Alien: Romulus - Fede Alvarez' first encounters Alien

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Alien: Romulus

 

Pehaps he was ten at the time, or even perhaps it was in 1990, when Fede Alvarez was aged twelve. He pressed play on the VHS video cassette player. 

His father, a journalist, had got hold of a making of Alien video with behind the scenes footage and clips of the film, or was it just a TV show about movie making that his father was watching?

Fede was at the time a burgeoning cinephile obsessed with seeing every horror movie that he could

He would see what he thought of as a sort of a black dragon that seemed to be made from chains, hanging from the ceiling without understanding what was happening, It was the scene showing Brett being killed by the fully grown alien. 

He had never seen anything like this before at that time. He found it truly terrifying and also it was so fascinating for him to be scared of it. He didn't really see the alien but just got a couple of glimpses of it. He would be terrifed of this presence because those couple of glimpses were the thing of nightmares

 

 

1. LA TIMES: Fede Alvarez was 12 in 1990 when he pressed play on a destiny-shaping VHS tape.

   The Uruguayan filmmaker, then a burgeoning cinephile, was about to witness one of the first kills in the original “Alien.” His father, a journalist, had somehow gotten his hands on a making-of home video release with behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the sci-fi-horror classic.

   Watching the scene without context terrified Alvarez, who at that age was already obsessed with consuming every nightmare movie he could get.

   “I remember being completely shocked seeing that kind of black dragon that seemed to be made of chains, hanging from the ceiling without understanding what was happening,” Alvarez, 46, recalls in the Rioplatense Spanish that characterizes both Uruguayans and Argentines, during a conversation in an outdoor lounge area at his airy home in Los Feliz. (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-08-07/director-fede-alvarez-alien-romulus-ridley-scott-horror-interview)
2. Fede Álvarez: My first contact with Alien was when my dad watched a TV show about moviemaking. They showed Brett being killed by the fully grown alien, I was probably ten years old and I had never seen something like that. It was truly terrifying and also it was so fascinating to be scared of it. You don’t really see the alien, you just get a couple of glimpses of it. You’re terrified of this presence because those two images they gave you are the thing of nightmares. (https://www.moviemaker.com/alien-romulus-cover-story/)