Alien Monster IV to James Cameron's Alien Queen


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a) Realising the Alien Monster IV connection 
 
When Giger's Alien was released in the 1980s the painting Alien Monster IV caught my imagination because I thought it could be the next stage in the Alien creature's evolution after the humanoid form that we know well from the original film Alien. 
 
In the late eighties, I found the  German edition of the book was available at The Forbidden Planet bookshop in central London , then based in Denmark Street, before the English version had been published. 
 
However soon after being made aware of this book, James Cameron made Aliens which featured a huge alien creature that was a next phase in the alien's evolution, the alien queen egg layer. 
 
At first I made no real connection between Giger's Alien Monster IV but after seeing Aliens, I realised that the painting presented something that if interpreted in a certain way could look like a very large alien laying an egg through the egg tube curling around it's back.

 
 
 
b) Semi Spiralling Life form
 
One might be led to believe that that the general form of Giger's Alien Monster IV painting inspired James Cameron to come up with the very large Alien Queen monster in his movie Aliens. 
 
The Alien Monster IV might be imagined by some to be a depiction by Giger of a creature that erupted out of the Space Jockey seen in Alien inhabiting the biomechanic environment of the derelict ship or somewhere else on the planetoid as seen in the film. 
 
However nothing in the form of an interview has been published or presented in any other form for the general public. 
 
And if James Cameron took inspiration from Alien Monster IV for his Alien Queen, he has not spoken about it directly but of course we know that he used Giger's artwork from the book Giger's Alien published in 1980. 
 
Once we have got over the fact that Giger never got to be directly involved in the creation of the alien life forms and environments in Aliens, we can acknowledge the fact that Giger was pleased with Cameron's Alien Queen and also find signs of its heritage in Giger's Alien Monster IV and the curious and questionable forms that it is composed from.

The semi spiralling form of the Alien Monster IV by H.R.Giger
 
 
 
Stan Winston and James Cameron's Alien Queen presents itself to the camera  
 twisting semi spiralling form

c) Queen Alien Hand Syndrome
 
i) It was when the book The Winston Effect was released in 2006 that I was able to truly establish a confirmed connection between the hands of the Alien Queen and the creature from Alien Monster IV when decent photos of the hand sculptures were published.

ii) One can see on this creature, the hands that James Cameron used for his Alien Queen in the movie Aliens ( but the resemblance had gone from the newer version of the Alien Queen featured in the movie Aliens vs Predator)
 
Back then it wasn't easy to tell that the hands of James Cameron's Alien Queen were actually based on the hands of Alien Monster IV until photos showing the well lit sculptures of the hands were made available in a way that the public would have taken notice of them. 
 
The public were less likely to be aware of that connection until 2007 when The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston's Studio's was released which is when I first introduced the connection to forums devoted to Alien on December 7th 2007 once I had a camera with which to take a digital photograph of the images from the book
 
The hand from H R Giger's Alien 
 Monster IV (source , p 7, Giger's Alien)

The hand sculpted for James Cameron's Alien Queen ( see p82, 
 The Winston Effect: The Art and  History of Stan Winston's Studio)

d) The Egg Sack 
 
d.i) Because of Alien Monster IV, James Cameron may well have decided to have an egg sack connecting to the back of his giant Alien Queen by deciding that the transparent tube coming in from the right  might be an ovipositor with a spore art the end, and this would make this creature huge, and if this ovipositor was part of an egg sack and connected to the Alien Monster, then this could be further developed.
 
d.ii) James Cameron's Alien Queen concept with membranous egg sack ending with an 
 ovipositor and the tail incorporated into the upper part of the egg sack forming a ridge


 
d.iii) Detail from Giger's Alien Monster IV showing a penile form slithering around the hips of the alien creature. 
 
Is this some sort of an embryonic creature with it's arms at the side within the sheath like skin or is it perhaps an egg tube from Giger's egg silo design ending with an ovipositor and at the tip is a small egg being helped out. Did this inspire James Cameron to give the Alien queen a translucent egg sack
 
 



 
 
 
 
e) Another big question about the design
For the Alien Queen as seen from the front along with the head design as seen from above in relation to Giger's art, see: The Spell III and the Aliens queen
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