Aliens and the unknown

'Alien' film's alien

I feel the 'alien' will always be a scary concept to humans as I would describe them as a physical manifestation of the unknown; the ultimate limitless fear. However I am sceptical of how the human imagination can further the concept to continue to surprise us. Will the limitless alien become stereotypical?

These are some thoughts I had after reading an article 'Fear and Fascination'. The writer describes and explains different theories surrounding aliens based around the film 'alien' and more.

The article explains fear of aliens as being fear of the unknown or uncontrollable; uncontrollable due to how they represent the human id; in Alien (1979) they selfishly go around killing impregnating anyone and doing what they want we morally panic at this sense of disastrous recklessness.

'Men in Black' alien

The article at one point talks about representation of aliens and despite them being scary due to our unfamiliarity with them, how we perceive them depends on the film's representation of an 'alien' creature. A film such as Men in Black (1997) takes a playful stance on the extraterrestrial, who are represented as holiday makers at an airport or common working class citizens amongst us displaying human characteristics. some of the aliens are shown to be bad or criminal but I believe this is just a reflection of the human race. E.T. (1982) represents aliens as innocent and of lower intelligence than ourselves meaning the viewer is less scared of the being however horror films intent to scare viewer so represent aliens as completely the 'other' and an uncontrollable intelligent threat to life as we know it. Alien (1979) is a great example of this the aliens are shown to be like nothing we have ever seen before with its exoskeleton on the outside and of metallic appearance.Their blood burns like acid a substance we connect to danger and difficult to contain.

'Fear and Fascination'

English and media centre February 2009 media magazine page 41-43