How and when did you become an Alien fan?

After Prometheus!  That movie was (and still is) a crazy/fun puzzle for me.  The fact that so much of it was ambiguous made me want to figure everything out and kept me wanting more.  On top of that, I have always been a huge horror buff and I couldn't believe I had never seen Alien or Aliens at that point.  So I watched them.  And Alien became my 3rd favorite movie of all time, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Ingmar Bergman's Persona.  And since then I've pretty much eaten up anything Alien.  Although I don't care too much for the AVP stuff and the non-canon stuff, but it's all still pretty great and the world is better off with it than without it.  I do really dig the comics and graphic novels though.  And Alien got me into Lovecraft and cosmic horror.  I've also read Star Beast and the unused Alien scripts.  

I became a fan after ALIENS 86'. I was really into The Terminator and the back story of that. My brother told me that the Director(Cameron) was going to make a Aliens movie and when it came out on VHS I couldn't stop watching it. Alien came after for me and that was it I was hooked. I was probably seven or eight.

Been in since the beginning.  Watched the original Alien movie in a movie theater in Japan in 1979.  Was a strapping young lad of 24 on my first deployment.

As MJ has brought up, funny to watch a guy in a rubber suit, with a penis head, become this huge franchise.  But it was the Giger creations that transformed it from another B horror movie into it's own franchise.

For me the fascination really started with JC's depiction of Marines in Space.  Although that portrayal was very cartoonish it set my mind to wondering.  I thought it would be awesome to go off planet and kick alien creature ass, in a friggin EVA suit no less.  Although that's a two-way street, as we have seen. 

I saw Aliens on VHS in 1987 at 18 with some friends and really liked it. Got busy with military a few years and saw Alien on DVD around 1991 ish- whenever DVDs came out for the first time. I lost count of how many times I have watched the Anthology.  I could go on for pages.....

I got to be one of the younger fans here(born in 90)but kinda like Star wars Ive been an Alien for as long as i can remember.I think my mom or dad may have rented them once again cant remember but all ways loved them (especially Aliens my favorite movie all time only rivaled by Blade Runner)I remember not being scared of them but somehow terrified of the wizard of oz(the wicked witch not the monkies)also Species had freaked me out too for the lesser Giger creation.I also was lucky enough to see Alien Resurrection even though I was only 7 when it came out.I actually still have a lot of the old kenner figures not in the greatest condition though.Its my favorite franchise and i feel Alien 3(The assembly cut)Alien Resurrection and Prometheus are underrated and deserve more than they get although i cant really defend the AVP movies(love the predator movies any way) they rightfully suck.I saw the 1st one in the theater and regretted it.I rented Reqium and didnt hate it as much but its still pretty fucking stupid.I watched it the other day with my sister and all we did was make fun of it.As for the 1st movie i dont know whats worse that or the colonial marines video game.

Was in the womb in 79 so probably saw ALIEN mid-eighties ish with my Dad.  

Funnily, I was never that frightened of the film - not like say Friday the 13th scared me as a kid (I know, I know ;) - ALIEN was more of a thriller to me.  But the idea of the ALIEN was a creepy one.

What stuck in my mind was the SJ and the derelict.  Always have done.  Such mystery and wonder especially for a young boy!

Wen I saw the trailer to Prom it gave me that childlike rush of excitement again.  ALIENS was good and I loved it as a kid but watching it now it doesn't have the same sci-fi intrigue and mystery that ALIEN does.

Whilst I like the other 2 follow ups as stand alone films, I kind of see them as not real in the alien universe ;)  I guess I never liked the way they followed ALIENS, and AR is just  a pop corn chucker with aliens in it.  

re. the Alien - I don't think it is evil.  Never did.  It's only evil to us as we are part of it's 'food chain' or a necessary part of its reproductive cycle; which is horrifying to us.  It's essentially a perfect organism.  All life seems to want to continue; that's lifes' purpose if you will - to go on living, and to do that it needs fuel and to reproduce.  It would seem the alien is the pinnacle of this.  Only humanity apply morality into the mix . . .

As someone said early in this thread we don't think a cat or lion evil for hunting its prey . . .

That said, it would seem co-existing is not a mutually beneficial option lol ;) 

I'm really hoping that wherever RS goes with this, and the tie in with ALIEN, it answers some of the questions about the xeno origins and the SJ but also leaves some mystery.  However, this needs to be done well and not simply by having many wild plot threads that have no real meaning or relevance to the plot like LOST ;) 

Glad I'm not the only one still harbouring a childish crush on the xeno for all these years lol :) 

@Lone - I sooooo want that magazine ;)  lol

Saw Alien in Sweden December 1979 at the age of 17. I will never forget the moment the facehugger bursted out of the egg, the audience screamed in panic !  

I was already hooked on Science Fiction, but what was there beside Star Trek, Space 1999, Star Wars and pocket novels?  Ridley brought it to another dimension with Alien. Been hooked on the Alien story ever since, bit of a disappointment with Prometheus though. Nowadays I just watch a movie once at the cinema and will buy the Blue-ray later on.  

Believe I saw Alien 4 times at the cinema, Aliens 5, or 6 times.

Alien 3, Alien Resurrection and Prometheus did not earn more than one view each from me.  

My biggest hope now is that Ridley will stay in good health in order to deliver and bring clearance to all unanswered questions in the coming 2, or 3 movies.  

When I was 7 years old (1992/93), I saw the trailer for ordering Alien 3 by paperview on the cable guide channel at like 6 in the morning while my extremely christian mother was asleep on the couch. I sat for 2 hours until she woke up watching the previews cycle through so I could see it as many times as possible. It was the first time I'd seen a xeno. I was fascinated. Within a few weeks I was seeing Alien action figure commercials showing action figure loader dropping action figure aliens down air lock shafts.

Later that year my grandmother was watching me while my parents were at a Thursday night church service. She was in the kitchen doing the dishes and I was flipping through cable channels. I stopped at one channel (may have been TNT) just in time to see the queen's tail punch through Bishop's chest. I freaked out and changed the channel (mostly because I thought my grandmother was going to come in the room and I'd get in trouble). After a few seconds I realized she wasn't coming in the room. I hit the 'Last' button just in time to see Bishop get ripped in half. At that point I was blown away. My paranoia was getting the best of me and I spent the entire remainder of the movie flipping back and forth trying to catch glimpses of the fight with the queen.

A few weeks later I told my dad what I saw and he became visually upset (he too was extremely Christian). He told me that it was a movie I was never supposed to see and I wasn't allow to tell my mother. His reaction only made me more curious though. From then on I spent every chance I had alone with him asking him questions about the movie until finally I got him to give me a full rundown of all 3. I didn't realize at the time but in hindsight, he enjoyed telling me about the movies. I would later understand he was a hardcore fan of the first movie and enjoyed the second. He explained every plot point of the movies to me in vivid detail (adding on the first one that he would never let me watch the original chestbursting scene). When he had finished I told him I wanted to see the movies. He told me I couldn't, but I pushed it.

Several months later my mother was at a baby shower and he took me to the Erol's video store near our house and said I could pick a movie. I told him I wanted to rent Alien. He fought me at first but I pressed and he reluctantly agreed to rent Aliens (I believe he thought the first one would be too much for me.)

We went home and popped it in. I was already fully aware of what the story I was in for would be. What I didn't expect was the ability to convey panic through arranging images and a situation with music. We only got to the point where Ripley dreamed she was being chestbursted in the hospital. I got sick and asked my dad to turn it off (and so he did). I didn't understand what was happening to me at the time but looking back now, I was having my very first panic attack. I'm not sure how this happened but I almost immediately developed a fever and was actually sick for several days. The fever subsided but the chronic nausea and anxiety persisted. Up until that day I'd been extremely sheltered from horror. Seeing Aliens enactment of a chestburst nightmare completely shifted my personality. The change can actually be seen in photos. After that day, I was expressionless in most photos (I had previously always smiled or been laughing). A few months later on a Sunday between the morning and night church service, I saw the final 20 minutes of Alien 3 on tv while my parents were downstairs watching some movie my mom had rented. After seeing the queen burst from Ripley, my anxiety evolved into some kind of emotional obsession with Ripley as she fell into the furnace holding the queen close to her. The song from the scene played in my head constantly and I felt emotions that I can't really define to this day. Somewhere between infatuation and fear of my own impending doom. Seeing her fears come true took my own anxiety to the next level but it was somehow crossed with emotions that romanticized the experience.

I thought about having an alien come out of me every day for that entire year. The anxiety would feed the nausea and the nausea would feed the idea there was an alien inside of me which would further feed the anxiety. I couldn't be convinced it was just fiction no matter what anyone said and I spent the entirety of my 8 year old life feeling separated from my peers and doomed to be killed while they went on without me.

Around age 9 I pretty much realized it wasn't going to happen and the fear and chronic sickness faded. I decidedly avoided the Alien films at all costs for fear the panic cycle would come back.

Fast forward to 11 years old after I spent age 10 horrified I'd actually burn in hell forever one day (I imagined it like being locked in an oven and never being able to die or escape). Spending a year afraid of eternal burning flesh had a majorly desensitizing effect for previously held fears. I was at my uncles house for the day and decided to watch Alien 3 in it's entirety. In surviving it and no longer feeling fear, I proceeded with Alien and then Aliens. This was the point where I actually became a fan of the franchise. I watched all 3 movies obsessively and when Ressurection came out the following year, I insisted on seeing it in the theater. Have been a devout fan ever since.

I agree with you Kenan_LV223, Prometheus is an underrated film. In time, I feel like it will be regarded highly like that of the original Alien and Aliens. Welcome to the forums, by the way!

I first saw Alien on TV (here in New Zealand) on the 'Sunday Horrors'. I think I was probably about 12. Scared the bio-waste out of me. I really became hooked with Aliens, when I bought the souvenir film magazine when on Holiday in Australia in 1986. I still have it, and have added numerous collectibles since!

A3 was OK for me, and as a sci-fi film, Resurrection was entertaining. But the two awesome elements of the first two movies, for me, are the aliens and the technology (particularly in Aliens). Love what James Cameron did with the design aspects. The APC, drop ship, power loader, Sulaco, pulse rifle - all instantly recognisable futuristic tech. Hell, even that aesthetic carrying into Avatar I loved (the tech in Avatar is awesome too).

I saw Alien at the premiere in Arvika, Sweden, when I was about 15 years old. I was absolutely terrified and fascinated by the story. One of the things that grabbed me was the scene with the space jockey. Good job that Scott wants to elaborate that more.

twas a cool spring day back in 1979....i had just been dumped and was looking for something to pass the time until the bar opened...saw the title on the marquee of my local theater and grabbed a ticket. got a big popcorn and ate most of the bag before the hugger had even fallen off kanes face! 20 minutes later my bag of popcorn was full again....but mixed with stomach bile. it was great! and i was immediately hooked

First movie i saw on tv was aliens. It was the only movie in my life that gave me nightmares as a child...and real fear..i was 8..give or take

After 2 weeks more less i felt the need to see the rest of them...and then 1st day theater release of a4....

One of the best iconic images of all movies remains ripley grabbing newt and turning back to see the queen..was amazing at the time. But i had to call my mom to help me sleep...i saw horror movies back in time that never striked fear nearly as aliens and alien.

The newborn remains the version that strikes the most fear in me to date.