Fox gives exclusive looks at upcoming films: Alien Covenant among them.

David 7

cuponator3000

Tried the link, but my computer warned me that the connection isn't safe. Could actually be safe, I don't know but just a heads up

David 7

Membrane

While promoting 'Prometheus' at Comic Con in Hall H in 2011, Scott said, "Of course, what I want to do is scare the living s**t out of you."

Now, regarding 'Alien: Covenant', he's saying "I think this will scare the s**t out of people."

Okay, Ridley, is this your standard comment for this world now?  We shall see. :-)  Maybe in your mind you tried to in 'Prometheus', but didn't succeed and now you are trying to.

I liked 'Prometheus' a lot, but it did not scare me in that way.  Certainly not like 'Alien' did.  Granted, in 'Alien', it was the first time we were exposed to the world and xeno, but the way they did the scene with Dallas in the air ducts, the steady increasing beeps from the motion detector, Lambert's crying, all building to a quick flash of the xeno with arms jumping out... that scared me!

cuponator3000

Yeah Membrane ,that duct scene was masterful. Haha actually I was playing the Crew Expendable dlc thing on Aien: Isolation the other day and that scene, quite literally happened to me.

Actually happened right after I hopped in the vent, but still it was damn scary.

But yes hopefully the horror element is actually in this movie 

Durp004

Glad to see they're going back to horror a genre that has been missed in the cinematic franchise since arguably Alien 3. Even at the creepiest pars of the next 3 films with Alien(A:R AVP AVPR) the films focused on action, and Prometheus doesn't appear to be attempting for that kind of feel outside certain scenes.

Patient Leech

@Membrane

You sound like you're kind of jaded and difficult to scare like me. I mean, aside from genital mutilation and whatnot in Lars von Trier movies I don't find myself needing to look away from the screen too often, but I will say that the first time in the theater experiencing the Med Pod scene in Prometheus was truly fun horror. I loved it. So I think he delivered in that respect. And there were many people who were I'm sure scared as sh!t during that. But I think horror and really scaring people is more effective when there are characters that the audience cares about or at least situations that really absorb the audience and puts you in the characters shoes. So I think that's what he'll have to do in order to make it truly horror.

I think Ridley's style of horror is more about mood and tension with some fewer moments of all-out trauma. And I like that. He's a great mood director. Which is why none of the other Alien films lived up to the original for me. Fincher came closer than anyone else did for me. I would love to see an Alien film from Guillermo del Toro, because he is a great mood director (i.e. Mimic director's cut). I have no interest in Blomkamp's Alien film. :/

BigDave

He did say that with Prometheus but i think he would be trying to actually do it with this movie, but as we have seen Alien Looking Creatures across the Franchise, never mind other Sci-Fi movies... and we have seen Chest Buster before...

I think the only way to scare us would be the use of Dark Scenes, and Sounds and so the "cheap jump" trick that a number of Horror movies rely on.

Which if done right could work, i think the Hammerpede and Milburns Mouth Scene was a failed attempt at this in Prometheus, and the C-Section also was not as Gory and Graphic as the Original Chest Buster in Alien which managed to combine both of the above tricks and with a great pay off.

David 7

David 7

Membrane

I'm not sure I'm too jaded, Patient Leech.  At least, I hope not. :-)

But, to add on to what you and BigDave said... I agree Ridley Scott is about more of a mood and tension throughout with occasional, purposeful "scare" scenes thrown in.  He did that with 'Alien' in my opinion.  And by keeping your mood dark and your body always slightly tense throughout, you (and your adrenalin/cortisol) are already on level 5-6, so when any "scare" scene comes, you get to level 9-10, very quickly and you feel those chemicals in your body causing strong, physiological responses (aka, flight or fight response).  In 'Prometheus', I just didn't feel like I was constantly at level 5-6, so when the "scare" scenes came (Milburn/Fifield/Hammerpede and Shaw/C-Section), I may have gotten to level 5-6, or at best 7, but never to level 9-10, and therefore, did not have the fight or flight response, and even if I did a little, it did not last very long so my body recovered from the light surge of adrenalin/cortisol.

Come on Ridley, this is a challenge with 'Alien: Covenant' to keep me at level 5-6 throughout and drop 2-3 scenes bringing me to 9-10. :-)

On a slightly different topic, not that I was scared, but the last movie that I saw where a scene stayed with me (for example, pops into your mind at bed and you can't shake it, making it difficult to fall asleep) was 'Bone Tomahawk' and the scene at the end while Kurt Russell's character is in the troglodyte prison and they bring out his deputy... just brutal.  Anyone who has seen it, will know what I am talking about.  Speaking of Kurt Russell, 'The Thing' was another great one that scared me as a kid.