Back to this notion of ALIEN (1979) being one of the pinnacle artistic achievements of mankind, and I am not just referring to drooling space maggots biting people's heads off. It is the totality of the production design, and how if the world created for its horror show to be confined in was not 100% convincing the whole contrivance would have fallen apart like a house of cards in a stiff wind. My particular fascination being with the Planetoid sequence where three of the Nostromo crew don John Mollo designed space suits and go out in search of trouble.
Some of the Planetoid activity which was removed from the final prints. And I want ALL of it.
Effective art is often defined by its ability to suggest or lead to other art including of a parodic or deconstructive nature. And the most thorough parodic deconstruction of ALIEN I have yet to encounter are the surviving 17 minutes of a short film called "Illegal Alien" seen on an anthology video called "Fright Show" released in 1985 by the editors of Starlot Magazine. Who essentially put out a call for short-subject horror spoof entries for distribution, and the best was "Illegal Alien".
From what I understand via user comments on my YouTube upload of the segment, the film was created near about 1980 and ran an hour in length. I got my grubby mitts on it via a Japanese made VHS obtained back when I was collecting any horror oriented VHS I could find from Japan in particular. Did my own transfer of the tape to digital and excised "Illegal Alien" for my YouTube channel. The resolution was kept purposefully low to ward off unwelcome commercialized re-use but gets the job done, and fans of ALIEN will be impressed.
"Illegal Alien", 17 minutes.
I would love to see the complete "Illegal Alien" film, if anyone can point us in the direction please comment below. And what the hey, here's the entire hour long "Fright Show" tape, though be advised its "hosts" are about as enjoyable as standing in line at the DMV in front of the lady who keeps pointing out how long we've been waiting to her long-suffering spouse.
The complete 59 minute "Fright Show" video.
No comments:
Post a Comment