Starting out by looking at the film’s writer of both story and screenplay Dan O’Bannon, it gives numerous examples of where many of the ideas in the film came from. From his simple middle America up bringing, O’Bannon revelled in subversive ideas. It was a strong reaction to not enough action growing up.

Using scenes from the film to move the narrative along, explanations for the context of ideas flows freely. Nothing is created in a vacuum and this doco gives that saying credence. Conceptual credit is rightfully given to the Horror Fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft and various Science Fiction films that came before that provided many of the ideas used in Alien.

The second half of the film focuses on the then unique look of the film and that means it turns its eye to the work of Swiss artist H. R. Giger. It follows his inspirations and how they influenced his art. At times the film overwhelms the viewer with detail but its attempts to thoroughly examine Alien takes precedent. In that way, if you loved the 1979 Science Fiction horror classic, you will absolutely enjoy this doco on its making.

Rob Hudson
www.biff.com.au

Michael Fassbender does double duty this time out and his android character poses most of the film’s questions on life and the meaning of. Non existentialists need not fear for those with less interest in large degrees of depth, there is still plenty of inventive gore and enough scare tactics to keep most audience members on edge.

Picking up where Prometheus left off, Alien: Covenant works well as a stand alone film as it doesn’t add all that much to the alien mythology. Most audiences will already have a large degree of familiarity with the ongoing storyline so that helps to streamline things this time out.

Atmospheric, creepy and dark, Alien: Covenant is not easy viewing (for those that don’t like horror) but it does provide a right old fright night for those that do.

Rob Hudson
www.alien-covenant.com

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Directed by Ridley Scott and staring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollet, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby. Opens in cinemas MAY 18 2017

Perhaps taking its cue from Banlieue 13, Pierre Morel’s thrill ride of 2004 set in Paris where the worst offenders existed in a walled-off ghetto, District 9 (set in Johannesburg) follows a similar theme except this ghetto’s populated by aliens with a taste for cat food. Eventually dark influences exploit the residents flavoured by, among other things, interspecies prostitution and with trouble following quickly, the government are left with no alternative but to create a new ‘haven’ for the visitors… District 10. Enter Wikus van der Merwe (played with disarming innocence by Sharlto Copely), an agent for M.N.U. (Multi-National United), who is enlisted to convince the aliens to sign agreements approving their own relocation. Here the dynamic of director Neill Blomkamp’s vision expands into sudden comedy and it drives this spectacle to near-perfection.

I say near-perfection because it opens in an almost catatonic state. At the risk of revealing anything, that sinister trailer is misleading. As District 9 opens, Blomkamp puts his cards on the table fast and it doesn’t quite match with what follows. Styled to look like a documentary (read guerrilla-style), the hand-held cinematography lends the atmosphere a sweaty thickness and while they have a clichéd appearance, the physicality of the aliens (like an anorexic version of the ‘Predator’) are the least of his concerns. It’s the interplay with their hosts that counts here and from this springs the film’s smart sense of humour.

With influences from Alien, Cloverfield, The Fly, and even Transformers, District 9 is going to be remembered. A native of Johannesburg, 29 year-old Blomkamp making an astounding debut here, directs with great assurance and flavours his adventure with a perfect concoction of thrills, scares and action and it’s all artfully underpinned with sentiment. The blending of live-action and CGI is remarkably seamless and after that disorienting beginning we join Copely (what a superb anti-hero he makes) on a dark, disturbing journey that doesn’t flag. A lot will be made of its heavy-handed dissection of racism and it’s all there on many levels but it doesn’t get in the way. That’s a good thing too because with the audiences District 9 will attract, it’s going to get lost in the translation.

Michael Dalton
www.district9movie.com