
Alien has always been horror first and foremost. Why do you want it to be non-horror? How would it be non-horror?
 
Alien has always been horror first and foremost. Why do you want it to be non-horror? How would it be non-horror?

Alien has been many different things throughout the years.
Why would someone want it to be non-horror? Personal preference.
How would it be non-horror? Take Prometheus and remove the horror element. It becomes a movie about humanity trying to discover itself in the grander scheme of the universe. What drives a species to want to destroy its own creation? Why would God want to kill us? There was a lot of deep philosophy in Prometheus.
 
Alien has always been horror first and foremost. Why do you want it to be non-horror? How would it be non-horror?
I always thought there was a lot to be explored, about both the Xenomorphs and the Space Jockeys and the Company, that didn’t have to just be horror. Back in the day, we had Alien (a horror movie, then Aliens (an action movie), so I thought maybe the third one would be the sf movie where we contact the non-feral alien homeworld. But nope, the series just doubled back on Xenomorph-as-slasher forever after.

EDIT: If it had been up to me, Alien would have been a one-off horror story in a “Space Truckers” series, instead of being a one-off “Space Truckers” story in the Alien horror series.
 
Alien has been many different things throughout the years.
True, but it's never not been a horror movie.
How would it be non-horror? Take Prometheus and remove the horror element. It becomes a movie about humanity trying to discover itself in the grander scheme of the universe.
I guess, but the genesis of the film was always to be prequel to Alien. The focus was on the derelict and the space jockey from the first movie and building a prequel around those ideas. People going to see the movie expected horror, not grander scheme of the universe stuff. Take away the horror, it's not an Alien film, it's just a sci-fi mystery film.
What drives a species to want to destroy its own creation? Why would God want to kill us? There was a lot of deep philosophy in Prometheus.
On this, I absolutely agree, but the Engineers aren't God by any stretch, just people.
 
I always thought there was a lot to be explored, about both the Xenomorphs and the Space Jockeys and the Company, that didn’t have to just be horror. Back in the day, we had Alien (a horror movie, then Aliens (an action movie), so I thought maybe the third one would be the sf movie where we contact the non-feral alien homeworld. But nope, the series just doubled back on Xenomorph-as-slasher forever after.
Aliens is a very hard R-rated horror film. Yes, there's lots of action, but it's still a horror movie. When Alien 3 was in development, it was as a sequel to Aliens, so the best place to pickup the story was on the Sulaco with Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop in cryo sleep. What happens next? Who's to say the xenomporphs have a homeworld? Are they a natural species? Are they a bio-weapon? That's not the story. The story is that the "Company" wants it for bio-weapons research, and they will stop at nothing to get one of their beautiful specimens. Everyone is expendable. It's horror. It's not a slasher either. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the story. Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13t, Scream; those are slashers. Alien (as a franchise) falls under horror, creature features, but not slashers.
 
Considering your tagline, I'm not gonna go there ;)
That's not what I meant. I get that it's a movie and that it's not made by Christians. To me, God whether he be of the Christian Bible or some other religion should be this all powerful cosmic being, ya know? To me, God does not equal astronauts who like playing around with DNA like it's legos. :lol:
 
Interestingly the Evolution of Horror Podcast recently did a reader's poll of top 50 horror sequels. Aliens came top or second, but there was a very in-depth discussion between the presenters about whether Aliens qualifies as a horror movie or not.
 
Interestingly the Evolution of Horror Podcast recently did a reader's poll of top 50 horror sequels. Aliens came top or second, but there was a very in-depth discussion between the presenters about whether Aliens qualifies as a horror movie or not.
Lots of movies fit under multiple genres. Aliens is horror, sci-fi, and action. :beer:
 
Everyone seems to judge what constitutes a horror film differently, but for my money Aliens absolutely deserves to have horror among its multiple hyphenated genres.
 
Everyone seems to judge what constitutes a horror film differently, but for my money Aliens absolutely deserves to have horror among its multiple hyphenated genres.
When determining a film's genre, it boils down to the intent of the director, writers, producers. Each Alien, Predator, and AVP film has been horror first and foremost. I don't understand how anyone watches Aliens and doesn't see it as horrific. :shrug:
 
If there's gore, it's horror.
Generally. But in many points of ALIENS, people like Hudson or Apone vanish offscreen. After the expected chestburster in the processing station/nest, it's mostly morphing into action.

ALIEN 3's potential tagline: THIS TIME.....IT'S ONE AGAIN AND IT CAME FROM A DOG. Not so promising. There was no ''bitch'' this time, back or otherwise.
 
If there's gore, it's horror.
Not really, there are plenty of gory movies that aren't horror.
I'm going to be the opposing voice here and say that I don't really see Aliens as horror, I've always seen it as more of just a straight sci-fi action movie. I've always seen horror movies as more about the monster or whatever being more secretive, and the kills being more surprising, but most of aliens is pretty much just Ripley and Co. fighting the Xenomorphs out in the open.
 
Generally. But in many points of ALIENS, people like Hudson or Apone vanish offscreen. After the expected chestburster in the processing station/nest, it's mostly morphing into action.
While not gory, it's horrific knowing what "will" happen to Apone and Hudson. Horror.
I'm going to be the opposing voice here and say that I don't really see Aliens as horror,
Ripley's nightmare, the facehugger on Newt's father, the death of everyone on Hadley's hope except Newt, the chestburster scene from that one colonist who was still alive. That's just the beginning. :eek:
 
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